Need help Acer Aspire 5738 with Win7 Boot issues


  1. Posts : 2
    Vista Home Premium SP2
       #1

    Need help Acer Aspire 5738 with Win7 Boot issues


    Hi I have been a "lurker" in both this forum and Vista forum for some time and been very impressed with the help given and the friendly support .. Now I am hoping someone can help with this situation ..


    I was trying to help a friend with their PC probs ( Acer Aspire 5738 running win7)


    I received an odd email from them and found following links saying her acct cld be hijacked /pc cld be infected etc ..and actions to take ..


    http://windowslivehelp.com/solutions/safety/archive/2009/04/29/recent-reports-of-account-hijacks.aspx



    http://windowslivehelp.com/community/t/170171.aspx



    http://windowslivehelp.com/community/t/190416.aspx



    I called to see if they were having probelms and inform re email & turned out they were havng reconnect disconnect issues and other annoying problems, inlcuding occasional boot issues which I thought could have been indication of malware infection so I suggested they backup their files and then download and install Malwarebytes and Superantispyware and do a scan in Safe mode and send me the results ..


    The next day I called and discovered they were unable to do that as by this point they cld not even get online .. They were going to scan with Norton 360 .. So I sugg they do this in Safe mode ..What I did not say is HOW to get into safe mode aargh I feel so stupid ( and that has made their problem worse) .. Safe mode was entered via msconfig not rebooting and tapping F8 and now they got stuck in a Safemode Reboot cycle ..


    After a number of reboots they managed to get into advanced boot options and tried "last known good configuration" but this failed ..

    Yesterday the laptop would not boot at all – I sugg they follow advice from acer website for laptops that woudl not boot ..
    1. Shutdown and Unplug your laptop.
    2. Remove the battery from the laptop.
    3. Wait 2-3 minutes
    4. Now press ON (power button on laptop) for 1 minute
    5. Then release the finger and wait one more minute.
    6. Now plug in the power cable (dont insert battery yet) and press ON button.

    This at least enabled laptop to power on /start but not get past black screen


    I tried the Acer Aspire website for advice not much help BUT I found a number of posts elsewhere of people referring to booting their Acers to black screens and being advised by Acer support to update their Bios with latest ones..

    I know this is not something you should do unless needed but I was wondering if this could also be causing black screen problems.. The Acer website was showing a BIOS upgrade for the 5738 dated ..jan 2010 heres a link to ithttp://preview.tinyurl.com/dbdbds

    On googling for info on failed syst restore causes I found Norton 360 cld be the reason for the Restore failure apparantly the "Tamper Protection" blocks the restore..
    http://www.iammai-online.com/SM/SM.DisableNortonTamperProtection.htm


    There is more info about this at symantec and the advice was uncheck/disable Tamper Protection before using restore.. So maybe if I can disable that we can restore to an good config but HOW can I do this if I cant get the PC to boot properly?


    Re win7 Rescue /Recovery Disks
    Their laptop came preinstalled with win7 and they don't have a rescue disk made AND backups were not made !Hence not wanting to do factorey reset


    So I am not sure what to try next.. LAST resort will be reset to factory settings but am hoping other things to try .. Please can someone give me some suggestions /advice on what to do..

    **** Things I was thinking of trying - depending on your replies ****


    Q1 . If I were to disable automatic restart wld that give me a better chance of trying to fix things..

    Q2- Is it possible for me create a Win7 Recovery disk

    Having read this here I wondered if this might be a fix for them and if so can I do this from my own vista laptop then post them the Cd? Download Windows 7 System Recovery Discs — The NeoSmart Files

    Assuming this is possible – how do I a) know if their laptop will boot from Cd and b) how can I get it to boot from CD assuming I cannot get into the BIOS

    Q3. LINUX CD's
    I have not done this before but have read about various Linux CDs enabling people to either rescue windows pcs or at least access their personal files etc and copy them to an external hd..

    If this is a good option can someone possibly guide me through that process - which is the most user friendly , Knoppix, Linux Live , Ubuntu, Damn Small Linux and others.. I have been to a number of the sites for the above but it was a bit daunting ..Maybe this is not the right place to ask in which case maybe someone knows of Suitable Linux forum that cld help me with this..


    Q4. Paragon Rescue Kit
    I also found this info re using Paragon Rescue Kit to resolve boot problems but don't want to go blindly into using these tools and risk making things worse ..

    Repair Windows XP, Vista & Windows 7 Without Installation CD/DVD


    Q5, Buy a Linux CD & post to them
    The Laptop is hundreds of miles away from me so I wondered ( assuming the linux option was advised by yourselves) about purchasing a disc and getting it sent to her so she could boot from it.. woudl this work ( if so woudl need advice which product was most suitable to my needs)


    I found a recmd site to purchase these Linux Disks here in the UK ( am not posting link here in case I am not allowed) but can post it if requested..

    Thanks in advance for your help I look forward to your reply


    Tam1
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 11,408
    ME/XP/Vista/Win7
       #2
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 2
    Vista Home Premium SP2
    Thread Starter
       #3

    theog thanks for your reply I had read those links a few days ago before posting in this forum, thing is the Acer laptop with the problams cannot boot so I am not sure how I can do some of the thngs you suggested aren't they done from within windows ?

    a) Re the Create recov Disk info - it is not my PC mine is Vista theirs is Win7 ( they have the probelms and their PC wont boot properly so not sure how I woudl be able to do that either)

    b) Re the Repair install info "You can only do a repair install from within Windows 7, you cannot do it at boot or in Safe Mode."

    Trying to Repair from Advanced boot did not work either & gave following results

    WINDOWS CANNOT REPAIR PC

    PROB EVENT NAME

    STARTUP REPAIRV2

    PROBLEM SIG 01: AUTO FAILOVER

    pROB SIG 2 - 6.0.6001.18000.6.0.6001.18000

    pROB SIG 3 4

    PROB SIG 4 131074

    PROB SIG5 NO ROUTE CAUSE

    PROB SIG6 NO ROUTE CAUSE

    PROB SIG7 0

    PROB SIG8 1

    PROB SIG 9 SYST RESTORE

    PROB SIG10 0

    OS VERSION - 6.0.0061.2.

    LOCALE ID 1033
    Once agian thanks for your reply

    tamba1
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 11,408
    ME/XP/Vista/Win7
       #4

    Have you tried system-restore:

    System Restore
      My Computer


 

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