[Help Needed] Acer Aspire 5 A517-52G – Removed Onboard RAM, Now Working But Battery Not Charging

[abrahim110]

🧵 [Help] Acer Aspire 5 A517-52G – Onboard RAM Removed, BIOS Mod Done, Battery Not Charging


Hi everyone,

I have an Acer Aspire 5 A517-52G-53NB laptop.

The onboard (soldered) RAM was faulty, so I physically removed the chip.
I also successfully modified the BIOS using the SPD Removal Tool – the laptop now boots fine and works with an 8 GB DDR4 SO-DIMM installed.

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✅ System status:

• BIOS mod is done (SPD removed)
• Laptop boots to Windows normally
• RAM is detected and stable

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❌ Problem:


The battery is not charging:

• Power adapter shows 17V input
• Current draw is only ~0.20 A
• Battery stays at same % – “plugged in, not charging”
• EC or charging IC seems inactive

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❓What I need help with:

• Do I need to add pull-up resistors to SDA/SCL lines where the RAM chip was?
• Do I need to modify EC firmware to fully restore charging?
• Any advice on which pads to connect or terminate?

I have:

• CH341A programmer
• Multimeter
• Clean BIOS dump
• Photo of the removed RAM area (can upload if needed)

Thanks in advance for any help!

[mon2]

• Do I need to add pull-up resistors to SDA/SCL lines where the RAM chip was?

By design, I2C / SMBUS interface lines are open-drain. They will always require external pull-up resistors to park the lines when the output is floating. Respectively, measure the voltage to ground on these lines. Post the measurements. Each should be ~3v3 (common voltage) but on macbooks, etc. where there are lower voltage logic onboard, the pull-up voltage can be 1v8, etc. Currently designing with 0v9, 1v2 logic so goes with the IO voltage of the mating devices.