All, I am new to this forum and hoping someone has run into a similar problem to mine. I have an Acer 5100 that I've had for about 4 years. I don't have all the specs but can add those later if needed. What I can provide is that it has 2GB RAM and 50% of HDD free space.
I upgraded notebook from Vista Home Premium to Windows 7. It worked great for a couple of days then started having some issues. At first I was getting BSOD/errors indicating a memory problem. I replaced the memory. While troubleshooting the memory issue I had a few times where I would restart and everything would indicate the PC was starting (i.e. power, hdd, and dvd lights all green and steady or flashing as appropriate for each) but the monitor did't come on. A couple times I was able to get it to start normally and it would work great for about 2 to 5 minutes then freeze. It wouldn't unfreeze regardless how long I waited. There was nothing indicating any event had happened when I rebooted.
After troubleshooting and forum search, the only way I can get the notebook to come up now is to connect it to an external monitor and have the Windows 7 upgrade DVD in the drive. If I remove either the notebook goes back to black screen. If I have the ext. monitor connected and W7 DVD in then the notebook, including the monitor works fine.
Below is a brief list of troubleshooting steps I've taken:
1) memdiag (replaced RAM in initial steps, also tried known good RAM)
2) chkdsk /f on HDD (by installing in ext enclosure and running on another PC. Notebook crashes if I try to run chkdsk /f)
3) ran Windows 7 repair.
4) ran Windows 7 fresh install
5) checked for up-to-date drivers for all installed devices. No device conflicts present
Can't afford a new laptop so any assistance would be appreciated.
I upgraded notebook from Vista Home Premium to Windows 7. It worked great for a couple of days then started having some issues. At first I was getting BSOD/errors indicating a memory problem. I replaced the memory. While troubleshooting the memory issue I had a few times where I would restart and everything would indicate the PC was starting (i.e. power, hdd, and dvd lights all green and steady or flashing as appropriate for each) but the monitor did't come on. A couple times I was able to get it to start normally and it would work great for about 2 to 5 minutes then freeze. It wouldn't unfreeze regardless how long I waited. There was nothing indicating any event had happened when I rebooted.
After troubleshooting and forum search, the only way I can get the notebook to come up now is to connect it to an external monitor and have the Windows 7 upgrade DVD in the drive. If I remove either the notebook goes back to black screen. If I have the ext. monitor connected and W7 DVD in then the notebook, including the monitor works fine.
Below is a brief list of troubleshooting steps I've taken:
1) memdiag (replaced RAM in initial steps, also tried known good RAM)
2) chkdsk /f on HDD (by installing in ext enclosure and running on another PC. Notebook crashes if I try to run chkdsk /f)
3) ran Windows 7 repair.
4) ran Windows 7 fresh install
5) checked for up-to-date drivers for all installed devices. No device conflicts present
Can't afford a new laptop so any assistance would be appreciated.