Laptop won't boot in Windows or Linux

[susan kennedy]

I have an Acer Aspire 7720G laptop and use a dual boot (Windows 7 and Linux Mint 9 RC) . I was using windows side when I got the blue screen of death and it crashed and now I can't get back on either operating system, it goes as far as the acer screen then just black with flashing lights through it now and again. It also won't switch off so each time I have had to take the battery out to try to reboot it again. I have put it in to get fixed, they said they fixed it and as soon as I tried it when I got it home same thing happened again. Have called them and they are going to take it back but wondering if there is something I can do here at home myself and save me the headache and the money! Have tried to just boot off the linux disc but that doesn't work.

[TBABill]

If you can't boot from the LiveCD you have a hardware issue (or a bad CD, but I doubt that's the problem). Assuming the disk is good, all your system needs is the bios to know your hardware and then for it to load from CD. Did you move the CD up in the bios listing of devices so it tries to load from CD and NOT from the HDD? If not, try doing that (hit ESC, F12, F2, whatever your Acer screen says when it pops up). If that still doesn't work then you have an issue with either the bios or motherboard or another piece of hardware. Is this an older machine that could possibly have a dead CMOS battery?

[susan kennedy]

I have tried loading from the live CD and it didn't work, and I am sure it is good. I haven't, to my knowledge moved the CD up in the bios, however could taking the battery out and in a lot mess up the bios? Whats a CMOS battery? The machine is just over a year old.

[TBABill]

If it is only a year old I highly doubt it is the CMOS battery. That battery helps the motherboard hold your bios settings so your machine knows how to boot, what hardware you have, etc. You get into your bios by clicking whatever "settings" key your Acer screen tells you when you first boot up. I think it's F12 on my Acer. Anyway, go to the page of the bios that has your boot sequence settings. Normally you'll have a hard drive listed first. You just move to the CD and hit whatever key is used to move an item up in the list. It's probably an F5 or similar but the screen will tell you. Then once it is above the hard drive in the list, just exit (and save changes...F10 I think but not certain). Then restart and see if that reads the CD and lets you boot the live CD.

[susan kennedy]

Thank you very much for your advice. I changed the bios settings and tried booting off the CD again but only got into it for about 5 minutes when it went unstable again and back to the black screen. Have tried various things like restoring in safe mode etc and nothing seems to work, am thinking it may be the motherboard but praying its not.
Thanks again