Need some netbook help

[Peter]

This is a strange one. My netbook is going nuts. I cannot access the bios menu or boot menu to do a system recovery. Windows 7 boots up way too fast, and loads to the password screen to enter Windows. But the keyboard keys are not working correctly and some even enter two letters with one press of a key. Also the mouse pressure sensor doesnt work.

I am stumped and if this is broken, i am fucked

[silent killer]

If the keyboard on the laptop doesn't work, tried using a usb keyboard?
Next, maybe get a windows recovery disc and do a restore from there. I realize a netbook may not have come with a recovery disc and it probably has it's own partition in boot; which is next to useless now. Unless you want to cough up $20 to the manufacturer and wait a few weeks, I'd find a torrent for a windows disc.
but first I'd get that keyboard fixed, or get a replacement for it, and see if that works.

[Giorgio]

I am not an expert, but I think it has something to do with the processor clock...

I am on Windows XP, so I do not know if the following is applicable to 7, too:
"Window's Start Button"(=the one on the keyboard) + "Pause/Break" button => (it opens the System Properties window) => go to the Advanced tab => Startup and Recovery => click Settings => (it opens the Startup and Recovery window) => at System Startup, click Edit => it will show something like this:

Code: Select all

[Boot Loader]
timeout=1
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin /usepmtimer


Try to change the "timeout=" to something like 30.

I do not know if it will help, but it is a try...

[MiTT3NZ]

^This. I can offer remote assistance of sorts if you have another system you can use and show your netbook's screen via webcam or some shit.

[Peter]

Right so i have had no joy with this at all. I cant select anything, all i can do is turn the thing on and it brings up a windows boot menu asking me to select an operating system to boot, with the only option being Windows 7 (which is corrupt anyways). Keyboard and pressure pad doesnt work, and wireless keyboard and mouse also dont work. This is the screen i get by the way:



So anyways, the only other thing i want to ask is this;

Since i cannot select F9 to go into the boot options screen to boot from an external source first (USB/disc drive), is there any way to put a Windows OS onto a USB with some sort of command to tell the netbook to boot from that first (and begin installing a new OS from that)? That way it will have a fresh OS on it and should work again after i download all the necessary ACER drivers etc. If this isnt possible, the the thing may as well be a book end.

[Giorgio]

It is the MBR (Master Boot Record) that needs a fix and it can be done via a specific CD (like with the Ubuntu Live CD, when there is not an option to boot from W7 and fixed it as shown above), but as you said you can not access the BIOS [because the keyboard (and touchpad) not working]. A wireless keyboard and mouse may not work, because the necessary drivers will not load (especially when there is not any of them).

Personally, I have never experience something like that before. The following explanation which can be found here http://forum.acronis.com/forum/31230#comment-97005, maybe will help.

You can also try the following (which seems more effective):
Plop Boot Manager 5.0

The Plop Boot Manager is a small program to boot different operating systems. The boot manager has a built-in ide cdrom and usb driver to access that hardware without the help/need of a bios. You can boot the operating systems from hard disk, floppy, CD/DVD or from USB. You can start the boot manager from floppy, CD, network and there are many more ways to start the boot manager. You can install the boot manager on your hard disk. There is no extra partition required for the boot manager.

[Peter]

Yea but this is a netbook. Theres no CD drive at all. Just 2 USB ports so that would be the only way to go. Its worth a try i have nothing to lose.

[Giorgio]

Yea but this is a netbook. Theres no CD drive at all. Just 2 USB ports so that would be the only way to go. Its worth a try i have nothing to lose.

In both cases, you can do it with USBs, too. For the first (the Ubuntu) one, even while it says "CD", you can also do it with a USB, thanks to UNetbootin.

[Peter]

Right.

I was able to restore to factory settings. But problems still exist. Theres no driver for the touch pad, and the enter key and up arrow key do not work. I worry that other drivers might not be installed and/are corrupted.

Are there any programs that just scan and find these issues, download the correct drivers and install them automatically for you. Its a lot of work to go through and find the right drivers, and from experience, download speeds are very poor from official support sites like Asus

[Giorgio]

Nice that you got it back to working!

I do not know by experience, but with a relevant search (a, b), you can find such programs:
http://www.drivers.com/update_acer_drivers_main.php
http://driverupdate.net/
http://www.drivereasy.com/

Advice from M$: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... r-hardware

It is a "a trial will convince you" thing, and a situation when you have to search effectively for relevant information.

[silent killer]

I've used slimdrivers. It actually does what it says it will do, and for completely free. Use that one.

[Peter]

Might check it out. But i think its fucked. The enter key and up arrow key dont even function in the BIOS screen before the OS begins.

[silent killer]

Yeah. Your keyboard sounds like it's boned. I'm probably beating a dead horse here, but now that you've gotten back into your computer, have you tried plugging a USB keyboard in again? This time it should, if it isn't too busted, automatically detect it.

[Peter]

Yea it works fine. Including the enter button etc. But a netbook is tiny, and its pointless having to hook that all up to it.

When windows loads it notifies me that the touchpad hotkey is void and to install the drivers. So on that basis, its detected. But i downloaded both the driver from the ASUS website (which failed) and also directly from the Symantics website which also failed. If i could get that working i would be ok cuz i could just use a keymap program to reasign the affected keys.

On a side note, for some strange reason, i just a have a feeling that the keys wont work because of the touchpad. I dont know why.

[silent killer]

portable keyboard


Seriously now, I don't know if you've tried this yet, so forgive me if I'm being redundant here. Before you tried installing that new driver for the touchpad, did you uninstall the old one through Device Manager

http://www.pcworld.com/article/246041/h ... ndows.html this article and the comments near the bottom are somewhat helpful
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff553572(v=vs.85).aspx
basically the same thing as the last one.

If there are conflicts they will show up as either question marks or exclamation points. Even if there aren't you can still remove the drivers from there.