[chefken]

I have an Acer Aspire asa85-uc521h desktop computer It has an Intel Celeron D 3.2 ghz cpu, 512 mb ddr, 160g hd and a dvd-dual drive. One day I turned on my computer and the only thing that came up us the Acer logo. The computer made one beep (I think that is usual) and the went to the Acer Logo. I have tried del and f12 as the screen says to no avail. The lights come on and everything sound normal. I have tried to start it from a cd but it does not load. I have removed the cmos and replaced it. Since I cannot get in I cannot get into safe mode. I can use whatever suggestions anyone might have.

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chefken

Have you tried tapping the F8 key while the computer is attempting to boot up.
Can you at any time hear the HDD working or see the HDD busy LED blinking.
Do you have data on the HDD that you would like to try and retrieve.

[phillpower2]

chefken

Have you tried tapping the F8 key while the computer is attempting to boot up.
Can you at any time hear the HDD working or see the HDD busy LED blinking.
Do you have data on the HDD that you would like to try and retrieve.

[chefken]

Thank you for responding. I have tried tapping f8 during boot with no affect. I have tried every key and combination thereof. The lights come on, I get one beep and then the Acer logo comes on and I cannot do anything else (except stare at the [bleep] thing). During my recent "research" on the internet I came across something I tried this morning, del f10. To my surprise it went to the BIOS screen. I tried to get past that and eventually did. I tried to restart my pc and The same thing happened again. One beep and the Acer logo. I tried del f10 and this time it did not work. I removed the battery and replaced it and it worked. I found that depending on what I was trying to do I began to get errors such as could not collect data and another time a 80040154 error. I turned off the pc again and this time it would not boot to the BIOS only the Acer logo. I fiddled around with it for a while then ignored it and some time later when I started the pc I pressed del f10 I was back in the Bios menu. I am at a lost as to what I should do now. Should I try to back it up/ image or clone the hdd. Should I run some diagnostice to see if my files are corrupt or should I try a reinstall. I would appreciate any help.

[phillpower2]

Thanks for the update

Can you at any time hear the HDD working or see the HDD busy LED blinking.
Do you have data on the HDD that you would like to try and retrieve.

Can you also answer these two questions for us.

You are welcome BTW

[chefken]

I can hear the hdd running and I can see the lights flashing. I do have data that I would like to save. As I said in my previous post (#3) I am starting to run into errors. I am concerned about the sparadic starting/booting. I do not know if I should run some diagnostic or do I need to reinstall the os. What should I do next?

[phillpower2]

The HDD known to be working is a good start

If you manage to successfully boot up the computer back up all the important data that you need asap and then post back.

If you cannot successfully boot up the computer let us know and we can suggest an alternative way of trying to back up your data.

The reason why no testing of the HDD is being suggested is because the HDD diagnostic tools stress test the HDD which can cause a flaky HDD to fail which would result in you losing the data on it.

Regarding the OS, I am hoping that there is a Recovery Partition on the HDD should it be necessary to use it, do you have an OS or system restore disk for the computer.

[chefken]

Thanks for your help. I was able to get back into the computer today and backed up my files. Can I back up or copy my service pack updates? Is there any difference between backing up files as opposed to just copying them. My pc still will not just reboot. It takes some fiddling around to get into it. I have the restore discs that I made when I purchased the computer. They are still on the hd also and I tried to copy them again today but when I tried to unzip them it said I needed 6 blank discs. I pressed yes and and selected the drive. The screen disappeared and returned to the desktop. Maybe part of the same problem as the other errors I am getting. I also have a xp upgrade disc. Let me now if these are any good and what I should do next.

[phillpower2]

Great news that you have managed to secure your personal data, well done to you for achieving that

Regarding backing up and copying, they are basically the same thing, the difference is what you are copying/backing up as in files as opposed to programs, files while they can be large they do not take 6 disks to back up/copy a single file and they do not need a set-up.exe file to access them, copying or backing up the entire HDD is called cloning the HDD - something that I will explain and help you with once this issue is resolved, you would not clone the HDD at present because if there are any problems with the OS that is installed on the HDD you would simply be reproducing the problem.

Having the restore disks is also great news and again well done for making them, this is something that is so often not done and it only occurs to a user that they should have made them when a problem such as this happens.

Whichever way we proceed you will have Service Packs and an awful lot of updates to install so I suggest that you do not start the updates until you have a few hours to spare, it is also tedious so find a distraction or you will be bored.

Right down to the task at hand, the XP upgrade disk is of no use at present as we need to get the original set up restored, if you let us know the exact details of what is on the disk SP1 for example you may be able to use it later to help speed up the process of getting your computer fully up to date.

First of all we must check that the HDD has no mechanical issues that are causing this, is your boot order set in the BIOS to CD/DVD drive first and the HDD second, if not change it to this please, let us know if you are unsure;

Run the HDDs diagnostics tool;
Make sure you select the tool that is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
Depending on the program it'll create a bootable floppy or a bootable CD.
If the downloaded file is the .iso type use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn the .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option) and make the CD bootable.

Let us know how this goes please before I suggest the next step.

[chefken]

Thanks again and Happy New Year. The last time I was able to access the BIOS the first thing I did was to change the boot order to dcd/cd first and hdd second. I do not know if this means anything but it seems to boot more regularly (even with out a disk in the cd drive). I will run the above applications and get back to you as soon as possible. I recently had to reinstall an OS on another computer that is about 12 years old and it took quite a long time for the updates, that is why I was wondering if I could back up/copy them and reinstall them from a disk. I will post back when I have run the hdd diagnostic. Thanks

[phillpower2]

Thanks for the update and a happy new year to you

We will be here when you are ready and you are most welcome

[chefken]

I ran the hdd diagnostic for my drive (seagate 160gb) I had to run the dos version from a disk as the windows version from the hdd kept running into an error 80040154 and clsid{cf4cc405-e2c5-4ddd-b3ce-5e7582d8c9fa}. I ran both the short and long tests and both passed and dst completed with no errors. My XP upgrade disc contains: DOCS, DOTNETFX, I386, SUPPORT, VALUADD, AUTORUN, README, SETUP, SPNOTES, WIN51, WIN51IC, WIN51ICSP1. I hope this helps. What is the next step? Should I backup or copy the sp2 and 3 (if possible)? Thanks

[phillpower2]

The HDD appears to be ok then

No need to back up anything else off the HDD if you already have all of your personal data secured.

First of all lets see if there is a recovery partition on the HDD "how to" depending on whether the computer is presently on or off;

1.Turn on or reboot the computer
2.At the white ACER BIOS screen, hold the Alt key and press the F10 key simultaneously to start Acer eRecovery.
3.Once eRecovery has loaded, click Restore to Factory Default Settings
4.Click OK to continue
5.From here, the eRecovery process will update all the data on the C: drive and restore a fully functional factory image (approximately 10 minutes).
6.Once eRecovery has run, press OK to reboot the PC.

Let us know the results please.

[chefken]

I was able to run the eRecovery process and all seem normal (or at least it looks like it did when I bought it some years ago). I have started to receive request for updates (including microsoft). What is the next step? Do I have to do anything in particular to make sure it is running properly? Thanks

Edited by chefken, 01 January 2013 - 05:29 PM.

[phillpower2]

I am pleased to hear that the recovery was a success

Install all updates including service packs and install an anti virus software such as Avast or MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) both are available free, are light on system resources and offer very good protection, once that is done reinstall whatever software that you would like and you are done.

[chefken]

Everything seems to be going well. I have imaged the disk and I am going to start my service packs. Do I have to install all the downloads (or go with custom). Also I have 512 mb ram, should I increase this to maybe 1g to make my system faster? Any ideas what went wrong or what it just one of those things. Thanks I I look forward to hearing from you.