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Was Trying to Fix a Computer - AcerPower FH


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#1
paperbag3

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Hi All-

I have an AcerPower FH that was pretty much considered trash by a friend who said I could have it. I, having some experience, thought I might fix it and ... hours later I have not. Here's what was going on, what I did (and what I messed up in the process) and if anyone has any input it would be appreciated.

The first thing I did with this computer was install a new video card to try to get it to work, b/c the there was no video at all to begin with. I got video.

Then I was trying to put a fresh install of Windows 7 on b/c I figured there were plenty of viruses on the OS that was on there - and I was having trouble - checked the memory and long story short, installed two new sticks of memory.

With all that done, I did something stupid.

As mentioned, the computer is an AcerPower FH and these, apparently, have a few partitions with one of them having some vital files that can be used in the event of an upgrade or fresh install of a new OS. I decided to barrel ahead and wipe out all the partitions for the copy of Windows 7 I had intended to put on there and, suddenly, there were no drivers ... etc. etc. this is the point where I'm fuzzy on things.

Acer seems to be pretty good with giving out downloads and I downloaded a copy of the latest BIOS .. but now I have no OS. I tried booting from my copy of Windows 7 numerous times only to be stopped for not having drivers (I'm pretty sure that was the problem)

I doubt I'm going ahead and getting a new motherboard but it seems like that's the problem b/c everything was working great for awhile there ... it just seemed like I did that bonehead thing of wiping out that partition that had that info on it (accessed btw by doing the alt F10 thing)

Does anyone think updating the BIOS would solve anything? And, if so, how can I do that if there's no OS?

And it's almost moot at this point, b/c I keep getting blue screen errors.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks.
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#2
Digerati

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I suspect the problem is the computer is to old, Windows7 does not support it. Did you verify there were Win7 drivers for your motherboard before starting? You may need to go back to XP.
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#3
paperbag3

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Thanks - I hope it's that simple and will post any results.
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#4
phillpower2

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Acer does not list W7 drivers for the FH model http://support.acer-...wnloads_gd.html you can confirm this at the Acer download site, you will need to tick the show all models box on the Select Product Model tab before it will show the FH model.
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#5
Digerati

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If no Win7, then using Vista drivers often works - no promises. In the future, before upgrading older hardware, it is best to run Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor first.
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#6
paperbag3

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Thanks for getting back to me on this stuff ...

I wanted to add the following -

It's probably a new ATI video card that I installed just before installing the memory because I did a little more digging for the answer to some of the problems I was having.

When attempting to install Windows 7, I would get this IRQ NOT EQUAL blue screen error and found this article (pretty good rundown of blue screen problems I suspect too):

http://www.maximumpc..._guide?page=0,1

Anyway - that said, there was an old ATI card in there that I suspected was bad, so I got a used one off ebay (ATI Radeon X800). Let's just go ahead and say the card's good and I just need to have the proper drivers installed.

Is this still a scenario where I'd have to install XP only?

I mean - can anyone give me a few steps to take to try to get things working from here? I have:

1. blank hardisk w/ no partitions
2. windows 7 CD (that I suspect is going to go to waste)
3. a new/used video card ATI Radeon X800
4. new memory


... and a seemingly useless computer, b/c every time I go to load the OS, I get the blue screen.

The article suggests setting the speed for the video card at 100mHz - is this a good idea? This still doesn't solve the problem of the drivers though - but I did find another (seemingly reputable) individual on ebay that was selling the recovery disk for the FH drivers and I'm will, hopefully, be able to put that old system partition back with the recovery disk.

Any further input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
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#7
Digerati

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I'm still leaning towards incompatibility with Windows 7. Do you have your original XP disk? If not, you may end up teaching yourself Linux and putting that on there.
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#8
paperbag3

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You lean correctly, sir. Looks like Windows 7 (much as I wanted it on there) is incompatible. And thanks to you both for your help.

I started to have trouble installing the XP and thought I'd be getting back to you about my wasted effort, but did a little more online digging.

I wound up starting over and took out the video card I'd installed along with the two new sticks of memory - I then vacuumed the video card and about 5 years worth of dust came out of the fan in a clump! Then I vacuumed around the motherboard slots and reinstalled everything - making sure it popped in right.

I got a USB error at one point so just reverted back to another keyboard too in case that was a problem. (?)

Looks like everything is loading up properly now, but I did get an error message that wmp.dll did not load - and I retried and looks like it couldn't load so I just skipped it. Any thoughts on whether this is critical?

Either way looks like things are going well and thanks again!
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#9
Digerati

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You lean correctly, sir. Looks like Windows 7 (much as I wanted it on there) is incompatible.

Well, as a hardware guy, I'd like to blame the OS, but in this case, it is the hardware that has failed to keep up. Big corporations and consumers insisted XP provide legacy support for DOS era hardware and software, but that put XP behind the power curve with security and everyone but the badguys have suffered the consequences ever since. No one predicted the Internet would explode open so quickly, or that badguys would be so malicious, or prolific. But of course MS took the blame - relentlessly for the next decade at every opportunity bashers got. Not wanting to be blamed for poor security again, Microsoft took the right course with Windows 7, looking forward, not back.

You might consider a Linux alternative.

wmp.dll is part of Windows Media Player. I would attempt to uninstall it, then download and install the latest version.
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#10
geckobyte

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Acer FH I am writing this with has Win 7, 3.4 duo intel (x2) 1GB video card. No problem. try drivereasy.com and nobody needs to teach themselves linux due to not knowing how to build a PC.
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