!!!HELP!!! TravelMate 3280 Restore Factory Settings Problem

Hi all,

About a week ago, some serious problems happened to my TravelMate 3280 to the point that booting in safe mode doesn't even work. I couldn't access the eRecovery Management either and didn't any recovery DVD.

So finally, I reinstalled windows XP SP3 from scratch. As a result, the computer didn't have Acer eRecovery Management installed. I still prefer the original factory settings though. So I browsed around online forums and found a thread by Pupples at http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=175697

I did what Pupples suggested, managed to restore the alt+F10 function, and entered the Acer Recovery Management during start-up. Then, I chose the Restore Factory Settings option.

The restoration process began smoothly until about 50-60% progress when an error message occured. It says:

Fails in creating or opening a file
C:\preload.tag
D:\preload.tag
X:\preload.tag

After those messages, the computer booted again from the beginning and then entered a black screen with a writing on the top of the screen. The writing:

NTLDR is missing. Press any key to continue.

I pressed any key, but the same NTLDR message kept on re-appearing.

Does this have anything to do with the FAT32 or NTFSthing?

Are there any ways to restore my TravelMate 3280's factory settings??

HELP!!!!

 

It's difficult to think where to start as PTEDIT32 is windows based and you have a black screen.

I would try the process again (Alt+F10)... but you have a copy of XP

Put that in and try repair... see if that helps

[EDIT]
Don't think XP has a repair option on CD and bangert reply is better

TravelMate 3280

http://www.acer.co.uk/acer/service....tx1g.c2att92=122&ctx1.att21k=1&CRC=2980211862

[/EDIT]

 

Just a quick question. What do you prefer about the factory restore rather than a clean install of XP. Most of the stuff on the factory reset of the machine can be found easily enough again, plus the clean install should be a lot quicker, as in a more responsive system.

 

Read the first link on my signature .

 

The clean install is not a legal copy of windows XP so my friend (from whom I borrowed the CD) advised me to not turn the automatic update on. I couldn't even update the Windows Media Player 9 to 11 even after manually downloading the installer for Windows Media Player 11. And for some reason, the screen font became less smooth as if the "smooth edge for screen font" was not turned on, when actually that option was turned ON.

I am also a bit worried that my computer would become more vulnerable to threats because of the fact that I couldn't turn the automatic update on.

Plus, I think it is much simpler to restore through eRecovery Management.

Despite some advantages of XP clean install, I still am hoping I can restore the factory settings.

 

Thank you very much for the link. It is very very useful.

One question though, is it possible to convert NTFS back to FAT32?

 

Yep, about the FAT32 NTFS problem...

I think after pressing Alt+F10 the first partition becomes bootable and given NTFS file system ID (07).

When rebooting after a Alt+F10 the ID possibly changes to 0B (FAT32)...

The ID and boot status should change but don't for some reason.

The ID should be something like 27 for the first partition...

I don't know why but to fix use PTEDIT32.exe.

You can change the partition ID using this little app. It's not used to "Convert" FAT32 to NTFS it would be used to correct the partition ID of a NTFS (or any) Partition with an incorrect ID of say 0B (FAT32) to 07 (NTFS).

This app requires a Windows enviroment but other programs (ptedit.exe) including Partition Tools can do the same.

Hope this is of some help and in the right direction to solve your prob.

 

XP destroyed ur MBR definitely. That's y u cant use erecovery thingy.
actually u shud do a recovery(default factory) disc b4 u install windows XP.
So tat if u wan to install back to original state... u jz nid to boot the recovery disc and get it done...

Solution :

Wat can u do now is press F2 frequently when acer logo shown up after u press ur power button.
inside ur bios setting
disable the recovery management.
use PTEDIT32.exe to visiblelize ur hidden recovery partition and find mbrwrdos.exe and rtmbr.bin in the partition.
once localised open command prompt and type mbrwrdos.exe install rtmbr.bin
use PTEDIT32.exe to hidden ur recovery partition.
restart ur comp
press f2 frequently when acer logo is pop-up
inside ur bios setting again enable the recovery management.
Now ur XP is installed wif MBR...
u can download ur laptop erecovery software from www.acer.com
after download, of cz install it..
den open up ur erecovery and select restore to default factory and u r done..
or reboot ur laptop and use alt f10 to restore ur default factory.