Acer E1-532P Booting Issues: Crashes While Using Installation Disk

[JustLovett1]

Hello Tom's Hardware Community!

I've recently gotten a used Acer E1-532P-4471 (Pentium) Laptop, as the old owners gave it to me because it didn't work. Being the "Computer Person" I am, I set off to try and fix it. I started by plugging it in and trying to boot. It wouldn't get past the post screen, so I assumed it was a bad OS. I made a Windows 7 Installation USB using Rufus, then PenDrive Linux, and it was all going well for both of them until it just crashed and respringed to the Post Screen. So, I thought it was a few other issues.

I started off thinking it could be a faulty HDD, so I replaced that with one I knew works, and still there was no success. So, I tried a few other Operating Systems. Windows XP, Windows 8, and finally Windows 10. When I got to windows 10, it went to the bluescreen (Sad Face Screen) but showed no text explaining the error. I tried that same install a few times, and it finally gave me an error code: KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED. After some research, I thought it would most likely be Bad Ram or a bad ISO. I used the windows media creation tool and still had failure, so I ordered some more Ram. Keep in mind, this Laptop uses PC3L ram, so none I had on hand would work. I tested the stick I received, although I got it new, and it worked just fine. When placing it in my Acer, it still encountered the same boot error.

I gave up on the project for a few days, and today I came back to it. I opened the laptop completely, thinking it could be an overheating issue, but there are no signs of that being a possibility, as all of the internals are in tact. I used a magnifying glass and looked through every part of the MOBO of the laptop, and there were no scratches, no dents, and no broken components. Visually, everything is in tact, including on the CPU. I took off the cooler and applied a new thermal compound layer, and even tried a passive desktop cooler to make sure that wasn't the issue. Still, there was no success.

So, I'm taking to here on the forums. When I boot, it takes 2 seconds from pressing the Power Button for the Acer screen to pop up, at 5 seconds it was replaced with the Windows Screen, and at 22 seconds the small loading circle under the logo popped up. At 43 seconds, it failed. The back light of the screen turned off, so it went super dim, after 2 seconds the screen turned off, and 1 second later the Acer screen popped up again.


I've tried everything I know to do, and I don't want to just give up on it being a huge bust. Let me know if you have any insight on what I can do to fix this!!! Thank you All so Much!

 

[fagetti]

Have you tried updating bios? What version you have?

 

[fagetti]

i got your bin file here, latest bios for this model. https/ufile.io/3q7ci

You can either try update with msdos usb or recovery mode usb

 

[fagetti]

If you want to extract file yourself and dont trust mine. Go to acer site download latest bios. Unzip it, then extract the exe file. Run flash, it will say your system doesnt match bios id. You get Bin file at location, users/appdata/local/temp/7zs466 and there should be .bin

 

[JustLovett1]

Have you tried updating bios? What version you have?

I haven't tried that yet, however I will be able to soon. I'll let you know what version I have, what I'm updating to, and how it goes. I'm also going to try to use Ubuntu Linux without installing, to see if the PC can boot on just a USB Flash Drive or SD Card.

 

[fagetti]

Yeah good idea. Or live CD like tails is good options to try. If those work, Something in your HDD connector or HDD board (if your motherboard has one) must be damaged. Or HDD circuit on the motherboard next to connector check that for damage

 

[JustLovett1]

Yeah good idea. Or live CD like tails is good options to try. If those work, Something in your HDD connector or HDD board (if your motherboard has one) must be damaged. Or HDD circuit on the motherboard next to connector check that for damage

Well; I've updated the BIOS (Your link didn't work for my PC btw) I think it was from version 211 to 213, but either way that didn't solve my issue at all. I tried running Ubuntu off of a live USB flash, so "Try without installing," and it couldn't boot. The first time it hung on the CPU stopped responding, and the next it just went to a loading screen like you'd expect, I left it overnight, and no change. (It was a black DOS-Style screen that just said loading with the ticking cursor and never moved past it.) I'm thinking the CPU might actually be bad, but that would normally mean you couldn't even get into the BIOS, let alone start installing Win10, no? Anyways, every time I try to boot an OS, I seem to get a different result, so I'll let you know what else I find. Please, if anyone else knows how to help me, please do. Thank You!

 

[fagetti]

Try boot without cmos battery or replace it.

CPU going bad in laptop without overclocking maybe 0.1% change. Although if it was constantly overheating or 10 years old maybe then. Did you try alternating ram slots and trying different sticks? Start removing components one By one and trying to boot (always test after removing one), keyboard, front panel, usb boards etc until your barebone with cpu, fan ,1 ram and hdmi or vga cable connected, remove all lan wifi cards also. You might need key combination to change input of external monitor, you can use usb keyboard if necressary and hassle to add your keyboard connector to this mess. You can still try operating systems with usb slots available.

Use cardboard box or only wood without any dirt below mothjerboard and dont short anything. If you dont have button on motherboard for power then add power button cable and press with that (and dont forget to look nothing is shorting)

Test charger input voltage without fluctuation, test dc jack with continuity and twitch cable to see if its coming all the time.

 

[fagetti]

If would also test bios chip with clean dump file if necressary. There is regions in there that wont be flashed during bios flash. Clean me region and get right file for this motherboard. This means you need SPI programmer, those you can get for 5 euros from china though usb models are dirt cheap.

Btw looks like your cmos battery is soldered in. Remove it with soldering iron and also remove power cable and press 1min powr button to drain any power, try boot after. Try booting without it and look with multimeter if its below 3v then replace.