@knowhowtohelp Acer Laptop 2 months old faulty hard drive fixed now new problem

[chernosamba]

In the first week of November I bought an Acer 5750 from PCWorld.

 

About 2 weeks later I began to have some issues with starting my laptop and called Knowhow.

They helped me restore default settings to the laptop and the problem seemed to be solved.

A week later the issue arose again and once more they had me go through the same process.

This again lasted a week before the issue re-emerged and refused to start up at all.

 

I took the laptop to the store I bought it from where they diagnosed the laptop with a faulty hard drive which they said they would fix within two weeks.

Exactly 28 days later I received my laptop back.

 

On the second day of having it back it unexpectedly shut down.

I took no notice of this as I suspected it was maybe an automatic restart due to the several installations I'd made and I didn't see the dialogue box for it.

 

Sure enough this week, 2 weeks after it was fixed, the laptop has continued to randomly shut down atleast three times a day with a blue screen,

before restarting with some mention of Broadcom and no boot disk being found.

 

I called knowhow and they have told me I would need to do a full system restore losing all my data (again).

 

Do I have any rights in getting my money back or being able to demand a replacement?

[dx100uk]

it sounds like your laptophas the network or LAN set as the 1st boot device

you need to change this is the bios

so the first bot device is the hardrive

 

dx

[chernosamba]

it sounds like your laptophas the network or LAN set as the 1st boot device

you need to change this is the bios

so the first bot device is the hardrive

 

dx

 

Thanks for the reply. Is this easy enough to do? As it would save a lot of hassle, really don't want to use KnowHow again as I can't go another 28 days without a laptop.

[sparx]

chernosamba, does your laptop display a big logo when it boots or loads of text?

 

If its just a big logo, press ESC and it should go back to a screen where you may be able to see if a hard drive is being detected or not - if you press the PAUSE button (Pause/Break) on this screen jsut before it changes over it should freeze and you can take a picture to post up here (You can then press escape/enter to get it to continue).

[chernosamba]

chernosamba, does your laptop display a big logo when it boots or loads of text?

 

If its just a big logo, press ESC and it should go back to a screen where you may be able to see if a hard drive is being detected or not - if you press the PAUSE button (Pause/Break) on this screen jsut before it changes over it should freeze and you can take a picture to post up here (You can then press escape/enter to get it to continue).

 

The laptop restarts, firstly showing the ACER logo then goes to a black screen with loads of text about Broadcom etc. and no boot disk found etc. Next time it happens I will try to get a screenshot but it happens quite randomly.

[sparx]

As soon as it shows the Acer logo, press ESC - just as the text gets to the bottom of the screen press pause/break and then you can use a digital camera to take a picture. It may be that the hard drive has failed, the operating system bootsector has been corrupted (hence the bios skipping over it), or that the boot order has changed on its own (Unlikely, and you cannot do it in windows without knowing you are doing it).

[chernosamba]

If it is the hardrive that has failed would I be entitled to a refund or exchange from PcWorld given that they have "fixed it" and held it for 28 days doing so?

 

I'll try and get the photo for you as would rather just get it sorted now than be messed around by PcWorld again.

[dx100uk]

no the hdd has not failed

just that the boot order is wrong.

 

can you take a phone pix or digital camera pix

of the broadcom screen.

 

and post it up

 

use this:

 

scan the required letters/agreements/sheets

as a picture[jpg] file

remove all pers info inc barcodes etc using paint program

but leave all figures and dates.

 

goto one of the many free online pdf converter websites

it would be better to upload a multipage pdf

than many single ones

or if you have PDF as an installed printer drive use that

or use word and save as pdf

open a new msg box here

hit go advanced below the msg box

hit manage attachments below that box

hit the add files button on the top right

hit select files, navigate to your file on your pc

hit upload files

NB:you can set where it goes in the post by hitting insert inline.

the hit reply button

dx

[ForestChav]

dx could be right, but the BIOS is often set to boot from LAN IF no bootable hard drive has been found. This could easily be a second failed hard drive or Windows is corrupt if the BIOS settings are correct.

[dx100uk]

does the error mention

 

Broadcom PXE ROM. No bootable device etc etc

[chernosamba]

Guys can't upload the image as not enough posts.

 

Reads

 

Broadcom UNDI PXE-2.1 v14.4.5

PXE E61 - media test failure, check cable.

PXE M0F- exiting broadcom PXE ROM

No bootable device----please insert boot disk

[dx100uk]

scan the required letters/agreements/sheets

as a picture[jpg] file

remove all pers info inc barcodes etc using paint program

but leave all figures and dates.

 

goto one of the many free online pdf converter websites

it would be better to upload a multipage pdf

than many single ones

or if you have PDF as an installed printer drive use that

or use word and save as pdf

open a new msg box here

hit go advanced below the msg box

hit manage attachments below that box

hit the add files button on the top right

hit select files, navigate to your file on your pc

hit upload files

NB:you can set where it goes in the post by hitting insert inline.

then hit reply button

dx

[dx100uk]

you need to turn off PXE [LAN boot]

in the bios

 

then change the first boot device to the HDD

 

hardrive

 

dx

[rimce44]

I would sell this laptop and get another. I have second acer laptop in 3 years and I all works fine.