Top 10 Acer Aspire 3680 Laptop Questions & Answers

If the laptop came with Windows Vista Home you can't really uninstall it. You will need to wipe out everything on the computer and use a Windows XP disk to load that on your computer.

Equipment needed -
1. Valid Copy of Windows XP
2. USB Floppy Drive w/ Disk
3. Windows XP Drivers

***Also be aware if you do this you will lose any of the programs that came with your computer if you wipe it out. I HIGHLY recommend making your Vista recovery CDs before attempting to install another OS. (You can do this from the Acer manager)

Note you may also need access to a USB Floppy drive and a floppy disk with the SATA drivers for your motherboard on it. ( If it has an Intel processor you can probably get it from intel.com, otherwise you'll have to track down the manufacturer of the motherboard)

I would also download all the Windows XP files from acer ( here ) as it will make you life easier later.

Now you'll need to insert the Windows XP disk and turn on the computer. It may ask you to press a key to boot from CD, go ahead and press a key if it asks this.

It will now start to install windows XP. During the first few seconds there will be a message that says "Press F6 to install 3rd party drivers" --- Go ahead and continue with the install. If you get to a screen that says there is no hard drive installed in the computer you'll need to reboot it and press F6 at this screen. Please have the floppy drive plugged into the computer but no floppy disk in it while the computer is rebooting. After you press F6 it is ok to insert the disk into the drive. It will continue to load for a few minutes and then give you the option to install the drivers you need for the computer to see your SATA hard drive.

After that mess it will ask you where you want to install windows too, and you'll want to have it do a quick format in NTFS. Screens and extra info can be found here.

When windows is done installing you'll want to pop the CD in with the drivers you've downloaded and install everything to get it back into working shape.

This is a fairly long and complicated process. If you have trouble you can pop in your recovery disks, reboot the computer and it will set the computer back to the way it came from the factory.

Assuming you have Windows Vista as an OS on it..

That's a hardware problem, not a Vista problem, the file system is munged and the HDD cannot be loaded. Often times, this is only resolved by recreating the system volume and starting from scratch. Boot from the DVD and try running a chkdsk /r from the recovery environment (choose the command prompt option), see if it can fix the drive. Otherwise, you may have to go the long way 'round. Hopefully you backed up your data on a regular basis

For more detailed information from Microsoft

Follow the link below to the MS website it explains how to fix this.
You will need the Recovery CD to boot into windows.

MS Fix Link

Good luck,

djEnigma


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The "side-by-side" component is associated with the Vista Windows Resource Protection (WRP). You may have a corrupted file in the SxS folder.

To resolve this issue, use the System File Checker tool (SFC.exe) to repair these files.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open an elevated command prompt. To do this, click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow/Continue.

2. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
sfc /scannow

(The sfc /scannow command scans all protected system files and replaces incorrect versions with correctMicrosoft versions.)

This may take some time to run, so be patient.

Hope this fixes the problem.

there are some reasons laptop can't power on, try to troubleshoot.
1. Make sure that your ac adapter is working. if you plug battery and ac adapter, the battery chargin led will be orange and if the battery is full, the led will be yellow.
2. Can you power on using battery ? if you can and you can't power on using ac adapter (i assume your ac adapter is working). the problem will be your power port.
if you can't power on using battery and your battery is working ok. the problem will be motherboard.

your e-machine is set to boot from the network (PXE = Netboot)

go to your BIOS and make sure you boot from your hard drive

http://www.acerpanam.com/synapse/forms/portal20.cfm?website=AcerPanAm.com/au&siteid=8116&areaid=12&formid=3394#results
HERE IS THE LINK DOWNLOAD & MAKE CD

can you see your dvd drive in bios ?
if yes, can you see your dvd drive in windows explorer ?
if you can't see it in windows explorer, it's windows issue,
either you can reload the operating system or you can edit windows registry.
if you want to edit, follow this step from microsoft (link below):
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060

These are the same thing , they will both disappear when you install the audio driver

http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_3680.html

Click under Windows XP Drivers And Utilities And click Audio Driver

Always check the manufacturers site for your drivers!

Click here to access the Acer warranty information page. This site will help you know the warranty status of your Acer machine. Type the serial number of your machine on the system Serial textbox and press Find Serial Number Button. You may locate the serial number of your computer at the bottom of laptop computer.

Hola:
1.- Desmonta la bateria (por debajo de la Laptop tiene, generalmente dos seguros, tira hacia afuera y se soltará la pila).
2.- Desconecta el cable de alimentación de la Laptop (eliminador).
3.- Intenta encenderla, dejando presionado el botón de encendido durante 15 - 30 segundos.
4.- Conecta solamente el cable de alimentación (sin bateria).
5.- Presiona el boton de encendido en forma normal.
Estos pasos sirven para descargar todo el circuito electrónico del equipo y/o desbloquearlo por alguna posible sobre carga eléctrica. Ve si funciona.

Si no enciende, intenta lo siguiente:
1.- Desconecta el cable de alimentación y batería.
2.- En la parte de abajo de la laptop, localiza una tapa con un ícono identificador tipo chip; desmóntala liberando el ó los tornillos.
3.- Retira el ó los módulos de memoria, jalando los seguros laterales de cada memoria. Tómala por los bordes.
4.- Limpiar o lijar los pines (contactos) de la memoria. Puedes usar un borrador de lápiz o una brocha impia y pequeña.
5.- Instalar un solo módulo de memoria, si fuera el caso.
6.- Encender la laptop sólo con el cable de alimentación.
Este procedimiento corrige una posible falla de lectura en la memoria que impide realizar el POST del equipo correctamente. Ve si funciona.
Espero y ayude. Gracias