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    Acer Aspire 5100 won't load and doesn't boot from a CD

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by bigh11, Jan 31, 2009.

  1. bigh11

    bigh11 Newbie

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    My Acer laptop died on me sometime last year, I tried to fix it, had somebody who is more techie than me look at it and we couldn't fix it. He managed to get all the data off but couldn't get it to boot up.

    My brother recently had a similar problem with his desktop computer so he told me to put an XP disc in and change the BIOS so it booted from the CD ROM.

    I have done this and it wont boot. It doesn't seem to recognise there is a disc in there.

    When it loads, the Windows XP screen comes on, then a blue screen flashes up, can't read what it says as it doesn't stay on long enough, then the Acer screen comes up then the screen asking if you want to start up in safe mode etc comes up, if I select start as normal or from last know good configuration, it just keeps looping but if I select safe mode, a huge list of drivers comes up then it turns itself off.

    I have tried to do the built in recovery but it doesn't work, just stays on please wait for hours.

    Any help would be much appreciated. Seems such a shame to just let this laptop go to waste, I can't afford to pay a professional to look at it.

    Thanks in advance for any help :)
     
    bigh11, Jan 31, 2009
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  2. Full-English

    Full-English Notebook Deity

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    The issue your having with installing XP is it doesn't have any Sata drivers on the instalation CD, so it is causing an error.

    There is one of two things you can do.

    1. Go into your bios and change the sata mode from achi to ide. Install XP and once done you can install the sata drivers.

    2. Slipstream some sata drivers into your xp installation cd, this can be done using a prgram called nlite. Guide here:

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=193872
     
    Full-English, Jan 31, 2009
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  3. bigh11

    bigh11 Newbie

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    So if I change the sata mode from achi to ide, the laptop will then load, either normally or from a CD?
     
    bigh11, Jan 31, 2009
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  4. Full-English

    Full-English Notebook Deity

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    Sorry misread you original post, thought you were trying to install XP. So I doubt doing what I said would solve anything.

    Have you tested the HDD for errors. Is there anyway you can put it in a usb enclosure and run a HDtune test on it.
     
    Full-English, Jan 31, 2009
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  5. bigh11

    bigh11 Newbie

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    Wow you totally lost me there, sorry! No I didn't see how it could do anything but like I said, my brothers computer did something very similar and he put in an XP disc and it fixed it, don't get how or why though.
     
    bigh11, Jan 31, 2009
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