Help needed with acer aspire 1703sc

steven alan · 02-02-2008, 12:01 PM

hi I own a aspire 1703sc and it has worked faultlessly for ages ,but now (and i dont know why) it has only a blank screen??? ,I have pluged a external lcd screen into the vga out at the back and thats working fine ,is there anyway to use the vga out to power the built in lcd screen on the laptop?to save having to use a external lcd, contacted acer and they say it could (the fault) be 1 of 3 things , 1 the nvida card, 2, the lcd inverter, or 3 the lcd screen itself, but and here is the crunch, they want a fortune to check what it could be, and the 3 parts they listed that could be at fault are a arm and a leg to purchace, ,so I just thought a cheaper option would be to try and get the screen to run of the vga out, if possible, if it can be done that would rule out the screen as faulty, if it dont work then back to the origanal 3 options, trouble is you hardly ever see them up for sale second hand on ebay hope somebody reading this can help just hope there is a cheaper option than what acer say
thanks
steven
ps I am sure I read somewhere that there is a board that can replace the nvida, you dont get the range the nvida offers but it gets you up and running at a fraction of the cost of a new nvida board
thanks again any info welcomed
steven

loudnproud59 · 02-02-2008, 05:56 PM

If you get video on a external monitor then the video card is fine i would have to say it is the inverter or your backlight try to shine a light at the lcd and see if you can see anything,if not then the inverter has failed,try ebay for an lcd or a inverter,hope this helps let us know how it goes.

steven alan · 02-03-2008, 03:37 PM

Thanks for that , BUT and its a big but, acording to the acer aspire 1703sc pdf (from there site) the motherboard has inbuilt sis vga (which I asume takes over should all else fail,I downloaded the sis zip file and low and behold it finds the chipset and installs giving you something like 1040 by 980 at 32 bit col will not go higher so guess it must be taking over from the nvida display card) I,m not very well informed on these things but do you think that this could be right?, that was the origanal question, is it possible to get this output to the built in lcd? if so that would do me. on the otherside of things have taken the screen caseing off to get at the inverter (now go it off ,have run a circuit tester over the 2 blocks of copper wire wound things (dont have a clue as to what they are called) and there is a circuit tho 3 of them but not the fourth so going to see if rs components can get them or if they have them in stock, and will unsolder them and replace all 4 (they are the black oblong blocks (2 off) each side of a small plug in the center of the inverter plug looks like the cd audio plugs on a cd drive (not the long plug thr small white one)) has to be cheaper than 99 quid for a new one, plus if its allready broke not got a lot to loose have I by replacing as they are only surface solder on to the board, replacing these not only because of the non circuit test but they look like they have burn marks on the windings, any info on what these little buggers are called or what they do would be of help, will keep you informed of progress, never know if it works for me replacing them you tec guys should be able to do it no problems and guess these high prices for inverters then go out the window, (that is if all you need to do is replace these things? asuming you can buy them that is)
thanks again
steven

loudnproud59 · 02-03-2008, 08:17 PM

there is no video card in that laptop it has on board video with shared memory, as for the drivers you should use the acer drivers from their site for your graphics chipset as for the inverter those are stepup voltage coils and i do not think you will find them any where your best bet would be to find a parts laptop of the same model and take the screen if it is any good,again ebay would be the best place to look for somthing like that,inverters are impossible to repair for lack of replacment parts,hope this helps you keep us posted on how it goes.

steven alan · 02-04-2008, 01:31 PM

well try a I did there are no parts avalable for the inverter board, so checking out the world wide net found a german company selling brand new gen acer inverters, and they had the on I needed, worked out at 48 quid inc postage guess thats not bad for the genuine artical new, seems there payin not much less than that second hand on ebay,
well thats all for a update untill it arives once fitted will let you know the outcome.
thanks all

02-02-2008, 12:01 PM	#1 (permalink)
steven alan Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 12 OS: xp pro	Help needed with acer aspire 1703sc hi I own a aspire 1703sc and it has worked faultlessly for ages ,but now (and i dont know why) it has only a blank screen??? ,I have pluged a external lcd screen into the vga out at the back and thats working fine ,is there anyway to use the vga out to power the built in lcd screen on the laptop?to save having to use a external lcd, contacted acer and they say it could (the fault) be 1 of 3 things , 1 the nvida card, 2, the lcd inverter, or 3 the lcd screen itself, but and here is the crunch, they want a fortune to check what it could be, and the 3 parts they listed that could be at fault are a arm and a leg to purchace, ,so I just thought a cheaper option would be to try and get the screen to run of the vga out, if possible, if it can be done that would rule out the screen as faulty, if it dont work then back to the origanal 3 options, trouble is you hardly ever see them up for sale second hand on ebay hope somebody reading this can help just hope there is a cheaper option than what acer say thanks steven ps I am sure I read somewhere that there is a board that can replace the nvida, you dont get the range the nvida offers but it gets you up and running at a fraction of the cost of a new nvida board thanks again any info welcomed steven Last edited by steven alan; 02-02-2008 at 12:03 PM.

02-02-2008, 05:56 PM	#2 (permalink)
loudnproud59 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 140 OS: win xp pro	Re: Help needed with acer aspire 1703sc If you get video on a external monitor then the video card is fine i would have to say it is the inverter or your backlight try to shine a light at the lcd and see if you can see anything,if not then the inverter has failed,try ebay for an lcd or a inverter,hope this helps let us know how it goes.

02-03-2008, 03:37 PM	#3 (permalink)
steven alan Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 12 OS: xp pro	Re: Help needed with acer aspire 1703sc Thanks for that , BUT and its a big but, acording to the acer aspire 1703sc pdf (from there site) the motherboard has inbuilt sis vga (which I asume takes over should all else fail,I downloaded the sis zip file and low and behold it finds the chipset and installs giving you something like 1040 by 980 at 32 bit col will not go higher so guess it must be taking over from the nvida display card) I,m not very well informed on these things but do you think that this could be right?, that was the origanal question, is it possible to get this output to the built in lcd? if so that would do me. on the otherside of things have taken the screen caseing off to get at the inverter (now go it off ,have run a circuit tester over the 2 blocks of copper wire wound things (dont have a clue as to what they are called) and there is a circuit tho 3 of them but not the fourth so going to see if rs components can get them or if they have them in stock, and will unsolder them and replace all 4 (they are the black oblong blocks (2 off) each side of a small plug in the center of the inverter plug looks like the cd audio plugs on a cd drive (not the long plug thr small white one)) has to be cheaper than 99 quid for a new one, plus if its allready broke not got a lot to loose have I by replacing as they are only surface solder on to the board, replacing these not only because of the non circuit test but they look like they have burn marks on the windings, any info on what these little buggers are called or what they do would be of help, will keep you informed of progress, never know if it works for me replacing them you tec guys should be able to do it no problems and guess these high prices for inverters then go out the window, (that is if all you need to do is replace these things? asuming you can buy them that is) thanks again steven Last edited by steven alan; 02-03-2008 at 03:41 PM.

02-03-2008, 08:17 PM	#4 (permalink)
loudnproud59 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 140 OS: win xp pro	Re: Help needed with acer aspire 1703sc there is no video card in that laptop it has on board video with shared memory, as for the drivers you should use the acer drivers from their site for your graphics chipset as for the inverter those are stepup voltage coils and i do not think you will find them any where your best bet would be to find a parts laptop of the same model and take the screen if it is any good,again ebay would be the best place to look for somthing like that,inverters are impossible to repair for lack of replacment parts,hope this helps you keep us posted on how it goes.

02-04-2008, 01:31 PM	#5 (permalink)
steven alan Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 12 OS: xp pro	Re: Help needed with acer aspire 1703sc well try a I did there are no parts avalable for the inverter board, so checking out the world wide net found a german company selling brand new gen acer inverters, and they had the on I needed, worked out at 48 quid inc postage guess thats not bad for the genuine artical new, seems there payin not much less than that second hand on ebay, well thats all for a update untill it arives once fitted will let you know the outcome. thanks all