Frustrating Problem With XP On Laptop

[Grafitti 0]

I have my Dualcore AMD Acer laptop, 5102Wlmi, with a 120GB hd, 2 GB ram, etc. I had a friend buy it in the states and bring it over just 2 months ago. All of a sudden, the other day when i went to turn it on, it would bring up the xp boot screen, and then just hang there. I tried a different hard drive. no luck. I tired installing XP, but after booting from cd and loading all the drivers, right after the FAT and NTFS drivers, it says "Setup is loading Windows" and then it hangs there. I've left it overnight and in the morning it's still in the same place. I can't reformat, install, or repair my XP installation. SO i took the hard drive and stuck it in another laptop to load XP. It ran fine until i stuck it back in my laptop, after which it crashes with a BSOD whether in safe mode or normal. It seems to crash after loading mup.sys, and back when it would simply freeze, it also got up till that particular driver and then stopped. I've tried loading Ubuntu on it. No problems. It loads and runs perfectly. I've tried Vista Ultimate. It also loads and runs perfectly. Why won't XP work? I can't see how this would be a software issue, so it must be hardware. but what? And it would make sense that Vista has more stringent hardware requirements than XP, so if it was hardware-related, wouldn't Vista have even more trouble than XP?

[yordan 10]

Did you add new hardware ? For instance, is a huge USB disk plugged on an USB port ?

[saneax 0]

Hi Grafitti,
I have had a similar issue with sony vaio spg-33 laptop a few year back. It came loaded with windows me. I tried to load windows 2000 Pro. After endless pains, it came up to be a faulty device driver.
I can just advice you to boot on 'safe mode" YOu can do this by pressing on F8 at the start of win XP boot.
you can try to uninstall some devices.. (try guess work.. because nothing else can be done.. I dont think windows has a readable log of its boot time ie like dmesg).

Well.. and the easiest is to have a shiny new OS like Suse-10.2 it rocks and looks more better than windows.

I have my Dualcore AMD Acer laptop, 5102Wlmi, with a 120GB hd, 2 GB ram, etc. I had a friend buy it in the states and bring it over just 2 months ago. All of a sudden, the other day when i went to turn it on, it would bring up the xp boot screen, and then just hang there. I tried a different hard drive. no luck. I tired installing XP, but after booting from cd and loading all the drivers, right after the FAT and NTFS drivers, it says "Setup is loading Windows" and then it hangs there. I've left it overnight and in the morning it's still in the same place. I can't reformat, install, or repair my XP installation. SO i took the hard drive and stuck it in another laptop to load XP. It ran fine until i stuck it back in my laptop, after which it crashes with a BSOD whether in safe mode or normal. It seems to crash after loading mup.sys, and back when it would simply freeze, it also got up till that particular driver and then stopped. I've tried loading Ubuntu on it. No problems. It loads and runs perfectly. I've tried Vista Ultimate. It also loads and runs perfectly. Why won't XP work? I can't see how this would be a software issue, so it must be hardware. but what? And it would make sense that Vista has more stringent hardware requirements than XP, so if it was hardware-related, wouldn't Vista have even more trouble than XP?

[Grafitti 0]

Here's the deal: no new hardware plugged in, just the default specs it came with(TurionX2 1.66 Ghz, Ati Radeon 1100 @ 128MB shared memory, 2 GB DDR2 @ 400Mhz, 120GB 5400rpm PATA HDD, DVD-RW multi)Came pre-loaded with XP Media Center 2005. Typical Acer setup with hidden partition to restore OS in case of crash.Even at the shop today they weren't able to get it to restore from there.Obviously i already tried safe mode. it crashes or hangs. i can't get into the recovery console because, as i already said, it sticks at the "loading windows" part. I've tried Winternals Recovery Disk 2005. That hangs too at the XP loading screen. The Acer recovery DVD loads into the ram, but then doesn't boot. I've run memory tests. The RAM is fine.

[Lewisthemusician 0]

have you gone in safe mode and done system restore? this will take you back to a chosen time when your laptop was in perfect condition.

[Talenak 0]

If you can get it to load fine in another laptop, it seems like worst has already come to worst. I would have given up by now and stuck it back in the other laptop to back it up and format it. Then put the blank drive back into the original laptop and try installing XP fresh. Or you can google "ultimate boot cd" I haven't used it, but I'm told it's *enter your diety here*'s gift to geek kind. I have a copy of it, just haven't needed to try it yet :)Good Luck!

[saneax 0]

Hi Graffiti,
I think you need a replacement, some h/w gone wrong somewhere. Also you can retry some live CD, like ubuntu, suse to check up the H/W functioning is proper.
Generally to detect a h/w problem.. load a live CD and work as much as possible try to do all sort of operation.

Here's the deal: no new hardware plugged in, just the default specs it came with
(TurionX2 1.66 Ghz, Ati Radeon 1100 @ 128MB shared memory, 2 GB DDR2 @ 400Mhz, 120GB 5400rpm PATA HDD, DVD-RW multi)
Came pre-loaded with XP Media Center 2005. Typical Acer setup with hidden partition to restore OS in case of crash.
Even at the shop today they weren't able to get it to restore from there.
Obviously i already tried safe mode. it crashes or hangs. i can't get into the recovery console because, as i already said, it sticks at the "loading windows" part. I've tried Winternals Recovery Disk 2005. That hangs too at the XP loading screen. The Acer recovery DVD loads into the ram, but then doesn't boot. I've run memory tests. The RAM is fine.

[BuffaloHelp 24]

For most part, was there any Windows update performed during those 2 months?United States machines are designed to run with United States program--meaning if you have US hardware, it is known that running other language packs for Windows for other programs/updates may lead to memory leak. This can cause to hang the Windows operation or can lead to excessive CPU usage.Whatever the reason may be I would first try to see if your CPU is running at critical temperature. There's a good chance that the heatsink may have come loose or not making a firm contact. If you are willing to take it apart or leave it to your local computer shop, have them look into proper heatsink placement. If you want to be sure, you can try to measure the CPU temperature by inserting a thermometer to the venting slot. Try to touch the heatsink as much as you can. I think the tolerant CPU temperature for a laptop is under 147F or 64C on an average. A good heatsink can maintain a CPU temperature of 105F or 40C.

[Grafitti 0]

Yes, I have already tried booting in safe mode. it won't.Yes, I have already tried fresh formatting. i can't.Yes, I have already tried Ultimate Boot CD. it hangs.I have also tried Winternals Emergency Disk CommanderI have also tried Ubuntu. It tells me everything is fine.I have updated Windows. But I'm running the US English version, so no conflicts possible there.I have checked the CPU. it runs at regular temperature. (@42c)Any out of the box ideas that I haven't already tried?

[yordan 10]

I have also tried Ubuntu. It tells me everything is fine.

Ubunto works, this means that the CPU and the motherboard are OK.
Did you try Ubuntu as full install or as LiveCD ?
If you tried it as LiveCD, I would also try to do a full Ubunto install, using the whole disk. This would tell us that there is also no hard disk problem.
If the installed Ubuntu works, this would mean that you have a faulty hardware part which is neither the cpu nor the disk nor the motherboard, and that this faulty hardware is not used by Ubuntu but is used by Crosoft.
After this full disk Ubuntu install, I would do a disk wipe (With Norton ghost for instance) and I woud try again a full Windows fresh install on a fresh disk.
I hope that the Windows you are installing is exactly the same which already was able to run on this PC (some laptops need special Windows install CD's, mainly because of the LCD display.

[seaq 0]

Check the bios settings to ensure that they match the hard drive specifications. I had a thinkpad a while back that had the same symptoms (ie would hang, couldn't re-install XP, etc). I would boot LiveCD Linux so I tracked it down to the hard drive.Although my problem ended up being a problem with the hard drive, the symptoms were similiar so it's worth a look. GLTY

[BuffaloHelp 24]

I have updated Windows. But I'm running the US English version, so no conflicts possible there.

I am so tempted to just conclude here by stressing, "US hardware should only run with US software." But what I'm more curious is have you updated Windows with US Windows updates? What if updates are controlled region specific?

Very similar event occured when I took a laptop from United States to another country as a donation to a cause. When the OS needed updates they simply clicked on update and it was all good. But not much later (about 1 month into it) the laptop started to show frequent blue screen and/or hang-ups.

This later was addressed at Microsoft conference in Rochester, NY that the operating system released to other countries are not the same as the US release. It's not just a language difference but ranging from encryption system to core instruction codes. Intel, would not confirm publicly, also stated that chips released to other countries are not the same as US version(s). This, I think, has something to do with the security where the very hardware released to others could not be used against the country that developed...but that's another story.

So, what if updates were not "compatible" with the Windows version? Compaq's Presario series were reported in the past that certain updates were causing malfunctions in US as well as abroad. Can Acer share the similar symptom?

Well, since your computer does not boot correctly how about using the good old method of using floppy drive to do your fdisk and format? Can you boot to a floppy? If so you can use any boot disk to fdisk and format. Your laptop's BIOS then set to CDROM boot and see if you can reinstall.

...or have you tried this already

[Grafitti 0]

Ubunto works, this means that the CPU and the motherboard are OK.Did you try Ubuntu as full install or as LiveCD ?

I tried first the live CD, and when that booted fine and windows still wouldn't install, i did a full install of Ubuntu with no problems.
I had bought another hard disk, same capacity, also by Samsung, and switching between the two doesn't help. Previously I had been able to install XP Media Center2005, Professional 32 bit, and Home Edition.
Now i can only install either Linux or Vista.

I am so tempted to just conclude here by stressing, "US hardware should only run with US software." But what I'm more curious is have you updated Windows with US Windows updates? What if updates are controlled region specific?
Very similar event occured when I took a laptop from United States to another country as a donation to a cause. When the OS needed updates they simply clicked on update and it was all good. But not much later (about 1 month into it) the laptop started to show frequent blue screen and/or hang-ups.

This later was addressed at Microsoft conference in Rochester, NY that the operating system released to other countries are not the same as the US release. It's not just a language difference but ranging from encryption system to core instruction codes. Intel, would not confirm publicly, also stated that chips released to other countries are not the same as US version(s). This, I think, has something to do with the security where the very hardware released to others could not be used against the country that developed...but that's another story.

So, what if updates were not "compatible" with the Windows version? Compaq's Presario series were reported in the past that certain updates were causing malfunctions in US as well as abroad. Can Acer share the similar symptom?

Well, since your computer does not boot correctly how about using the good old method of using floppy drive to do your fdisk and format? Can you boot to a floppy? If so you can use any boot disk to fdisk and format. Your laptop's BIOS then set to CDROM boot and see if you can reinstall.

...or have you tried this already

Well... yeah I tried that. I can format it fine in another laptop, because i don't exactly have an external floppy to attach. but even if i format it, i have to install XP, and then it hangs at the beginning of that. The regional updates could also be a cause, but i'm not sure, as I had a Compaq Presario for 3 years before this, and it was also a refurb deal from the states, always online and updated it, and it nver had any problems before i came here and someone kindly dropped it off the top of a cupboard.
Anyways, it's still in warranty, so Acer's had it for a week now but still i haven't heard back from them. As long as they fix it i'll be fine, but i'm still trying to second-guess the cause.

[Saint_Michael 3]

Could it be the simple fact your Hardware and hard drive are just broke for some unexplainable reason and all the common stuff does not work for it. If so just get them replaced, which you already have.I just skimmed the posts but by chance did you run a diagnostics (F12 key I believe) and see if any errors popped up?

[Grafitti 0]

Could it be the simple fact your Hardware and hard drive are just broke for some unexplainable reason and all the common stuff does not work for it. If so just get them replaced, which you already have.
I just skimmed the posts but by chance did you run a diagnostics (F12 key I believe) and see if any errors popped up?

Possibly it's the motherboard or the connector. it's not the hard drives. that i think i've already established, by checking with the linux disk checker, and chkdsk and perfectly fine xp installs in the hard disks in other laptops.