38 seconds to death

[triglyph]

Bought an Acer Aspire One netbook. Worked fine for half an hour. Connected to wireless, downloaded, etc. Then I shut down. When I started up again with the AC power plugged in and an SD card in the slot (although I don't think it's the problem, the SD card was not formatted for FAT).

Now it starts up for 38 seconds and then dies. It shows the Windows XP screen and then goes to "checking disk" it gets to "22% complete" and then shuts down cold. I've tried restarting many times, always 38 seconds. If I do F2 and go to bios, I can change the startup disk, but even while still in Bios it still shuts down after 38 seconds. (I took the SD card out: same result. Formatted the SD card for FAT: same result; finally took the card out again: same result.)

Doing ALT + F10 has no effect. Changing the startup to internet recovery has no effect.

If I pull out the battery and leave it out for a while, sometimes the check disk will complete and go to the desktop. I can do something like open Control Panel and then it shuts down cold.

I have the Windows XP disk and system disk that came with the netbook but I don't have an external CD/DVD USB player. What else can I try?

[-pops-]

Return it to the supplier. Obviously faulty.

[bludgard]

Bought an Acer Aspire One netbook.

I have the Windows XP disk and system disk that came with the netbook....

Do they still sell PCs with XP installed?

I have just installed XP via SD memory card but the easiest way would be to restore the netbook back to factory condition. Instead of Alt+F10, try tapping F8 at boot to reach Advanced Boot Options. Look for Repair My Computer. In Recovery options select Factory Image Recovery.

What exactly were you doing for that half-hour to cause this to happen. It kinda sounds like vius and/or malware activity, but that is just speculation. What do you think, triglyph? Do you think this could be caused by malware?

Before we get into installing XP from alternative media, let's see how Recovery goes. If it is a new machine and under warranty, the factory will cover hardware related issues. If problems are software or malware related, you will be charged a premium fee for assistance.

If you have a functional machine w/ CD/DVD drive and a port for your SD card (1GB), download:

1) Virtual CloneDrive

2) WinToFlash

Format the SD card to FAT32 (not quick format)

[triglyph]

Just to update everyone, I fixed it, I'll explain how in a moment.

It was purchased used and worked fine for awhile, so returning it is not an option.

F8 took me to Advanced Options (thanks for that tip) but I don't see a "Repair My Computer" (Which would be nice). Instead the options are:

Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Safe Mode with Command Prompt

Enable Boot Logging, Enable VGA Mode, Last Know Good Configuration [which seems promising]

Directory Services Restore Mode

Debugging Mode

Disable Automatic restart

Start Windows Normally

Reboot

but I don't see a "Repair My Computer" -- is one of the above what you were talking about?

How I fixed it: I restarted it about 40 times. The first 30 or so times, it did exactly the same thing, then when I did things like F2 and ALT+F10, every once it a while it did something slightly different, so I just kept restarting over and over until it finally reached 100% on check disk and then opened up the desktop and I could start working.

Thanks for the feedback,

B.

[bludgard]

How I fixed it: I restarted it about 40 times....

Glad it's fixed. It may be time to replace the HDD. (Edit: and start thinking about system images). Just a thought.... :D

How old is the machine?

Edit2: Go with Last Known Good Configuration.