Inactive Acer Aspire 5335 will not boot

[AphexN]

Reposting what I posted in the other help forum:

Hi all, hoping someone can help me with this!

I was online earlier when suddenly my laptop started screaming about a virus being detected. My virus protection expired last week, and I hadn't got around to replacing it thanks to having no money, so in a bit of a panic, I immediately turned off my modem and then turned off the laptop. Now, however, the laptop will not start up; here's the exact sequence of events that takes place on pressing power on:

Acer loading screen starts as normal.
Blue 'loading' bar fills at normal speed
Screen then switches to blank black screen with a flashing cursor in the top left corner

Pressing most buttons produced a high pitched 'beep' sound, and the only thing that seems to do anything is Ctrl-Alt-Delete, which simply seems to reset the black screen with the flashing cursor - the screen goes black, then reverts to the erroneous screen.

I can still get into my Setup Utility screen by pressing F2 during the Acer boot screen, but when it goes beyond that, none of the F buttons will work.

Any suggestions?

EDIT: Some more information:

It's a Vista machine,
Warranty expired ages ago, sadly,
And I haven't opened it up

With consultation from a friend, I've tried a few things; I've managed to get the system to boot up from my Vista disc, and run CHKDSK but that hasn't fixed the issue. Unfortunately, I don't have any System Restore points I can try reverting back to, either. Obviously, I can't follow the 8-step plan.

Is my only option going to be a full reformat and re-installation?

 

[Broni]

Welcome aboard

Let's see, if we can look at your computer booting from an external source.

Please download OTLPE (filesize 120,9 MB)

• When downloaded double click on OTLPENet.exe and make sure there is a blank CD in your CD drive. This will automatically create a bootable CD.
• Reboot your system using the boot CD you just created.
  • Note : If you do not know how to set your computer to boot from CD follow the steps here
• Your system should now display a REATOGO-X-PE desktop.
• Depending on your type of internet connection, you should be able to get online as well so you can access this topic more easily.
• Double-click on the OTLPE icon.
• When asked Do you wish to load the remote registry, select Yes
• When asked Do you wish to load remote user profile(s) for scanning, select Yes
• Ensure the box Automatically Load All Remaining Users" is checked and press OK
• OTL should now start.
• Press Run Scan to start the scan.
• When finished, the file will be saved in drive C:\OTL.txt
• Copy this file to your USB drive if you do not have internet connection on this system
• Please post the contents of the OTL.txt file in your reply.