Acer Laptop Blinking Line Of Doom

KingDanath

Honorable
Jan 19, 2013
5
0
10,510
I have an Acer laptop (Aspire 7520-5185) that will turn on long enough to shot the BIOS or let me choose the boot order. After that, no matter what I do it just shows a black screen with a blinking white line ( "_" ). I tried loading the Windows 7 install CD but it doesn't prompt for it. I tried Hiren's BootCD (same). I tried loading Hirens on a USB stick (with Hirens instructions on how to do so), OS on USB stick, tried loading Vista install CD to 2 different hard drives (with only one connected at a time) and the USB stick. Tried removing one of the RAM sticks (then the other), tried removing the DVD player, tried removing the keyboard, tried a USB keyboard, had the battery out the entire time. Turned off quiet boot. Turned off LAN. Tried default settings. It doesn't seem to be overheating and I know the fan is running just fine.

The only options I get are the boot order and the BIOS. No safe mode. No boot from CD. Nothing other than a black screen with a white blinking _. I assume the motherboard must be experiencing some sort of zombie death where it can still function slightly but is actually dead. I can clarify what I've said so far if needed. I've never posted here so please forgive me if I'm not following the rules 100%.

Acer Aspire 7520-5185
3GB DDR RAM
AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core
NVidia GeForce 7000M
Laptop hard drives of various sizes (70Gb and 120GB I believe)
 
Are you able to change options in the BIOS at all?

You're getting the blinking cursor because the computer can't seem to locate a OS on the computer (which I assume you had installed prior to). If it's getting past POST (the Acer splash screen) then it's booting into the OS (or attempting to).

Do you still have either of the hard drives connected when attempting to do this (except for the internal drive that should be there)? If so, remove them. In fact, remove all of your external devices (monitor, keyboard, mouse, external hdds, etc.) and see if it will boot to the Win7 CD again by changing the boot sequence in the BIOS.
 

KingDanath

Honorable
Jan 19, 2013
5
0
10,510
I can access the BIOS. No matter what boot order or device I try, it goes to that same screen. The DVD drive spins but I never get a "press any key to boot from cd". I don't have anything plugged in any USB ports or any external plugs (not even an ethernet cable). Went so far as to remove one of the RAM sticks (then the other), the internal DVD player, the keyboard (the one that is actually part of the laptop), and had the battery out the entire time. I tried with one HD, then the other, then none. Same result.