Member Avatar for medhed84

Hi

Have an ACER 1360 notebook. Needed to restore to original state as Ive sold it. Went into setup, set to boot from cd rom. system disk booted up fine asked for recovery disk, put it in, started to work fine, erasing the drive and restoring partition. Took my eyes off the computer turned back and it had cut out or something. Restarted but wouldnt boot from system disk or recovery, when I enter setup it freezes, the setup screen freezes! what do I do. I'm a relative novice with computers. Its already started to wipe the drive so cannot go any further than a blank screen with the flashing dash in the top left hand corner. Any experienced guys know whats going on and how to get it back on track.

Cheers guys

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by lol_hacker101

Dani AI

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This thread points to an interrupted factory restore that left the machine unbootable and the firmware/setup screen freezing. Start with the lowest-risk checks and work up to opening the case or replacing parts. s suggestion to remove external devices and drain power is a good first move; use that as step zero and then follow the ordered checklist below.

  • Power-reset first: unplug mains, remove the main battery, then hold the power button 20-30 seconds to drain residual charge. Reconnect mains (leave battery out) and try to enter setup/boot menu.
  • If setup still freezes, try an external USB keyboard and different setup/boot keys; a stuck built-in key or keyboard fault can hang POST.
  • Test whether the drive is causing the hang: remove or disconnect the hard drive and power on. If the firmware/BIOS becomes accessible without the drive, the HDD (or its electronics, partition table, MBR) is likely the culprit.
  • If BIOS is inaccessible even with the drive removed, clear CMOS (remove the coin cell or use the reset jumper) only if comfortable with opening the case. This resets firmware settings and can recover from some hangs.
  • When firmware/boot menu is reachable, create a bootable USB on another PC (Windows installer or a Linux live USB) and boot from it to repartition/format and reinstall. If a factory image is required, request official recovery media from the manufacturer.
  • If the drive is physically failing or you prefer to recover it elsewhere, remove it and connect it to a working PC via a USB enclosure to run diagnostics or perform a clean install from that host.

Cautions: these steps can destroy any remaining data. If recovering files matters, stop and use a drive clone or professional recovery. If firmware appears permanently bricked, consult the vendor support or a repair shop for BIOS recovery or reprogramming.

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Member Avatar for lol_hacker101

Hey,

Well, I'm not exactly an expert, but I have some experience. I would recommend removing all excess hardware you have connected to the computer: flash drives, backup drives, printers, (keep: mouses, modems, surge protecters) and speakers if you have them. If it's a laptop you don't need to worry about the speakers and mouse.

Then try again. It'll probably do the same thing. Leave it on for about 5 minutes, if it doesn't work, pull out the battery if it's a laptop, or unplug it if it's a desktop. Then leave it alone. Leave the main power cord unplugged, and don't try to boot it.

If you wait a day or so, you can boot it up again. When you do, seleect Safe Mode. This will make it wacked, but it'll probably boot... let me know if it doesn't.

Cheers,
lol_hacker101

Member Avatar for medhed84

Hi
Cheers for the reply. Its a laptop and hasnt got anything plugged into it. The thing is it wont start in safe mode as its already formatted about half of the drive. Its permanently set to boot from cd rom now as the enter setup screen freezes before I can change it to boot from drive which would be irrelevent as it has already formatted about 40% of the drive taking with it any start up files if you see what I mean which makes it a tricky situation lol. Again thanks for the quick reply.

Member Avatar for lol_hacker101

im just curious... what made you contact DaniWeb and not Dell Technical Support? They're not as friendly, I admit(lol), but they could help, and they specialize with their own brand.

lol_hacker101

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