help with my acer aspire 5570 pls

tut4nkh4m3n SG

okay it happened somewhat like this. i was using the comp as usual, nothing special, just playing games and stuff. then all of a sudden it hung and now i can't even start it up properly. it's only about 4 months old btw.

this is exactly what's the error on the screen;

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Pre-boot eXecution Environment (PXE) v2.1
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PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM
Operating System not found

that's it. i am able to go the the page what the big blue ACER flashes on the screen and i can press f2 to enter setup. but it doesn't seem to help. i do not understand what exactly is the prob and how i can fix it. i was told to try system restore but i'm not sure how to get it done.

what i am most most most worried of is the data in my hard disk. will it be lost? i'm planning to call the acer hotline soon but if yall can help over here i will be extremely grateful.

i have never once spilled water/dropped/kick/burn my laptop. the worse i did was leave it on for one and a half days.

any help will be appreciated. thanks.

tut4nkh4m3n SG

any help pls? i’m in quite a crap stage

eagle SG

Copied from http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard/forum/72810.html

some folks figure your hard drive is shot, but try some tweaks before you give up on your HD;

1. change the boot sequence in the BIOS to: 1 - CD, 2 - floppy, 3- HD

2. the disk cabling should be checked for problems.

3. use your Antivirus Emergency Boot Disk, if you have one.

4. boot to the Options menu (use F8 key repeatedly during boot) and use the arrow keys to select Last Known Good Configuration and press the Enter key.

if that allows you to boot to XP, run Error Checking in My Computer, Properties, Tools.

5. may have a bad RAM chip; try swapping them to see if one is faulty.

Sidenote: Acer was never very reliable... My desktop is Acer, and so is my gf's. Both have problems with hardware occasionally...

tut4nkh4m3n SG

okay i’ll try those, and thx for help eagle. anyone with more advice will be appreciated, thanks again.

tut4nkh4m3n SG

darn, still doesn’t work.

ndmmxiaomayi SG

Boot up the laptop, get to the BIOS (press F2).

Reset everything back to default, there's an option there.

tut4nkh4m3n SG

i did alr. same problem. will i lose my data?

ndmmxiaomayi SG

Hmm... at this point, I doubt you will lose your data. It's impossible to reformat, because Windows will give out an error.

Let's try this.

Go into BIOS again.

Check the hard disk mode, whether it is set as Master, Cable Select or Slave.

If it's Master, set to Cable Select. If it's Cable Select, set to Master. If none works, change it to Slave.

Do the same for the CD/DVD drive.

tut4nkh4m3n SG

how do i check? under INFORMATION, MAIN, SECURITY, BOOT, EXIT i can't find it.

how do i do it for cd/dvd too? to get into BIOS i press f2 right? i got in and got stuck Confused

glad to hear i probably won't be losing the data, but what exactly is the problem anyway?

ndmmxiaomayi SG

Somebody changed your settings.

I don't have an Acer with me...

Try going through all the settings manually, some need you to press Enter to see the details.

tut4nkh4m3n SG

but i've alr set it back to the default.

and if i send it to acer, will they be able to fix it for me without losing the data? it's still under warranty that's for sure. but what's the likely cause for this problem?

ndmmxiaomayi SG

I'm not sure what they will do...

Generally, the cause of this problem when someone changes the settings in BIOS, especially for disk drives (hard disk and CD/DVD drives).

tut4nkh4m3n SG

but i have alr changed it back to the default settings, or at least that's what i was told from the comp screen. could it be some damage done to the hard disk, cos that's what i was told initially. and one of the earlier posts stated that my hard disk might be 'shot'...

ndmmxiaomayi SG

Sometimes default settings don't do the trick, simply because they are wrong... which is why I ask you to set it to default, then change the settings again.

Also, hard disk may not be gone case, other components that are failing will produce weird errors.

tut4nkh4m3n SG

man, even default settings don't work now...

so what do you recommend i do? sending it to acer seems like the best way to me, as it's still under warranty.