Windows 7 Upgrade - sometimes works, sometimes doesn't!

Hi there,

I am experiencing a very unusal problem with my new Windows 7 upgrade (previously had Vista) on my 6 month old Acer Aspire laptop. I have seeked support on the Microsoft forums but the nature of the issue wasn't understood. I cannot return to Vista as the upgrade is not undo-able and I didn't get a Vista CD or any kind of restore mechanism with the laptop.... I'm a student, can't afford to take it to a shop and I'm stuck!


Here is the problem:

Before the upgrade - everything worked perfectly on the laptop, I had no software issues and no hardware problems. Since the afternoon I upgraded, things have started to stop working - so I know that it was the upgrade that caused it. Here are a few symptoms...

1) When I try to open certain files (eg. the SD card that is inserted) it will load for ages and not open. When I try to restore, it will 'load' the restore but nothing happens (it essentially freezes).

2) The sleep and hibernate functions do not work. When I close the lid, the screen cuts out and I cannot bring it back to life (although the HDD is still running). I regularly have to hold down the power button and restart to get it working again.

3) Occassionally I will notice that some functions aren't working (eg. the button to open the CD drive tray wont work).

4) sometimes if I leave the laptop alone, after it has passed the screensaver and 'black screen' phases it will not return when I move the mouse/tap a key. I have to hold the power button again.


Whilst these are small niggles they can be very annoying when you need to quickly close the laptop between classes. I have to do a hard shutdown and restart at the start of every glass as it will have frozen when I closed the lid. And then I can't open the SD drive to access my files!!

The strangest thing is that this happens some days, but the next it will operate fine, with Sleep working upon closing the lid and the SD reader opening fine. It is this spontaneous nature of the problem which is making is impossible to solve.

Eg. last week everything was working fine on Tuesday-Thursday but as of Friday it has been doing its annoying niggles!

Any help or suggestions would be gratefully received!

Chris

Agree that these are symptoms of a failed in-place Upgrade, for which the fix is a clean reinstall booting from the Win7 DVD.

Select Custom install, use Drive Tools to delete all, repartition as you wish, then format and install Win7 to first partition. Back up your files first; you must reinstall programs.

Until then, type Power Options in Start Search box, change Closing Lid to Do Nothing. Look on Change Plan Settings to see if Sleep appears. If not, update your Display Adapter in Device Manager. See if you have one in Windows Updates>optional, or go to maker's Support Downloads webpage and download/unzip/install it.

Hi,

That sounds like the best solution. Can you please advise how I would go about a clean install using my Windows 7 upgrade disk?

Thanks for your help - hopefully this will solve my ongoing problems!!

However, I don't have an original Vista disc - my laptop was brand new from Currys in September 09 and although I have some Acer software CDs I don't have a Vista disc or any serial numbers... Will I still be able to do this clean installation?