Acer Travelmate 2484 failing to load Windows

[as38camp]

Acer Travelmate 24894,Windows XP professional,Celeron M 440.
On startup shows brief XP welcome screen then goes to white letters on black background giving options to 'start normally','start at last operating position',and various option to start in safe mode.None of which work!!! Have tried to access the repair reinstall,by tapping F10 while holding control, does not work either.I keep going round and round in circles [so to speak]
Can anyone give ideas to help?

[Nick G]

You can't start it in safe mode, you can't get into windows at all? Doesn't sound great. Do you have your files backed up?
Try this

[as38camp]

Thanks Nick,
Tried that link,but some of the steps outlined referred to floppy discs and did not seem to apply to this laptop.
No it will not go into safe mode.
I tried putting in my desktop Windows XP recovery discs but these were rejected as not being compatible with the laptop. Many thanks anyway
Regards, Alan

[stratex5]

Call microsoft to get windows fixed or contact manufacturer to get support or just buy a new windows licence. Try installing Ubuntu and booting into that and fix the problem.

[Nick G]

Thanks Nick,
Tried that link,but some of the steps outlined referred to floppy discs and did not seem to apply to this laptop.
No it will not go into safe mode.
I tried putting in my desktop Windows XP recovery discs but these were rejected as not being compatible with the laptop. Many thanks anyway
Regards, Alan

If it refers to floppy disks, it will work with USB sticks as well, if that will help. Also try this and this

[Nick G]

Damn, ran out of time to edit. If the xp disks weren't compatible it doesn't sound great, and will make one of my link useless. Just a question, were you running an antivirus or antimalware program the last time you were on it?

[wainuitech]

F10 only wont work, boot the PC from off, hold the “Alt” key and press the “F10” key and keep tapping the F10, that will launch the recovery partition if its there and not damaged.

[Lurking]

In line with what's wrong in the original post.

Our older Acer travelmate bruised by the Feb 2011 quake stopped working, as one would expect.

Seeing this post, I dragged it out of the hot water cupboard and turned it on:

Gets to the bios v3.3 stage:

IDE Secondry Channel Master Drive Error
Equipment Configuration Error.

Press F2 to enter setup.

Wai, I think you will say it's stuffed, that's ok as we have claimed on it, but you never know.

Thanks,

Lurks.

[as38camp]

Thanks Stratex, Nick G,and Wainui tech.
I have tried holding control and tapping F10,no go,see my original post.The laptop is a friends older model with XP professional,and the recovery discs I tried are for my own desktop XP home.
I can get into the BIOS but that is all that I can do.It will not start up so I cannot do system restore,or any reinstall{which I would be happy to do} I don't believe any antivirus was running to cause the problem.I think I have used up my brain power,and will call it a dead duck.Thanks all.

[Speedy Gonzales]

Where in NZ are you? If youre in NZ