Help! Any ‘puter geniuses out there?

K2desoog

K2desoog

New member
My Acer Aspire PC w/Win XP Home Edn wont boot!
Immediately after powering-on, all it does is beep for a few seconds, stops, continues with the beeping, stops, continues wi... Grrrrr.

This happened after i updated the OS with SP3.
Not even a screen display (no signal I think) and I couldnt even go to SAFE mode to uninstall it.
Pumelling F8, F10, DEL, F1, FU's... wont do the trick either.
I hope all me precious data is recoverable.

So if anyone has any helpful hints to try out, I'd be glad to give it a go.

Cos before I send it in, I'd like for it to live through the fear of me, coming at it with my over-sized screwdriver and lack of good-sense.
 
1. is there any removable devices like external hard disk / usb thumb drives plugged into the pc when u r powering it up? If so unplug them if you have any and reboot.

2. unplug the vga monitor cable and see if your monitor show you a "no signal" logo.

3. since there is a beep and it does power on in some senses, you can cancel out the probability of a power supply failure so next to check is the graphics card.

4. calling for a service repair will probably wipe out your HDD. If you are savy, you can take out the HDD and use it on another PC as a removable drive and try to backup whatever is possible. that's provided your HDD is working well.

Good luck bro
:)
 
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it happened to me, but i managed to trace it to the power supply. somehow it can boot but not enough juice to complete. maybe u can check that?

able to go to the BIOS setup?
 
You'll need to call Acer. Sorry to hear about that. Different motherboards have different alarms to indicate different hardware failures. Some beeps once, some beeps continuously - it can mean anything from RAM problem to CPU to power supply etc. The manual usually tells you what different types of beeps mean. But since you got an Acer, I doubt it will in the manual.

It is unusual that it happens immediately AFTER you installed SP3. Did you back up your data? If so, I would suggest reinstalling using the recovery disk. If that doesn't work, then it's really a hardware problem.
 
k2desoog :
1) it can be the VGA card getting fried. or your mainboard getting fried, or ram got fried, or your powersupply fried your mainboard and everything's fried.but high cholesterol would be the least of your worries as long as your hdd does not produce clicking sounds. or powering up and powering down sounds.

2) if it's still under warranty , call acer up, tell them you want the data on the hdd and you're willing to buy an external hdd and copy over the data.

3) if it's not under warranty you can go to simlim and tell them your situation , pay them to take out the hdd inside, (voids warranty) buy an external hdd housing, and you can plug into another laptop or computer. go to the shops on the 4th floor opposite fuwell should be safe.

4) don't buy acer anymore.

5) if you like and don't mind I can take a look for you but you gotta bring it down to siglap area for free unless there's certain work involved.
 
I concur with Blueprintstudio's advise no. 4. I have owned 2 Acers in the past (a notebook and a desktop replacement). Both gave me huge problems requiring me to bring them to their factory for repairs multiple times. The time and money spent on repairs could have easily been used to buy another notebook. I stay away from it like the plague.
 
Cheez said:
I concur with Blueprintstudio's advise no. 4. I have owned 2 Acers in the past (a notebook and a desktop replacement). Both gave me huge problems requiring me to bring them to their factory for repairs multiple times. The time and money spent on repairs could have easily been used to buy another notebook. I stay away from it like the plague.
Click to expand...

I agree.
Even their empowering technology software is very buggy. can cause headaches for static ip networks.
 
i truly have thought 3 times before I posted such a "flaming brand" statement. but being a freelance pc tech for more than a decade, I felt it was credible enough to say. I stay away from
HDD : I hated seagate all these time (king of bad sectors), Hitachi(former IBM) , Maxtor used to be kickass after Quantum but drop standard after bought over by seagate, western digital used to be kickass after that drop standard when suddenly all my clients' seagate hdds outlasted my western D's. so now i got no choice but to sort of rely on seagate, I buy twice the hdd to double copy to play safe anyways.but surprisingly all hdds outlasted ever since from 80gb > 320 > 500 > 1tb>1.5.

Mainboard : MSI is a no no for me. I fixed 6 MSI mainboard pcs for office and all 6 broke down at the same time for 4 times.I actually made friends with corbell (tech support) cos I was literally hanging out with them to the point they told me I should send in my resume. So Asus or Gigabyte for the win end of story.

PC/laptop/cdburners etc : acer/benq (heard they're the same) is as crap as msi. even their monitors don't last. I simply love Asus laptops.
 
blueprintstudios said:
.... as crap as msi. even their monitors don't last. I simply love Asus laptops.
Click to expand...

hey guys... tks for all the tips.
The warranty expired in 2007 so callin ACER is not an option (they charge a lot!!)
Opened it up yesterday & got nowhere. No burnt smells,... etc. everything seems Okie-dokie.

So looks like its a 'Sim Lim trip today' to see how much it'll cost.
The external hdd option sounds good so I'll look into this too.

FWIW, the mother board was replaced with MSI abt a year ago at Sim Lim, the HDD is seagate. So I guess its just waiting to happen :rolleyes:.

and tks blue for the offer too. Siglap is just way too far for me.

BTW, with $$$ to spend being tight, any shops at Sim Lim ya'll recommend I can look up?
 
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usually, the 1st three things to suspect when com cannot load to bios is 1) power supply, 2) rams, 3) graphics card.

fried bios / motherboard / cpu quite rare, unless there have been reports of certain bios self destructing like in the case of msi a couple of years ago. the symptoms of a failed hdd only comes after bios loads, so don't worry, as for now your hdd should be safe with all info intact. all i can say is be gentle to it, getting frustrated and whacking it won't help.. that's a note to self actually.. lol
 
RANT....

So I brought it to Sim Lim and left it there for the day...
We've dealt with this shop a few times before and are happy with their service, prices and initiative shown.
But not this time around though....

Service & diagnostics = $30
CMOS error > replacement battery = $5
Win XP Home corrupted > repair / reload = $45
256mb RAM Kaput > replacement = $20

Before I left, i explicitly told the boss NOT to
1. repair or reload the OS cos I could do that myself
2. not to replace the RAM cos I could salvage it from an olde PC that I have.

...but he did it anyway (why dont ppl listen to me!!!).
Explanation given was that it had to be reloaded to carry out a full diagnostic (to attempt recover the data, his initiative; which was succesful)
This I understand but didnt I tell him not to do it? BTW for the trouble caused, a 256 RAM gratis.

So instead of my budgeted $35, I end up with a $80/- repair bill.
I visited them yesterday but the boss wasnt around so i didnt pay or pickup the PC cos I wanted to give him a piece of me mind first.

Hrummpphhhh....
 
oh well, take it as a transaction between whore(repair shop) and customer, computer is back to norm and they earn the money. Just like whore spread and customer insert. Deal done, move on.

Heh, think in a positive light, if they listen to you, perhaps problem still exist and nothing can be done. You might still have to run around and search for another shop, pay more and so on.

oh, and bro blue print did suggest to take a look at it, but you find it too far and thus having to spend the 80 instead of 35 and still feeling pissed that the shop(whore) didnt listen.

Anyway, imho, as long the comp is back to norm, its all well.
 
PatheinRaindropMoe said:
.... oh all well.
Click to expand...

LOLz! I like the way you put it.
Whore & All :p

I appreciate what they've done and wouldve appeciated more if they'd checked with me first before going any further.
I'm just pissed wif that I guess.

So yeah, sometimes the decisions we make (stoopit or otherwise) dont always come out the way we want it.
We just have to deal with it and move on - lah.
 
MadWerewolfBoy said:
usually, the 1st three things to suspect when com cannot load to bios is 1) power supply, 2) rams, 3) graphics card.
Click to expand...

I agree with the above that these 3 units are usually the problem. I had the problem with a desktop too. What I did was to open the thing, and located the power supply. Then I gave the power supply one tight slap. (Important: only whack the power supply. Mechanical shocks to any other part of your computer is usually not a good idea.) Then I put the cover back.

Voila - problem solved.

Most times, it's the power supply because mechanical systems are usually the first to break down.

Unfortunately you can't do the same trick with a laptop, unless you are somehow able to isolate the power supply and slap it.
 
Back in army, I had this branch laptop. It refuses to startup to bios all the time unless these conditions were met:

1) slam the laptop against the surface it was on pretty hard
2) ac adaptor plugged in and turned on at a specific time when the initial checks were being done (about 2 seconds after power on)


it worked everyday for 9 months, but one fine day, it died.. and you know these kinda thing sensitive stuff so no such thing as "send for repair". lol all we could say was RIP

the most hilarious thing about this is "plug in the power adaptor only after 2 secs of turning it on" not the slamming part. it seems sometimes, hardware works in wondrous ways.. haha
 
Hi all, speaking about BIOS, some months ago, my laptop suddenly began to ask me for the BIOS password everytime I on it. Either the password or my fingerprint. I've never set any BIOS password nor entered the BIOS to change any setting, what more the password. Luckily I have my fingerprint registered so I can access my computer. But nowadays, I'm too lazy to shut down my comp, haha. Just put to sleep.

So how do go about finding out the password I've never set? And what triggered the need for BIOS password suddenly?

Anyway my laptop's Toshiba. Called them up. Reset BIOS password still must pay. WTH/F?
 
I have every intention of solving this matter amicably but with the treatment I had rcvd yesterday and teh days before that, I was primed to be nasty and uncompromising.

Picked up the PC yesterday but this was before I was made to wait 20 mins and also after raising my voice (same thing happened on my last visit there ) while he attended to a Kraut. Oblivious to the fact that I was there, standing not more than 2m away and shadowing him. His other workers, were avoiding me like a plague btw

FYI, the phone calls made (daily) before yesterday were also unanswered. Grrr..

So when I got his attention, I told him off lah in front of all the other patrons.
Repeated what I told him (EXPLICITLY not to install the OS etc) and asked for an explanation on why I should be paying for something I didnt ask for in the first place.
He wanted to turn on the PC and show me but I said 'NO' cos I still wanted an explanation.
Got pissed and told me I was being dishonest and that I wanted free service.

But by charging for something, or forcing something on a customer, of which the customer didnt ask for, not being dishonest?
Take back your free RAM, uninstall the OS and battery for all i care cos after what he said, I dug my heels and refused to budge.

He got pissed and he said just pay $35 and repeated the 'dishonest' thing. So he took out the free RAM and closed the PC.
When the co-worker returned my change, he dropped a couple of coins and notes (like throw money). I'm unsure if it was on purpose.

And you know what, when I returned home and checked the PC, the OS was still giving problems!!! WTF!!
 
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