Acer Aspire 7551-7442 Promblems with Startup

I purchased this laptop last September. It worked fine then in January I began having problems with it when powering it up. It would get to the "Starting Windows" screen then freeze up. I contacted support and they had me to restore it to factory default settings, which I did. That didn't fix the problem so I sent it to be repaired. They updated the bios and sent it back, but it started having the same problem. I sent it back to repair for a second time. They said they couldn't duplicate the problem and sent it back. It worked fine for a while, but now I am having the same problem. It gets to the "Starting Windows" screen then freezes up. When this happens, I can hit the power button to shut it down and restart it in 'Safe Mode' (at which point it boots fine), then tell it to shut down, restart it again, tapping the F8 key to get the safe mode menu to come up and tell it to 'Start Windows Normally'. At that point it will then boot up like it should. Can anyone help me with this problem?

 

Look at memory or possibly the hard drive. Swap memory, remove one stick at a time if you have more than one. Do memory stress test.
Run a HDD diagnostics test.
You can also run sfc /scannow although you said you restored to facory settings.

 

Thanks. I'll have to get someone to help me, because I've never done any of that.

 

Okay, I ran a memory scan, a chkdsk scan and the sfc scan and found nothing. I don't want to remove the memory since it is still under warranty. Any other suggestions?

 

Hi again SissyJean, when you say you did a memory scan do you mean an actual stress test? There is a big difference. A stress test will run calculations through the memory and really give it a workout while also warming it up. Usually run for at least an hour.
There are many free programs online for this.

There is also similar stress tests for the hard drive.

You may want to take a look at your graphics card and see if the temps for it look good. May try reinstalling the graphics drivers also.

This all seems like a big run around but these kinds of problems can be difficult to pin down. Keep looking at all possibilities such as memory, temperatures and drivers.

As a last resort you could try wiping the drive clean and reinstall the OS. Are you 100% sure you are virus/malware free?

Your comment about the F8 key now makes me also think it could be something with your Master Boot Record (MBR). You could try to do a Windows repair install.

Read here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

You could also have gotten a lemon with some kind of weak component on the motherboard that is just now showing up. I know that is not something you want to think about.

 

I am still having this problem. In Event Viewer it shows Event ID: 13, Source: ACPI. The embedded controller (EC) did not respond within the specified timeout period. This may indicate that there is an error in the EC hardware or firmware or that the BIOS is accessing the EC incorrectly. You should check with your computer manufacturer for an upgraded BIOS. In some situations, this error may cause the computer to function incorrectly. I can go in and look and this is the one error that is there every time this happens. I have tried to research and find out what it means but can't find anything about it on the internet. Can anyone help me?