Resolved Windows 7 Ultimate Won't Boot

hey guys, im gonna try to keep this as short and to the point as possible. my daily workhorse is an acer ax1700-u3700. recently while working on it i got a long constant beep tone which i know normally may indicate an issue with memory but after a shutdown and reboot it worked fine. few days later it began to freeze up and upon reboot was taking me to the AMI boot screen and the message at the bottom of the screen said bad checksum which i assumed couldve been a bad cmos battery so i popped a new one in and it was all downhill from there. after that the pc froze maybe 5 mins after booting. it froze in normal and safe mode and then eventually would no longer boot normally.

so now if i tap the F8 i can get to the boot screen and select safe mode etc BUT it will not enter any of those modes. it takes me directly to the startup repair/start windows normally screen where neither option works. i have tried almost everything to resolve this. i have tried to run startup repair from 3 different windows 7 installation disks and 9 out of 10 tries it wont even load the disk and when it does and i am able to click on repair my computer it just freezes. i have also tried my avg rescue disc which didnt resolve the issue either. i have tried multiple times to reset the bios by switching the jumper to no avail. im just totally stuck now. i pulled the video card and memory sticks and started it up to see what beep tones i get and i got the long constant tone which im told means that the MB is in fact in tact so at this point im assuming its an issue with the BIOS.

any help you guys can provide would be much appreciated. please keep in mind i cannot post any logs etc bcuz i cannot get into the machine to do so. thank you.

 

hello, evan. yes, the case is currently open and ive blown the dust out as i would normally. i cant get into the bios now. i tap F1, F2, F3, F4 and it takes me to the windows boot manager screen where im given the option to boot using windows 7 or to hit F8 for more options which would be safe mode, etc. there is also an option at the bottom to run a memory diagnostic which i did and found no errors. so at this point it appears i cannot get back into the bios. i think if i reset the cmos again i can get there though.

EDIT: after typing this i tried to get into the BIOS by tapping delete and was successful. any suggestions from this point?

 

how can i test the hard drive without pulling it if the machine wont boot up? i can pull it if need be bcuz i have a docking station. and yes, during the troubleshooting process i did pull it just to check the integrity of my files/documents and everything on the drive was in order. would that be enough to rule out a hard drive failure?

EDIT: while i was waiting for your reply i popped the drive out and ran all the basic tests on the seagate site and the drive passed. gonna pop it back in shortly. how do i run the extended memory test? if its the option that appears when i try to boot then ive already done that and the memory passed.

 

i followed your link but please keep in mind, i cannot access the control panel. my machine will not completely boot. the only things i can access are the bios settings, the windows startup repair screen, and the safe mode screen. nothing else. when i initially started troubleshooting i got lucky a few times and managed to get into both normal and safe mode a few times but it just locked up within minutes. now i cant get into either. im gonna go to that screen where the memory diagnostics option is and see if will allow me to change from the standard to extended test. be back shortly.

UPDATE: started the extended memory test couple hours ago and its just about halfway done. had no idea it was gonna take this long but it is running. will update when i have the results.

 

got this when i returned to the pc ... not sure if the memory diagnostic finished or not but this is what was there ..

 

i removed both sticks of memory and then tried to boot up with one stick at a time and i even seated each stick in both slots to rule out a hardware problem. same results with both sticks in either slot. ddr2 is pretty cheap but id hate to buy two sticks if its not the problem.

 

upon further research, the ram isnt quite as cheap as i thought. looks like anywhere from a $50-100 investment depending on where i decide to purchase it and alot of that also is dependent upon the retailers return policies should the ram not be the issue. are there any other troubleshooting steps i can take to ensure that the ram is in fact the issue?

 

doing the individual tests now. be back in a bit.

 

ran the extended test on the first card and it took forever and the machine rebooted to a bsod with a bunch of strange colors along the edges of the screen. at this point im assuming this is probably a lost cause.

ive already pulled the hdd and backed my files up. i think putting the cash twds a new build is probably a better investment than buying ram but im here for advice so feel free to advise further. im open to more suggestions.

 

hey, evan. i hate having it closed as resolved when it really isnt but i guess thats the only way to close threads here. and yeah, im gonna start a new build next week. really appreciate everyones help and advice.