#%** Computer

Last night my computer wouldn't start, said it failed to start and this was caused by newly installed software (of which there is none), I did everything it said, it asked for the system disk, then really crapped out, now it says it has no operating system. It has been a liability since day one. grr, and Acer don't even open til 9am, nice life.....

Yeah I hate them too when they go wrong as I have absolutley no idea what to do with them when they do!

Ya can borrow me sledghammer lurv!

Oskatd, it seems that either:

1) Your Hard Disk is in the process of failing
or
2) The boot sector of your Hard Disk has been corrupted

Either of these problems are beyond the ability of the average user to restore although there is an outside chance that problem (2) could be fixed by use of the Recovery CD (if Acer provided them to you).

If it's under warranty, definitely best to send it back to Acer for repair, otherwise hunt for a friendly local techy.

It's going to be out of action for a few days I would say [xx(]

Yeah, thanks Grant. Acer are pretty useless, so might try someone local...

Ps, is this normal for a computer that is 18 months old??? My old ancient one never missed a beat....

Definitely not normal but it does sometimes happen.

If you haven't installed any new software recently, my money would be on the Hard Disk failing. I hope you have backups of any important data [?]

Otherwise, there's an outside chance that Windows or some other software has corrupted the Boot Sector, although I've never had that happen personally. Whereas I have had several Hard Disks die over the years [!]

P.S. Is your warranty only one year on that computer? I would have expected at least 2 years these days.

Annoying eh ? especially when it just a relatively new one .

oskatd;162222 wrote: Ps, is this normal for a computer that is 18 months old??? My old ancient one never missed a beat....

No, I would say it's not normal, although I did have a brand new hard drive that failed earlier this year and it was not even two years old (19 months in fact).

Even if your warranty has expired, if the hard drive has failed, I would be talking to them about your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act. A computer should last for a reasonable amount of time, and 18 months isn't reasonable.

However, as I have learned from painful, painful experience, if you don't back up constantly (and for me, I now back-up every day as I work from home), you lose everything.

I use my memory stick to back up, as I have too many large jpeg files. If I had the money, i'd also have an external hard drive too.

I like the idea of BOOTING mine up down or sideways when it dont work:D

Hi
Get them to check to graphics cards as well. Last year my new computer, killed 2 brand new hard drives lost most of my data had numerous problems, would turn itself off but then start itself up over and over again till the plug was pulled, crash programs, freeze.............[!][!][!]!!!! and more including what you have described. It was a faulty graphics card!!!! and it had been faulty from the begining but nothing indicated graphics as it was all random faults and because it kept frying the hard drive other hardware was being blamed for the problems. It is not an acer though.

As Grantk has said - if either the boot sector is corrupted or the hard drive in its entirety has failed then their are no quick fixes unfortunately.

One thing you could do to check if its the just the boot sector or the whole hard drive is:

1) insert the original operating systems disk (like windows XP if that is what you have) into the PC and boot up on that. If it works - see if you can go into the C drive and access your normal documents. If you can - then it means the PC can still "see" your hard drive and it likely the boot sector on the hard drive is faulty - but the rest of the hard drive is fine.

2) if its a corrupted boot sector then that will require a reinstall of the operating system (which would hopefully overwrite what ever the problem is). If, unfortunately, the disk is physically damage and your unable to get rid of the corruption - then you wont be able to use that disk to boot up the PC. The best you can probably hope for at that stage is to get another hard drive - set it up as the primary with the operating system on it - and then use your old hard drive as a secondary (I've got a couple of PCs where the upgrade from one OS to the next simply made it easier to purchase a new hard drive as the primary and set up the old one as a secondary).

3) if you boot up from the operating system disk and can't see your hard drive at all - its a door stop (or a frisbee, paper weight, etc).

Did I miss anything Grant?

good luck.

KiwiOverseas;162378 wrote: Did I miss anything Grant?

Maybe just one small thing, but it's probably beyond the scope of what your typical computer user could be expected to manage. As you said here:

KiwiOverseas;162378 wrote: 2) if its a corrupted boot sector then that will require a reinstall of the operating system

Not strictly true. Windows XP has a function under the Recovery Console called FIXMBR which as its name implies:

Fixes the Master Boot Record. This allows the Boot Sector to be recreated without going through a complete OS Reinstallation.

However, if the MBR has become corrupted, there's a possibility that the FAT and Partition Table have also become corrupted so sometimes it's just easier to do a Re-Format and Re-Install.

A pretty nit-picking point I admit, but you did ask

GrantK;162435 wrote:
A pretty nit-picking point I admit, but you did ask

lol! not at all - I knew there was something I was missing (blood coffee levels were down......)

Hard drive knackered, waiting for a new one to be delivered from dorkland (DSE way too expensive) - am getting 250GB, shame it's a long weekend.... have handed over to IT bloke.