Acer laptop BIOS will not boot

[Flyer]

I have an ACER Extensa 4420 laptop that takes 15-20 cycles of power to get it past the BIOS boot.  The screen shows "ACER" and the load ribbon shows about 3/4 finished.  I cannot get into the BIOS when this happens.  I have reseated the HD & RAM. I have taken the battery out, disconnected the AC and held the power switch for 60 seconds and when it was running, I ran various anti-spyware and malware SW--finding nothing serious. Since the BIOS did not finish, should I assume it is in the BIOS or MB?  Running  Vista, AMD Athlon 64x2 dual core processor TK-57, 128 GB HD & 2 GB of RAM.
Thanks

[Geek-9pm]

One more test.
Let's suppose the hard drive is sucking too much current.
Remove the Hard drive. Power up and see is the bios will stay on with a message that indicates the drive is not there.

[Allan]

You said you removed the mobo battery. Did you replace it with a new one?

[Flyer]

I removed the laptop battery.  I could not find the MB battery.  I assume it is under the keyboard, but I have not figured out how to remove it.

[Allan]

sorry - my mistake - I didn't notice it is a laptop. Please disregard my post.

[Computer_Commando]

I removed the laptop battery.  I could not find the MB battery.  I assume it is under the keyboard, but I have not figured out how to remove it.

It's hidden somewhere, probably below the keyboard.  It's not readily accessible as on most newer laptops.
If you let it finish the POST, it might show a diagnostic message:


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[Flyer]

You can let it sit all night and it will not finish with the BIOS.

[Geek-9pm]

You can let it sit all night and it will not finish with the BIOS.

Does this mean you removed the hard drive and just let it stay in the BIOS screen?

Another test, it you want.
Borrow a hard drive, anything compatible with that laptop. Don't try to boot it, Just wait and see if the extra load on the power supply makes it crash. If it can go 20 minuets or more and no crash, then it must have been your original hard drive has a component or mechanical failure that is sucking current.

[Flyer]

Once I get the computer to boot up (after many power cycles) it will stay up for days--so far. If I shut it down, I have to go through the same process again, so I don't think it is HW, but it could be the boot sector---although I've run all kinds of SW to look for those problems. Then again, it never finishes the BIOS boot (laptop splash screen stays up).  It will sit forever in that mode, if you don't cycle the power again.
Thanks for the help

[Flyer]

I pulled out the HD.  Laptop BIOS booted for a number of times before stopping again.  I removed the laptop battery and AC power along with holding down the power switch for 60 sec.  It again booted a number of time before stopping (HD still out). I've tried a number of times to change the boot sequence, but it reverts back to HD first.  After one of these changes I got these messages:   0270 Realtime clock error, 0251 System CMOS checksum bad - default configuration used. Press f1 to resume.
Thanks

[Geek-9pm]

CMOS checksum bad

That means the small battery is gone. Replace it.
Reference:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hardware-components-aftermarket-upgrades/430860-cmos-battery-location-acer-extensa-4420-5963-a.html

[Flyer]

This link does not tell where the battery is located. Does anyone know where it is located?  I've looked under the keyboard and in all areas I could access from the bottom. There must be some easy to access area that it is located.
Thanks

[Computer_Commando]

This link does not tell where the battery is located. Does anyone know where it is located?  I've looked under the keyboard and in all areas I could access from the bottom. There must be some easy to access area that it is located...

On older laptops, the battery is nearly impossible to locate.  The thinking was, the battery has a lifetime of 5-7 years, which is the more than the life of the computer.  I have one that's 12 years old & it still works.

[Flyer]

I had removed the KB to look for the battery. Looks like the case will have to be cracked to do that. No matter what you ask ACER tech support they say they will repair any problem for $199. I don't know why they have a tech support.  They should just have an automated message that that says that.

After I reseated the KB connection it started booting fine. I'm not quite sure why. I'm pretty sure the battery is bad, as I've reset the clock a couple of times. I've given the computer back to the owner and hope to not see it again. If it was mine, I would ha e opened the case, but you never know what can of worms you get then.
Thanks everyone. I'm going to mark this solved, even though it is not really.