# Acer Laptop wont boot past Sponsor/Acer screen



## gkruhm (Jul 18, 2009)

Hi, my name is George and I have an Acer Aspire 5610Z running with vista and one morning i was on it and i closed it to put it on sleep and like 10 hours later it started beeping loudly and I did not even originally realize it was the laptop and thought it was my neighbors or something. I opened my laptop to find that it was it beeping and it was on the white loading screen where I believe it says phoenix and acer on the bottom or something and the blue bar at the bottom does not get all the way to fully load and in the bottom it has the F2 option for system setup. I tried Alt+F10 for system recovery and nothing happened and so whenever I load up it just goes to that screen and does nothing and the system setup in F2 just tell me what OS and hardware I'm running, nothing helpful and no options. If anyone noes any if not all solutions, please post them. I haven't been in to much of a hurry to get it fixed because the internet does not work in my dorm and so it's been like this for a few days. Please, any advice besides throw acer out the window because they're awful (I bought this laptop before HP bought Acer out) would be lovely. Thanks!

George.


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

Hi George,

Can you enter the BIOS settings? Can you make changes to be able to boot from CD/DVD drive?


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## gkruhm (Jul 18, 2009)

how do i enter BIOS settings... its been quite some time where i dealt with a pc that failed me... the acer has worked nicely for two years now


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

As per the manual *here* to activate the BIOS utility, press <F2> during POST.


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## gkruhm (Jul 18, 2009)

ok so i was looking through the posted manual and im not sure what u wanted me to look at but as i said before f2 is enter setup and it takes me to a page that takes like an hour to load up and it just displays the hardware and os im running


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

what brand of bios is in it

you need to check what the beeps are telling you is wrong

http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm


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## gkruhm (Jul 18, 2009)

im not sure what brand of BIOS is in it and i cant entirely check but iv just turned it on and it did 2 short beeps but i think that was because i was turning the sound up... originally it was doing 1 short beep every 10 minutes or so

unfortunately its been on for about 10 minutes now and it hasnt chimed or beeped or anything so i dunno... it just says acer and has a half loaded blue bar at the bottom... what do u think so far


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

check in the manual for what bios chip brand is in there

tap f8 when booting and try

last known good configuration

if no good see if you can access safe mode from the same menu


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## gkruhm (Jul 18, 2009)

i tried tapping it and it started to beep... so nothing happened

and i cant really go get the manual right now to see the bios chip but i can look it up probably just lettin u know bout that


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

d/load and run the h/drive makers diagnostic utility on the h/drive

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

Can you boot from CD/DVD drive? If yes, get an HDD diagnostic tool like Hitachi DFT or Seatools (see HDD Diags link on my sig). Get the CD based diagnostic utility (ISO) so you can run the diags from the CD/DVD drive (no need to boot into Windows).

It would also be good if you get Memtest86+ so you can test your RAM too. Like the HDD diagnostic tool, get the CD based program so you can run Memtest86+ via the CD/DVD drive.


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## gkruhm (Jul 18, 2009)

for starters acer was not on that list and second i dont have the tools to diagnose the laptop next to me... if you cant look the problem up in a directory or anything you free to take shots in the dark and ill go as far as openin my laptop up, just give the signal... i was originally going to open it to see if anything was loose because day of malfunction early on in the day the laptop slid off my lap -.- and hit the floor... not drastically just slid a bounced on the floor and the laptop still worked for the remainder of the time it was on as it did before... could something maybe be just slightly loose perhaps keeping it from powering up all the way


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

Get Hitachi DFT.


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## gkruhm (Jul 18, 2009)

i cannot boot off a cd... it doesnt even go into the enter setup thing now... my options are turning it on and turning it off lol

unless there is a backwards way or a key combo that makes it boot off a cd then i dunno

i must be off to bed, im knackered so ill read ur next solution in the morning


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

Tap on F12 when ACER logo appears. A menu would show up. Select CD/DVD drive.

Post back what happens.


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## gkruhm (Jul 18, 2009)

nope, no menu pops up

i feel like if i were able to reset the computer something would happen because when i turn it off and back on it doesnt do anything it just instantly goes to the acer logo screen with an already half loaded bar


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

Strange. It could be a result of multiple problems. I need you to remove the battery and use only AC when doing the tests.

Ok let's see what happens if you remove the hard drive and just boot into BIOS settings (F2 when logo appears) or boot options (F12 when logo appears).

If with the HDD removed you still have the same problem, replace the CMOS battery first. If that does not help, replace all the RAM with a new/good/working stick.


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## gkruhm (Jul 18, 2009)

boot options came up this time with hdd out


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

Still with HDD out, get hold of a linux live CD like Ubuntu or Knoppix or Mepis or something... our objective is to boot the laptop from the CD/DVD drive and see if laptop works fine under linux environment. If laptop works without any issue then it is possible you have a bad HDD.

Test your HDD in another computer/laptop or slave it on a desktop using an adapter and see if it is working fine.


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## gkruhm (Jul 18, 2009)

if the hdd is bad how much would it cost or what would it require to move files between hdds cuz i really dont wanna put that much music on another hdd.... and does it matter which boot cd i use (unbuntu, ect..) since im on a laptop


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## gkruhm (Jul 18, 2009)

just making sure because i might not have been clear when i posted about my laptop with the hdd out... it loads fine and if i dont click f2 it loads and says cannot find os... so i will try to make a boot cd of which ever program is smaller of linux and ill phone in the verdict tomorrow


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## gkruhm (Jul 18, 2009)

oh btw, if the hdd is not in the pc will the laptop just attempt to boot off the live cd in the drive without me telling it to


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

Just to be sure we are clear...


Remove the hard drive from the laptop
Pop in Ubuntu or whatever linux live CD you have into the CD/DVD drive
Power ON the laptop
At ACER logo, press the function key to go into BIOS settings 
In the BIOS settings, set boot sequence so laptop would boot from CD/DVD drive first.
Save 
Reboot. If Ubuntu (or whatever linux live CD) was burned correctly then laptop will now boot from the CD/DVD drive.

If you have slaved the laptop HDD in another computer (and 'assuming' HDD is working fine) all you need is an adapter problably IDE/SATA/USB adapter so you can plug your laptop HDD into that other computer and move your files. From there AFAIK you can access your files via My Computer. However if your HDD has gone bad, it would not be accessible even if you slave it in another computer.

Check newegg.com for the cost. Try eBay too if you want.... or you try Google to search.


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