sulaco

Gents,I replaced the hardrive about a month ago with a Seagate Momentus and this thing is giving me the same error screens as before,here is the original post my son did:
[SOLVED] Acer Aspire 5100 - harddrive issues

The screenshots attached are the same except the blue one,this didnt show up until recently.....





sorry about images,blue one would cycle out pretty quick.
Images are not in correct order of occurance.
If computer is put into "standby" and or powers down by powerscheme,after about 10-15 minutes and i power computer back up I get the blue screen first followed by 2 audible beeps then i get the (failure fixed disk screen),i hit F1 and then i get a pause with flashing cursur at top left corner,then the (realtek fast ethernet controller)screen will just sit there and cycle out,((now if i cycle computer off/on it works fine,boots into windows normally and will work fine )),but if you let it power down you get the above problems.
now if i am in windows and shut the computer off/on i do not get the blue screen but the other two screens,could mem be going bad?

any help would be much appreciated....thanks in advance JP
Note* after the HD repacement the error screens did not instantly come back but gradually occured more frequently

TriggerFinger

Hi,

Do you mean that what is shown on the first 2 images are the usual things that you see each time you boot up? How about the third image.. does the BSOD happen frequently?

Try removing the drive and put it back in place. Make sure it sits securely. Reboot. Observe if you still get the same messages. If it improves it could be that the HDD had come loose.

Some hard drives are fastened securely by screws to prevent movement during transport. In your model see if this is also fastened into place by a screw or a lock. If there is no such screw or lock check the spaces around the drive... make sure that the spaces are filled up to prevent the hard drive from moving (especially the space between the side opposite the connector and the bay).

sulaco

Trigger....I ran Memtest and mem,AOK,I ran only 1 pass,I did check drive connection (is not secured with screws) only thing opposite of the connector pins is a "pillow" on one side.....I reseated drive,and and windows booted up ok,but when I put it in standby and waited 30 min i got the Blue Screen again

The BSOD usually only occurs when computer is put in standby and or Power scheme......and if you put computer in standby and then proceed to restart windows within approximate 5 min your ok and boots fine.......

I reseated the drive and had one instance of a bad boot,i wiggled the drive back about 1/16" and so far have not had either black error screen show up,

so......
bsod is still occuring(only after entering standby and waiting 15-30 min before booting into windows)but will eventually boot into windows.

black error screens have not recurred after tweaking HD.......
Thanks Trigger

TriggerFinger

Please get the error on the BSOD screen. Also include minidumps.. just in case. We may need the help of Windows tech team and sometimes they ask for these.

sulaco

Trigger....I will get that info to you in the next couple of days,regarding minidumps,would i find these at C:\Windows\Minidump ?

from what i can tell on the bsod:
KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR
I will try to get more numbers...
thx

TriggerFinger

sulaco

Could not locate minidump folder...made sure files and folders are not hidden,i checked event viewer,did have some errors,probably during xp install,but nothing at the time of bsod.........here is info from blue screen

KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR

Technical info:
***stop:0x0000007A (0XE17D2920,0XC000000E,0XBF91BBFB,0X2D9EC860)

***Win32k.sys-Address BF91BBFB base at BF800000,Date stamp 41107F7A

beginning dump of physical memory

TriggerFinger

Looks like a disappearing drive. Have you tested the drive using an HDD diagnostic tool?

EDIT:
Also when you took out the HDD, did you notice any address jumpers? Remove them and try booting again.

sulaco

No jumpers...yes i can run a DFT on drive,what are the chances the Female connector for drive has intermittant bad connection between it and Motherboard?

note:this is the 3rd drive and its a little over 2 yrs old.

so far bsod is occuring only if computer is placed in standby,and waiting more than 5-10 min.,cycling machine off/on:windows boots fine

TriggerFinger

Oh so sorry.. I really thought you still keep on getting the missing drive error during POST.

If it boots well now, go into Safe Mode and run SFC /SCANNOW

As for the HDD diagnostic... use this:
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/suppor...2_v415_b01.iso

If HDD diagnostic shows no errors for hard drive, run CHKDSK /R

sulaco

Will do....will let you know......thx

TriggerFinger

Kindly get/include a screen shot of the Power Option properties (each tab) in Control Panel.

Also try the following:
Click Start > Right-click My Computer > Click Properties > Click on Advanced tab > Under Performance click on Settings > Click on Advanced (tab) under Virtual Memory click Change button. Include a screenshot of your Virtual Memory properties.

sulaco

The computer had been off since last night and when i powered up i got the first black error screen (failure fixed disk)...i cycled off/on....booted into windows ok.......I havent had time to run scannow or chkdsk..will get back with results....thanks

TriggerFinger

Fixed disk error message appeared again? Grrr..

Btw, does the HDD have a caddy? When HDD is plugged in, is it just fit in its bay (no amount of movement may affect seating.. no chance of coming loose)? If there is, fill the space up (all sides) with some sort of rubber pads. I still suspect that the connectors come loose... worst case is a cold solder on the motherboard.

As for the fixed disk error, was the laptop moved since you last used it (I mean last night)? If HDD came loose due to it being moved then may be you can simulate. Also run the HDD diagnostic just to be sure this is not an intermittent harddrive fault.

As for the BSOD... try using SYSTEM MANAGED or NO PAGING FILE. Try them both and see how STANDBY behaves.

EDIT:
May be you want to try updating the BIOS (update BIOS in DOS mode only to be safe).. latest release is 3.10:
http://www.acerpanam.com/synapse/for...ords=&areaid=2

sulaco

The drive has never come loose from the female connector infact its pretty tight,in a previous post i said i pulled and reseated drive and then pulled the drive back approx 1/16" away from connector and had no problems booting into windows (no fixed disc error screen),for awhile anyway.........Ive suspected also a poor/intermittant connection between drive connector and motherboard,.....what if the problem is in the board,is Acer proprietary on their boards (worst case)........I will get back to you with results...it will probably be a few days........jp...Thx

TriggerFinger

If you can still boot into Windows, try the suggestion about the pagefile and test the STANDBY function.

As for the HDD diagnostic... I still encourage you to run it (run the long test) that way we will see if the hard drive has errors or not.

The last thing and I hope it would not come to this is the BIOS update.

sulaco

Ran Hitachi (DFT) advanced test....AOK
Seatools for Windows long drive self test,- passed
ran chkdsk/r
ran sfc/scannow
I have not messed with the page file and have tested standby 3 times waiting 20-30 min each have not had BSOD........but...... i powered down computer waited 20 min and powered back on and got fixed disk error screen again....off-reseated hdd-on-OK booted into windows...........

TriggerFinger

Does it support booting from USB more specifically a USB flash drive or a USB connected external drive? Check BOOT parameters in BIOS settings. If boot parameters include USB devices.

sulaco

Trigger,im sorry....im not sure what you are asking.

TriggerFinger

Most newer laptops can boot from USB... I mean if you plug in a USB flash drive in the USB port, you can set your laptop to boot from that flash drive. So where do you find this setting? In BIOS setup...

Can your laptop boot from USB? If you do not know and want to find out, power down the laptop, power it ON again then when the logo appears, press the designated key (i.e. F1 or F2 or ESC or DEL... ) to go into BIOS Setup.

Post back if you can get into BIOS setup.