Acer V5-551 will not boot anything

apilcherx
apilcherx Member Posts: 7

Tinkerer

I have an Acer Aspire V5-551. It was upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 8. I tried a windows system reset because it had a lot of junk on it and I wanted to start fresh. Half way through the reset the PC said it had failed. My only option was to click "OK". It rebooted and then would not boot past the Acer logo. I let it sit for an hour or two like this. I then decided to reinstall Windows 10 fresh from USB. Same thing. I tried a DVD as well. Still frozen. I then removed the hdd and tried a different one that was brand new. Same thing. When I remove all the drives and USB drives and DVDs it says there is no bootable device. When I plug in just a USB install drive or just a Windows 10 install DVD it freezes. It seems nothing will boot at all. I tried some other boot media like a live linux disc and Hirens but nothing will boot. 

 

Here's the kicker. I saw on some other forums that setting the BIOS to Legacy would help with this. I press F2 to get into the BIOS and it says "ENTER CURRENT PASSWORD". I never even set one on the BIOS. I never set one on the BIOS on any of my machines. 

 

I either need to:

 

1. Find a way to boot something, anything at this point

2. Get a default BIOS password or get the password somehow

3. Clear the CMOS somehow (removing the battery on the motherboard for a few hours did nothing)

4. Trash it. 

 

I don't want to go with #4 because it was JUST working. Does anyone have any tips or similar experience?

Answers

  • apilcherx
    apilcherx Member Posts: 7

    Tinkerer

    Here are some images of various stages of troubleshooting http://imgur.com/a/G7rhO 

  • sharky25k
    sharky25k Member Posts: 473 Skilled Practitioner WiFi Icon

    The BIOS reset is usually not made by taking out the CMOS battery.

     

    Usually there is a pair of jumpers which should be shorted in order to reset the BIOS passwords.

    In my experience these jumpers are usually under the RAM sticks, but I have no idea which of the jumpers should be shorted. You will need somebody who has access to the service manual to tell you exactly the code of the jumper. and the exact steps. Be careful, don't try to randomly short some jumpers under the DIMM slots, because you can simply screw things up.