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    Acer 4520 cannot boot!

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by lgt, Jul 16, 2010.

  1. lgt

    lgt Newbie

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    Hi. I have a major problem with my laptop. Till yesterday it was running ok, then suddenly, while I was on Youtube it froze, then shut off. Since then, every time I try to restart it, it stays on for about 2-3 seconds and shuts off again, BIOS cannot load at all... Tried power chord and battery on and off, doesn't help...

    The laptop was running XP Home. It has been a bit slow lately. I dont know if this is relevant, but a few days ago I had the AV Security virus, which I removed with the AV Security Suite Removal Tool (BitDefender alone couldnt remove it)

    I've been googling like crazy to find a solution, but Im not sure what to do, so any help would be greatly appreciated. My biggest problem is that I have very important work files, which I haven't backed up (I'm such a dum.a.s), and now the situation is critical. I downloaded the BIOS zip for 4520 from the Acer website, but I dont know whether I need to flash or its a harware problem. Also, if I have to flash it, please give me instructions (or a useful link) how...

    Thanks in advance for the help!
    Cheers.
     
  2. lgt

    lgt Newbie

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    Anyone?????
     
  3. wasabi.

    wasabi. Notebook Consultant

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    well i would go through the process of elimination

    if you have two ram sticks, try booting with just one

    remove your hdd and connect it to another pc asap.. back up ur files

    try booting with a different hdd.. see if ur motherboard is bad.. etc..
     
  4. lgt

    lgt Newbie

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    Thanks for the advice, man, will try! One more question: Could it also be a BIOS virus, would BIOS act like mine if it has a virus? I started wondering after reading article, particularly in the part: "The most commonly known BIOS viruses are those that create warning messages that say the computer is infected by a virus. These messages are followed by the automatic opening of a Web browser and the loading of a page for fake virus scanning and removal software", which was exactly what happened when I had the AV Security virus...
     
  5. lgt

    lgt Newbie

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    Its not the hard drive, nor the Ram sticks. this question may sound lame, but can someone tell me whether I can flash bios with a bootable usb or other way, if the current one stops working after 5 secs, and how...