Laptop not booting into windows - Assistance needed

[SkScotchegg]

HI there, I'm trying to fix my friends mums laptop but I cant seem to figure out what the problem is as it wont boot into windows.

The laptop model is called: Acer Aspire 5920.

I thought that I would try to reinstall windows vista first so I downloaded the ISO image that one of your forum members gave me the link to and tried that but it didn't work because when I got to the end it just hanged for hours It would install to about 90% and then go no further so after leaving it for 3 hours I decided that the hard drive must have died? That was my presumption anyway.

So then I bought a new hard drive for the laptop and tried to install windows again but the same thing happens again. Once the installation gets to about 90% installed it just hangs for hours and then eventually gives you an error message saying:

"Windows could not configure one or more system components. to install windows restart the computer and then restart the installation."

So after searching Google for hours and reading other peoples post and blogs on this error message it sounds like maybe the laptop isn't accepting the version of windows I am trying to install.

On the back of the laptop is a sticker, and it says on the CD key sticker "Windows Vista Home Premium" and its an old laptop so I was presuming I needed the 32bit version so that's what I tried to install but because that didn't work I'm now going to try and install a 64bit version of "Windows Vista Home Premium" and see if that works. But if that doesn't work then I'm totally out of ideas and I've spent £38 upgrading the hard drive for nothing

Please can anyone give me any advice? Why do you think the laptop isn't booting into windows? And which version of windows should I be trying to install on this laptop?

I would really appreciate any help or advice given.

 

[thenewoc]

What SATA mode is set in the BIOS? If it's set to AHCI you could try changing it to IDE.

Unless it's got more than 4GB of RAM the 64bit version wont be of any benefit.

Is the new drive configurable to be a master rather than a slave, maybe this isn't relevant with a modern drive but some drives used to have jumper pins to set.

 

[SkScotchegg]

What SATA mode is set in the BIOS? If it's set to AHCI you could try changing it to IDE.

Unless it's got more than 4GB of RAM the 64bit version wont be of any benefit.

Is the new drive configurable to be a master rather than a slave, maybe this isn't relevant with a modern drive but some drives used to have jumper pins to set.

Thanks for your advice mate, i'll give that a shot.

Just to give you an update on the past couple of hours. I couldnt get windows vista to install for the life of me so I decided to try and see if any other version of windows would install so I tried my Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit DVD which I got for my new PC for Christmas and it installed straight away in like 20 minutes and booted straight to desktop! It's been installing all the windows updates since.

So this is good news as this is the best I've managed to do so far but I'm thinking, is this going to work? I didnt enter my Windows CD Key at the start because I didnt know if I should?

Can I use my windows 7 CD Key on my mates mums laptop or will that not work?

And Can I give her the laptop with windows 7 installed without a CD Key? Would it matter?

Or do you think I should uninstall windows 7 and try get windows vista working again?

Oh and to answer your earlier questions, its only got 3GB of ram, and once these windows updates have finished installing I'll restart the PC and check what mode the SATA is set to in the BIOS like you asked.

Thanks in advance.

 

[thenewoc]

Hi, no worries.

Unfortunately your copy of W7 wont do as you only have one license. It's shown that something more up to date will install though. I suspect your BIOS is set to IDE and Vista should install the AHCI driver if it's set to this in the BIOS first.

So yes I think you should reinstall Vista as W7 shouldn't activate on the laptop if its active on your PC.

Once you've got Vista 32bit working you should use the W8 Upgrade Assistant.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-8/upgrade-to-windows-8

This will give you some idea whether it can be upgraded. Also check the manufacturers website for that model laptop to see if they have more up to date drivers available for each that are relevant to your model. If the laptop is too old it may not be suitable for W8 so you might need to use the W7 Upgrade Assistant and see if that is more successful.

The Vista license that the laptop has enables you to purchase the upgrade version of W7 or W8 but you need to check first whether these can run on the laptop's hardware using the appropriate Upgrade Assistant.

If possible you should upgrade to W8 as it will receive Windows Updates for longer.