Help!!!

[tj4ndirish]

Hi all, I'm new here and I need some help. I am not a computer guru. I know how to turn it on and do what I need it to...............here's my problem..........

A few weeks ago, my laptop (acer aspire 1640) began acting up, it would be slow to boot or not boot at all. I'd get the blue screen saying checki ng disk. Then I'd get no OS found. And a few other error messages. I had my brother look at it and he said it was the harddrive, we confirmed it by switching out his for mine. So I had him replace the harddrive. He used his startup disks from his acer. It worked good for a week or so until I downloaded the driver for my wifi. Now I'm getting the blue screen again and an error message saying can't find OS. I can get on the computer and on the internet, but only after hitting "alt" or enter on the blue screen.

Does this mean the new harddrive is going bad already? If so, is there something else in the computer that can cause the HD to go bad? My brother suggests changing the system battery. Anyone have anything that can help me?????

Thanks!!!!
Terry

 

[Andy-Always]

Hi,
Unlikely that 2 hard drives have failed but possible!

search for memtest and download it - run it to test your memory first (run at least a 2 hour test)

Then download seatools to test the hard drive.

You'll have to run these from a floppy or bootable cd, post back if these tests show all is ok for some more advice.

Both programs will give you instructions on how to use them.

Good luck

 

[Bryce W]

Next time the blue screen occurs, write down what it says. Especially the part that looks like this (will be different to this of course)

STOP: SOME_ERROR_MESSAGE
(0x0000000, 0x0000000, 0x0000000, 0x0000000)

Once you have it, post it here and we'll be able to help you more as it helps pinpoint where the problem is.

 

[tj4ndirish]

Follow up

Here is what the blue screen says..........

Checking file system on C ;
The type of file system is FAT32.

One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency. you may cancel the disk check, but it is strongly recommended that you continue.
Windows will now check the disk.
volume serial num ber is 1568-13fd
windows is verifying files and folders.

Then it runs through the checking and then............it goes through to verify free space. This process can take an hour or more.

I've DL the memtest, seatools isn't available tonight. I'll try that tomorrow.

I appreciate the help so far. Will report back when I have more.........

Thanks

Update: I ran memtest, in 8 hours it checked 1% of the 512mb. Is this normal? I DL straight to the computer and ran it there. Could that be the cause of it being so slow? For some reason my cd isn't reading, so it wouldn't boot from the cd. Should I take it to have it diagnosed or wait?

Will update when I get home tonight.

 

[Andy-Always]

Update: I ran memtest, in 8 hours it checked 1% of the 512mb. Is this normal? I DL straight to the computer and ran it there. Could that be the cause of it being so slow? For some reason my cd isn't reading, so it wouldn't boot from the cd. Should I take it to have it diagnosed or wait?

Will update when I get home tonight.

Memtest can't be run from within Windows, it must be run from a bootable cd or floppy - same as seatools

Andy

 

[tj4ndirish]

Can memtest or seatools be run from a thumb drive?

 

[Bryce W]

Memtest can be booted from a USB drive provided you have the USB drive version (not the one listed in the Technibble article).

Here is the USB drive version:
http://www.memtest.org/download/1.70/memtest86+-1.70.exe.zip

 

[Blues]

Also what OS are you running becuase while this shouldn't be related to the issue I wonder why it is in FAT32 as Windows 2000 and Windows XP should all be running on a NTFS formatted drive

 

[tj4ndirish]

I am running XP home version. I attempted to install XP professional, but for some reason my computer isn't reading my cd drive. It powers and acts as if it is going to run, but doesn't.

I couldn't run the memtest or the seatools because of this. I'm going to scream.

 

[TechPro]

Have you set the BIOS to boot from CD?

This would explain why you couldnt get Memtest and Seatools to run?

Depending on your make of PC or Motherboard, you should have to press the Del key or F10 or F12 etc as the computer is starting up.

Here is is listing of some of the key combinations used to enter the BIOS setup on startup. You must do this during the first few seconds after you turn on power. If you see the windows startup, it's too late.

Dell=Ctrl-Alt-Enter
Toshiba=Esc
Toshiba=F1
NEC=F2
Compaq=F10
Award Bios=Ctrl-Alt-Esc
Phoenix Bios=Ctrl-Alt-S
Phoenix Bios=Ctrl-Alt-Ins
AMI Bios and Award Bios and others=Del (most common)

Then in the BIOS you are looking for a menu called something like "Boot order" and set the CD to boot first.

Then you can reboot and put the XP cd in or memtest and the CD should boot and run.

Hope that helps

 

[tj4ndirish]

I broke down and took the darn thing to a computer repair place. My laptop is an Acer Aspire. It's been about 9 days since i took it, I'll post when I hear back.

Thanks for all the help.

TJ