Acer Aspire X3200 - Virus? Won't boot or reinstall 2

[wwwigz]

Hi,

I was passed an Acer Aspire X3200 the other day and was told it had a virus...

I booted it up, but it just hung at the Vista progess bar screen. Nothing else will happen.
I managed to have a look at the BIOS, nothing wrong there I think.
I then put an XP installation disk in to format C: and re-install windows. The Install CD loads, and the install filed begin to load - then the BSOD flicks up.

There are a number of errors that pop up on screen, but also, I am not as experienced as most people here!
These are the errors:

On bootup I get:
AMD Data change - UPDATE new data to DMI!
Then:
PXE-E61 - Media test faliure check cable
PXE-M0F - Exiting nVidia boot agent

I managed to get a DOS box to pop up when I had an XP install disk in, I managed to begin formatting of C: but halfway through I had a power cut

So...all a bit mesy really, not sure whare to start or what to do next.
I'm going to have another go at formatting and reinstalling, and will update the thread if it sorts itself out.

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[goombawaho]

This is a wild guess, without having hands on it, but it sounds like hard drive failure. All this "PXE-E61 - Media test faliure check cable PXE-M0F - Exiting nVidia boot agent" just means that it's trying to boot off the network card because booting off the hard drive has failed.

Ideally, you would create this CD (Ulimate Boot CD) on another PC and then boot up to it, run the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility on it and then determine if it's good or bad. You can determine the brand of hard drive in the BIOS most likely.

Three quarters of the way down the page where it says Mirror Sites:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

If you don't know how to create a bootable CD from the ISO image, see if you have a friend that knows how or just search for how to do it with your brand of CD burning software (Nero, Roxio, etc.)

You really can't proceed to load the OS without knowing if there is a hardware problem. Also, on the same CD there are memory diagnostic tests which would prove the memory is good/bad.

If that CD won't boot up, then it could be a bad motherboard.

 

[wwwigz]

I'm downloading the .iso from UBCD
I use Nero and can burn .iso's no problem.

So I just boot from this UB CD I burn, then it will let me run diagnostics?

I remember in the BIOS there were no HDD's detected, and no means to detect.

I'll give this Boot CD a go and report back.
Thanks for the help goombawaho.

 

[RyanEOD]

Err, wait - "I remember in the BIOS there were no HDD's detected, and no means to detect."

That is your problem. Can you pop the HD out, and slave it to a different machine and see if it is detected? It could be your cables, or the HD itself, or no power to it. Just three of the more common reasons.

 

[wwwigz]

Good point RyanEOD, I'll take it out and reseat it when I do the Boot CD.
I might have another machine that takes SATA, (SATA is fairly new to me) will try that too.

Thanks Ryan

 

[goombawaho]

Yeah - if the BIOS doesn't see the hard drive, that might be a problem. Could be a bad cable or now power to the drive or a cable not connected or bad hard drive.

Check all connections but still give the CD a try before you transplant the drive.

If you have to transplant the drive, go ahead and run the utility from the CD on the other computer.

If you can't see it on either computer though - uh oh.

 

[wwwigz]

Hmm, that's strange...
When I boot the PC up with the Boot CD in it I get these:

<
Boot From AHCI CD-ROM:
1. NO EMULATION System Type- 00

IsoLinux 3.86...etc
isolinux: Disk Error 05, AX = 42E6, drive 9F

Boot failed: press a key to retry...
>

The CD/DVD drive can't be broken aswell because I was booting other Windows Install disks just the other day.

Are these error messages any use?

 

[wwwigz]

PS, does it make any difference if I use a CD or a DVD for the Boot disk?

 

[wwwigz]

I've tried with both CD and DVD, and get the same set of error messages.

 

[goombawaho]

Try it on another PC to confirm that you have created the CD properly. Sounds like the CD is NOT correct. It will boot up in a big hurry on even slow PCs without any problems - as long as the CD is created correctly.

 

[AstonUser]

Hi

http://wwwigz,

I just read about the problems you had with an Acer Aspire X3200.
I encountered exactly the SAME Problem (see your post @ 29 Jun 10 10:36) last Saturday. But before the the error messages "AMD Data change - UPDATE new data to DMI! ..." started I got "Port 1:___" displayed (sorry, can't remember the exact messages. This lead a PC technician (since I am not that familiar with PC components to be checked by myself ) to assume, that the HDD was broken. After exchanging the HDD and setting up the PC (with Windows 7 Home Premium), everything seems to work (still exploring ).
But: I am doubting that the HDD was broken so sudenly.
What was your solution of the problem and did you manage to get the data from your supposedly broken HDD?

I really appreciate any further information on this problem!

Thx a lot
M.