[computersrkool]

Hi I am testing an Acer Aspire AX1800-E1810B computer that someone left behind at my daughters place, and just trying to see if I can get it working. The motherboard is an Acer MCP73T-AD, it has a LGA 775/Socket T with a Pentium Duel core cpu speed 2.2 Ghz. 2 sticks of 1 gig ddr2 667 Ram.

I have just attached an old hdd that was running Windows xp on it, since there was no hdd left in the machine.

When I hit the power button, the computer starts the lights turn on the heatsink fan runs, the Acer logo comes up, then it goes to the screen where it asks if I want to start windows normally or go to safe mode, if I hit any of these options it tries for just a second to load, then it turns itself off and restarts the cycle all over again.

If I choose to hit delete and to go into the setup screen while the Acer Logo is up, I am able to get into that fine and move around in that fine with no problems until I exit that and try to load Windows.

I'm not sure if it is a HDD problem, (as far as I know the HDD was working fine the last time it was used), a PSU problem, a ram problem, or a MB problem.

If anyone has any ideas about what I should do next or what they think my problem is, I would really appreciate some advice.

Thanks in advance
computersrkool

 

[JMPC]

Is the system actually powering off or just resetting while trying to load Windows? If it's just resetting it may be just failing to load Windows and restarting. Could also be an issue with the hard drive or some other hardware component.

If there's nothing you need on that hard drive I would suggest trying to install Windows from CD/DVD onto the hard drive and see how that works.

 

[_nobody_]

If there's nothing you need on that hard drive I would suggest trying to install Windows from CD/DVD onto the hard drive and see how that works.

Several things here. Please, do note that WIN XP is EOL by MicroSoft, so for newer CORE systems (Haswell and up) and ATOM (Bail Trail and up) do NOT use WIN XP, as outdated OS (no support anymore)!

[1] It does not work and cycles, since drivers are incompatible.
[2] Even if compatible, BIOS might be legacy BIOS, 32 bits, and XP might be 64 bit, and vice versa.

For the quick test, the best is to hook up HDD with WIN 8.1 installed and see if it, while coming up, will reinstall appropriate drivers, and come up entirely.

Also agreed with JMPC, in the case you do not have HDD with WIN 8.1 to spare (you should reinstall newer OS, possible WIN8.1/10). :whistling:

If you are more versatile user, you should try to use Live WIN8.1 or Live WIN10 bootable USB stick.

_nobody_

 

[Superion]

I think your problem lies on setting your HDD bios settings to IDE, for all you know your sister had a SATA drive set to AHCI. XP doesn't support AHCI unless you downloaded the drivers on a USB and load them in.

 

[computersrkool]

Hi thanks for all of your quick and good advice, I'm not sure if it's powering off or just resetting, but the blue light does go off during this process, so I'm not sure I'll have to take a look at it again. I think and am hoping that all of you are right, that it is just a compatibility issue. I do not have an extra windows key to use right now, but my daughter suggested Linux so I downloaded it and am going to first try it on a flash drive and if that works then I may install it onto a spare hard drive.

Cross your fingers that this works and that all it was was a compatibility issue.

Thanks again
computersrkool

 

[bassfisher6522]

First off you can't put some random HDD with any ole OS and bit type and expect it to boot up. This is because that the HDD (the one you're trying to us) is set up for another computer's hardware and drivers.

What you should do to see if it will work is; on a known working computer download a Linux Distro (I like Mint Mate and use the 32 bit type) ISO and then use Rufus to create a bootable USB drive and then plug that into the Acer PC and boot into the BIOS and change boot order to boot from USB. To see if it will work at all.

 

[computersrkool]

Hi and thanks again for more advice, I actually yesterday did use a flash drive loaded with Linux Mint and it worked really nice. First time I've used Linux, the only problem was for some reason when I chose to try and load the internet, the computer froze on me to the point that I had to force shut it down with the power button. For some reason there is no reset on this machaine. This happened 3 separate times, I hope that it's just Linux or maybe that it doesn't load the internet while working from a flash drive.

Any ideas on why it was freezing?

Thanks
computersrkool

 

[Superion]

Idk about you guys but this leads me to believe the motherboard is bad. You can test this by removing all RAM and see if you get an audible beep.

 

[bassfisher6522]

You should be able to access the internet with the USB bootable drive....mine does. To me this indicates a bad NIC which supports Superion suggestion of a bad mobo.

If you want to sink some money into it to see if it will work, the get a new NIC and install it, then use the Linux bootable drive and see if you can access the net.

As old as it is...it wouldn't be worth it to me. For you it may be a nice side project for a give away.

 

[_nobody_]

First time I've used Linux, the only problem was for some reason when I chose to try and load the internet, the computer froze on me to the point that I had to force shut it down with the power button. For some reason there is no reset on this machine. This happened 3 separate times, I hope that it's just Linux or maybe that it doesn't load the internet while working from a flash drive.

Let me try... :whistling:

Please, when you bring Linux up (from USB), launch xterm. Then, it depends all upon who are you (command whoami<cr>)?

If you have $ before cursor, you should issue the command: sudo su<CR>. If you have already #, please, skip issuing sudo su command.

I expect you'll get anyhow # prompt. Then, please, issue the following command:
# service network start<cr>
or
# service network restart<cr>

If you see [OK], U R All COOL. You'll have the network. :thumb:

If you see [fail], U R in trouble. :banghead:

Please, report your findings here.

Thank you,
_nobody_

 

[computersrkool]

Thanks again all of you for all your help and suggestions. I will try "nobody"s idea

Let me try...

Please, when you bring Linux up (from USB), launch xterm. Then, it depends all upon who are you (command whoami<cr>)?

If you have $ before cursor, you should issue the command: sudo su<CR>. If you have already #, please, skip issuing sudo su command.

I expect you'll get anyhow # prompt. Then, please, issue the following command:
# service network start<cr>
or
# service network restart<cr>

If you see [ OK], U R All COOL. You'll have the network.

If you see [ fail], U R in trouble.

Please, report your findings here.

Thank you,


first and see how that goes. I am again crossing my fingers but after some of your replies, I'm really starting to worry that it may be a bad motherboard.

Thanks again and I'll get back to you on how this all worked out, oh I actually have Linux Mint installed on a HDD in the computer now, and the computer still freezes, and now not just when I try to access the internet.

computersrkool

 

[computersrkool]

Sorry Superieron, I got so many responses after yours that I forgot about your suggestion and maybe that is the first thing I should try since it seems less complicated and may tell me what I don't really want to know.

Thanks again
computersrkool

 

[computersrkool]

Idk about you guys but this leads me to believe the motherboard is bad. You can test this by removing all RAM and see if you get an audible beep.

Hi I just removed all the Ram from my computer as you suggested in the above quote, and the computer gives a continuous beep.

Just wondering is this a good sign for my motherboard or a bad sign?


Thanks
computersrkool

 

[Superion]

Good sign as the motherboard detected a fault in POST. I'm rather curious about your PSU now since you report freezes out of pattern. Another easy troubleshoot if you may, you can check BIOS for correct PSU voltages since you say you can access BIOS fine. The volts you should report back are the 12v 5v 3.3v and Vcore inputs. You can either find these in the main menu or the monitoring section of your particular BIOS.

 

[bassfisher6522]

Now we know the mobo is 99% OK....and you can access the BIOS and the logo screen, which are all positive signs. I'm still betting on the HDD "WITH" an XP copy from some other system is the issue for not booting.

I bet if you had a blank HDD and did a clean install of XP (or one compatible w/that hardware) it would boot up perfectly fine.

 

[computersrkool]

This is to bassfisher6522, I'm not sure if you noticed in past messages, I did put a clean HDD in and now have Linux Mint installed on it. So I don't think that is my freezing issue, it was in fact my original (computer cycling on and off problem) though. It's not doing that since I replaced the HDD and installed Linux, now what it's doing is freezing up and I'm not able to do anything except shut it off by the power button. One thing I wonder is does anyone know shortcut keys in Linux, for resetting the computer when it freezes, I hate to have to keep shutting it down by the power button?


To Superion, I will try checking the BIOS for correct PSU voltages and once I do that I'll get back to you.

Thanks again
computersrkool

 

[_nobody_]

...now what it's doing is freezing up and I'm not able to do anything except shut it off by the power button...

Please, while you logged in, do the following:
[1] Please, run the top command, and after freezeeng post the final state of the top monitor (the best is to attach the final picture of the top);
[2] After rebooting, please, retrieve /var/log/messages file and post/attach it here, so I can inspect it.

Thank you,
_nobody_

 

[computersrkool]

Hi nobody, I am completely new to Linux and only am using it because I want to test this computer (that was left behind at my daughters house) to see if I can salvage it or any of it. I do not have any extra Windows keys to use so my daughter suggested trying Linux. So please bear with my ignorance when it comes to doing these kinds of things with it.

So what I am understanding by what you are saying is go to Terminal and type "top" excluding the quotation marks, then I will get a bunch of info about all the resources that are being used on the computer and how much each process is using.
Now comes the tricky part, I think you said to take a pic of what is on the screen once it freezes. Do you mean for me to stay in the "top" page until it freezes and then with a camera take a pic of what is on the screen, and then once I've done that restart and go to Terminal and type " /var/log/messages" and report that info to you. I will go ahead and try all of this, hoping that I have understood you correctly. I get back to you with my results.

computersrkool

 

[_nobody_]

Exactly what you wrote here: just issue top<cr>, and live the screen until it freezes. It'll shoe some stuff interactively, loads, number of active, sleep, zombie processes, etc. You can, while top active, press key 1 on keyboard, it'll show you number of all CPU cores operating...

Once it freezes, it would not change.

Then take one pic of it, entire screen. Then restart the PC, and then copy file message, which is in /var/log directory (file message).

This file will have previous session also recorded. It'll have time stamps of the logs.

The top command is explained here: Understanding the Top command on Linux – Linuxaria

Thank you,
_nobody_

 

[computersrkool]

Ok this is to "nobody" so I will attach a pic of what was on my screen while running "top" after my computer froze, by the way I did a bunch of different things trying to get it to freeze, and this time it didn't want to freeze except when I inserted a internet wifi stick and then tried to go onto the internet. I also will attach 2 files from the /var/log/messages.

Hopefully this is what you were looking for.




Thanks
computersrkool