# "no bootable device. Hit any key." Error on my Acer M5 laptop upon start up.



## ac578 (Feb 4, 2014)

*"no bootable device. Hit any key." Error on my Acer M5 laptop upon start up.*

So to start off i am not very great with computers so i dont know much about this issue but throughout many attempts i have not been able to fix this. i have an Acer M5-581T laptop with windows 8.1 (windows 8 was already installed when this laptop was bought) and has been running fine since i recieved it. Last night I accidentaly dropped the the right hand side of my computer about 2 or 3 inches but no more. i didnt think anything of it until this morning when i tried to start up my computer and was successful until when i tried to open an application on my desktop and my computer froze. Also when i started up my computer i heard a scratching or cracking sound in the right hand side and this continued for the nect couple times i tried to restart my computer. So, after it froze I restarted my computer just by holding the power button and upon turning it on again after the Acer start up screen i got the message "No bootale device. Hit any key." in a blue box. Hitting any key did nothing obviously. After some research i was able to press F2 and open up BIOS but with messing around with the settings and even changing in secure mode from UEFI and Legacy BIOS doesn't seem to work. Pressing control+alt+delete doesnt help, it only restarts my laptop. Ive read other forums about this but none of the soltuions there seem to help. i havent really done anything like try to change my laptop from windows 8 to windows 7 so it is still windows 8.1. Please if anyone has anything they think i missed or that could help please! any advice on this is greatly appreciated!!!

p.s. I have now opened up my laptop thinking that maybe my hard drive became loose when i had dropped it about 2 inches but everything seemed to be fine. if there is a problem it must be inside the hard drive not something as simple as it being loose. I also have been wondering if this could possibly be a virus? I generally have no clue at this point so please help i really need my laptop for school!!!


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## djaburg (May 15, 2008)

*Re: "no bootable device. Hit any key." Error on my Acer M5 laptop upon start up.*

Hmm...the "scratching or cracking" sounds could indicate a small piece of broken plastic in the fan that cools the processor or pushed a portion of the case where it is rubbing or perhaps stopping the fan. That could cause the computer to stop if it were to get too hot and the fan was unable to spin.

The error regarding no boot device normally indicates the harddrive has failed. Hopefully that's not the case. I'd strongly recommend taking it to someone that specializes in laptop repair to check it out. If the drive has failed, then likely any data you had on the drive would be gone, or would cost money to get it back. If the drive has some damage but is not completely dead, then files may be able to be recovered. Hopefully you've been backing up your data.


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## shawnpb (May 30, 2010)

*Re: "no bootable device. Hit any key." Error on my Acer M5 laptop upon start up.*

If you can't have a repair shop do that you can. From another PC.

Downloading  UBCD which is in my signature.Burn the ISO Image to a blank CD using  Imgburn  (How to burn a ISO Image using Imgburn) burn at lowest speed. With the newly burned cd boot with the cd go to HDD>Diagnostics>The make and model of your hard drive, Seagate, Maxtor, Drive Fitness which is Hitachi, Or Western Digital. Perform a short and long test. Could also be called "Standard" and "Extended" test or also "Comprehensive" test. The Seagate hard drive test will work on most drives.


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