Acer Aspire V3-731 laptop not booting from HDD

[dicky96]

HI, I have an Acer Aspire V3-731 here. It has been dropped by the owner and it will not boot - the PC just hangs with the 'Acer - Explore the limits' screen.

When the boot mode was set to UEFI I couldn't even get into the bios. I see the Acer logo and 'press F2 to enter bios' but when I hit F2 the text goes away and I am still stuck on the Acer logo screen, even if I insert a bootable USB or DVD it would not boot.

I removed the HDD and then I could get into the bios. I set the bios Boot mode to Bios Legacy and now I can boot from a USB drive or DVD drive

Without either of these inserted I just get a message 'check cable' and 'no boot device'

With the laptop in Bios Legacy mode I can get into the bios with the HDD refitted, the HDD is recognised correctly in the bios but the PC will not boot from it. I can hear the HDD spin up.

Is there any way to boot from USB and check if the problem is software/boot sector or something like that on the HDD or hardware? I am using Ultimate Boot CD on the bootable USB stick http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-ult...n-a-usb-stick/

Should I be using Legacy or UEFI boot?

Normally I would put the drive into an external USB SATA enclosure and see if I can read it on my PC, but I left the power supply & mini USB lead back in UK when I brought the SATA enclosure over to Gran Canaria (Doh!)

I'm back in UK next week so will remember to bring it this time!

One other problem I have found - when in the bios or navigating Ultimate Boot CD only the up and right arrow on the keyboard actually work. Down or Left do nothing. Is there any other reason that would happen other than a faulty keyboard? It's a german QWERTZUIOPU layout.

Rich

[piernov]

Re: Acer Aspire V3-731 laptop not booting from HDD

Laptop dropped and showing issues → assume that the HDD is dead and just replace it. Do not try to do anything with it if the data need to be recovered, you could damage it even more.

[petehall347]

Re: Acer Aspire V3-731 laptop not booting from HDD

yes hard drive is buggered . put it one side for later recovery if needed . try new drive and go from there .

[dicky96]

Re: Acer Aspire V3-731 laptop not booting from HDD

OK will get a hard drive and keyboard for this when I am back in the UK next week.

Owner does not mind waiting a couple of weeks. He's not too bothered about the data on the HDD just wants the laptop working again, but I will have a look to see that I can recover from it.

Cheers
Rich

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Acer Aspire V3-731 laptop not booting from HDD

My family has this one, IIRC, made in 2012, thus came with the half-baked Windows 8, 8.0...
There's a UEFI BIOS bug where if secure boot is enabled, it likely ends up rebooting without an error message, every time you press a key to boot from a CD or DVD... You must disable "secure boot"!

[dicky96]

Re: Acer Aspire V3-731 laptop not booting from HDD

Hi Guys

I got parts while I was in UK.

Tested the original HDD in my External SATA (now I brought a suitable power supply and lead with me!)

The original HDD is recognised as a 'J' drive on my desktop PC but I can't read it in windows, it just says it needs formatting.

Haven't looked to see if I can recover any data from it yet with something like EaseUS that I have used before with faulty drives to get the data. There is probably better free software for data recovery now anyway? To be honest the owner is not bothered about data recovery, just needs the laptop working.


I replaced the faulty Toshiba 750Gb with same make & model that I found on Ebay

I replaced the faulty keyboard, and now all the arrow keys work to navigate the bios which is a big help!

I repaired the broken bezel on the dvd-rom

So it is all working, the problem i have now is getting an OS installed. There is no product key sticker on the laptop and the owner tells me they never had one or a recovery disk. There is just a Windows 8 sticker. The laptop was bought in Germany.

I did try install windows from a Dell backup disk which I have lying around to see if it would work. It gets as far as 'installing upgrades' then fails either because the disk is faulty or because it is looking for some files that would not be present on a Dell Windows DVD. But I can say confidently the PC hardware seems to work OK now.

I did some googling and read that the Acer product key is in the bios but it is not possible to read it? I also read it is possible to retrieve it but it seems you need windows running to use the software to read the key so that is useless for me.

So here is the problem - how do I get windows installed on an Acer Aspire V3-731 laptop with a dead HDD and no product key sticker without the owner paying to buy windows that he already legally owned?

Rich
PS my wife just pointed out she has a working Acer Aspire 5332 with a windows sticker on it if that helps

[dicky96]

Re: Acer Aspire V3-731 laptop not booting from HDD

Ahh sussed it I think. Did a bit more googling and used Lazesoft Recovery Disk get the product key http://www.lazesoft.com/create-a-boo...-usb-disk.html

Hopefully can download Windows 8 now and reinstall

[dicky96]

Re: Acer Aspire V3-731 laptop not booting from HDD

Yes Lazesoft sorted it for me. Windows 8.1 downloaded from microsoft and installed fine. Laptop working great and owner happy.

[Anselme]

Re: Acer Aspire V3-731 laptop not booting from HDD

Set the bios to UEFI mode then it will work perfectly else run a new OS in UEFI mode, hope it helped

[Camasler]

Re: Acer Aspire V3-731 laptop not booting from HDD

Ahh sussed it I think. Did a bit more googling and used it https://www.iseepassword.com/how-to-...usb-drive.html
Hopefully can download Windows 8 now and reinstall

Yeah,i have seen this before on Google, And it's on YouTube