Laptop Vista problem

[Hom3r]

My dad has a Acer Aspire 7720G laptop.

Yesterday he was using it and the screen went blank, despite several reboots it won't go in to windows and we just get a blank screen

The Launch Startup Repair option doesn't work it just restarts the countdown as does letting the countdown finish.

Any Ideas, as he has data on the 2 HDDs in it he doesn't want to loose?

[thenry]

not sure whether this will help you or not http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-9...-won-t-boot-up

[v0id]

Put the HDDs in USB caddies and get the data he wants to keep off them

[Hom3r]

I'm not sure if the BIOS is faulty, or if I should touch it.

I can get into safe mode and it displays the icons.

---------- Post added at 21:27 ---------- Previous post was at 20:32 ----------

Checking in the device manager it says the HDDs are both are
Western Digital Scorpio Blue 250gb Sata 8mb Cache 2.5 Inch Internal Hard Drive Oem - Sony Playstation Ps3 Compatible - WD2500BEVT

Would this cause any issue when recovering data in a caddy (recomendations please, Maplins is local if that helps, as well as is Comet,PCWorld)

---------- Post added at 21:38 ---------- Previous post was at 21:27 ----------

Reading up I have seen people say its a problem with the motherboard thats affected the GFX card, but they were old reports.

So is it the GFX card that screwed & I try and get a replacement, or do I tell my dads a new lappy is needed?

The GFX card is a NIVIDA GeForce 8600M GT Turbocache

---------- Post added at 21:43 ---------- Previous post was at 21:38 ----------

More info it's Vista Ultimate

[Hom3r]

So do I try a get a replacement GFX card (where?) or just get him to get a new laptop and some caddies for the HDDs?

[qasdfdsaq]

Can't get a replacement GFX.

My suggestion would be to boot up a utility/diagnostics CD/USB and run tests. Find out if the hard drive is broken or something else. Might just be a corrupt filesystem and nothing's (physically) broken at all.

Alternatively get any £5 USB SATA caddy and get the data off that way, though that won't fix the original laptop.

[Hom3r]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Can't get a replacement GFX.

My suggestion would be to boot up a utility/diagnostics CD/USB and run tests. Find out if the hard drive is broken or something else. Might just be a corrupt filesystem and nothing's (physically) broken at all.

Alternatively get any £5 USB SATA caddy and get the data off that way, though that won't fix the original laptop.

Any Ideas where I can get this?

I do have a USB DVD/CD drive as well as serveral flash drives.

[Hom3r]

...

[thenry]

done a bit of googling on this and these things pop up as attempts to cure the issue; BIOs update, power supply issue, remove battery and boot using ac, lose connection somewhere, attempting to use a external screen.

i had the same problem for some reason this works:
switch on without powercord attached
HOLD the laptop very tightly (place hands on both sides where the speakers are and try to bend it) CAREFULLY!!!
you should hear the dvd drive and feel the hdd moving
wait untill you get the windows logo then release your hands
if you get the safe screen mode while doing the above DO NOT release you hand you have to use your nose or have someone there with you to press the ENTER key (you wil look stupid doing the first though!!!)

http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-8...d-it-wont-boot

have you asked for rough quotes for repairs from pcworld and computer tech guys in your area ?

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Hom3r

Any Ideas where I can get this?

I do have a USB DVD/CD drive as well as serveral flash drives.

Ultimate Boot CD and Hirens are two I use, though you have to be careful with Hirens as there's both freeware and payware on it that requires a license or it's illegal to use.

Between UBCD and Hirens you've got freeware utils on a bootable CD/USB to test just about every core piece of hardware in there.