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During this post please keep in mind that I can not reference to my laptop at this time (due to the issue explained below)
But first the basics:
Acer Aspire 5100
Vista OS (without SP1)
norton system works (current)
updates in question:
kb955069
kb954459
kb957097
kb936330
the story:
tuesday, i shut down my laptop, therefore installing the above already downloaded updates. foolishly thinking that vista could accomplish something on its own, i headed out to spend the night at my boyfriend's, assuming my laptop would take its updates and shut itself down like a good little machine.
wednesday- i come home from work, planning to hop online for a bit and discover my laptop is on, but the screen is off. i think, "weird" and i hit some keys/tap touchpad to wake the bugger up for a proper shutdown. nothing. hard-drop it, wait a minute or so, hit the power. pc turns on, hdd light comes on for 5 seconds and turns off, fan then idles down.
curse out loud, repeat attempt to startup laptop. many times.
curse, let laptop sit off 30 seconds, hit power, hold in f8. laptop boots, but not into safe mode as expected.
discovery: didn't connect to internet, check available networks, windows cant find any. roomie is online, so our network is up and i'm n range.
consult device manager: ethernet controller and network adapter have those blasted caution/warning arrows on them. ethernet controller as no drivers (?) and network adapter can not start. (on the way to device manager i noticed that control panel>system says processor and RAM unknown.)
use roomie's laptop to get drivers from acer.
copy files from cd onto c:\
attempt to load drivers through various means including, disable/enable device, unistall/scan for hardware changes. shutdown, startup between every thinkable stage.
call acer, confirm i have the correct files. (i do.)
check my intended updates, kb954459 failed. suspect some aspect of the failure caused my laptop to be "halfway on" when i got home.
use roomie's pc to redownload all updates attempted tuesday, install each one, one by one with shutdown/startup in between each.
*at this point i notice that sometimes my pc boots, sometimes i can get it to do so by holding f2 or f8, and sometimes it is a wash. notice it seems to be when i select restart vs shutdown from windows startup.
pass out at laptop, wake with keyboard waffle :/
thursday- attempt everything i did yesterday again, in non-sleepy highly redbulled state, with the addition of using a restore point created sunday. it doesn't work, but i now have the joy of re-installing all windows updates taken this week. took this chance to update to sp1 and removed norton and installed avast, first boot after installing avast, run system scan. results: negative. manually copied drivers into c:\windows\system32\drivers. laptop boots once, with some coaxing (f2 for setup, exit setup, continue on to boot.) shut down, foolishly choose restart, back to the black screen/partial turnon i originally experienced.
Thoughts? Solutions? Similiar experiences?
PS. when it does go to windows, my network adapter/ethernet controller come up as "found new hardware" but won't take drivers. even though i have the right files, they are not zipped/compressed and are saved locally vs. a cd vista tells me that it can not find the drivers.
But first the basics:
Acer Aspire 5100
Vista OS (without SP1)
norton system works (current)
updates in question:
kb955069
kb954459
kb957097
kb936330
the story:
tuesday, i shut down my laptop, therefore installing the above already downloaded updates. foolishly thinking that vista could accomplish something on its own, i headed out to spend the night at my boyfriend's, assuming my laptop would take its updates and shut itself down like a good little machine.
wednesday- i come home from work, planning to hop online for a bit and discover my laptop is on, but the screen is off. i think, "weird" and i hit some keys/tap touchpad to wake the bugger up for a proper shutdown. nothing. hard-drop it, wait a minute or so, hit the power. pc turns on, hdd light comes on for 5 seconds and turns off, fan then idles down.
curse out loud, repeat attempt to startup laptop. many times.
curse, let laptop sit off 30 seconds, hit power, hold in f8. laptop boots, but not into safe mode as expected.
discovery: didn't connect to internet, check available networks, windows cant find any. roomie is online, so our network is up and i'm n range.
consult device manager: ethernet controller and network adapter have those blasted caution/warning arrows on them. ethernet controller as no drivers (?) and network adapter can not start. (on the way to device manager i noticed that control panel>system says processor and RAM unknown.)
use roomie's laptop to get drivers from acer.
copy files from cd onto c:\
attempt to load drivers through various means including, disable/enable device, unistall/scan for hardware changes. shutdown, startup between every thinkable stage.
call acer, confirm i have the correct files. (i do.)
check my intended updates, kb954459 failed. suspect some aspect of the failure caused my laptop to be "halfway on" when i got home.
use roomie's pc to redownload all updates attempted tuesday, install each one, one by one with shutdown/startup in between each.
*at this point i notice that sometimes my pc boots, sometimes i can get it to do so by holding f2 or f8, and sometimes it is a wash. notice it seems to be when i select restart vs shutdown from windows startup.
pass out at laptop, wake with keyboard waffle :/
thursday- attempt everything i did yesterday again, in non-sleepy highly redbulled state, with the addition of using a restore point created sunday. it doesn't work, but i now have the joy of re-installing all windows updates taken this week. took this chance to update to sp1 and removed norton and installed avast, first boot after installing avast, run system scan. results: negative. manually copied drivers into c:\windows\system32\drivers. laptop boots once, with some coaxing (f2 for setup, exit setup, continue on to boot.) shut down, foolishly choose restart, back to the black screen/partial turnon i originally experienced.
Thoughts? Solutions? Similiar experiences?
PS. when it does go to windows, my network adapter/ethernet controller come up as "found new hardware" but won't take drivers. even though i have the right files, they are not zipped/compressed and are saved locally vs. a cd vista tells me that it can not find the drivers.
This post has been edited by dorkthe3rd: 13 November 2008 - 07:13 PM
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