I think this is classed as a driver problem?

A

astrofighter

New Member
Hi all, sorry im new here, and just very stressed..

My other half has gone to work and took my laptop to work, leaving me with his.. Its an Acer aspire 5920.. He has very little understanding of computers, and as he rushed out of the door, held the power button to turn it of.. Now its sat on my desk feeling very poorly..

When i turn it on its a black screen saying:
"windows failed to start. a recent hardware or software change might be the cause."
It gives me 2 options.
1. launch startup repair,
2. start windows normally..

When i click to start startup repair it loads the green vista loading bar, and background which all looks very promising! WRONG!! It then says 'system recovery options' select a keyboard layout. I set it to 'united kingdom extended', then click next.. It says to select an operating system to repair, and click next. only windows vista operating systems are listed and can be repaired. (Nothing is listed). Below it says "if you do not see your operating system listed, click load drivers to load drivers for your hard disks"

Ive tried this on near enough every single file i can find, and none of them work.. It re-starts and takes me back to square one..

If i dont load drivers, and click 'next' it takes me to a screen where i can (or should be able) to chose from:

startup repair (takes me back a step)
system repair - that says there are no restore points,
windows complete pc restore- which doesnt open
windows memory diagnostic tool- which takes me right back to the beginning
command prompt.

------------------------------------
Clicking starting windows normally:

A brief blue streen, saying i have an error, which gives me no time to read, then restarts p.c and takes me back to scratch..
-------------------------------------
Pressing F8 on startup gives me loads of options, none of which work.. Including trying to start up safe mode..
-------------

To make things worse, its not my laptop, and i want to try and avoid formatting the hard drive, not only because i don not wish to lose everything, but because recovery disks were never made..

PLEEEEEEEEASE help. ill make a donation.
 

My Computer

System One

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Vista
    CPU
    Intel E8400
    Motherboard
    ASRock1333-GLAN R2.0
    Memory
    4gb DDR2 800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 9500GT 1gb
  • Operating System
    win7/vista
    CPU
    intel i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    ballistix 2x8gb 3200
SIW2 said:
Hi,


There is probably a key press instead of F8 - could be F10 or F11,
to start the recovery program on your recovery partition (check the manual )- this would erase your data, though.


You might try this free program

EASEUS Disk Copy: Free Disk Copy, Disk Clone, Partition Copy Software. Sector by Sector for hard drive backup freeware.

Getting Started -Create a Bootable CD/DVD- Easeus Disk Copy Manual

Getting Started -Boot From CD/DVD- Easeus Disk Copy Manual

Hope it helps

SIW2
Click to expand...

Will i be able to make a recovery cd, even if i cannot turn the computer on?
 

My Computer

System One

Negative - you'll need the computer booting in order to do that.

The bad news is that, since it is not showing a Vista installation, you're quite possibly out of luck....the good news is that perhaps the recovery you're attempting is in and of itself hosed. If you can, borrow a windows installation disc from someone and see if you cannot use the recovery system on the disc to see your Vista install - if it sees it then you may have hope after all.

BTW, if your other half used the power button by holding it to power off the laptop then that is bad - but if he pressed it for a second or so, then it should have initiated a shutdown sequence much in the same way as you would manually do it from the start menu thus no harm nor foul.
 
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My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro X64 Insider Preview (Skip Ahead) latest build
    Manufacturer/Model
    The Beast Model V (homebrew)
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 965 EE @ 3.6 GHz
    Motherboard
    eVGA X58 Classified 3 (141-GT-E770-A1)
    Memory
    3 * Mushkin 998981 Redline Enhanced triple channel DDR3 4 GB CL7 DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3-12800)
    Graphics Card(s)
    eVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0 (04G-P4-3979-KB)
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio (onboard)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 * Lenovo LT2323pwA Widescreeen
    Screen Resolution
    2 * 1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    SanDisk Ultra SDSSDHII-960G-G25 960 GB SATA III SSD (System)
    Crucial MX100 CT256MX100SSD1 256GB SATA III SSD (User Tree)
    2 * Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA II Mech. HD
    Seagate ST1500DL001-9VT15L Barracuda 7200.12 1.5 TB S
    PSU
    Thermaltake Black Widow TX TR2 850W 80+ Bronze Semi-Mod ATX
    Case
    ThermalTake Level 10 GT (Black)
    Cooling
    Corsair H100 (CPU, dual 140 mm fans on radiator) + Air (2 *
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15 (gen 2)
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master (shared)
    Internet Speed
    AT&T Lightspeed Gigabit duplex
  • Operating System
    Sabayon Linux (current, weekly updates, 5.1.x kernel)
    Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo ThinkPad E545
    CPU
    AMD A6-5350M APU
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Radeon HD (Embedded)
    Sound Card
    Conextant 20671 SmartAudio HD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Lenovo 15" Matte
    Screen Resolution
    1680 * 1050
    Hard Drives
    INTEL Cherryvill 520 Series SSDSC2CW180A 180 GB SSD
    PSU
    Lenovo
    Case
    Lenovo
    Cooling
    Lenovo
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master (shared) | Synaptics TouchPad
    Keyboard
    Lenovo
    Internet Speed
    AT&T LightSpeed Gigabit Duplex
Hi,

Just to follow up on John's post - it's certainly worth trying the repair options on a proper Vista dvd - if you can get hold of one.

Otherwise, it's likely Acer will send you "recovery" media for a nominal fee, but if you use that, you will lose your data.

If you can't get hold of a dvd, you can create one that gives you those repair options by following option 1 in this tutorial :

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/141820-create-recovery-disc.html

With any luck, the automatic startup repair on the dvd (or the disc you created from the tutorial ) will do the job.

If not, you could try the command line options from the dvd (or the disc you created ) as shown in this tutorial:

Recovering the Vista Bootloader from the DVD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

Hope it helps

SIW2
 
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My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Vista
    CPU
    Intel E8400
    Motherboard
    ASRock1333-GLAN R2.0
    Memory
    4gb DDR2 800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 9500GT 1gb
  • Operating System
    win7/vista
    CPU
    intel i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    ballistix 2x8gb 3200
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