hey guys.
having the exact same problem here on a 5100. I am in puppy linux and everything is stable. I cannot boot into windows AT ALL. I am assuming BIOS or driver errors since puppy is running very well. Did some memory testing and the such, no errors. this guys partitioning has me stumped as well. 3 active partitions with the mbr(?) at the end of the table.
the problem is i can't even boot in reocvery/oem partition because it has been lost. no vista disk either so repairing the mbr is out of the question. I think PCISniffer was missing the device in question but i'll have to re-check. I'm going to try hard wired. could be the ethernet card? when doesn't realtek cause some kind of issue.
really thought Acer was better than this
edit: not the ethernet card.
edit: all hardware is running fine. its a driver issue on Acer's part. IRQ's are out of whack. restore so you can boot, download all recent drivers from the website, and clean up the system. should run fine. will post back with final results
final edit: Yup, it was the card bus drivers. now posting the fix.
1. Use a Vista Recovery Disk to restore if Windows does not load.
- All updates from support.acer.com -
2. Update BIOS to most current.
3. Update Card Bus. (Should Fix POST)
4. Proceed with all updates. Important ones listed below
-Chipset
-CPU Driver
-FIR Driver
-LAN Driver
-Modem Driver
-WLAN Driver (probably causing the issues?)
5. Run Windows Updates.
6. Clean up Junks, and Registry using something like cCleaner. (CLEAN IT UP)
7. May want run another repair for good measure
8. CHKDSK for good measure
9. Problem Solved
Your mainboard may be shot before you get here though. I think faulty IRQ's are over loading the chipset.
OR - Bypass all this a do a vanilla windows install.
Edited by Geoffrey Penny - 12/9/11 at 6:10am