Need Help Please-Vista will not boot

Don-Merlin

Don-Merlin

Member
Hi everyone... I just registered today after trying to find help with my problem on forum but couldnt find any so i decided to try posting mine..here is goes

I have a acer aspire 3680 which i got second hand with no cd-rom. computer was working fine. it has windows vista ultimate installed... ok now my problem:



I tried to install some add-on programs for a program called ePower Technology which comes with acer and when i did install it required a reboot to finish install so i rebooted..when i did it got as far as screen which says configuring updates step 3 do not turn off computer and then it shut down and restarted on its own got to the same point and shut down and restarted again. it will loop like this as long as i leave computer on... so then i tried starting with F8 and from that screen tried every option there eg. safe mode, safe mode with networking ....none of them worked got same with every single option there...so next i tried Alt + F10 which brought me to edit boot options screen..the following is message i got before getting to edit boot options screen:

"booting windows vista"
acpi
vista loader 2.1.2
acpi: reclaim memory not found
done!
fallback 1
find--set--root /bootmgr
(hd 0,1)
file system type is ntfs partition type 0x7
chain loader /bootmgr
will boot ntldr from drive= 0x80, partition= 0x1 (hidden sectors= 0xC593A6)

now this is what i see on edit boot options screen:
edit windows boot options for: microsoft windows vista
path: \windows\system32\winload.exe
partition: 2
hard disk: 6ec7342f
/noexecute=optin

enter=submit esc=cancel

could anyone help me with what to enter on this screen to get to windows to make repairs
reminder: I have no cd-rom so am unable to boot from cd's or anything my only option is to enter something on edit boot options screen

please help all suggestions appreciated thank you in advance Don
 
Hi Don, welcome to NST.
Since you got the PC second-hand, you have no knowledge of its past history, but we can guess that at some time, somebody was multi-booting it with XP and Linux, and allowed Linux to install grub to the MBR and take control of the boot

find--set--root /bootmgr
(hd 0,1)
chain loader /bootmgr

are grub commands chaining to the Vista bootmgr

and NTLDR is the XP boot manager/loader

Grab yourself a copy of the recovery CD ISO image and a free copy of Imgburn, and use the latter to burn the former.

Boot the recovery CD and select "repair your computer" then "startup repair", and then boot it again and repeat the sequence a couple more times if needed. (It only fixes one thing per pass, so the system might not reboot after one try)

The "configuring updates step 3 do not turn off computer ", sounds as if you picked up SP2 from Windows update. If this didn't complete properly (the last thing it does is replace the Vista bootmgr, which might have been compromised by your unconventional boot ) and you get through the boot but Vista is broken, you can use the recovery CD to execute Vista system restore from the second screen instead of "repair startup", and go back to the restore point that SP2 created before it started, and try it again.
 
Thank you for your help Terry but i am unable to use your suggestion... My laptop does not have a cd-rom therefore i am unable to boot up using any cd recovery disk.. I have no means of getting any media to hard drive i only can enter a command on the edit boot options screen which i posted if you can further help please any other suggestions is appreciated ... thank you Don
 
Hello Don,

Now days with these newer laptops out (though you porbably got an older one they've stripped down for parts :frowning:), external usb cd/dvd drives are available at your local electronics store, so that you won't haft to take the laptop apart to install one.
 
Sorry Don, I'll have to read more carefully.
I thought you were saying you didn't have the Acer recovery disks, not that you had no optical drive.
Do you have a suitable USB flash-drive you can create a bootable image on ?
I've never done it, but there are plenty here who can guide you through creating one.
 
Well I installed wubi about 3 days ago when I saw it on Free Software Downloads and Reviews - Download.com The only thing is that they did not say anywhere on there that it would break the Vista boot loader. So for right now I'm stuck in ubuntu (which don't get me wrong, linux is awesome) but I'm a gamer and so all my games for windows are installed on Vista.

I looked in the Wubi guides and it shows in there how to manually uninstall wubi. But when I tried it in wubi it told me that everything in my C drive was read-only. So I cannot delete or edit any of the boot files in Ubuntu right now. I figured that it cannot make changes to any files that are in use at the time so what I'm wondering is whether or not I can use an Ubuntu live cd and boot from that and do the manual uninstall listed in the wiki, which just involves deleting a few files in the root directory.

I heard somewhere else on these forums that if you use the windows disk and choose Startup repair, it would fix the MBR and allow Vista to boot once again. I tried this but Windows said that there were no problems with the startup. I have also tried ihtting escape right after the text about loading Ubuntu or something of the like comes up, but to no avail. I really don't want to reformat my hard drive but I guess I will if I have to.
 
okay. Well I have the same problem when I was installing updates it was accidentally shut down with out continuing. When I start my laptop up it goes to loading and then to a blue screen then flicks off even before I get a chance to read it. And the process repeats. As said now I guess Vista is damaged or broken. I did get to the edit boot option screen and it reads the same thing as Don-Merlin. I'm on my home PC and I am trying to get ISO, Imgburn to go into a CD and found out the my CD drive does not work, I don't know why it just doesn't read the CD? So I have one more other option...a USB flashdrive. To add on to my frustration I don't know how to get it onto the USB flashdrive.
Can someone please help me.
I have to fix my laptop before my parents find out and kill me!
 
Last edited:
Hi ruk, welcome to NST.
Have you got the PC set to boot from CD before HDD ?
The 1st splash screen you see when you switch on will say somewhere "hit del (or some other key) to enter setup" or some such message.
Do what it says and you'll find yourself in the BIOS setup utility.
Find the option for setting the boot sequence and make sure CD comes first.
 
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