Acer Aspire 5251-1513 Troubleshooting

The charger is plugged in but the laptop is failing to maintain a charge.

Check that the cable is plugged into the wall. Is the brick plugged into the power cable? After confirming that everything is plugged in and confirming that the outlets work, a replacement power cable may be needed.

Make sure the cable is plugged all the way into the charging port and that there is no damage to that area. Check for debris inside the port or on the end of the cable. If there is something in there and can be removed, remove it and try again. If it can’t be removed or it appears to be damage, the charging port will need to be replaced.

The laptop is running but the screen is blank.

If the laptop is running, but nothing is on the screen, shutdown the laptop. Because you can’t shutdown the laptop from the menu, hard-reset the laptop. Press and hold the laptop until the the power goes off and release the button. Close the screen. Turn the laptop over and remove the battery. Remove any dust or debris and reinsert the battery. Turn the laptop back over, open the screen, and turn the laptop back on. If the screen still does not turn on a hardware issue may be present.

If you turn on the laptop and see something on the screen briefly, this could indicate a virus.

While using your computer, the device overheats and potentially shuts off without any warning. Make sure the laptop is on a hard, flat surface. Laptops suck in air through the bottom, so using it on a surface such as a blanket or your lap obstructs the airflow.

If the computer’s fan is no longer functioning properly, there might be a hardware issue. In this case, replacement of the fan could be necessary. If this is the case, you will need to remove the old CPU fan and reinstall a new one.

Sometimes dust can block the device’s fans/vents and cause the laptop to overheat. Check the vents on the device. If they are obstructions in the vent, use an air duster to clean out the fan.

You can hear the CD/DVD drive is functioning, but is not ‘reading’ the CD/DVD.

Check that the CD/DVD drive is shut properly. If it is still not reading CD/DVDs, uninstall the drivers. Go to “Device Manager” and uninstall the Optical Drive driver. Restart the laptop. After you restart, the drive should automatically reinstall. Try to play the CD/DVD again.

If your CD or DVD drive is not seen in File Explorer and the device is marked with a yellow exclamation point in Device Manager, it may be a problem with Windows. For Windows support, contact Microsoft.

Sometimes your computer is too far from the wireless router and this causes a slow wireless connection. Try to disconnect and then reconnect to your wireless network. If this does not work, try to move closer to your router.

If you have too many programs running on your computer at once, your laptop may slow down to compensate. Close some programs and try using your computer to see if its more responsive. If not, try deleting unneeded files to create more space on your laptop. Afterwards, try restarting your computer.

If you’ve had your computer for a long period of time and your computer is not only slower than usual, but crashes then the issue may be that you are running out of RAM (memory). If that is the case, you might need to upgrade your RAM card to one with more space.