Hangs up on cold Boot.....

[DaSleeper]

My Acer Notebook, after three years has started acting-up on cold (overnight) start-up. It seems to hang up on the (Press F2 ) boot menu screen for sometimes as long as 35/40 seconds then goes at normal speed for the rest of the boot.
When it is warmed up and I either press "restart" or I shut down and start it while it is still warm......No problems!
It is clean of virusses..ect....I even went to a restore point of a month ago... no change...
I used to have an old HP that was doing something similar, that got so bad that it wouldn't even start up unless I warmed it up in the morning with a hair blower.....a month of that and I figured I needed a new one.
I have two scenarios left to consider....
1) A hard drive that is starting to take to much time to get to operating speed when cold?

2) There could be a thermocouple/ sensor somewhere in there that keeps a PC from starting in extreme cold and it's getting weaker as time goes on...?

3) Is there something I can change in the boot menu? (That would be where I need help) I haven't played in there since '98

So I need a geek for advice......or other option I haven't thought of???????

 

[skookumchuck]

My Acer Notebook, after three years has started acting-up on cold (overnight) start-up. It seems to hang up on the (Press F2 ) boot menu screen for sometimes as long as 35/40 seconds then goes at normal speed for the rest of the boot.
When it is warmed up and I either press "restart" or I shut down and start it while it is still warm......No problems!
It is clean of virusses..ect....I even went to a restore point of a month ago... no change...
I used to have an old HP that was doing something similar, that got so bad that it wouldn't even start up unless I warmed it up in the morning with a hair blower.....a month of that and I figured I needed a new one.
I have two scenarios left to consider....
1) A hard drive that is starting to take to much time to get to operating speed when cold?

2) There could be a thermocouple/ sensor somewhere in there that keeps a PC from starting in extreme cold and it's getting weaker as time goes on...?

3) Is there something I can change in the boot menu? (That would be where I need help) I haven't played in there since '98

So I need a geek for advice......or other option I haven't thought of???????

You could Google "necessary" and unnecessary startup programs for Acer (whatever OS) and use the program built in or CCleaner to pare down the start list.
I assume you have done all the regular maintenance, disc defrag, disc clean, etc. Do you have Malwarebytes? If not, try to the free version and like all free downloads these days don't accept any extras.
You could also go to one of the many free forums for help like Bleeping computer.

 

[L Gilbert]

Ever had your gadget cleaned? I mean physically cleaned; like for dust and whatever else gets inside.

 

[gerryh]

My Acer Notebook, after three years has started acting-up on cold (overnight) start-up. It seems to hang up on the (Press F2 ) boot menu screen for sometimes as long as 35/40 seconds then goes at normal speed for the rest of the boot.
When it is warmed up and I either press "restart" or I shut down and start it while it is still warm......No problems!
It is clean of virusses..ect....I even went to a restore point of a month ago... no change...
I used to have an old HP that was doing something similar, that got so bad that it wouldn't even start up unless I warmed it up in the morning with a hair blower.....a month of that and I figured I needed a new one.
I have two scenarios left to consider....
1) A hard drive that is starting to take to much time to get to operating speed when cold?

2) There could be a thermocouple/ sensor somewhere in there that keeps a PC from starting in extreme cold and it's getting weaker as time goes on...?

3) Is there something I can change in the boot menu? (That would be where I need help) I haven't played in there since '98

So I need a geek for advice......or other option I haven't thought of???????

I would say you have the beginnings of a hard drive failure.

You could Google "necessary" and unnecessary startup programs for Acer (whatever OS) and use the program built in or CCleaner to pare down the start list.
I assume you have done all the regular maintenance, disc defrag, disc clean, etc. Do you have Malwarebytes? If not, try to the free version and like all free downloads these days don't accept any extras.
You could also go to one of the many free forums for help like Bleeping computer.

His problem is before the OS starts to load. The BIOS is the only software loading at the point he is describing.

 

[DaSleeper]

You could Google "necessary" and unnecessary startup programs for Acer (whatever OS) and use the program built in or CCleaner to pare down the start list.
I assume you have done all the regular maintenance, disc defrag, disc clean, etc. Do you have Malwarebytes? If not, try to the free version and like all free downloads these days don't accept any extras.
You could also go to one of the many free forums for help like Bleeping computer.

All of the highlited....done
Even did a disk check....no errors...no bad sectors

But it hangs up before starting windows....

 

[skookumchuck]

Gerry may be correct about the hard drive being questionable.

 

[DaSleeper]

Ever had your gadget cleaned? I mean physically cleaned; like for dust and whatever else gets inside.

I brush vacum it regularly a check with a heat monitor application shows normal processor temp.

I would say you have the beginnings of a hard drive failure.
His problem is before the OS starts to load. The BIOS is the only software loading at the point he is describing.

That's what I'm afraid of too....and I'm debating with myself, the cost of a new hard drive and Imaging this hard drive unto it or a similar notebook 300 to 400 bucks

 

[skookumchuck]

Drives are cheap but all the messing around is not fun, after three years a new machine makes sense.

 

[DaSleeper]

Drives are cheap but all the messing around is not fun, after three years a new machine makes sense.

I'm leaning towards doing that, and keep this one to tinker with:lol:

 

[L Gilbert]

I'd still have it cleaned by a techie before doing anything expensive. One thing most invaluable to me as a mechanic is to look for the simplest and least expensive cause of a problem first. It can save you lots of grief and change.

 

[DaSleeper]

I'd still have it cleaned by a techie before doing anything expensive. One thing most invaluable to me as a mechanic is to look for the simplest and least expensive cause of a problem first. It can save you lots of grief and change.

I will definitely talk to a techie about it tomorrow before doing anything drastic....The reason I posted here, is the high possibility that I might overlook something or there could be a tweak in the boot menu that I don't know about...but I tried just this morning after the computer being down for 3 hours to press F2 and go in the boot menu, and I had to "please wait" 30seconds for the page to open, so I tend to agree with Gerry, unless they have grease fittings on those hard drive:lol:

Update:
My drive is a Western Digital drive and it so happens that their web site has a diagnostic tool which I downloaded.
I ran it with good results.......

It seems to check out...
But I will run the tests again tomorrow apon start-up, when the pc is still cold and also run an extented test they have that takes about one hour.

As you can see by the size of the data, the only thing I keep on the hard drive is the operating system and all pictures videos music etc. is stored on external drive for safekeeping in case of a crash so if bad comes to worst, I have about 6 to 8 hours work loading all my favorite programs and utilities on a new PC.

 

[petros]

It seems to hang up on the (Press F2 ) boot menu screen for sometimes as long as 35/40 seconds then goes at normal speed for the rest of the boot.

When it is warmed up and I either press "restart" or I shut down and start it while it is still warm......No problems!

Capacitors are failing. 3 years for an Acer is not bad. She's toast.

I hope your new one treats you well.

 

[Cliffy]

If you buy a new machine, also buy an external hard drive case and put your old drive in it. Will make it easier to transfer all your files.

 

[petros]

If you buy a new machine, also buy an external hard drive case and put your old drive in it. Will make it easier to transfer all your files.

It's definetly time to do the back ups. The caps are designed to self destruct at 3 years. Cool huh?

 

[Cliffy]

It's definetly time to do the back ups. The caps are designed to self destruct at 3 years. Cool huh?

Planned obsolescence is the biggest industry investment of the last 100 years.

 

[petros]

They are literally gold mines for recyclers. Good ol cyanuric acid extraction. Nice and green like.

 

[DaSleeper]

I have my income tax refund earmarked for a new machine (among other things).
If this one doesn't last, I still have the old XP desktop still operational in the Wreck Room, that my wife still uses when she's doing a wash or ironing.
I'll still talk to Trevor (of Trevor's Computer) sometimes today or tomorow to check the cost of inspecting this one, and possibly fixing it.
Hope he can still find windows 7 machine.............

 

[petros]

I have my income tax refund earmarked for a new machine (among other things).
If this one doesn't last, I still have the old XP desktop still operational in the Wreck Room, that my wife still uses when she's doing a wash or ironing.
I'll still talk to Trevor (of Trevor's Computer) sometimes today or tomorow to check the cost of inspecting this one, and possibly fixing it.
Hope he can still find windows 7 machine.............

I'm sorry to to say but a slow boot is definetly the caps. Having to "warm up" is a dead give away.

Do and store your tax with the on-line versions. You won't lose anything.

 

[DaSleeper]

I'm sorry to to say but a slow boot is definetly the caps. Having to "warm up" is a dead give away.

Do and store your tax with the on-line versions. You won't lose anything.

If you will look at post #11 you will see that out of 237 gigs, I have 184 gigs free on a three year old notebook which should tell you that I don't store more than a weeks worth of material, downloads etc. Everything is transfered weekly on two portable hard drives with also a disc image of the PC once a month.
For extra security all my bookmarks and a list of all my programs and applications is on a thumb drive.
All I have on this PC is the operating system with 10 gigs of restore points and all the programs and application...If it crashes...the only thing I loose is the time it takes to set up another one..and it's the same amount of time lost if I buy one now or wait till this one gives up completely.

 

[DaSleeper]

Has anyone ever had a problem with the cmos battery going dead on their notebook????
The last time I had a problem with a cmos on a desk top was about 12 years ago and the only thing I remember was the clock being off, but back then it wouldn't reset automaticaly with the internet(Dial-up)..
I put the CD/DVD drive as priority 1 and the hard drive number 2 on the list so I can use a boot-up disc in case it decides to stay stuck on boot up.

Since I can't see Trevor until monday, what I'm gonna do after shut down tonight is disable the wi fi (manual button on my model) unplug the ac power and remove the notebook main battery...
My theory is that if the cmos is dead, the clock will be off tomorow morning.
I hope that's all it is