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Update to all of this: I threw up my hands, found and purchased another Acer netbook of the same make/model and configured the unit for my purposes. Due to problems with my original backup software (or possibly the netbook environment) a clone of the original HDD failed. I then came across Macrium Reflect free, used it with the Windows-based recovery disc for a disk image and copied 2 more systems onto other HDDs. I now have 2 netbooks in fine shape and a backup HDD to put into one of the netbooks if needed. Since netbooks do not have optical drives already in their system, I used an external USB drive. Also Acer uses a recovery partition that the home-made “recovery” disc they ask to be made and the drives could not be redone that way; no recovery partition was available, hence the use of a disc image. At least it worked. Thanks all.

This is being typed on the (formerly) dead Systemax. The new video card was installed and drivers updated. Looks good, tastes great. I got an EVGA GeForce GT520 since I’m no gamer; reviews pan it for that use. I had to do some other types of updates first as they were very insistent and/or needed for security but it’s back on the air.

Actually, the system was acting just like F.U.N. Downtown’s unit in that it too worked for a month or so after all the hooraw of moving boards around and yes, the video card was actively cooled as is the current one. I couldn’t tell about the fan as the layout of the card(s) keep the fan pointed downwards disallowing sight without extreme repositioning of the box or using a mirror.

As far as the CPU goes, I am using the original chip and heat sinking assembly and the unit had been working fine for a month after the transplant. I wanted to use the original chip as it is much peppier than the one that came with the (new) mobo. The power supplies are rated at 350 W both from the same manufacturer with the extra one being a 400 W unit. I tried plugging that one in on an external basis using just mobo and C drive powered-same problem. This particular unit has no POST beeps and yes, the unit was plugged into an AC meter to monitor current draw during boot. Using W=E x I, max power draw stays around 200 W max. Current draw pattern is the same either during a proper bootup or it’s current truncated pattern up to the shut down time.
I’ll try the really bare bones set up to see what happens and if that doesn’t work, I guess I’ll put in the extra CPU and cross my fingers.

Well, I’ll be. . . I took winsong02’s advice and disconnected all peripherals and went to one memory-still failed. Just for shiggles, I then removed the video card and bingo, it stayed on! I replaced the memory only; stayed on. Reconnected all drives and tried; stayed on. Put back video card; shut down. removed card; stayed on. That’s enough for me; I just put in an order for a new video card. The old one was a PNY GeForce 6600 GT and did well enough; I’m no gamer. I opted for a GeForce GT520 with 1GB RAM; that should do me. While I was at it, I checked the CMOS battery-0.8 V. I did not have a CR2032 to put in but used a CR2025-thinner but the same diameter.

Hallelujah! I just figured out via another machine with T-bird on it what to do to allow each email account to send on Verizon. In the Outgoing SMTP server account settings, an individual outgoing account has to be made for each of the addresses using the account name in the User Name box. The Description is a blank, Server Name is smtp.verizon.net; Port is the default port; Connection Security is the SSL/TTS; Authentication Method is the normal password, and the User Name is the name of the respective account. Since I have 3 Verizon accounts, I had to have 3 separate outgoing lines. Then go to the account name in the Account Settings T-bird menu and where it asks for the outgoing server, select the properly named server connection (account name Schlemiel@verizon.net; Outgoing server name Schlemiel -smtp.verizon.net.) Now it works. If you trust the product to set this up using multiple addresses to the same ISP, it may not work. Some of the names will change for other ISPs but this would be a guideline.:)

An update: I downloaded the free Macrium reflect and used it to make a disk image of another Acer D150 I purchased. I then used the program to install the image onto 2 other HDD and it worked perfectly. For some reason, the Linux based disc did not operate properly, possibly due to the fact that netbooks must use outboard optical disc drives. The PE version worked great. Fortuitously AskLeo had a tutorial about the program at the time so I was able to properly check it out. I now have 2 Acer netbooks and a spare imaged HDD just in case. I did not try to do a clone.

An update: for some odd reason or windows update, the ol’ Systemax one day fired up properly and has been working fine. The power supply crashed on me but a replacement worked nicely. It is still a very zippy system.

An update: I upgraded to a newer, faster laptop so the problem mentioned here is now moot. My thoughts about the original problem probably would require a reinstall to get things back to normal considering all the little nigglies that was dogging the computer.

Does this then mean that the Macrium rescue disk has the equivalent of a live CD to start it’s action because something like that is needed to boot into the netbook; it is the same as a totally nonresponsive system. The rescue disk must supply some sort of driver for the netbook or an equivalent to allow the netbook to do operations in its current state. Maybe I should download it to one of my other computers, make the rescue disk and give it a try to see if a boot will occur. If so, I could make a backup image of the working HDD then use the rescue disk to import it back on the blank drive(s), thereby saving my working drive. Hurray!

Curiously enough, I just got off the phone with Avanquest (Soft City does their technical inquiries) about this problem and it is one that they have never heard of. We eventually came to the conclusion that the netbook environment has something to do with my woes (BTW, Perfect Image 12 is a rebranded Paragon product.) Trying to do a backup image recovery does not work because the netbook with a missing OS cannot sense the USB-connected drives. The PI 12 has worked nicely on recovery in my XP desktop that has internally connected HDDs.

I have heard of Acronis but have read of a number of instances in which it did not work. Forget abut any Norton product; I’ve had too many headaches with them.

The question now would be: does the Macrium recovery disk (I assume there is one) have its own start-up system so that it can do a backup recovery with an otherwise totally unresponsive OS? I currently have 2 boot-up CDs, an Ultimate Boot CD, v. 5.02 and a System Rescue -x86 CD. One of them will not give me any action, the other will boot into a number of otherwise useful operations. This is the kind of backup recovery program I could use: one that would function even when the system OS is brain-dead.

For F.U.N. Downtown, what kind of system were you using to do your clones? Probably not a netbook, I’ll bet. I am coming to the conclusion that to properly do my cloning, I’ll have to use 2 USB bridges to make the transfer to prevent the nuking of the source drive.

The external drive I have is bootable as I had used it to reinstall the XP after I had installed the Ubuntu in a dual-boot and found that the XP had disappeared. once I did that, I had a proper dual-boot system. Now, however the unit acts as if part of the GRUB is still in the netbook, a la ghost in the machine. Even with the old drive thoroughly formatted to NTFS, it still gave me a GRUB 1.5 ERROR 22 (or ERROR 17 depending on the HDD I had installed at the time.) Once, I had the OEM XP try to install itself, but got kicked out, probably because the HDD was SATA and I did not include the drivers during the intital setup. Now, all I get is the GRUB message. I can get my Ubuntu 11.04 live disk to get well into its trial mode then it just waits and waits. Do you think a stick would have a better chance to actually do something toward install? My reasoning is that if I could get a regular XP install on the drive, I could then use the recovery disks I made to properly restore the factory OS. Yes, no?

I learned this trick when my Secunia v.2 popped up with the blaster alert: go into safe mode then run search for blastcln in all system folders and subfolders. I got 3 instances of its location, deleted them all and bingo!

So far, I’ve not had any difficulty with the .NETs on my Win 7 laptop, but I have several XP units that each have beaucoup hidden .NET updates that are constantly reoffered. I used to cure this temporarily by uninstalling the .NETs from the most recent backwards leaving the 1.1 then reinstalling. Tedious, and then [messed up] by the next update. A tool to fix this behavior would be most welcomed.

Okay, just tried the bootable Windows 7 disc and it came back negative-twice. Yes, indeed, the gods have fun.

My machine is a Gateway laptop that is fully patched. The Windows disc I was using was downloaded from Digital River Home Premium SP 1.iso burned to disc. For the hibernation problem, I tried Reimage repair which notified me afterward that there were some files it could not replace. The hibernation remained the same. As for an installation disc, would the .iso burned disc do the startup repair function? . . . I just read the Startup Repair link you put in and it said that the process may or may not required reboots. If it does, should I keep the repair disc in the laptop? Never having done this procedure before, sometimes these little details can do unpleasantries to the repair process and render the user bald.

Since my laptop uses an AMD processor, the non-destructive reinstall did not like the ATI Catalyst control center (video drivers, in essence) and had me remove them. Even after doing that, it still would not let me proceed:

An error prevented a required compliance check from completing. Cancel the installation and try upgrading again.
It gave no reason. Ah, well.

same old, same old. Just for grins, I tried doing the Langa non-destructive reinstall for this and a missing hibernate problem and got an error window with no reason shown. The gods like messing with me.:rolleyes: