Aspire V3-472P won't Boot

Hey,

I'm having some trouble with my Acer Aspire V3, the laptop will not boot. It gets just past the Acer splash screen then goes black & shuts down. It was originally running Windows 8 but was recently updated to Windows 10 thanks to the free update. It had been running fine on Windows 10 prior to this problem.

Here's what we've tried so far:

1. Startup repair - Couldn't repair it.

2. System Restore - Failed to restore.

3. Advanced startup options: Safe Mode - Was able to get to the lock screen of Windows 10, entered the password to bring up a blank screen.

3. Advanced startup options: Safe Mode with Command Prompt - Was able to get to the lock screen of Windows 10 again, entered the password to bring up a full screen CMD Prompt, after exiting CMD Prompt it brings it to a blank screen once again.

4. Windows Recovery - CMD Prompt - Tried chkdsk in CMD prompt, it failed. Tried to use disk utility to mark the Windows partition as active, said it couldn't be done and something about only being able to mark MBR Partitions as active.

5. System Reset - Tried a system reset with the "keep files" option, not sure if it completed successfully, but still won't boot.

6. Factory Reset - Tried a factory reset, this time I watched it, the progress made it to about 84% if I recall correctly, then the progress dissappeard before reaching 100%, a spinning wheel came up on the splash screen (loading wheel) and after a minute the screen went blank & the computer shut off once again.

I don't know what's going on, as I sat here writing this I have thought about it a little more and am wondering if it is possible that the partition some how got corrupted & is now not recognized as an MBR partition? IF that were the case shouldn't it still bring up the black screen saying "No operating system found" or something instead of shutting off right after the splash screen?

Second thing I was wondering is if the Factory reset installs on existing partitions, or if it erases & reformats the partition before installation? IF it doesn't reformat the partition then this could link with what I said above and maybe the reason why the Factory reset didn't work.

The final possibility running through my head is a hard drive failure. It seems odd to me because I was able to get it to half boot with safe mode, the hard drive shows up in CMD prompt & everywhere else, and it's literally only MONTHS old, the computer was bought in early 2015, March I think.

Please if anyone has ANY idea or suggestions, throw them at me.

Thanks a lot and sorry for the long post! Smiley Tongue

Accepted answers

All comments

IronFly

Have you tried to connect an external monitor or TV?

it doesn't look like an HDD or windows 10 fail, since you are able to boot to safe mode and reset your laptop; normally black or blank screen are graphic drivers issue and boot into safe mode let the desktop appears normally.

matthewharrison

Haven't tried that yet, and although we were able to get to the lock screen in safe mode, that was the end of it, it wasn't usable & the desktop stayed completely blank.

matthewharrison

I just cannot see it being a graphical issue.

IronFly

yes, i can understand your opinion but if the issue was still here after a new OS re-install.....

matthewharrison

The attempt to reinstall OS & Factory reset both failed, neither one would completely finish

IronFly

ok, so the problem is elsewhere, ram, HDD or some hardware issue.

if you know the HDD brand, you can try to download a bootable tool to test the HDD.

to test ram, memtest86+ is a classic tool.

matthewharrison

Ok cool, thanks for the info. I have another laptop so I think we will trying swapping HDD's and seeing what happens, will start tests after that if there's no luck.

matthewharrison

Ok, so I was able to get a fresh install on the old hard drive by completely wiping it & installing windows via usb. After installing the computer was able to boot again, but after a few minutes of running the laptop shuts down. The hard drive made noises with every percent that went up during the installation, didn't seem normal to me.

Next I pulled the hard drive out of an older laptop I have that is running Windows 10. Since it's an older laptop it doesn't have UEFI boot, so I had to switch my laptop to legacy to boot it. It booted fine & didn't shut off, but after a while the screen went crazy with a bunch of lines & colors and I think it was unresponsive if I remember correctly.

Next thing I tried was another hard drive with Windows 7 installed on it, this one booted fine & ran without any problems.

So I'm wondering if this could be a UEFI issue as it shows a message saying Windows 8 and above may not run properly when I switch it to legacy. Other thing I was thinking is maybe it's just a simple driver issue since it was setup on a whole different laptop?

Just wondering what anyone else's opinion is

IronFly

yes, settings Legacy from windows 7 and up, can create some weird issue like video corruption.

also switching HDD from one laptop to another without doing a clean install, can create slow downs or blue screen of death (blue error screen).

in my opinion the original HDD has some issues (the noise you heard is not a good thing), since the other you tried seems to work.

matthewharrison

Cool thanks, that's what I was hoping for, going to use one of the other HDD & do a complete wipe installing Windows using the new laptop, hopefully that will correct all issues.

matthewharrison

Well, different HDD & still shutting down. Doesn't throw a blue screen or anything, just immediately shuts down, wondering if maybe the heat sink compound could be gone or no good now? Had a Sony vaio that would shut down randomly like this & once I applied new heat sink compound it was fine.

IronFly

it can be but it's strange the on some HDD it worked without shutting down and others it shuts down.

matthewharrison

That's true, the HD it stayed running on was Windows 7, the Windows 10 ones would not stay running.

matthewharrison

I'm sitting here in safe mode without any shutdowns, as soon as I boot normally it shuts down very shortly after getting on desktop. Seems to me it's software related & has something to do with Windows 10. Haven't had problems like this on Windows 8.1, and as I said before, it ran fine on the Windows 7 HDD. I can't get it to run long enough to install any updates, and it doesn't throw a blue screen, is there any way to get some sort of error log file?

IronFly

so, at the end or you install windows 8.1 back or you can try a windows 10 clean install (without any old windows 8.1 drivers).

about log, you can check pressing

windows key logo + x

Event viewer

click on Windows log - System

and check about any error

matthewharrison

Seen this a couple times in the log before the shutdown occurs

The process C:\Windows\System32\RuntimeBroker.exe (DESKTOP-AM8GBEU) has initiated the restart of computer DESKTOP-AM8GBEU on behalf of user DESKTOP-AM8GBEU\Brandon for the following reason: Other (Unplanned)
Reason Code: 0x0
Shutdown Type: restart
Comment:

IronFly

i don't think it's the real issue, by the way:

http://www.tenforums.com/network-sharing/7907-runtime-broker-process.html

matthewharrison

Tried reverting to Windows 8, display fails, colors & lines through it everywhere, don't understand why it works fine in safemode & throughout the installers but will not boot regular.