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Acer Aspire 5630

Last updated on 26 days ago
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Amiwell79Distro Maintainer
Posted 2 months ago
#21
ok Neil
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ncafferkeyAROS Dev
Posted 1 month ago
#22
Bad news. My 5630 died after two days! It was already in bad shape, with faulty keyboard, trackpad and speakers.

I was making progress with debugging the network problem, but I had to turn it on and off a lot during testing and after one power cycle it wouldn't boot.

I've removed the battery, HD, optical drive and wireless card; swapped the RAM around, held down the power button for 30 seconds with battery and power removed. Nothing helped. The laptop turns on but the screen stays off, and I can only turn it off by holding the power button down for 5 seconds. Caps lock doesn't turn on its light. No beeps (speaker is mostly broken anyway) or LED flashing.

Does anyone have any other ideas?
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Amiwell79Distro Maintainer
Posted 1 month ago
#23
I'm sorry it broke
J
Jeff1138Member
Posted 1 month ago
#24
Hi,

My only thoughts are switch on and use a torch/flashlight to see if the display is really dim, i.e. the backlight has blown. If so, is an external display vga or s-vhs plugged into the back edge an option?

Is the ac power original or an aftermarket one?

Jeff
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ncafferkeyAROS Dev
Posted 1 month ago
#25
Thanks Jeff. I don't think it's a display fault as normally I could turn off the laptop with a quick press of the power button when it hasn't got past the BIOS. I took a look with a torch anyway, but I don't see anything. It's an original power supply. Also, remarkably, the battery stores a reasonable amount so I've also tried booting with just the battery.
T
terminillsJunior Member
Posted 1 month ago
#26

ncafferkey wrote:

@ncafferkey - Thanks Jeff. I don't think it's a display fault as normally I could turn off the laptop with a quick press of the power button when it hasn't got past the BIOS. I took a look with a torch anyway, but I don't see anything. It's an original power supply. Also, remarkably, the battery stores a reasonable amount so I've also tried booting with just the battery.



Try pulling the CMOS battery and resetting the bios that way ... it's on the left/front near the speaker or right/front with the machine upside down.
ncafferkey
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Amiwell79Distro Maintainer
Posted 1 month ago
#27
I can give you mine, you pay the shipping costs
ncafferkey
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ncafferkeyAROS Dev
Posted 1 month ago
#28

terminills wrote:

@terminills

Try pulling the CMOS battery and resetting the bios that way ... it's on the left/front near the speaker or right/front with the machine upside down.


Thanks, but I actually can't find it (so far I've only prised the front apart because I'd have to remove the screen and deal with a stuck screw at the side to open it up completely). I did however find a CMOS reset jumper, so maybe using that should be just as good? Bridging the jumper for ten seconds didn't change anything that I can see.

I think I'll give up on it, as it doesn't seem to want to live! As well as the other faults I mentioned, the back two USB ports don't work.

EDIT: I found the battery under the PCMCIA slot, but it appears to be soldered in Sad
Edited by ncafferkey on 01-02-2026 18:16, 1 month ago
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ncafferkeyAROS Dev
Posted 1 month ago
#29

Amiwell79 wrote:

@Amiwell79 - I can give you mine, you pay the shipping costs


Thank you, but I don't want to take it away from you, as it seems to be a nice AROS laptop for you to enjoy when the hardware is OK Smile
M
magoriumSoftware Dev
Posted 1 month ago
#30

Quote


Thanks, but I actually can't find it (so far I've only prised the front apart because I'd have to remove the screen and deal with a stuck screw at the side to open it up completely). I did however find a CMOS reset jumper, so maybe using that should be just as good? Bridging the jumper for ten seconds didn't change anything that I can see.

There is indeed a reset BIOS jumper that is easy accessible from the bottom (for me it is white). There is a service manual floating around on the web (I have it as well and more than willing to share but am not at home for a couple of weeks).

Quote


I think I'll give up on it, as it doesn't seem to want to live! As well as the other faults I mentioned, the back two USB ports don't work.

There are a lot of (hidden) key/button-combinations that are acer specific that makes your neck-hairs raise such as f.e. turning on/of wifi, bluetooth, turn on/of the display/trackpad and more of such things you would not expect.

Sorry to hear it gave/gives you so much trouble already.

Quote


EDIT: I found the battery under the PCMCIA slot, but it appears to be soldered in Sad

The cmos battery itself you mean ?! Darn, that is mischievous. The one over here has some glue-like blob of paste on it (nearly impossible to remove without destroying some surrounding things but at least it moved).
ncafferkey
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Amiwell79Distro Maintainer
Posted 1 month ago
#31

ncafferkey wrote:

@ncafferkey -

Amiwell79 wrote:

@Amiwell79 - I can give you mine, you pay the shipping costs


Thank you, but I don't want to take it away from you, as it seems to be a nice AROS laptop for you to enjoy when the hardware is OK Smile


ok all rightLike
ncafferkey
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ncafferkeyAROS Dev
Posted 1 month ago
#32
@magorium I found the service manual as well, but searches within it for CMOS and RTC didn't reveal the battery location. I'm not sure it was soldered as I didn't get that close to it, but it definitely wasn't in a convenient socket Grin

The reset jumper I found was pointed out by the service manual and was under the RAM slots. It's not a normal pinned jumped, it's a "junction" on the PCB traces that you can close with a metal object (I presume).

The only good that did come from this laptop was that I finally transplanted the mostly working keyboard to an Aspire 3630 I have that had a mostly broken German-layout keyboard.
magorium
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Amiwell79Distro Maintainer
Posted 1 month ago
#33
Neil, I found another one at a good price. If you're a developer, I'll gladly give you mine. Maybe if you fix the network issue, it could be a good candidate for the compatibility list. It's difficult to find a laptop with graphics of a certain level that is compatible.
ncafferkey
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ncafferkeyAROS Dev
Posted 1 month ago
#34
Thanks for looking. I actually ordered another one (in better condition than my last one) earlier this week.

Out of interest, do the ones you've used have Intel or nVidia graphics?
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Amiwell79Distro Maintainer
Posted 1 month ago
#35
nvidia Neil I need to change my hard drive, I want to install a solid state drive pata
Edited by Amiwell79 on 05-02-2026 07:08, 1 month ago
ncafferkey
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ncafferkeyAROS Dev
Posted 1 month ago
#36
I fixed the bug. I've attached the new 32-bit driver.
deadwood, Amiwell79
ncafferkey attached the following file:
broadcom4400_1_4_32bit.zip [11.51kB / 33 Downloads]
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ncafferkeyAROS Dev
Posted 1 month ago
#37
...and the 64-bit version.
aha, retrofaza
ncafferkey attached the following file:
broadcom4400_1_4_64bit.zip [12.98kB / 27 Downloads]
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Amiwell79Distro Maintainer
Posted 1 month ago
#38
I'll try it now.
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Amiwell79Distro Maintainer
Posted 1 month ago
#39
OK, it works. I can't try the 64-bit version at the moment.
ncafferkey
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Amiwell79Distro Maintainer
Posted 1 month ago
#40
This laptop model can be added to the hardware compatibility list. It has an OpenGL-compatible graphics card and now a network card again
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Users who participated in discussion: magorium, terminills, Amiwell79, Jeff1138, ncafferkey