# Acer Aspire 7540, Alt+F10 not working.



## dj-anakin (Aug 31, 2004)

I've been working on this all day, following every bit of advice I can find on it. 

Acer Aspire 7540 with Win7 64bit is my retired neighbors laptop, dunno what happened, but when I got it the windows and program files folders weren't there. First thing I did was tried Alt+F10 and it never worked. Went through some processes I saw online, nothing worked. Reinstalled Win7 using my retail disc, and it installed, but it wouldn't activate, obviously. Did some more stuff and saw on the X: drive after booting into repair disc > cmd window, I saw a setup.exe file, ran it, and it started installing Win7. I let it finish, put in the license key on the sticker on the bottom of the computer, and it activated. So, that's good.

When I go to the page for this laptop on acer.com, it does not list eRecovery or anything remotely like it. I'm sure I can find a version of eRecovery, but i'm not sure if they're model specific.

But now, I want to make sure if something else happens, I would be able to reinstall easily if needed. Alt+F10 does not work still, and I don't know why. I know Acer requires their own MBR, but I can't get it to work.

I found this link, and I can't find the aimdrs.dat file. Skipping it, I also can't find mbrwrwin.exe and rtmbr.bin.

So, advice? Thanks again. This forum has helped me a couple times before with BSOD issues on my desktop and i'm hoping you guys can come through again!

EDIT: One more thing. All her data is backed up, so I don't care about having to wipe the drive. I just want it to work like it did when it was new.
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I boot UBCD and Parted Magic. It shows all three discs like it should:



> /dev/sda1, mount ppoint: /media/sda1/, NTFS, PQSERVICE, 11.72GB [10.27GB used], flags: boot
> /dev/sda2, mount ppoint: /media/sda2/, NTFS, SYSTEM RESERVED, 100 MB [33.59MB used], flags: none
> /dev/sda3, mount ppoint: /media/sda3/, NTFS, ACER, 453.94GB [100.22GB used], flags: none


None of them show the lock icon [mounted?]. None say hidden.

If I do File Manager, I can see inside the System Reserved, and Acer partitions, but PQSERVICE partition doesn't show up at all.

Oh wait, ok, I went to /root/media/sda1, and I can see inside the PQSERVICE partition. Folders are such: AcerBoot, boot, d2d, EFI, Factory, logs, napp7, napp7x64, sources, System Volume Information, WimTemp, and files not inthose folders are: bootmgr [no extension], IMageInfo.dat, LPCD.DAT, napp.dat, PreD2D.bat, RCD.DAT, SWBOMPN.ini, SystemCd.dat, WNAPP.ini, WPatchProgress.ini.
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When I boot into Windows, I can see ACER (C, and SYSTEM RESERVED (E, but no PQSERVICE Partition.

If I format the whole drive, the license wouldn't work when I did a clean install using my Win7 retail DVD would it? I'm about at that point. I may just tell my neighbor there is no choice but to buy a new Win7 license.

But then again, it is working right now. Maybe I should just do my usual installs and give it back.
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From within Win7, I assigned the PQSERVICE partition a letter. Now it shows up in Explorer. I do a search for mbr, and it finds nothing. So, ya, those files aren't there. I found mbrwrwin.exe online, but i can't find the other one. Not sure if I should run it or not even if I had the other file.


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## GZ (Jan 31, 2010)

Well, you are right about one thing. The recovery partition requires proprietary instructions in the MBR to work properly. Unfortunately the MBR and boot files have been altered by the vanilla Windows 7 installation.

You could try using the UBCD (G Parted) to mark the recovery partition active/boot but there is no guarantee it will work and may do more damage to the recovery partitions filesystem.

My suggestion would be to acquire OEM installation media from Acer.

Acer Store: Recovery Media Purchase Program

This will allow the full suite of software to be installed and should also repair/restore the recovery partition. If not, then your neighbor will have an installation disc if it is ever needed again (i.e. failed HDD).


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## dj-anakin (Aug 31, 2004)

gavinzach said:


> Well, you are right about one thing. The recovery partition requires proprietary instructions in the MBR to work properly. Unfortunately the MBR and boot files have been altered by the vanilla Windows 7 installation.
> 
> You could try using the UBCD (G Parted) to mark the recovery partition active/boot but there is no guarantee it will work and may do more damage to the recovery partitions filesystem.
> 
> ...


Will try G Parted tonight. I already warned her that I might have to buy the disc from Acer, and she was ok with that. Thanks for the link will check it out. Thanks!


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## GZ (Jan 31, 2010)

Hello again,

I was wondering if you made any progress?


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## cowboy370 (Feb 15, 2011)

I have a similar issue I am working. Have an ACER 5251. Will not boot at all to windows just says Windows Failed to Start Status 0xc00000e9. While playing around with it, you have to have that feature enabled in the BIOS, hit F2, go to main in bios and then make sure DTD is enabled. Then you can do the ALT F10. Unfortunately for me, When i do the ALT F10. It gives me an error about not being able to access the partition. I removed the HDD and put it into a dock i have and can access it fine. Im wondering if my only solution like yours is to get the recovery disc.


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## cowboy370 (Feb 15, 2011)

I got the recovery disk and still not working, now it hangs at recovery


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## dj-anakin (Aug 31, 2004)

I know this is old, but I just saw it and realized I never followed up. We ordered the disc's from Acer.


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