Acer Aspire 5532

My daughter's partner bought an Acer Aspire 5532 a couple of years ago.

He had various problems with it and a friend of his 'revamped it'.

Various things have stopped working and it sounds like software/driver issues, so I suggested he just restore the factory image.

It seems the friend managed to wipe this and neither of them made a set of discs for the machine.

Is it possible to get hold of a set of disks to re-install Windows 7

TIA

If windows is working you can download drivers here http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/drivers

In reply to a post by philippercival:

Is it possible to get hold of a set of disks to re-install Windows 7

I believe the cost was/is approximately £50 for a set of restore CDs/DVDs from ACER.

Provided you know version of software installed and serial number of licence. Which should be on base of computer.
Try the link below.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/248995/how_to_install...
There is no guarantee it will work, nothing to lose.
Was the disk or partition wiped
Try this first
Power on your computer. When the Acer logo is displayed, press and hold the ALT key while pressing repeatedly the F10 key. Release the keys when a message displays that Windows is loading files.

Edited by flippery (Sun 16-Sep-12 21:35:38)

Thank you all. The link looks promising.

I think the friend did delete the recovery partition.

I will ring tomorrow and establish the version.

In the mean time I am mailing him an Ubuntu live CD as that will allow him to check the computer is actually working. If so it will also give him internet access, which he is currently doing without.

Really does my head in when these 'techy' people decide to delete recovery partitions.

They always say something along the lines of 'loads of junk comes preinstalled and it's not needed.'

Fact is most people are screwed without it.
& most new machines have plenty of ram to cope with 100+ processes with LITTLE or no slow down.

Gone are the days where we had 256mb of ram and everything needed stopping in msconfig. In this day and age the only massive bonus of a clean startup is a faster boot time. Most people just put their machines to standby anyway so little benefit.

Things work better factory set than installing windows manually and then installing drivers from the drivers manufacture site. Manufacturers often customized things which then work best with their own customized driver.

Another thing that drives me mad. Pc world sell office license keys without a disk on PCs that come preinstalled with office.

BUT If you have insurance with pc world the tech guys. The first thing they do when you send a pc / laptop in for repair is wipe it using a windows disk. They don't re install the office trial and the user has no disk. It just causes a load of inconvenience. They're so quick to force the key card and insurance down users faces & are so quick to erase the office when the insurance is used by formatting their own way.

They don't even re install drivers for e.g. the touchpad so the user has no scroll etc.

This is why I honestly prefer MAC right now. Things are done right from the start.
Anyho the advice to install windows a fresh is all you need. Then get all the drivers from the manufacturers site and you'll be happy as larry

Edited by ukhardy07 (Mon 17-Sep-12 00:59:14)

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Things work better factory set than installing windows manually and then installing drivers from the drivers manufacture site. Manufacturers often customized things which then work best with their own customized driver.

I must disagree - I have yet to see a PC that works better with the OEM image as opposed to the Microsoft one. Microsoft is the best company at making Windows images.

If the OEM are not providing proper drivers via their website for PC users who choose to install their own copies of Windows then shame on them.

They do and I've already posted the link http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/drivers

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Really does my head in when these 'techy' people decide to delete recovery partitions.

They always say something along the lines of 'loads of junk comes preinstalled and it's not needed.'

Fact is most people are screwed without it.
& most new machines have plenty of ram to cope with 100+ processes with LITTLE or no slow down.

Gone are the days where we had 256mb of ram and everything needed stopping in msconfig. In this day and age the only massive bonus of a clean startup is a faster boot time. Most people just put their machines to standby anyway so little benefit.

Things work better factory set than installing windows manually and then installing drivers from the drivers manufacture site. Manufacturers often customized things which then work best with their own customized driver.

Another thing that drives me mad. Pc world sell office license keys without a disk on PCs that come preinstalled with office.

BUT If you have insurance with pc world the tech guys. The first thing they do when you send a pc / laptop in for repair is wipe it using a windows disk. They don't re install the office trial and the user has no disk. It just causes a load of inconvenience. They're so quick to force the key card and insurance down users faces & are so quick to erase the office when the insurance is used by formatting their own way.

They don't even re install drivers for e.g. the touchpad so the user has no scroll etc.

This is why I honestly prefer MAC right now. Things are done right from the start.
Anyho the advice to install windows a fresh is all you need. Then get all the drivers from the manufacturers site and you'll be happy as larry

Disagree with this statement i always format anything pre built with my own discs i do this for various reasons firstly to remove all the rubiish that gets pre installed and secondly to remove the pointless splitting of 1 drive into two partitions which drives me insane after which i then take an image of the newly installed OS along with the drivers and put them in a safe place

You can download the relevant ISO from Microsoft via Digital River:
Windows 7 Home Premium x86
Windows 7 Home Premium x64
Windows 7 Professional x86
Windows 7 Professional x64
Windows 7 Ultimate x86
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
These are all genuine English SP1 ISO's; other languages are available.

Download Driverack Solution as well and you won't need to bother hunting down drivers.

In reply to a post by jamie543:

Disagree with this statement i always format anything pre built with my own discs....

So do I but I always ensure that the "rescue disks" are created or a disk image taken first. That way, if the unit needs to be returned, it can be put back to original condition first.

Than you all.

Just an update.

The live DVD has arrived but it has not been used yet, but I got him to look at the sticker on the bottom of the computer and I have now downloaded the correct version from Digital river (who have a very impressive delivery rate). I have also grabbed the drivers from the acer site, as well as the driver updater program.

Assuming that the machine is working I will burn them to disk and send them off. Then update you again.

Well I sent them off and they were used, but something went wrong. This weekend I got hold of the computer and used the disks and as far as I can see after a complete repartitioning of the disc then install things are working well.. Windows is activated - which was an interesting process by phone, so I hope all will be happy.

Thank you all again.