Acer Travelmate 5610 windows install graphics issue

Hello,

I bought my Acer Travelmate 5610 a few years ago with Vista home basic on it. I love it, it's been great but after a few years it started getting buggy. I am very comfortable with PC's and decided to backup my wanted files, format and reinstall Windows. I do not have a Vista disk so I started with XP. Install loads normal, formats, copies files then reboots as normal.

The next step Windows will restart with the windows XP logo and then it will start setup in the windows environment. I get the WIndows XP logo with the moving green bar below it, but once this finished the screen goes black. No matter what I do the screen always goes black at this point.

I tried installing Windows 7 since I have that disk but the screen goes black as soon as I choose to "install from disk".

I realize it must be a graphics driver issue. Any idea how I can fix this? I have never had this issue in any other computer. The default graphics work great but once the Windows loading screen finished the screen goes black.

Please let me know if you have any ideas. I am really bummed without my laptop. Thank you!

Hello, thank you. Yes my BIOS is not up to date but I do not how to install bios without windows environment. I can get to a command prompt through windows install repair. In Safe Mode I get the same problem.

I choose Safe Mode, lines of white text listing drivers being loaded scroll and then at some point the screen goes black.

It does the exact same thing with the external display. -_- I've taken the hard drive and put it in another pc, installed windows and then put it back in the laptop hoping windows would scan for the change in hardware and get the same problem.

Thanks for the help.

Thank you for your reply.

While I wouldn't be against cleaning out the laptop, this does not sound like an overheating issue to me. The laptop performed well, it was windows that had a lot of errors which is why I attempted a clean install. This sounds like an Acer driver issue to me. I was hoping someone with Acer experience recognized the problem.

Can anyone tell me how I can update the bios without using a windows interface? Maybe I should try a Linux install? Acer doesn't want to help me since I've had the laptop for over 3 years now.

Thank you.

Oh I see, sorry for the inadequate details. The system does not shutdown. The screen just goes dark. The CFL light is still on and I can adjust it's brightness with the keyboard Fn key and appropriate buttons. The CD spins and sounds like it is working on windows install. The HD light flashes as if being active but then after a while it has a consistent blink that does not look like idle hd or working.

When I do a soft power off and then turn it back on I get a blue screen with text saying "Setup Restarting... " at which point screen goes dark again and cd drive/hdd sound like they are working on install. When I did install Windows on another pc then put HDD into laptop, I can press power button, not hold down for soft off, and laptop will power off soon after which tells me windows is running even though I can't see anything. Theoretically if I could remember every step involved in finding graphic card setup and installing it it may work at this point, or maybe just bios install steps. I did try windows key + R and cmd, enter then chkdsk c:, enter but did not create any hdd activity.

At this point I am trying a program called nLite to add the chipset and graphic card drivers to the XP install disk. Any thoughts?

Thank you

Hard drive should be good. Windows is installed on it, I can tell. 

As of now same thing:

• Start computer
• Loads like normal, windowsXP logo screen with moving bar.
• Once this finished screen goes black

At this point if I press the power button once the hdd has activity and the computer shuts down in a few seconds. I blindly updated my BIOS from a flash drive. Updated BIOS version shows in BIOS. External display does exact same thing. Graphic card works as it has no issues running though windows setup until above mentioned point. Sounds like driver compatibility issue? How do I fix this? Acer must have some trick when installing windows! 

I've already tried that. Thanks for the help. :(

Thank you for your help. I got it working. omg I am drained ... I didn't mention that I have 4gigs of RAM in my laptop that was running Vista, now it's running XP. I'm sure you know Windows doesn;t recognize more than, what 2Gigs? 2.75 or something it will recognize? So on a whim I took out one stick of RAM and there ya go, it started right up. Arrrggghhh!!!! Thanks for your help. :)