hardware or software problem?

Hello group,

Acer Aspire 5100 laptop running windows vista boots up through windows
screen and then continues to blank/black screen. At this point nothing more
happens. Machine was running perfectly fine. Then I logged off , shutdown,
and unplugged charger/power simply to move to another location. When I
attempted to use it again (less than 5 minutes later) I got the result I
described above. If this sounds familiar to anyone, your knowledge and
suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

--
"If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions"
- Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction

Post in reply to: rc


It's quite simple to tell if it's a hardware problem or not. Simply boot
up a Linux Live CD - if it boots, that rules out everything but the hard
drive. 'badblocks' will take care of that.

Post in reply to: ray
Thanks, any suggestions on which Linux live cd is best?

Post in reply to: rc


For this exercise, it would matter very little - they are all extremely
capable. I'd probably go with either the 'systemrescue' or 'parted magic'
CD - see distrowatch.com for links.

Post in reply to: rc


When you say "logged off, shutdown", do you mean you logged off from the
Start button and then shut down in software from the button on the screen,
or did you shut off using the hardware power button?

If the latter, that could possibly cause a file corruption or disk
corruption problem.

ISTM that logging off and shutting down, rather than shutting down
directly, is a bit unusual. Or even very unusual. Shutting down logs users
off as part of the process...

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

Post in reply to: rc


Didn't say that. I'd say that if it fully boots a Linux Live CD, then you
can pretty safely assume that all the hardware but the hard disk is OK
(could still be an issue with a power supply - they can be really weird).
Jury is still out on the hard drive, but you've pretty much narrowed it
down to the hard drive or your system software. Boot the Live CD, start a
terminal window and run 'badblocks' on the hard drive. That should give
you a pretty good idea if the drive is bad - you could also go to the
manufacturers web site and probably download a diagnostic CD image - boot
from that and it should thoroughly check the drive.

Post in reply to: Gene E. Bloch

Ray, thanks

Gene,

Logged off from the start button and then shut down in software from the
button on the screen

Post in reply to: rc

ok, assuming its a system software issue I downloaded a recovery cd. I then
booted from the cd, a screen indicating windows is installing appears and
then a screen with the option to repair appears. I select repair and two
dialog boxes show up both labled "system recovery options" . One is
searching for windows installations. The other in the background lists the
one installation that I have. But the one in the foreground never stops
searching! And I can't do anything til it does. I was going to attempt a
repair with an installation disk from a friend or relative but given this
last episode I'm not sure anything different would happen.

Post in reply to: rc

...

What sort of recovery disk? Was it a proper Vista repair disk?

Post in reply to: Dave-UK

Hi Dave,

I downloaded it from
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/downlo...recovery-disc/

...