Random characters on screen - Acer 5601AWLMi

Hey all,

I have an Acer 5601AWLMi laptop, got it around 8 months ago.

Now, I decided to install a fresh copy of Windows XP on the C: partition due to the fact the Acer was freezing up all the time.

Using a solution here to put two files in the C: drive and load it up using the Windows shell, I managed to get the recovery back on the drive, and the recovery for the default OS installed.

After that, every time I boot up, right after the Acer boot screen, about 7-8 random scrambled character "pictures" show up. When I click a button, the blinking cursor blinks a few times, then shows the scrambled characters again.

I can't do anything now except go into BIOS.

Does anyone know what might be wrong?

Thanks

 

Your problem description is a little vague to me, but here goes my suggestion:

Go into the BIOS and set the CD-ROM drive to the first boot device. Put in the XP disk and restart. If you wait a second, it'll ask to hit any key to boot from CD. Hit a key and you'll be launched into the XP setup. the computer will instruct you from there. Go through the install process, not the repair process. When it gets to the formatting part, delete all the partitions.

It sounds a little more complex than that though. There's a backup on your harddrive you're trying to restore? Why would you use the Windows shell to manually install Windows?

 

Refer to this thread:

The restore CDs have no partition options and are just restore CDs; I have no options with them like with XP itself.

There is a backup on the hard drive in a HIDDEN partition, which I have restored already.

I used the Windows shell hack to get the restore discs to restore the operating system back to normal.

The CD-ROM is already set to boot first thing though.

Thanks again!