Changing SATA mode on Acer Aspire 5 A515-51G-37K9

124

Answers

  • VyZi
    VyZi Member Posts: 55 Troubleshooter
    edited September 2021
    I don't really get what is this dang laptop's problem anymore, the only system I could boot was XP so I entered the Windows 7 setup and ran CMD to fix the bootloader and typed in
    bootrec /fixmbr
    bootrec /fixboot
    bootrec /rebuildbcd

    Looks like this has completely destroyed my MBR, as the only thing I get when booting from the drive is the text "A disk error has occurred" some 2 weird symbols and a note, also a beep from the motherboard

    That shouldn't just happen like that right? It's impossible for a drive to just instantly break by Rebuilding the BCD
  • VyZi
    VyZi Member Posts: 55 Troubleshooter
    After some trial and error I managed to fix the drive error and am currently installing Windows 7, just inside Windows 10 as it seems impossible to do from boot on this laptop, after that I need to use EasyBCD so I'm sure nothing will break, then install drivers on borh XP and 7, and everything is finally done!
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,870 Trailblazer
    Answer ✓
    Congrats on your success. :)

    Jack E/NJ

  • VyZi
    VyZi Member Posts: 55 Troubleshooter
    JackE said:
    Congrats on your success. :)
    Thank you very much, that wouldn't be possible if not your help! 
  • VyZi
    VyZi Member Posts: 55 Troubleshooter
    Everything works perfectly, however networking on Windows 7 doesn't work, and not a single driver helped
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,870 Trailblazer
    If you can connect it to the router with an ethernet cable, the download and install iobit's Driver Booster freeware to see if it can find a wifi card driver.

    Jack E/NJ

  • VyZi
    VyZi Member Posts: 55 Troubleshooter
    It doesn't work with ethernet either
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,870 Trailblazer
    If the wifi and ethernet adapters work in XP, then install the XP drivers in Win7's XP compatibility mode.

    Jack E/NJ

  • VyZi
    VyZi Member Posts: 55 Troubleshooter
    JackE said:
    If the wifi and ethernet adapters work in XP, then install the XP drivers in Win7's XP compatibility mode.
    Alot of the drivers in XP don't work, including these, I don't really know what to do, I tried official as well as unofficial drivers and nothing works
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,870 Trailblazer
    Did you try to press the FN+F3 toggle key combo just in case network hardware is turned off?

    Jack E/NJ

  • VyZi
    VyZi Member Posts: 55 Troubleshooter
    JackE said:
    Did you try to press the FN+F3 toggle key combo just in case network hardware is turned off?
    Tried that, no luck tho, I don't need networking in XP, but it would be cool to have it in 7 as this eill be my main OS
  • VyZi
    VyZi Member Posts: 55 Troubleshooter
    Even tried drivers made specifically for the network card I have, also no luck
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,870 Trailblazer
    You're most likely to get earilier drivers for the RealTek ethernet adapter by google searching the keywords "RTL8411B" "drivers" "windows 7". If you can get ethernet working, finding alternate online wifi drivers using DriverBooster might be possible.

    Jack E/NJ

  • VyZi
    VyZi Member Posts: 55 Troubleshooter
    edited September 2021
    JackE said:
    You're most likely to get earilier drivers for the RealTek ethernet adapter by google searching the keywords "RTL8411B" "drivers" "windows 7". If you can get ethernet working, finding alternate online wifi drivers using DriverBooster might be possible.

    Still no luck, getting the "Windows did not detect any networking hardware" error, also it installs as "Realtek PCIE CardReader" under Memory technology driver
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,870 Trailblazer
    Try the Lenovo drivers.

    Jack E/NJ

  • VyZi
    VyZi Member Posts: 55 Troubleshooter
    Aight so my Xiaomi phone has a function to send WIFI via USB, I took advantage of that, plugged my phone in, logged in to my Komputer Świat acoount and installed Driver Booster 8 Pro, it took about a hour but now internet works perfectly, typing this from Windows 7 right now :D

    Again, thank you very much for your help!
  • VyZi
    VyZi Member Posts: 55 Troubleshooter
    edited September 2021
    Even though with all the drivers, alot of games and programs, even made specifically for Windows 7, aren't working, and if they run, they crash after about 3 minutes, turns out this laptop is just absolute trash, no system works without errors, still wondering why the hell they manufacture laptops that only support Windows 10 with specs that can barely run it, either way I'm extremely disappointed and it seems that this laptop is just useless, well maybe if I throw another $700 for upgrades, but I can get a thousand times better PC for that price, not gonna lie, it kinda sucks to see that all the work has probably gone to waste, I don't wanna hate on Acer but dang...
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,870 Trailblazer
    Sorry, your machine and its hardware should be fully capable of running Win10 and any other UEFI compatible OS just fine. You're trying to forcefit MBR based legacy BIOS OSes that are no longer supported by Microsoft or any of the other major consumer based hardware manufacturers. Legacy BIOS is being phased out and soon only UEFI bootstrap will be available in almost all consumer oriented machines. If you want a modern laptop like the A515-51G that can be easily set up with nearly the same look, feel and functionality as the old Win7 and WinXP, you should consider LinuxMint and the WINE overlay for running Windows apps that used to run fine with older laptops running obsolete Windows versions.

    Jack E/NJ

  • VyZi
    VyZi Member Posts: 55 Troubleshooter
    edited January 2022
    It's been some time since I've posted here, I've got Windows 7 to work perfectly about 3 months ago and everything was good, unfortunately 3 days ago my drive seems to have died out of nowhere, I don't really have any idea what to do, kinda sad to be honest, as everything was working perfectly to that time
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,870 Trailblazer
    Sorry about that. But all you have to do is do exactly whatever you did 3 mos ago to get Win7 working perfectly. And it would be interesting if you could also reveal exactly how you did it for the benefit of other users who would also like to get Win7 working perfectly on the newer A5 series. Thanks.

    Jack E/NJ