OldPC, trying to install Linux.

daphil

HI Folks. We have an old Acer Aspire PC. Not really needed, and the HD seems to be Kaput. I wanted to boot it with Linux from a Linux Boot USB drive, but I can not get the bios to appear by hitting power on while hitting the "delete" key.

Any ideas anyone ?

Dave

tphase

Try F12 or F2

Edit

BIOS Keys by Manufacturer

Here's a list of common BIOS keys by brand. Depending on the age of your model, the key may be different.

• ASRock: F2 or DEL
• ASUS: F2 for all PCs, F2 or DEL for Motherboards
• Acer: F2 or DEL
• Dell: F2 or F12
• ECS: DEL
• Gigabyte / Aorus: F2 or DEL
• HP: F10
• Lenovo (Consumer Laptops): F2 or Fn + F2
• Lenovo (Desktops): F1
• Lenovo (ThinkPads): Enter then F1.
• MSI: DEL for motherboards and PCs
• Microsoft Surface Tablets: Press and hold volume up button.
• Origin PC: F2
• Samsung: F2
• Toshiba: F2
• Zotac: DEL

Spear

It can vary, F1 is also a popular one. But you may have misunderstood the method to access the BIOS. You don't hold it at the same time as hitting the power button. Just turn on the power, and you can either wait for the prompt for it to appear, or just keep repeatedly hitting it.

Is there any video output?

niallb

Try F2

smuggler.ie

Usually it briefly displayed on the bottom of the screen before it boot to Win

Capt'n Midnight

https://community.acer.com/en/kb/articles/86-how-to-enter-the-bios-setup

As soon as the first logo screen appears, immediately press F2 for notebooks or Delete for desktops to enter the BIOS

Then you can can check the boot menu options are enabled.

daphil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121838982#Comment_121838982

Thanks lads, but there is no video appearing, so I hit the power button and repeatedly tapped "Del" and seperately tried F2 and F9.

Spear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121839051#Comment_121839051

Then it's almost certainly not a dead drive. You should be getting video output from the BIOS starting up, including a prompt for the right BIOS key, unless there's something very weird happening.

daphil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121839059#Comment_121839059

The Drive tries to boot then stops, the fan stops, then both start again, stop and go again.

Spear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121839113#Comment_121839113

That suggests a far more fundamental issue, either power, board or CPU instead.

niallb

What model is it?

Have you tried opening it up and unplugging power and data cables from the drive you think is damaged?

Popping the memory sticks and reseating them could be a good thing too. How long is it since it was in use?

daphil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121839190#Comment_121839190

Months I think, it belongs to my son. Might have a look at that tomorrow. Thanks for all the interest.

506972617465

Stupid idea I know, but try removing the battery for say 20 minutes and try again. The guys above gave you decent clues, Del/F2/F12 is usually those you want to hit during the post-check. Any normally behaving machine should give you the opportunity to enter one of the boot modes, be it BIOS or Boot Menu. If that's not happening, again, I am repeating poster above, it's gonna be of not much use I suppose.

daphil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121839190#Comment_121839190

Acer Aspire

niallb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121841545#Comment_121841545

There are dozens of models of Acer Aspire, some are laptops and some are desktops.

There must be more detail than that on it somewhere.

When you said PC in the original post, I assumed you meant it was a desktop computer and not a laptop?

After going past the are over it advert stuff there’s a good little step by step guide for troubleshooting black screen issue:

https://recoverit.wondershare.com/computer-problems/acer-laptop-black-screen.html

beachhead

Interesting post.Don't stop now

daphil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121841566#Comment_121841566

Aspire M3985 Desktop.

Will check power cables Memory Seating etc. later. It's just a challenge to see if I can get it going on Linux.

Thanks all.

daphil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121842048#Comment_121842048

I can't post a video. Leads seem ok. The hard drive tries to start, I hear three beeps, repeated twice, it then stops, fan stops, the light on the mouse goes off and then goes through the same cycle endlessely until unplugged.

Thanks for interest lads.

niallb

Thanks for the model number.

I see that by Hard Drive you meant the whole box rather than just the storage disk.

The 3 beeps repeated twice is good information.

Is there any chance it's One longer beep and Two short beeps repeated twice rather than 3 the same length?

If so, it's telling you it can't find a graphics card. Worth asking your son if he removed one...

There should be a HDMI and a (blue) VGA socket on the back of the PC anyway, but can you see any others in the slots?

LambshankRedemption

Yes, it literally sounds like a problem with the video card.

One long beep, followed by two beeps which repeat indicates VGA Error or could not detect a VGA adapter.

daphil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121845148#Comment_121845148

All three bleeps are of equal length and it's got integrated graphics.

smuggler.ie

If (IF) this is i5-3450 CPU, it has build-in GPU.

Remove discrete GPU and connect to I/O video port (HDMI, VGA), see if it kick in

niallb

Thanks. The board has integrated graphics, but is there also an add on card?

If the BIOS is set to always use a discrete card and it's faulty it could be causing a problem. Back to which socket are you connecting it to the monitor or TV.

Unfortunately there was no listing of three equal beeps repeated twice on the computers manual. If it was me I'd reseat the RAM first and see how much there is.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121845554#Comment_121845554

Or take out the RAM and see if the beeps change.

niallb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121845634#Comment_121845634

Exactly. 3 beeps has often been RAM, but it's the easiest thing to try. Pop it out, blow away the dust, pop one back in and see what happens.

mikewest

Back to basics.

Acer BIOS (Award) three beeps is RAM failure

Three plus two is memory failure

1. Check the RAM, remove all sticks, blow out the slots, reseat each stick separately and test. If still failing remove again and rub a pencil eraser along the contacts of the RAM sticks, retest.

2. Is the CMOS battery good? Replace if in doubt and retest(CR2032 I think).

3. Borrow a compatible stick of RAM from somewhere and test that. If all fails, assume motherboard failure unless you have access to a POST code test tool.

daphil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121845723#Comment_121845723

If I remove all ram, I get a continuos beep. I cleaned ram and sockets and used the twox4 ram seperately and in each memory socket and I get three even beeps everytime. I don't have access to other ram at the moment, as I live in the country. Looking like a re-cycling job,

Thanks everyone.

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121846361#Comment_121846361

4GB DDR3 for €4.50 including delivery.

But very unlikely for both memory sticks to have failed.

If you are in an area where stuff gets damaged by lightning then once one component fails then everything else in the computer is likely to fail in time.

daphil

"But very unlikely for both memory sticks to have failed."

That was my thinking too and to have all four Ram sockets not seeing to work seems strange. Will mess agound with it for another while, as I have another Desktop.

Thanks

daphil

UPDATE

I found a CMOS battery AND a dv cable , as advised and turned on the PC. I thought I heard 4 beeps this time, but it eventually booted.

However, I turned it off to see would it reboot and it's back to the 3 beeps, stop and retry.

Thanks for all the advice, I may keep trying for a while, but I can't see what else I could try.

It might have been less infurating if it had NOT booted.

Esel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851287#Comment_121851287

Maybe some other connector (possibly faulty?) that you accidentally touched while replacing the battery and cable was made right for a short while?

Worth a look anyway. Disconnect and reconnect any other connectors in those areas and retry booting.

You must be close now... 🙂

niallb

Turn it on and off 10 times from the power switch and it might well start up a bit once or twice. I had this happen with a batch of Dell 2400s many years back. First time I'd seen failing capacitors in a power supply. You could rule it out if you can replace the power supply.

Any other "dead" computers in the house?

daphil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851732#Comment_121851732

Unfortunatly no, I'm lucky not be be diviorced with all the "stuff" I hoard.

niallb

Ah well - get as many brownie points as you can while taking this one to the recycling center!

Try finding something smaller to set up linux on.

daphil

Just a quick question, could Ram sometimes work and sometimes not ? Surely it's Kaput or not.

PC rebooted, downloaded Win 10 updated and then would not restart.

Thanks.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121854134#Comment_121854134

RAM can cause all manner of intermittent and strange behaviour if not correctly seated, or damaged in some way.

smuggler.ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121854134#Comment_121854134

I dont get it - you started thread with statement that HDD is gone(drive/OS/common-factor problem) and you trying to boot into linux USB and failing(BIOS/hardware, except HDD/common-factor problem).

Are you now booting into to original HDD and expecting to work?

For me troubleshooting is usually a process of elimination - remove/replace suspected faulty component and see if it resolve.

THE question: (and get rid of HDD first) are you able to boot into linux(or any other) USB and sustain stable, even if its dog-slow, session, without crash or error, that might indicate other hardware at fault?

daphil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121854849#Comment_121854849

I thought the Hard disk was the original problem, but advice from the Boards led me to believe that Ram might be the problem. It's a very old PC, had not been used for a while and I was wondering if installing Linux might give it a boost, but I can't access the Bios. I think I'LL just recycle it.

Thanks

daphil

Just as a follow up and it might be of use to someone. It seems I was wrong about the 3 beeps which as posted here signal a Ram Problem. It now seems that it is a checksum problem and it would be 6 beeps with a slight gap between beep 3 and 4. six beeps are not on any Fault charts.

If I leave it turned on, it goes through the startup 6 beeps and stops. If however you leave it on, (and I am more stubborn than knowledgeable), it might boot up. A couple of days ago I came back to the room to see the attached screen.

I did nothing differently to get this screen. It shows

Error: Cmos checksum error-Defaults loaded.

It also allowed me to enter the bios setup.

I changed HALT ON to no errors as well loading the defaults.

I changed the CMOS battery, but no change.

Any more ideas anyone.

Thanks

Dave

4 beeps during boot process is a timer failure, you’ll need to troubleshoot your motherboard. Make sure there’s enough ventilation, is fan working, no blocking of air ducts etc. You may have several coincidental problems, like RAM or a “master problem”.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121912488#Comment_121912488

What happens when you press F1 for Continue? Its detecting your USB stick now.

10-10-20

Try test or replace the CMOS battery cell - usually a CR2032 coin cell. Usually when that's low the CMOS settings aren't retained and loads defaults. The cell should be greater than 2.6v, if memory serves me.

Esel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121913153#Comment_121913153

OP says a few posts up that they replaced the battery.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121913523#Comment_121913523

Ok, didn't see that. 😊

daphil

It's starting more frequently now, but anything requiring a restart fails.

Is Bios corrupt?

I can only get into it by pure chance and then when you have to restart, I am caught again.

New CMOS battery by the way.

Thanks.

niallb

Good to hear there's progress.

Have you entered the BIOS and made any changes?

Set the date and time to be correct and then save and restart.

This is just to see if it can actually remember any settings at all.

Was there any corrosion or leaking around the old battery when you took it out?

Sometimes there's a piece of adhesive plastic on the bottom of the batteries that needs to be peeled off before you insert it.

It's safer if somebody eats it, but it also allows you to fit a battery before storing it without depleting it too much. Just a small suggestion and it depends on the brand of battery you chose.

spaceHopper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851287#Comment_121851287

Check to see if any expansion cards have moved in their slot and are shorting out the PCI/PCIe bus.

CMOS memory can go bad and it would fit your description. If so then the board is toast.

If you want to mess with Linux any number of cheap Single Board Computers are a great way into experimenting with the Linux OS, Raspberry PI is one option but there are far better ones out there for about the same money.

daphil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121915997#Comment_121915997

Partial success.

I have managed to install Linux Mint from A DVD iso file, it would not work with a USB stick. Thr old PC bounds along on Linux, however I have no guarantee it will boot at any given time.

Thanks for all the advice given by various posters, will keep trying to figure out why it only boots when it feels like it, but It proves a point to me that older PCs and some that fail the Windows 11 standers still have life in them.

Thanks all

Dave