"What could've happened in the past two years when it sat in a closet that would cause it to stop working?" Nothing...and that could be the problem. This might sound a little off the wall but I've seen it happen on more than one old laptop. I've had some luck with two different approaches. 1. Plug the machine in and let the battery try to charge for several days. Try to get it to boot every day or so. 2. Try a power brick that closely matches the rated voltage of the battery. Example; 12v charger for a 12v battery instead of the original 16v. Skip

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If this laptop has been just sitting on a shelf or somewhere for 2 years, then you should carefully unplug and then re-plug everything that plugs into a connector of any kind. Like the memory modules, the hard drive and CD, even any battery connection (power or CMOS). There is probably just some bad connections caused by oxidation buildup on the metal surfaces. This happens when electronics go unused for long periods of time. Re-seating all the connections will break through any thin layer of oxidation and restore the connections.

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Sounds reasonable. I'll try it Monday! Thanks! -Trent "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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I would try letting it sit on the charger for at least 12 hours. Some Laptop CMOS batteries are rechargeable (soldered onto MOBO) and do not have the shelf life of the Coin Type batteries. someone else suggested attempting to boot once a day, that makes sense too. Have you tried it with the main Battery removed and the AC connected? There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.

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I haven't tried booting with the battery out yet, i'll try that also. "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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Sounds like it might be a stuck key on the keyboard. Try running the back of your fingers over the keyboard. There is a plastic membrane under the key board that could have "settled" down on a key after so long of no activity. A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age. Robert Lee Frost

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All right, I have the laptop and it's mine to keep! It's an Acer Extensa 501DX. In general it's known as the 500 series. When I plugged it in and turned it on again! It actually worked. The screen still doesn't work, though. I hooked it up to an external monitor, though and it works perfect! It booted up into Windows 98. When it turns on, it says that the CMOS Battery is dead. I think that may have something to do with the internal monitor not coming on. Anyway, changing a CMOS battery is nothing new to me, but I don't know how to get to the insides of the laptop. I took out all of the screws underneath it, but only the front of the laptop separates. The back of it just stays together and bends. I don't want to risk breaking anything. Can anyone find a schmatic or something so I can get inside it to change the CMOS battery and check for a disconnected display connector.? I would be greatly appreciative!! -Trent "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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Okay, I found the service manual in PDF. It's easy to follow, so someday i'll go about changing the CMOS battery and checking the internal display connector. "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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Cool...some tips. Follow instructions to the letter. Pay very close attention to which screw goes where on disassembly and reassembly. Download & keep any documentation, utilities and drivers regardless of OS as soon as possible. Such information might not be available tomorrow. Have fun; pretty decent old laptop you have there. Skip

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Thanks, SkipCox! I downloaded all of the drivers and special programs for both Windows 9x and Windows NT, and burned them to a CD. I also saved the PDF. In case anyone is interested I have the specs: Acer Extensa 501DX : Intel Pentium MMX 233 Mhz 64 MB RAM 4 GB E-IDE HD 56K modem 10/100 PCMCIA ethernet card. With those specs you would think this computer was suitable for Windows 95, but the sticker says Designed for Windows 98 or Windows NT. This laptop was so loaded with useless programs and crap that students and teachers have put on it over the past ten years, I reformatted the HD and reinstalled Windows 98SE. Now it's really fast. In terms of how fast Windows boots and how fast it loads programs, it's faster than the Compaq Presario, and it's almost up there with my Windows XP computer! Not bad for 233 Mhz... The battery still even holds a charge. So, if I can get a new CMOS battery installed and get the internal screen working, I can call this a perfect working computer! Either way, it was a good deal for free! "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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Since it works OK except for the screen and worked OK before being stored, are you sure it's not something simple like the brightness or contrast controls I mentioned above? On those old laptops it was usually a slide switch located above the keyboard. I know it's an obvious thing to check but I once had a person drive halfway across the state and then back with a monitor I sold him. He said it didn't work when he hooked it up. So I checked it out and sure enough, no picture--until I turned up the brightness.

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Actually, the contrast and brightness settings and controlled by holding the FN key and pressing the arrow keys. I played with them, but it doesn't work. Okay, we have more small, annoying problems with the laptop - in the Windows Power Options, I have it set so that the monitor and hard disks never shut off, and I set it so it never goes into Standby. Yet, if I leave it for 10 minutes or so, it goes into standby, and won't come back out. I tried the power button, using the FN Wake command on the keyboard, but nothing. The only way to make it useable again is unplug it, take out the battery, then put everything back in and turn it on again. Whats even weirder about this is that the power light is supposed to flash and the HD is supposed to shut off in Standby, but neither of these things happen. The screen shuts off, and the computer becomes totally "frozen" until I cut all power and then turn it back on. Another small problem, the FN commands to put it to sleep or hibernate, and to mute the sound, etc. don't work, although I can live with that. Another small problem, if I diliberately go into Standby mode (using the Shut Down dialog box in Windows) the computer does the same thing as if I just left it for 10 minutes, and it won't wake back up. The Power light doesn't flash like it's supposed to and the HD doesn't shut off. One last thing, once the computer is turned on, the power button does absolutely nothing to shut it off. Pushing it, holding it... it doesn't do anything. So if Windows freezes, the only fix is removing the battery and unplugging it. I want to say that these problems have something to do with the dead CMOS battery, but I don't think it could be that. Any help would be appreciated. -Trent "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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Looks like the battery is a CR1220 Trent. I'd run over to the nearest Radio Shack or equivalent and get that little repair out of the way. At least you could then expect BIOS to remember the settings you use. Skip

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I forgot to mention, yesterday, I got the computer apart. Luckily for me, there isn't even any screws to deal with. Just use a flat-head screwdriver to pry off a cover at the top of the keyboard, then use your hands to slide another cover off, then lift the keyboard off, flip it upside down and set on the trackpad. Hehe, I find this interesting, but this computer has absolutly no fans! I thought it was pretty quiet. The only moving part inside is the HD. A Pentium doesn't make enough heat to need a fan, I guess. Anyway, unlike the other 3 computers here, this laptop doesn't take a normal CR2032 battery. Instead, it takes a smaller 3V battery called CR1220. I'll be getting that on my next trip to town. Also, there are two connectors that go from the display to the mobo. One with 2 wires and one with 6 or 7 wires. I disconnected and reconnected them. Still no display. So, it's either the CMOS battery or the display itself is faulty. Or, like DAVE said, it could be the contrast or brightness settings. (Although I tried playing with them.) "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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Sorry, SkipCox! You posted your follow-up while I was typing mine! I already found that out. Thanks for looking it up for me, though. It's too bad, I figured that as long as the computer is turned on, it wouldn't forget BIOS settings, but when I did set them, it forgot them right after it restarted to save them! I hopefully will get the battery Friday. "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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Wow that's an old man of a laptop you've got there! A 66MHz front side bus! If it works anything like the newer ones do, you might not be getting a display on the LCD because of a bad inverter. If you can faintly see a picture on the screen while it's on, the backlight might be the problem and not the inverter. If you upgrade it to its max RAM of 128MB, it should run Windows 2000 pretty decently. WinSimple Software

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Sorry to keep harping on the brightness/contrast thing but it's hard to believe the screen just died while being stored. I took a look at the manual: http://www.acersupport.com/library/... Starting on page 94 it describes the 'notebook manager'. Part of that is the 'display device' on pages 102 and 103. That's where you switch the default display device and can set the contrast and brightness. It would seem that since your external monitor works then the default display must be set for it and not the LCD. Anyway, you might want to have another look at it.

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Okay, I have some news for everybody - the screen DOES work!! Last night, I turned on the computer, and just before the external monitor turned on, I thought I saw the internal screen blink for a fraction of a second. Thinking I was seeing things, I pressed CTRL-ALT-DEL, and I saw the internal screen flash blue again. I pulled out the external monitor cord, and the internal display fired right up!! I was so happy! Windows booted and the internal screen stayed on! For 10 glorious minutes I used it with the internal screen. The backlight works and everything. Even with the contrast/brightness all the way down, everything was still visible. Here's another thing - not only did the screen work, but all of the FN functions worked and the laptop went into a REAL standby when I closed the cover - the power light started blinking and the HD shut off. Open the lid, press the power button and the HD spun up and Windows came right back to the internal screen! It was too good to be true, though. Being the risk-taker that I am, I pressed the power button to shut it off (which the power button wouldn't work before) to see if the internal screen would work again when I turned it back on, but when I did, it was just like before. The internal screen wouldn't come on, none of the FN functions worked, the power button did nothing, and it wouldn't go into a real standby mode. So, the bottom line is, the internal screen DOES work, and the internal screen not working also makes the FN functions and standby not work. Hmm... I asked the teacher today, and he said that when it was last powered on around 2 years ago, the screen and everything worked, and he didn't get the "CMOS Battery Bad" message on boot-up. So, i'm even more postitive that the screen (and FN functions and standby) problems are caused by the dead CMOS battery. In case anyone is interested, I have a video of this machine on YouTube now. Note that a couple of things I say are wrong because I have learned a little more about this thing since I taped the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVvV... -Trent "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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I forgot to mention, I do have the Notebook Manager installed. When I set the display device to "LCD Only" or "Both", the LCD still doesn't turn on. Also, I can't see a darn thing on the screen. It just isn't turning on. Also, Rayburn, i'm not gonna consider anything higher than Windows 98. I think 2000 would just be too slow, considering this Laptop has half the power of my Compaq Presario, which is running 2000 OK. When I first obtained this Laptop, I thought I should reintall it with Windows 95 or even Windows 3.1, but that was before I realized how fast it is for a Pentium. I think Windows 98SE is here to stay on that laptop. I once considered Windows Me, then I remembered the wonderful error-after-error I got when it was on the Compaq. I also considered Windows NT 4, but chose 98SE because of the better functionality and better support for programs it has. "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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The cmos battery shouldn't be directly associated with the screen. Perhaps the loss of cmos settings caused by the dead battery is causing it to default to the external monitor--especially since you have the monitor card installed.

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I'd stick with 98se for several reasons. NT4 is not too great for everyday use; I use it mostly in dual boot configuration with DOS/Win3.x to have use of IE6. W2K, if you could find all the drivers, will use up at least 1Gb of disk space with the swap file. Me is fine, but would work best with more memory. You would also lose some DOS functionality. A quick search didn't find a lot of memory upgrades available from the major manufacturers; something that can lead to a crap shoot when hunting for memory modules. With a new cmos battery, you have 5 bucks and some time invested...might be a good place to stop for now and just use the machine. Skip

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I don't plan on spending any money on this machine except for a CMOS battery. DAVE, you are probably right, although even if I boot without the external monitor connected, the internal screen doesn't come on. Also, what do you mean by "monitor card"? "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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What I said about Windows 2000 was just a suggestion. I have a Cyrix MII 250MHz PC that had 128MB of RAM and Windows 2000. It was not slow at all. In fact I think it was way faster than Windows 98 on the same system. I would never go back to Windows 98SE for several reasons, or ME for that matter. But of course it's your decision what to put on it, but I thought Windows 2000 was a good suggestion since it's more stable than any of its predecessors and does fine on 128MB of RAM. I'm glad the screen came on! I agree with DAVE that the CMOS battery is probably not the reason for the screen problems. I'm thinking maybe a problem with the chipset, but that's a shot in the dark. WinSimple Software

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Hoo boy, this is a tough one with this computer! I understand what you mean, Windows 2000 is a heck of a lot more stable than 9x because it's built on the NT kernel. A 250 Mhz Cyrix, eh? I don't know how Cyrix CPU's compared to equivalent Intel or AMD. I already have Windows 2000 on the Compaq, so I thought I would have a little variety and use 98SE. I want the extra DOS access that comes with 9x, anyway. I use a little bit of DOS. I will hopefully get a new CMOS battery tomorow. I'll keep y'all updated on what happens. -Trent "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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Sorry, when you said "I pulled out the external monitor cord. . ." I saw 'card' instead. The implication in the manual was that the only way the external monitor would work is if it was set that way in notebook manager. That's why I figured it somehow must be defaulting there. Normally if a PC is powered up it is providing the necessary voltage to the cmos circuitry even if the cmos battery is bad. When the PC is shut off it usually takes a few minutes to a few hours for that voltage to drain. But maybe your laptop is losing it more quickly. If you're shutting it off after setting it to the LCD then maybe that's the reason. But I agree we're not going to know for sure until you replace the battery.

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Well, I got no battery. Mom looked in three different stores and said the only watch batteries there had 3-digit numbers on the packages. Unless they make batteries like that, I bet she didn't look at the number on the battery itself. I'll have to look for a battery myself sometime. Until then, I guess I use it as is. In case anyone is interested, I put the old battery to the multimeter, and I got 0.6 volts, and it was going down a hundreth of a volt every few seconds I kept it on. "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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The internal screen is working again! I restarted the laptop, pressed F1 to acknowladge the CMOS battery message and continue loading Windows, and when Windows came to the screen, (the external monitor, as usual) I just left the room to do other things. About 10 minutes later, I heard the laptop beep, and when I went to check on it, the Windows screen saver was going - on both screens! I'm keeping the laptop turned on as long as I can this time to enjoy to internal screen. Also, I might have a CMOS battery either today or tomorow. -Trent "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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Okay, some good news... I kept the laptop turned on all day yesterday, and the screen, standby, and FN functions all worked perfect! I put it in standby for the night, and this morning, I decided to shut down Windows, and, just as I expected, when I turned it back on, the screen didn't come on. However, I pulled the plug and the main battery out, put just the plug back in, turned it on, and the screen came on! Now, 9 out of 10 times I turn the laptop on, the screen will come on as long as the main battery is out. If it doesn't come on, I pull the plug, stick it back in, turn it on, and repeat until the screen comes on. The screen usually appears on the 3rd or 4th try. "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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Screen won't come on now, even after 20 trys. I give up... if it isn't the CMOS battery (which I haven't got yet) it must be my worst fear, a problem with the mobo. "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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Haha, i'm sad to say that this thing is worse at 3D graphics and video than my Compaq Presario! This thing has a NeoMagic MagicGraph 128ZV+ video chipset with 2 MB of memory. I'm not surprised though, as this laptop was meant for office work, not video and games, and I read that NeoMagic makes some of the most battery-friendly video chipsets. And, I got the screen working again. Also, I bought a new IBM EtherJet 10/100 Type II PCMCIA card off eBay, and it comes with the "dongle" cable adapter to hook it up to a normal ethernet cable. So, even if the IBM card arrives faulty, I have the adapter to hook it up to the D-Link 10/100 card that came with this laptop. I paid around $7 for the card and cable with $3 shipping. Since i'm basically talking to myself, (lol) i'm gonna hold off the follow-ups until I find a CMOS battery. Until then, -Trent "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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I just bought a new package of 5 CR1220 batteries off ebay for $2.50 with $1.75 shipping. They had no CR1220's in all of the stores I thought would have them. "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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Lol you've probably spent more money on the network card, cable and batteries than the whole laptop is worth!

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Okay, I got my IBM EtherJet 10/100 PC card today, and i'm having a couple of problems with it, so i'll make a new thread addressing that problem. "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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I got the EtherJet card working, thanks to jefro. TCP/IP wasn't installed. "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

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