laptop broke down

When it rains it poors. My laptop with all my data broke down last night. No backup of course of my data. The only thing that is safe so far is my thesis because I have a copy on my website somewhere.

It just didn't want to start up anymore. There is an attempt to start up, but the screen stays off and the lights blink once.

That looks quite bad I would imagine.


Of course I can't find the receipt anymore. There is probably (you guessed it) a receipt on the hardrive of my laptop.

I send an email to acer support in finland (didn't buy it in finland either) and we shall see what they say.

I wonder if it will be cheaper if I send it for repairs to one of those smaller companies? On the other hand, Acer should know their own laptops best.

 

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Thats an extremely common problem with laptops. For future reference, Fujitsu, IBM and Mac are the only ones that people don't seem get this with. But on to solving your problem..........


First thing-- your data is probably still on the drive, but the OS won't boot, so go to http://knoppix.net, download and burn it to CD, change the boot sequence on your laptop to CD first, then transfer your important data to another computer via lan or whatever.

Repairs can be almost as expensive as buying a new notebook, so I can't recommend that. Instead, mess around with it to see what the problem is. Maybe its not the HD...could just be a few errors on the master boot record. Reformat & reinstall

 

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how can I change the boot sequence if the screen remains blank?

 

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Or, something that happens on mine quite a bit. I think it's overheating or something. It won't even load bios or anything. I push the button and the power light lights up and theres a sound like a fan starting (only starting) to spin then nothing.

What I have to do is take the damn thing apart and pop out the battery and then pop it back in. This resets the bios and lets it boot. I'm thinking about wiring up a reset switch to save myself the time and effort of disassembling it each time. Although, I am getting quite fast at it.

The problem with taking it apart of course is that it requires special screwdriver head. The torx head. T-8 to be precise on size for mine.

Maybe you could try it. If it's under warantee, for god's sake send it to them to fix don't fuck with it yourself. Otherwise, try resetting the battery. Might help.

I think that my problem is that I didn't put any of that... whatyacallit... cpu grease or whatever between the cpu and the big ass heat sink in the laptop and it may be overheating. I originally took it apart to fix the LCD which was weirding out on me cuz of loose connections. I think that it locked up like this on me before the first disassembly, but it eventually reset itself or something. I remember I was shitting my pants at the time thinking I had a 1200 buck paper weight on my hands. Glad I got it working again.

Good luck.

 

The question is is it actually even going through a boot sequence? Is it doing like I said and just stopping right at the start?

 

Like you said.

I don't know if I have warranty, because I don't have the receipt.

 

the caps- and numlock led light up. Then the harddrive led. then the caps- numlock again...then nothing

 

Well, it's up to you then. How old is the laptop. If it's under a year, then it's likely under warantee. If it's over a year then I highly doubt it.

If you send it in and have them work on it, it's gonna cost a bundle. And it's possible that my method won't work for you.

Laptops are also a bitch to get into. You have to do things in a certain order sometimes. If you try it and have trouble getting in, you can search for a site that details how to disassemble your model.

If I were you I'd try it. But, I'm good with these kind of things.

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well if the floppy is already set in the bios ahead of the hardrive just install a bootloader on it and point to knoppix.

 

I don't have a floppy.

 

Since the hard drive led is coming on, it does kinda make me wonder if it isn't a hard drive thing, but I doubt that the hard drive and the monitor would go out at the exact same time. It's got to be getting stuck before even getting to the boot process. That's my thought.

Can you take the hard drive out and interface it with a regular pc? I've taken mine out, but never looked closely at the connection. Is it ide?

What about a similar laptop? Know anyone with an acer laptop? Try switching hard drives and see what happens.

 

My ex in germany has exactly the same one.

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I don't get any beeping either.


I know one store who looks a bit shabby. Maybe they are not so expensive. It's more a nerd store.

I don't even have a clue where my hard drive is.

 

I checked the website..

only one year warranty. That has just passed. I guess I can do whatever I want with it now.

 

Hmm. You know, when I was a kid, my sister and I had the exact same model of portable stereo. One day, I broke mine. The cassette door, if I remember right. What did I do? I switched 'em.

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She knew that I did, but there was no way to prove it. heh heh. I was a little bastard.

Anyway, as to where the hard drive is, there should be some little panels on the underside of the laptop. Open em up and one should be a hard-drive bay.

But, I seriously doubt that's the problem.

But, if you're uncool with messing with these things, your best bet may be to have it professionally looked at.

You don't know any tech nerds?

You work at a university, don't you? Surely there'd be someone you could go to there who could probably pop it open for you. Hell, maybe even the janitor.

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Heh heh. Imagine that. Almost like it was planned or something.

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I'm the techniest nerd I know here, except for the computer people. But I don't have a very good relationship with them.

I will think about it for an hour about what I shall do.

and then there will be some action

 

There is probably a little program hidden in the Bios that is resonsible for that. The program is removed if you buy an extended warranty.

 

I hope it doesn't resemble your interaction with the robot in scivillage.

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that's funny:

they say in case of disk boot failure you insert a bootable floppy in drive A:

that is in the documentation for the 800 travelmate series who come standard without a floppy.