Help!!! Laptop problem, Big, Big Problem.

First of all, i'd like to say hi to everyone in this forum. This is my first post.

ok this is my problem, i was happy browsing along on the net when i got up to go get some munchies i tripped on my dial-up phone line which was connected to my laptop. My lappy went flying and smashed to the foor. Windows started malfunctioning (twiching and blinking). Being stupid me, i stuffed around and got a screwdriver and started unscrewing all the screws on the bottom of the laptop. I thought maybe i'd open it up to see if anything came loose when it hit the floor. It was really hard to take apart and was stuck kinda so i forced it open and it made a big crack noise (i don't know if i broke anything) I panicked, and after pulling the RAM out and putting it back in, i put the computer back together. I restarted the computer and windows xp wouldn't start. I put in the XP cd and decided to put in a clean install of windows. The cd booted ok and i repartioned my harddrive to reinstall windows. Windows Setup loaded the setup files and tries to restart the computer but before it could happen this screen comes up:

"A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

The BIOS in this system is not fully ACPI compliant. Please contact your system vendor or visit http://www.hardware-update.com for an updated BIOS. If you are unable to obtain an updated BIOS or the latest BIOS supplied by your vendor is not ACPI compliant, you can turn off ACPI mode during text mode setup. To do this, simply press the F7 key when you are prompted to install storage drivers, The system will not notify you that the F7 key was pressed - it will silently disable ACPI and allow u to continue your installation.

Technical installation:

*** STOP: 0x000000A5 (0x00000001, 0x8136C698, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)"

when i restarted the computer the 'ACER' logo screen comes on with the ''press F2 to go to setup" and "press F12 display boot menu" as usual but then nothing came on except for a blank black screen.

i restarted the comp, a different screen came on after the 'ACER' screen saying:

"Windows could not start because following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original Setup CD-ROM.
Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair."

the next screen after restart was:

"Windows could not start because of an error in the software. Please report this problem as:
load needed DLLs for HAL.
Please contact your support person to report this problem."

i pressed a key and the comp restarted again and this time after the 'ACER' screen this message came up again:

"Windows could not start because following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original Setup CD-ROM.
Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair."

i booted from the WinXP CD and Setup files finished loading and says "Setup is starting Windows" but it frozed.
i also get this message: "the file ql12160.sys is corrupted" and various other messages.

and so on and so on.........same thing over and over in a loop. Please HELP!!!

I'm sorry this is such a long and boring post but i am desparate and wanted to put down as much detail as possible about this problem i'm having. I'm going through hell atm don't know what to do.

these are my laptop specs:

Acer Travelmate 630
Intel Pentium 4 M 1.6 GHz
256MB DDR SDRAM
HD 20G
Bus Speed 400Mhz
DVD/CDRW Combo Drive
Windows XP Pro
Phoenix Bios Version 4 Release 6.0

I am using my Sony VAIO PIII 1.2 atm.

i also got this message when i try to install windows:

"The entry "setupdd.sys" in the [sourceDisksFiles] section
of the INF file is corrupt or missing.

Setup cannot continue. Press any key to exit."

I got a another error message saying i should update my BIOS. I did a bit a search and found that the latest PheonixBIOS is version 4 release 6.1. I cannot find this BIOS update anywhere, perhaps someone can tell me a good place to look for this.

You can try here for the BIOS update:
http://www.bios-drivers.com/drivers/58/58116.htm

Be careful with updating your BIOS though. It could screw things up worse than they already are if you mess it up.

Check this link for reference on some of the stop errors you are getting:

http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.php

I haven't thought of anything that may be of help, but I highly suspect that you have quite a few bad spots on yor hard drive as a result of your accident.

I think your problem with finding the BIOS download is you may have been spelling Phoenix wrong.

i found the bios update but because my battery is dead (it won't charge, i power my laptop by ac power) i cannot reflash the bios because the reflash program won't run unless ur battery is highly charged to avoid accidental power off during update of bios. so i guess i'm stuck until i go and buy a new battery pack for my laptop. And even then, i'm not even sure that it'll solve the problem after i update the bios. Thanx for your reply. btw if anyone's looking to update their bios for ACer PC's and Notebooks, look here:

http://support.acer-euro.com/documents/reports/bios.doc

ok i managed to get pass the "highly charged battery" error but now i'm getting this message when i get into the update program: "Cannot flash when memory managers (EMM386) are present" and when i try to disable EMM386, this is what i get: "Cannot turn OFF as upper and/or EMS memory is in use" what am i supposed to do? please help.

edit your config.sys and rem out that line and probably the himem line also

HI, this is ku2upt thanx for helping me. sorry, but i don't know how to do that. can u show me how please. thanx

search on your system
the file named config.sys sometimes it is hidden in your HD open it with notepad and look for the line that says about EMM386 and in the begininng put REM and save and restart

Just for others who may read this thread, I searched through the plain text files on my bios startup floppy and found that there was a key combination to skip over the "must have a fully charged battery" message. On mine it was ALT-"Z". Saved me a lot of hassle trying to combine startup disks, comment out lines, etc. taking chances. BTW, I plugged into my UPS to do the flash, just to be safe.

I'm thinking there is massive hardware damage as the result of the crash. I've fried, drenched, dropped, and destroyed at least 20 laptops in my day. Chuck it in the pile and buy one tha militayr uses with the depleted uranium case that can sustain a direct hit from a 12 gauge shotgun with a slug round at less than 6ft distance (point blank).

http://www.vaioshutdown.com/
http://www.melbpc.org.au/pcupdate/9507/9507article4.htm
http://www.geocities.com/politalk/dos/memory.htm


Next time (and hopefully there won't be one ) don't go exploring.
turn it on first and see what happens..You should flip it over again
and the center plate under the Vaio and remove were the ram sticks are (with power off and reseat them) ...I have seen this before on toshiba that was kind of knocked
onto the floor ,and it was the ram that needed to br reseated back in it's port(try it ) .
the Vaio comes with 2 slots for 512mg in 2-256mg sticks(you indicate you are only using one)
cooling fan is still running correct and blowing in the system.
How about try to reformat the H/D with a floppy and do a fresh install /

do you use sonyfxd on your VAIO
http://sonyfx.sourceforge.net/sonyfxd.html



This is good for a laugh ! ?
A man purchased a laptop from me. He called about a week later and said that it would no longer boot up. He brought it in, and I discovered that sixteen nicely drilled holes were in the bottom of the case. I asked him about it, and he said the machine was too hot sitting on his lap, so he had drilled these "air holes."

"Could that be the problem?" he asked.