Questions about Acer Recovery (long story, simple question)

Hey there,

I recently ran into a rather annoying problem with my Acer Aspire 7560G laptop. First off, I hope this is the correct section to be asking question about this particular model, if not please forgive me. Also, for TL;DR scroll down to bottom.

The issue I was having was that programs would fail/refuse to launch. Opening Zune, Steam, or even just trying to open a picture in Windows Photo Viewer either did nothing at all, or the program would look like it was starting only to then disappear completely (sometimes, but not often, accompanied by an error message saying the program has stopped working). The laptop still boots up fine, I can browse my directories, acces the internet, run some programs but not others (Bluestacks Android Emulator works fine, for example). I decides the easiest thing for me to do was to factory reset. Boy was I mistaken.

I have backed up all of my personal files to an external hard drive, so the laptop is ready to be reset. First problem I ran into was that doing anything during start-up prompted me for a BIOS password. I didn't set one, so it must have been the default, and it was not really all that hard to get rid off (I used a bootable USB drive with clnpwd, just followed instructions). So then I got into the BIOS, but every time I get alt+f10 to work and load up the recovery manager, it prompts a message stating I need to wait for the OS to load. After which the laptop boots, and nothing changes.

I found out I probably do not have the Acer eRecovery utilities installed any more, because I had to replace a faulty HDD a while back. So at this point, I attempted to get these files from https://store.acer.com/en-us/extended/recovery/ No such luck. When entering my serial or SNID, it always returns "We could not find the serial number you entered". Uppercase or lower case don't make a difference. I'm sure the number I entered is correct, though, because when I use it to search at http://www.acer.com/ac/en/GB/content/drivers it finds my laptop model immediately. So what gives? I'm not sure.

If I'm unable to obtain Acer recovery media soon, I might have to resort to completely re-installing my OS (Windows 7 Home Premium) for that device. Problem there is that I do not have a disc for it. I was thinking about downloading an ISO and copying that to a bootable USB drive, so I went over to Microsoft's website https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7 I found the product key with a simple .vbs file, but alas, since the OS was pre-installed, that won't help me. At this point, I'm finding myself unable to re-acquire both Acer's recovery methods as well as Microsoft's. If that doesn't change, I might have to resort to downloading some Windows 7 disc ****, but I'm not too happy about that prospect for obvious reasons. I don't even know if I could activate that with my product code, and I don't trust these "cracks".

SO,

My question is: how do I acquire Acer eRecovery Media when they tell me "We could not find the serial number you entered". Should that prove impossible, do you know of a safe way to reinstall my OS using my product key?

Thanks in advance, I hope I can get this mess sorted out.

Accepted answers

El_Pinguin_Loco

Customer support was no help, in the end they just referred me to a local retailer and gave me an estimate on time and money it would take to get things resolved. Too long and too expensive, but that's just my opinion. I'm just going to go ahead and clean install my OS.

Found this mirror that has the ISO files archived: http://mirror.corenoc.de/digitalrivercontent.net/ I'll verify the SHA-1 checksum just to be sure, but they should be perfectly clean. With Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool?wa=wsignin1.0) I can create a bootable USB drive, and after that it'll simply be a matter of following instructions.

Kinda muffed that I couldn't get this issue resolved, but hey, I was planning on factory resetting anyways. I'll get rid of all bloatware and possible malware in one fell swoop this way, so whatever works, right?

I've downloaded everything from http://www.acer.com/ac/en/GB/content/drivers for my device (because there, my SNID did work) to be extra safe. ISO file is almost done downloading, I'll probably make one final post here when everything is set and done. That way, should anyone ever find this thread, they'll know what might work.

Thanks for your efforts, but alas, they were of no avail.

All comments

JackE

Open the adminstrator command prompt. Enter WMIC BIOS GET SERIALNUMBER > SNID.TXT. Then open snid.txt with Notepad in whatever Windows subdirectory the command prompt originally opened to. Copy the serial number and paste it on the Acer erecovery media site. This helps avoid any possible keystroke transcription errors.

Jack E/NJ

El_Pinguin_Loco

Just to be sure I tried your suggestion, but as expected that did not work. As I've stated, the serial number or SNID works to get drivers and such, just not for the eRecovery. And seeing how Acer System Information has a build in copy to clipboard function, I had pretty much already ruled out keystroke errors.

Thank you for your response, but the problem really does not seem to lie with human error in entering the SNID. For some reason, it is not recognized for eRecovery Media.

A buddy of mine has a windows 7 disc, I'll probably have to use his if this thread doesn't offer up any actual sollutions.

JackE

First, try calling 877-615-6833 and report the problem in purchasing erecovery media for your machine. Report back on success or lack thereof in getting this resolved.

Jack E/NJ

El_Pinguin_Loco

Customer support was no help, in the end they just referred me to a local retailer and gave me an estimate on time and money it would take to get things resolved. Too long and too expensive, but that's just my opinion. I'm just going to go ahead and clean install my OS.

Found this mirror that has the ISO files archived: http://mirror.corenoc.de/digitalrivercontent.net/ I'll verify the SHA-1 checksum just to be sure, but they should be perfectly clean. With Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool?wa=wsignin1.0) I can create a bootable USB drive, and after that it'll simply be a matter of following instructions.

Kinda muffed that I couldn't get this issue resolved, but hey, I was planning on factory resetting anyways. I'll get rid of all bloatware and possible malware in one fell swoop this way, so whatever works, right?

I've downloaded everything from http://www.acer.com/ac/en/GB/content/drivers for my device (because there, my SNID did work) to be extra safe. ISO file is almost done downloading, I'll probably make one final post here when everything is set and done. That way, should anyone ever find this thread, they'll know what might work.

Thanks for your efforts, but alas, they were of no avail.

JackE

Hope it works out for you. I'm not sure if the MS tool will work as before or at all now that its *official* digitalriver isos have "officially" disappeared for free downloading from the web. I suppose Rufus will work OK in that case. I'm also not sure how easy it's gonna be to link the MS registration/validation process with the Acer SNID now either Good luck.

Jack E/NJ

El_Pinguin_Loco

Whoops, forgot to post that last update. Anyways, I'm writing this from the Acer laptop, and so far everything seems to be working fine.

If anyone out there wants to replicate this 'solution', the MS tool works fine with the ISOs from that website, since they are the official ISOs. MS took them down from their own servers, but some German hero collected loads of them and put them back up. You can always check the hash to be sure.

Only thing I can tell you beyond that as advice is be sure to download drivers to a USB drive beforehand. Makes life a lot easier. This fix will get rid of them, so keep that in mind. Examples: My resolution changed after I did this, but a quick video driver update reverted everything back to normal. Without drivers, you won't be able to acces wireless internet. And so on.