Acer Aspire 5000 series, problems with bios and recovering system

[chris diver]

i have just recently purchased this laptop..its only 2 weeks old and ive only used it for watching DVD's and AVI / MPEG files. ive included copies of Winmx and Media Player from my desktop along with the same codecs. every thing that a view works on my desktop...but for some reason doesnt seem to want to play using the same media player on the aspire...not really a problem..i just use a diferent media player..however, i have noticed the laptop shutting itself down whilst watching a movie..when re-boots it seems to do a disk check ( i didnt take much notice of what was going on ).
what is going on now is that the laptop will not boot up into windows ( using XP home ..came installed )...i get the following message

" windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt \windows\ system32\config\system...you can attempt to repair this file by starting windows set up using the original set up cd-rom, select 'r' at the first screen to start repair"

i cant get this to work...there are no original microsoft disks but i would imagine the software is all on the acer discs, which arent working...i cant start in safe mode as the same message appears...my only option is to set it back to the factory settings using the recovery discs...but i need to get into the bios set up....this isnt working either...one is prompted to press F2 for the bios set up...but nothing happens..so im a bit stuck at this point...

i have naturally contacted tec support at Acer..but i probably wont hear anything to early next week..it being a weekend now...and i'll guess they would ask me to return it...however, is there any other way that i could get into the Bios?...has anyone experianced similar probs?...the laptop hasnt even conected to the net yet...its purely only played a few DVD's...and files from an external hard drive ( which is virus free )

[classicsoftware]

First of all Acer Tech support is open on Saturday. It appears to me your HD is failing. There is no reason for your OS to become corrupted. You can use their restore CD and set it back to factory specs.

In order to get an RMA, you must register the system on-line first. DO THAT and then call tech support.

[clearwood]

The bios problem with acer laptops is not uncommon. I've got one in at the moment which ignores the "press f2 to enter setup". I've removed the cell to discharge and reset the bios, which made no difference, and I'm a bit stuck. By the way, the only way to get at that battery was to completely dismantle the computer! This is a bad way to design laptops...
Cheers!
Tom

clearwood computer repairs (http://www.clearwood.co.uk)
dumfries
scotland

[crow_1]

Same issue here with bios and unable to use keyboard/mouse or anything. However, it will boot all the way up. Only have USB for periph's and apparently USB is not enabled in BIOS (however I do not recall seeing that option in bios before). So, Tried to remote in... no dice (dont have a password I figure is why), tried to force enable RDP, no dice... only other thing I can think of is to pull the sata out, put it in another lappie, make me a password and try to remote in again... clearing the bios (which, you do have to unsolder the battery.. or so in mine anyway) does nothing except say that it is reverting back to defaults... that, i dont believe it did. I am also going to try different ram, as I have read alot of problems with it.

Anyway, if anyone knows or has a fix, i would surely appreciate any ideas one might have.

[classicsoftware]

Crow_1, Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif forums.

You need to contact Acer tech support. They will have the answer.