Mini PC won't power on

[beodawn1]

Hello,

Straight to the point: I was using he pc for some very minor gaming, nothing intensive at all, when it simply stopped working.

This is my second of two of these. The first one was replaced for the same reason months ago and customer service was absolutely amazing help.
That one has worked ever since. This is the first time that the second pc has had any issues.

With the fact that I have been through trouble shooting steps with the first one, I knew of some steps to complete before reaching out to customer service.

First off, since I have a second one that is working, I plugged this pc into the other pc's power supply.... still doesn't work.
When the working pc is plugged into either power adapter, the light on the power adapter turns green, solid and the working pc Does work with both power supplies just fine; so it definitely is the pc itself that is not working.

When the non-working pc is plugged into either power adapter, the light on both power adapters changes to a blinking blue light. I honestly don't know what that means.

I have cleaned the ram sticks as shown in a video by the customer service tech that I spoke to back in April I believe it was and tried an external HD with it that is my emergency backup of windows 11 in case a pc goes down... nothing turns the pc on at all.

I did try resetting the pc but that did nothing as well.

Any ideas on how to proceed from here?

Oh, I am under warranty, it was purchased on March 14th 2023. I have an Asurion warranty too but they say that it is under manufacture warranty so they cannot help yet.

Jeremy Miller

[dragonpoo]

Hey Jeremy, welcome to the forums! I had a system with that "blinking blue light" on the power adapter, and had to send it in for replacement when I contacted support. I'm glad you're having success with them, at least.

Aside from the regular troubleshooting, which it sounds like you're pretty good at - unplug it, hold the power button, try to reset the BIOS battery (disconnect it or discharge - I can't find a button on my AMR5 like others have), you might have the best luck contacting warranty support.

Whatever happens, please let us know so others can try similar steps!

[beodawn1]

I will let you know as soon as I hear back from tech support.

I live in the Eastern Timezone, USA, and it is currently 503am. Tech support from what I understand gets in at 8am but I have already sent them an email just to get a jump on things early.

I expect that I will hear back from them this morning at some point.

Like I mentioned, the first time this happened they were great and helped me handle things quickly and efficiently. I was also amazed that once I got to emailing tech support I was always contacted back by the same tech support person. I didn't have three or four different people having to pick up where someone left off with my problem. That made me feel more... secure, I guess you could say, in my purchase of the pc.

If I get the same level of support this time, I may keep buying my pc's from this company for a while.

Technically, both of these pc's are for two of my grandchildren and we use my pc, an older but powerful tower, and their two pc's two game on and do homework on etc but they aren't here all the time at my house so I use their pc's myself to autofarm things for them in games or to help level up their characters while they are gone or do their homework for them... lol just joking on that last one. I went to college to become a teacher so I know from my own experience that is not cool for a parent to do. My grandkids are all exceptionally smart. To rob them of doing their own studies would be hurting them in the future. On to other things lol, What I was getting around to saying is that I hope that I will be able to upgrade to a new pc myself after christmas. So it would be nice to be able to buy it from a company that I know cares about their customers.

[beodawn1]

I haven't heard from tech support at all today and it is 25 minutes until they close from what I remember. Maybe I will hear from them tomorrow. I hope so.

[dragonpoo]

I hope you hear from them soon, as well. The only time I tried to contact tech support, it wasn't the best experience: the person stopped responding after a few days, and then his email was deactivated; I suspect he left the company. Still, maybe your experience will be better.

Your previous response about what you do with your computers was enlightening, thanks for sharing! My kids typically use my computers for gaming or educational purposes, and I use them for work.

[beodawn1]

I still have not heard from them. I sent Barry a message yesterday as well but have not heard back.

I have to admit, this is extremely frustrating and disappointing in this company.

Looking at the posts, a lot of these particular mini pc's just stop working out of no where which makes no sense. I used to build computers for friends and family so I know that should never be the case.

I do hope that I hear from Barry at least as someone who can get through to tech support for me.

[dragonpoo]

Hopefully you hear back tomorrow. If not, you might want to consider their support phone number: 800-908-1980 (from the forums home page).

I believe Barry and most of their staff are based in China, and it appears this week is a country holiday; National Day, according to this site: https://www.chinahighlights.com/festiva ... oliday.htm So, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't reply before Friday.

[beodawn1]

Thank you for letting me know about the holiday. I called the phone number earlier and left a message and also sent Barry an email But I did notice that he had not been on the forums for literally a week so I figured that he may be on a vacation. I'll let my wife know lol. Thank you again.

[beodawn1]

Greetings Dragonpoo,

I just got off of the phone with tech support and the agent was great, as I expected.

He had called my phone earlier but my phone is having problems ringing believe it or not. Luckily, just in case, I am at my computer now and had the phone on the desk so I could see if it lit up lol.

Anyhow, because I had already known and done the troubleshooting needed, I was able to just tell him all that I had done (which made things very easy) and he told me that he would have the replacement department contact me within the next 48 hours. Considering this is Golden Week and they don't *have* to be back to work until Saturday or Sunday which are apparently work days required after a holiday according to google, I think that is amazing.

So here are the troubleshooting steps that I have done for people's further reference:

1) First off while the amr5 is still plugged into it's power supply, their is a light on the power supply. It can be fading and hard to see but it is in a corner. Check and see if the light is solid and green, or blue and blinking. I don't know exactly what those mean honestly BUT I have 2 amr5 pc and when they are working properly with the power supply the light is solid green. If the light is blinking and blue you have a problem.

2) Try to plug it into a different outlet that you Know works.

3) This one may sound stupid but if you have a different monitor or video playing source, try it just to make sure it is not a video problem.

4) If you happen to have a power supply that is an extra somewhere and it happens to fit into the amr5, try it... it could be a power supply problem.

5) If you happen to have another computer and an extra external hard drive that you can use as an emergency boot backup (works for all of your computers running the same operating system so it's smart to have one just in case), try the emergency boot drive... it may be that your amr5 hard drive has failed.

6) Those were the really easy parts, he we start to go deep:
There is a video here on the forums describing how to replace or clean the golden teeth on the memory sticks. Yes, you may just have a dirty memory stick lol. Now BE CAREFUL! The memory sticks are held in place by a thin sleeve of metal on both the right and left sides and it IS easy to pull out. I have not done this with an amr5 but my wife had a computer like 5 years ago that she pulled one out on that was identical and I was able to put it back into place. They Can be put back into place but they will probably never work again just right, although the connector that holds the memory stick's golden teeth (as I call them) will hold the sticks in place just fine in case you do pull the sleeves out. Follow the video on how to clean the memory sticks and (while you still have the side door open) try to start the pc. If it starts, you are good to go play again. If it does not start, first off, take one stick out and leave the other and see if the pc works... if it does, you have one bad stick (the one that is out). If it still does not work, take out the memory stick that is in the pc and put the other memory stick back in and try to start it... once again, if it works, the stick that you have out currently is bad. That's actually good news at least because at least you are up and running and can get a new stick. They may cover that memory stick replacement under the warranty but I really don't know for sure.

7) Okay, we have tried the power supply, the memory sticks, and the hard drive, and the video port...the next step believe it or not is to actually try replacing the hard drive [most hd's which are brand new come with a built in boot sector to get you booting up to start with(if you are about to buy a replacement hard drive just to test this out, make sure that it is had software on it to boot you up before you buy it; it will say on the packaging whether it does or not )] ...take out the hard drive which is as easy as the memory sticks. I think there is a video here on the forums again. Now that the original hard drive is out, just slip a replacement back in. Easy. See if you can get it to boot. If you can boot up, your original hard drive is bad.

Okay, I know that was a lot and some people cannot afford extra hard drives or memory sticks so some of those steps (which will be asked about by tech support)... don't worry about what you can't do... just do what you feel that you can do reasonably. The tech support team here is absolutely awesome. As I mentioned this is the 2nd amr5 that I have had issues with BUT the other one hasn't had any issues after it had that one issue and this second one has never had any issues until now. They really are fun machines and amazing with all that they can do. Expect the best support. You will get it. Yes, it may take a couple of days for them to reach out to you but they will. There are three ways to contact them... email at service@acemagic.com, call them at the tech support number at the top of the first page of the forums, and here with the forum messages themselves. This week is Golden Week, a HUGE AMAZING vacation week from what I hear. A national holiday and to be honest I am happily surprised that I got a call from tech support today (Wednesday) since they don't have to work until saturday or sunday from what google says. (Thanks tech support)!

I am now expecting an email from the replacement team within the next two days. Last time they asked me to return it in the original box so expect to be asked to do that if possible. If it's impossible, then it is, well... impossible to do so; lol.

I wish you all the best folks.

Jeremy

[barry777]

We are very sorry for the inconvenience.
We are currently verifying and analyzing this issue with AMR5. Following the troubleshooting steps still does not work. There may be an internal malfunction;
Thank you for your understanding and trust.
Has the service specialist responded? If there is no response, I will continue to follow up on this order.