Solved Can't get past "Reboot and select proper Boot device"

[eglovesasailor]

Hi;

I am running Windows 7 on an Acer TC-605 desktop PC. I can't get past "Reboot and select proper Boot device".

I can get into BIOS.

Every time I power up I get one beep and it goes straight to the "Reboot and select..." screen. Which does nothing, except repeat itself.

I renewed the CMOS battery. After I put in the new one and powered up I got TWO beeps and the boot screen shown in my photo.
But when I press a key, it reverts to the Reboot and select... prompt.

And if I power up for a second time with the newly installed CMOS battery, it goes back to one beep and Reboot and select...

If I then remove the battery and power cable again and then replace the battery and power up, I get the two beeps again and the boot screen shown in my photo.

I've been through this cycle a few times, and during one, corrected the date and time, but that made no difference.

I have a Windows startup and repair cd for this machine, but it won't boot from there, either.

It seems to recognise the drives sometimes, but not always. I have no idea what is going on or where to go from here.

If anyone can help me I would be very grateful. I like this PC and it deserves to live again!

Stay safe and well, everyone.

 

[Extrinsic]

From what I'm hearing it sounds like the HDD has either failed, or the boot sector has become corrupted, or you have changed the boot order within BIOS

 

[Megahertz07]

On the image you posted, near the bottom: Error CMOS checksum error.

Boot and enter BIOS. Is time and date correct? You may need to change the coin battery (CR2032).

To test the disk, boot from a Win 7 or 10 installation disk and on the install now window press shift+F10 to launch a CMD window.
Type
diskpart
list volume (take note of the letter assigned to your windows partition)
exit
chkdsk x: /f (replace x with the letter assigned to your windows partition)

 

[eglovesasailor]

Thanks for the speedy replies, I have to work now but I will answer this evening

Have a good day!

 

[samuria]

if you replace the cmos battery all the bios is set wrong and you must first reset the bios setting to how it was if you change the disk type from eufi to legacy or other that would stop it booting. Its saying it cant find the boot sector so it need being re built unless the disk type in the bios is set wrong

 

[eglovesasailor]

Extrinsic, thanks for your comment. My first thought also was HDD failure, but then it would still boot from the repair cd in the dvd drive I guess, after applying the appropriate boot order. Failure to boot from any source makes me doubt failure of one drive.

I changed the boot order to try booting from the cd, then when that made no difference I changed it back again. If the boot sector has become corrupted, how can I tell? It seems to be working normally, but I'm no expert. Is there a way to know?

 

[eglovesasailor]

Megahertz07, thanks for your comment. As I mentioned in my post, I have renewed the coin battery. Time and date are not correct at the moment but as I also mentioned, setting it correctly doesn't seem to make a difference.

I do not have an installation disk but I do have a repair disk. But as I mentioned in my post, it won't boot from the disk drive, even after being promoted to first boot device in BIOS.

 

[eglovesasailor]

Hi samuria, and thanks for your comment. I have reset the time and date and pressed F9 to load default settings. I have seen the legacy setting mentioned while searching online for a solution but I can't find the word 'legacy' anywhere in the BIOS. Where would I find that setting?

I have the correct time and date, the correct boot order, and have reset the BIOS to default settings. It just won't detect the drives. Not unless I remove the CMOS battery and put it back in. THEN it beeps twice and gives me the screen shown in the photo, recognising the drives. If I then reset the time and date and restart, it gives one beep and goes back into the 'Reboot and select..." thing.

 

[SIW2]

After replacing the battery, did you remember to Load Defaults in bios, then save and exit?

I see you did. Was the repair disc booting properly before?

 

[eglovesasailor]

Hi SIW2, I have used the repair disk a long time ago to restore a system image from an external hard drive, it worked fine, as far as I can remember.

I have just tried using another pc to copy the repair disk files including hidden and system files from the repair cd onto a USB key and setting to boot from that, but that failed as well.

 

[samuria]

What optiondo you havein the bios for disks ie uefi. AHCI SATA or RAID if these are set wrong it wont boot a lot of people are having simliiar problems when the bios is set wrong Aspire XC-605 No bootable drives after BIOS update — Acer Community

 

[eglovesasailor]

Thanks for finding that for me, I appreciate it. Like the poster my 'Launch CSM' is set to [never] but I already have secure boot disabled and I still can't change it. But it's the hint of a clue, and I will check it out and update here tomorrow.

 

[eglovesasailor]

I was wrong, I didn't have secure boot fully disabled as I hadn't saved the setting. I had disabled it but 'Launch CSM' stayed greyed out until I saved BIOS settings as user default. Then 'Launch CSM' became live and I enabled it.

Windows is running 'Startup Repair' right now! That's good enough for me.

Thanks samuria, you sent me on the good road and now it's at least booting from the hard drive, pat yourself on the back for me!

Thanks to everyone else for your input, it is appreciated.