Windows 8 Bricked itself

We just received our new Aspire V3-772G 7448 Laptop yesterday afternoon. We fiddled with it for a little while and turned it off. This morning my wife turned it on and things weren't behaving correctly (we'd start an app and it would appear to start, but the window wouldn't show; task manager would report the app running), so we restarted it. On shutdown, it said it was working on updates so we went away and ignored it for a while. When we came back, all we had was a black screen. I tried killing power and starting it up again, but no joy.

So, being a Linux guy myself, I got my trusty Kubuntu 14.10 USB stick and restarted with it. It fired up into Kubuntu in less than 2 minutes (after I fixed the boot priority) without a problem. Given this I'm confident it's not a H/W problem and something went wrong during the update.

I discovered how to get to the system recovery and troubleshooting tools the Windows provides, but doing a system restore didn't help and I need an image to recover the system from an image. Best I can tell, Acer doesn't bother to supply one with their computers any more.

Can anyone ofer any suggestions as to how I might get this beast back on it's feet? So far I'm totaly unimpressed with Win8 and this performance hasn't helped.

Thanks.

Bill

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IronFly

Have you tried to press ALT+F10 at boot?

this will start the Acer recovery tool to refresh or reinstall the OS.

luggw1

OK, I just tried it. It gets me to the same tools as when Windows realizes it didn't boot correctly the last time it (didn't) start. I chose Troubleshoot | Advanced Options | System Image Recovery. It asked for an account and I selected the only one on the machine and entered the password. It then came back stating that it couldn't find an image on the machine and wants me to point it to a network location for an image.

That's where I'm stuck. I'm not aware of a place on the HDD where Acer puts an image to recover from or a network location to point it at, so I'm dead in the water.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

IronFly

Pleae boot to BIOS pressing F2 and check if D2D is enabled.

luggw1

Yes, D2D is enabled.

philetus

Do a Alt F10 again and get to the command prompt. Run this command:"del %windir%\system32\fntcache.dat" without the quotation marks.Reboot.

luggw1

Well, I went to the machine to enter the command above and it had apparently gone to sleep. I pushed the power button to wake it up (nothing else would get it to respond), but that dind't help, so I cycled power. Now when I boot and do an Alt-F10 I get the following:

Your PC couldn't turn off properly
The PC needs to be repaired
A required device is not connected or cannot be accessed

Error code: 0xc0000185

You'll need the recovery tools on the installation media...

I checked the BIOS info and the HDD is still where it was. I just can't imagine what Win8 has done to itself. I haven't checked since this latest error, but as I saide earlier, it boot Linux with no problem. so it does appear to be an OS issue. If Acer would just send a stinking DVD with their computers, they'd probably have a lot of happier customers.

Anyway, any thoughts on where I go from here?

Thanks.

philetus

Did you get any windows updates lately?

IronFly

in the Advanced options there's any Automatic Repair options, if so try to start it.

If that does not help, then select Command Prompt. Enter the following four commands into the prompt.

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /scanos
bootrec /rebuildbcd

Once the command completes, restart the computer.

luggw1

Yes, that's what got me to where I am now. The update process didn't finish and ended in a black screen. It has since degenerated to what I described above.

philetus

Will it still boot from your Linix? If you don't have one you can sign up at Technet and download a 90 eval of windows 8.

Boot from that and

http://www.kapilarya.com/how-to-fix-error-0xc000000f-the-boot-selection-failed-because-a-required-device-is-inaccessible

luggw1

Understand that at this point I can't even get to a place to select an option to display a command prompt. The first think it comes up with when I select Alt-F10 is the error I described above.

If there's some other way to get to a command prompt, I'll need that info to get started.

Thanks.

philetus

Are you able to return the computer? You said you just got it new.

luggw1

Yes, it still boots Linux. I'm going to try what you suggested - downloading an eval copy of Win8. If that doesn't work we may well consider returning it for a new one.

philetus

ok good luck!

luggw1

Well, the trial version of Win8 got me to a command prompt successfully. I ran the commands that were listed in a couple of the previous posts. The bootrec /scanos command returned a message stating that 0 windows installations were found. This is strange since I was previously able to delete fontcache.dat from the windows system32 directory.

At any rate, it's going back to Amazon for a replacement.

The sad part of all this is that this could have been solved so simply by including the OS media with the computer at delivery either as a DVD or on another partition. Instead, Amazon is going to pay shipping to get this one back to them, a new one to us and to return this one to the factory just to reinstall the OS. Then it will get sold as a refurb at a reduced price - everybody looses in the end - except Microsoft, I guess.

That's why I switched to Linux in 1993...and I've never looked back.

Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it.

philetus

Acer actually does include the recovery media. You just have to burn it to disks or a USB drive. I bought a used Acer recently and made the disks and they have already came in handy.

PenguinJim

It's the risk you take when you buy a second-hand laptop without any of the literature included.

If you'd bought it boxed and complete, it would have included the 2-page "Acer Setup Guide", and under the Recovery section it very clearly spells out that you need to create your own restore media.

In cases where people don't read the setup guide, the sad part is that this could all have been solved so simply by them not assuming they were an expert on everything, and reading the simplistic instructions (with pictures!) that came with the laptop. Everybody loses in the end because the consumer didn't take a few seconds to read the setup instructions.

Amazon really do offer very generous support, though. I've heard of several cases where they accept returns even when it's the customer's fault for either buying the wrong item or not following the instructions properly.

luggw1

I did buy it boxed and complete as a new computer from Amazon. I poured over all the literature looking for something that I might have missed and could find no reference to the creation of recovery media. This surprised me as I remember the need to do this with previous versions of the OS.

I certainly do not consider myself an expert with Windows since I seldom use it anymore. Further the machine died soon after we received it while it was attempting to perform automatic updates. I literally wouldn't have had enough time to create the recovery media anyway.

Perhaps you would do well to get all the facts before you begin insulting fellow contributors.

PenguinJim

Ah, you have the manual and the quick guide for your V3-772G? I wasn't trying to be insulting - I thought your laptop must have been missing the documentation.

Quick Recovery Guide: "Quick Guide" Page 2.

Full Recovery Details: V3-772G Manual Page 40.

But if you haven't found those, then you're missing both the Quick Guide and the Manual.

Edit: the part that's quite important is probably:

"Important: We recommend that you create a Recovery Backup

and Drivers and Applications Backup and as soon as possible.

In certain situations a full recovery will require a USB recovery

backup."

It's too late for you, of course, but for other new users, you should read the setup instructions when receiving any new laptop. "We just received our new Aspire V3-772G 7448 Laptop yesterday afternoon. We fiddled with it for a little while and turned it off." - new users, before fiddling, read the setup guide to correctly charge and prepare the laptop. Don't "fiddle with it" until you've completed all of the setup steps and created your Recovery media.

HTH.

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