Solved Control Panel Can't Change Settings

[Hartsbell]

My little brother has completely messed things up on his netbook. It has Windows 7 Starter on it. The sound doesn't work, and it doesn't give me a option to change it. Another thing is, it doesn't let me change any program ideas. If I go on to uninstall a program it won't let me press uninstall, or if I try to delete a user, it won't open up the program to change it.
I've tried to Restore it, but it says there's no restore points, which I know there are.
* Also, the programs like 'Windows Update' and 'Default Programs' have the icon saying they're not installed, and they can't find them.

 

[marsmimar]

Try starting the netbook in Safe Mode through advanced boot options. See if you can access control panel, restore points, etc. (Heed the warnings and tips for restore points.)

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/666-advanced-boot-options.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html

If that doesn't work you might consider resetting to factory specs. I believe this should work: Turn the netbook off. Press and hold "0" (zero) key on the keyboard and then power on the machine. Keep holding down the zero key until, hopefully, the Toshiba HDD Recovery screen appears. You should be able to select Restore Original Factory Image. Follow the prompts and heed the warning that everything will be erased.

 

[Hartsbell]

It's an Acer netbook. Is there a way to do a factory restore on that?

 

[marsmimar]

I think this should work for an Acer netbook: Power on the machine and immediately press and hold the Alt key and the F10 key at the same time. Keep holding both keys and it should access the recovery management system. It may prompt you for a password. If no password was ever set up enter six zeros (000000). Now you should see "recovery actions" option. Click next and then "restore options". One of those options should be a full "system restore".

 

[Hartsbell]

Alt and F10 isn't doing that. It'll make a loud system beep, then load up normally again.

 

[marsmimar]

Not sure what the problem might be. All of the references I've checked say Alt + F10 at startup should access the recovery option. Only other suggestion I have is to contact Acer email or chat support and/or purchase a set of recovery disks from their accessory store.

Acer Support: Welcome to Acer Support

 

[Hartsbell]

Discs wouldn't work because where it's a netbook it doesn't have a CDrom.
Thanks for the help anyway.

 

[marsmimar]

Sorry for the recovery disk suggestion. The folks I know who have netbooks also have an external USB CD-ROM. But you might still be able to get assistance from Acer's email or chat support. Perhaps they have another way to access the recovery partition or to at least let you know if that particular model even had a recovery partition. Good luck.

 

[Hartsbell]

No need to apologize. It wasn't exactly specified either way.