how to DIY format a hopeless acer ferrari 3000LMi ?

Hi....

I have an Acer Ferrari 3000 LMi for 3 years now.
- it's slow, esp when working on photoshop.
- notebook's not reacting or taking a long time to react when a new usb device (flashdisk, camera etc) is plugged.
- battery only last 30 mins now. (I read somewhere if u're always plugging the laptop, u need to take the battery out, so I did for 1,5 years, and now the battery only last 30 mins, I already asked acer tech support, explained to me dat battery life deteriorate in time even when not in use)
Battery conditioning doesn't solve this problem.
- i have weird message that pops up 6 times (each time) saying "windows - No Disk. There is no disk in the drive, please insert a disk into drive" everytime I turn my laptop on, after signing in to windows and it also happens from time to time for no particular reason, which I keep on clicking "cancel" 6 times, but it's not a virus.
- sometimes I can't burn files on a blank cd, it's fine if there are already files on the cd
- losing control on mouse scroll, mouse is in a hideous state where paintjob's
flaking, and mouse top cover comes off.
- the alphabets on keyboard are disappearing
- when i press ctrl-alt-del , it says "Task Manager has been disabled by your
administrator" HUH??? i'm the err.. administrator here and i don't recall disabling anything.
- LCD screen is still perfect though
- notebook shell/outer cover is almost scratch free
I've already asked Acer tech support, but answers are unsatisfactory.

Thinking of selling it, But somehow i still wanna make it right.
(My sis has an Asus notebook for 5 years now, dunno what type, but specs are lower than my Acer Ferrari, battery still last 2 hours although she never ever takes it out of the notebook, alphabets on keyboard still intact, performance still good, only it makes a crazy creaky sound when you close it up)

Anyway, for the Acer Ferrari 3000Lmi
I have 1 system cd and 2 recovery cd from acer.
I've already backed up all data to an external harddisk.

So.................. questions by a computer dummy , aka me

1. Is it easy to format ur notebook ? just follow onscreen instructions rite ?
Will formatting my most of these problems go away ?

2. My C: drive holds 30 GB and D: 10 GB, Can I change that ? Would that be
difficult ? I was adviced to get a partition magic program ?

3. During my 3 years with Acer, I've never updated any driver, usually I go to
windows update and antivirus update, that's it.
So basically I don't need to update any specific driver, right ?

4. Is there anything else I should know about ?

5. If I do sell it in the current condition, would the price be lower than if I've
already formatted it? (assuming that everything's gonna go smoothly with the
formatting)

6. Basically if I give up and sell it in its current condition, All I have to do is erase all of my datas/photos/documents etc. and it'll be all set ???
Or would ppl still be able to somehow retrieve/recover all my data ?


Thank you
sloane

 

Format, format, format.

the task manager disabled is a possible infiltration by a trojan/virus like program that disguises itself as a spyware remover. So far two of my mates ran into this problem and worse, after that the PC was still slow. It leaves alot of small issues behind too

the no disk in drive problem is when windows tries to access soemthing on a drive letter that isnt there and this is during startup and random periods.

these kinda problems arent always easy to fix and usually never get solved 100% without wasting alot of time so just format.

as for partitioning you can do this after u format and install a fresh copy of XP or whatever ur OS is. use partition magic to re-arrange the free space on your drive to the configuration you want.

you will probably have to install all those drivers/updates again but that isnt a big deal really, just go to microsoft again and check acer for other updates too.

if u sell it as-is a potential buyer may think there is something wrong with it and besides if ur not using it and selling it then the logical thing wud be to just format (and make sure u format and install not just re-install windows without a format)

 

Thanx sideswipe, I'll just go ahead and format, hopefully all problems will goooo awayyyyyy........

btw.. i use mcaffee anti virus, update it regularly... but apparently virus still attacks

I heard my friend saying dat it's better to get a mac, because u don't ever need an anti virus ? is this true ? don't virus-making-people attack mac ?

 

ooppss.... called acer tech support again,
they mentioned something about saving the image of the hidden partition etc.
something like that...
he was just patient with me, guiding on what to do, but i just got lost.
I think I might just go to acer service center and let them do all the formatting

But the other acer tech support guy was extremely reluctant/lazy voice and he was telling me how complicated it was to explain stuff over the phone and whether or not I have friends that can guide me through this.
basically he was very unhelpful , I had to remind him that this is actually the acer technical hotline service.
I was at windows and the acer system CD program was running and I asked him whether this was right, and he said yeah, just go with what the instruction said.
And I asked him again about formatting from windows would be useless ?
and he said , yes it should start before entering windows.
he was completely misguiding me and couldn't care less.

anyway... pardon me for all the mistakes in computer terms etc, I really need to educate myself on computer stuff.

 

Anyway... called the acer tech hotline once again,

Today, this guy mentioned that I don't have to worry with the hidden partition. and if I format my computer using the Acer system cd and recovery cd , everything would be fine. Because that's what they do at acer service center anyway. they wouldn't do anything to the hidden partition, or saving disk image or anything like that to prevent losing the hidden partition.
So... basically I'm lost.
I have acer guys telling me different things. So...... help ?

thx