acer aspire 5742 goes from black screen to screen that says acer enter f2 for startup then back to

My acer aspire 5742 won't startup correctly, it goes from a black screen to a screen that says acer enter f2 for startup, then alternates between those two screens.

Right this moment I have managed to get it going and am in the processing of backing it up to an external hardrive.

I rang acer support and they told me this is due to me installing windows 10 (about six months ago) and even though it appeared to be fine it has been corrupting the (motherboard? i think that's what she said). the lady told me I have to restore the laptop to factory settings.

Can someone please confirm to me that this is what I do need to do?

Accepted answers

JackE

The fact that you were able to boot normally after F2 into the bios menu, F9 to re-set the bios to factory default, then F10 to save this default bios setting, ***strongly*** suggests that the bios was losing it's memory of the specific hard drive that was installed.

Jack E/NJ

All comments

JackE

Rosey--Please don't post new threads if it's the same failed Win10 install we discussed in earlier threads. I usually won't automatically see new threads unless I search for them. You still haven't responded to the questions I had a day or so ago in the earlier thread. Thanks.

Jack E/NJ

Rosey

Hi.

Sorry, I didn't know that asking in one post -

'Windows 10 incompatible with acer aspire 5742' -

Can anyone tell me what the consequences are from running windows 10 on an acer aspire 5742 that was originally had windows7 installed?

and the other post -

'Acer erecovery management (v7.7.3) acer aspire 5742' -

How long does it take for the 'restore operating system and retain user data' generally take? etc'

would be classifed as the same topic.

Anyway, the recovery process got to something ridiculous like 70+ hours then the computer just shut down.

I retarted it and attempted to do the same 'restore operating system and retain user data' but the same issue happened, getting stuck on the same stage.

So i closed it down then did the reset to factory settings, that appeared to work fine, then I transfered my data from an external hardrive over. Everything seemed to be working ok until this morning when I opened the lid (hadn't shut it down last night), the same screens alternated again - the black one, then the acer hit f2 for setup options.

I turned it off then restarted it and the same thing happened. I closed the lid and a couple of hours opened it again and it restarted itself (without me telling it to) and is now working normally.

But obviousy something is still wrong.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for your help

JackE

>>>would be classifed as the same topic.>>>

You are correct as to the ***same topic*** classification. However the problem is that if you don't post your response on the ***same email thread or subject matter***, I won't get an automatic email notification from the ACER server that you in fact have responded.

Now on to your starting problem. Try this for a few days. At the end of your computing sessions for the day, shut down Win7 normally but do NOT close the lid. Check to see if you still have these odd startup problems with the lid kept open.

Report back on this ***same email thread or subject***, do NOT reply on a ***new thread or subject***

Jack E/NJ

Rosey

Hi. I messgaed you back but it got saved instead of posted. Anyway, I'm still having the same problem, although its not happening as often.

I'll try and explain what's happening clearer than previous times.

When trying to start the computer, it starts up, the screen goes on and the fan starts humming but it only goes as far as the acer screen then it turns off, then tries to restart again and it keeps doing it over and over. This happens when the power cord is plugged in and even when its not.

when I hold the power button down until i hear it click off (10seconds) when its on the acer screen it just keeps turning off and on.

when i hold the power button down until i hear it click off (10seconds) when its turned off it stays off but when i push the button to start it, it just keeps turning off and on.

When i close the lid when the acer screen is on, it keeps doing the same thing (the fan hums and the oower light turns off and on)

when i close the lid when its turned off (by itself when trying to start then turns off) it keeps turning off and on.

when i push the f2 key over and over as its starting up after ive turned it off manually, it makes a beeping noise then continues with turning itself off and on.

Any advice? Its been completely restored to factory settings

JackE

>>>after ive turned it off manually, it makes a beeping noise then continues with turning itself off and on.>>>

This beeping "noise" after a manual shutdown (aka cold boot) are actually beep error "codes". It's important for you to note the beep sequence (for example, 3 short beeps followed by one long beep OR 3 long beeps OR some other such sequence) The beep code sequence indicates which basic hardware component or components (for example, the hard drive, the video adapter, the keyboard, the screen, etc) is preventing the Windows operating system from starting up normally.

So please try to describe this beep code sequence on doing a cold boot (aka manual shutdown by pressing and holding the power button till the machine shuts off, then repress the power button to turn the machine back on.

Jack E/NJ

Rosey

The beep noise only happens after ive been pushing the f2 button up and down from starting it, theres no noise until the screen changes from the acer screen with enter f2 for start up to the acer screen with please wait written down the bottom. The beep only happens when i push the f2 button down. When i take my finger off the f2 key the beep stops.

i rang acer and they got me to take the battery out then put it back in then start it up, push f2 repeatedly, it did the same as above, then i turned it off then back on, did the f2 thing then a screen came up with a whole lot of instructions, the man told me to press f9 then enter thenf10 then enter, and then the computer started as normal. And all of my data was still there.

the next time i tried to restart it, it went back to turning off and on. I removed the battery then restarted and it turned on correctly. The next time i had to remove the battery and it got as far as the windows screen then froze.

i havent used it again because it seems to me that its not stable enough to use and in laymans terms, has been dying a slow death and has now died.

the acer man said that something isnt able to detect the hard drive. Sorry, i don't rememebr what the something was.

JackE

The Acer man had you press F2 to get into a basic input and output (bios) section of your computer. This section detects your hard drive size among other things. When he had you press F9, it re-sets the bios section to factory settings. Then pressing F10 saves these default settings, exits the bios menu and allows you to boot normally.

The problem is that when you shut the machine off or the main battery is low, there is a small button battery inside that is supposed to keep the bios settings from changing. This button battery is probably weak and sometimes allows the bios settings to change especially if the main battery gets low. When this happens, you can re-set the bios in the same manner as the Acer man had you do above.

This small button battery should probably be changed but is sometimes difficult and expensive to do so by a qualified service technican. In the meantime, you can usually get back up and running by re-setting the bios to factory settings as above.

Jack E/NJ

bdrichards

I have a similar problem but when I repeateadly enter F2 (for BIOS settings change) or F12 (for select a boot device menu) it says for f2 "please wait…" or for f12 "entering boot selection menu…" and never enters either of the menus, it simply crashes and restarts on a loop.

What should I do?

P.S. it gives no beep sequences during the boot process, I just hear something clicking off like it is disengaging some mechanism and inmediately that it does that clicking sound it restarts.

JackE

bdr>>>P.S. it gives no beep sequences during the boot process, I just hear something clicking off like it is disengaging some mechanism and inmediately that it does that clicking sound it restarts.>>>

This symptom seems more like a hard disk crash. If you have a bootable DVD to place in the tray, you might want to try to boot from it using the F12 key if necessary. A long shot, but you could also try the Alt+F10 boot erecovery method to try to access and repair the hard disk from its hidden recovery partition.

Jack E/NJ

bdrichards

I have since doing my initial post tried F12 to go through the Boot Selection Menu and the result is the same, restarts on a loop. I have also tried left-ALT + F10 for the erecovery partition with the same results, restarts on a loop. My next diagnostic step is, because I have the same suspicion of a, and I quote, JackE wrote: "…This symptom seems more like a hard disk [failure or] crash" is the removal of the factory included hard drive, attach to a SATA/3.5 IDE/5.25 IDE to USB adapter, connect it to a Mac Book Pro running Mac OS X El Capitan and through Windows 10 Pro

Via VMWare Fuse virtualization software, assign the new USB connected device to Windows, and run the diagnostics on the hard drive that way. In the meantime install a compatible laptop based hard drive from another machine that I know is fully operational so as to attempt a clean install of Windows 7, drivers and BIOS firmware update to see if I can get it running. If that fails I will install Windows 7 via VMWare to said compatible laptop hard drive by assigning the whole external drive to a new virtual machine, followed by a boot manager, such that the acer laptop can recognize the boot manager and at least attempt a boot into Windows.

Is there any way to force boot through a bootable USB or bootable live Linux CD without using the F12 key such as to bypass the boot selection menu similar to the "press C key" before the chime of a Mac while booting it up. Examples of this behavior can be found at Startup key combinations for Mac - Apple Support.

JackE

>>>Is there any way to force boot through a bootable USB >>>

If you've got a bootable stick with an activity LED, you could try powering down then press & hold the Fn+Esc combo then power up again. Let go of the Fn+Esc keys if and when the activity LED hopefully begins.

Jack E/NJ

bdrichards

At present I do not have any kind of pen drive with activity LED of my own but friends and family do of suffiecient capacity to hold Windows 7. I hope they can lend me one for this diagnostic and repair process, otherwise I would have to buy one somewhere.

P.S. Does the bootable stick/pen drive have to be loaded with Windows or can it be a lightweight live Linux with no GUI but just the tools to run hardware diagnostics in a shell a.k.a. terminal or command-line mode. If so I have some older pen drives of around 128 to 512 MB that do have activity LED, on which I could install a lightweight single-user (root) live Linux kernel with command line mode enabled for auto-login…

JackE

You could try it without the LED. Press and hold the Fn+Esc for a few seconds after the laptop's LEDs light up and see what happens. The bootstick should be OK with a Linux command line boot. It could also be formatted to FAT32 with a DOS boot. Command line navigation seems more useful at this point than a GUI anyway.

Jack E/NJ

Rosey

Hi Jack.

i rang three different places for quotes to get the cmos battery changed. Two of the three places said it can't be that battery because the time doesnt need resetting after I've gone through the remove battery,f2, f9, f10 sequence.

I gave the laptop to a different repair shop and have been told that its not the cmos battery, its the fan, its been overheating and has damaged the harddrive. They quoted $350NZD to fix it. I didint tell them that i have had problems with the fan.

Theres a special on at the moment for a laptop, 15.6", 1.8ghz, 8gb ram, 1tb hardrive for $617NZD. So its probably not worth fixing it because 1. what if its not the fan and still needs the cmos battery replaced? and 2. At least a new computer will have a warranty for 12 months, i cant be guaranteed that something else will go wrong with it. What are your thoughts?

One other thing, the computer does have a problem of over heating, I've taken it back to one shop three times over the last three years about it, but they kept telling me that it was normal and implied I was being a dramtic female! I learnt that I needed to place the laptop on top of a cooling fan and as soon as it would get too hot i would close it down, this stopped it from getting so hot it would shut down. It hadnt shut itself down due to heat for at least two years because i was always vigilent about it.

sSorry if you needed this information earlier, ive been going along the lines of what acer told me and that the starting problem is to do with installing windows 10 because it was silently corrupting the motherboard.

JackE

Hi Rosey---Windows, when connected to the internet, has an automatic time synchronizer that will correctly re-set the local time every so often.

But it does seem like you were having other issues. Accordingly, I agree that it'd probably be best to look into a new machine. I suggest that you check http://amazon-new-zealand.com/ for comparison shopping before making a final decision on what and where to purchase.

Good luck

Jack E/NJ

Rosey

Thanks for the link. I'll look into it.

One final thing, do you think the problem I had with the starting was due to installing windows 10?

JackE

The fact that you were able to boot normally after F2 into the bios menu, F9 to re-set the bios to factory default, then F10 to save this default bios setting, ***strongly*** suggests that the bios was losing it's memory of the specific hard drive that was installed.