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How to tell whether it is the SSD or the boot manager that does not boot?

Three or four seconds after power on, when the OEM’s logo comes on the monitor, at the beginning of booting, the PC is stuck.

An IT gentleman says the issue is on the SSD, either the SSD itself or the boot manager on the SSD. The reason is that when acer logo comes to the screen, the next step is booting. If it is stuck at this point, either the boot manager on SSD is corrupted or the SSD is bad.

How can I test whether the SSD is good? And if the SSD is good, whether the boot manager is good or corrupted?

Thanks.

Topic

Re: no boot

In reply to How to tell whether it is the SSD or the boot manager that does not boot?

Run Startup Repair from a bootable (USB or DVD) Windows install medium or the recovery drive you made (a really recommended precaution) and see what it says.

An old laptop I have doesn’t boot if there’s an unbootable USB-stick or external disk connected. I have to pull that out to boot. That’s a really easy fix, isn’t it?

To Kees_B Moderator

In reply to Re: no boot

Thank you.

USB or DVD
Both USB ports and DVD drive are dead.
There is a backup which can recover the OS but the PC is dead.

Sounds like the PC needs repair first.

In reply to To Kees_B Moderator

Given all those failures, the SSD is likely to be fine. How do I know? I don’t but having seen some thousand plus PCs over the years when you find a PC with all that wrong the number of still good functional drives we save is over 99.99%.

I forgot to write this!

In reply to How to tell whether it is the SSD or the boot manager that does not boot?

When you have irreplaceable data on a drive, you copy that drive if you can’t be sure if copying files is enough.

-> When we worked on systems where the owner/client had a blown OS and wanted us to try to save the OS we would:
1. CLONE that drive.
2. Work on the CLONE, never the original.

This sometimes upsets folk as you have to have a spare drive of similar or same size to hold the clone. We also insisted on yet another copy for safety.

To rproffitt Moderator

In reply to I forgot to write this!

A repair shop replaced the Acer motherboard with an Asus Q170M2 which wa a remodeled one & started have troubles after using it for a few days & the shop initiatively reverted my PC and refunded me very politely.

Then, I paid for troubleshooting by 2 IT gentlemen. One could not tell anything definitely , the other said that it was very possible that the issue was the SSD, either the SSD hardware or the boot manager on it. I asked him if he would do the repair. He refused. Reason? Very hard to find suitable motherboard replacement.

I decide to monkey with the PC myself. I do not know much computer. And have no technology in this field. But I am prepared to have it ruined if I cannot repair it. And, I do not believe it can be ruined.

Since it is almost impossible to find the same motherboard, I very possibly have to use one of other brands and/or remodeled.

But first, I must be sure where the trouble is. The SSD or the board?

Even at the shop.

In reply to To rproffitt Moderator

We can’t tell unless we swap in a board or drive. Remember that many clients have drives we must NEVER TOUCH or test because they don’t have backups. So testing if it’s the drive is never possible. However we can slip in a new drive, do the quick OS install and see what that tells us.

Similar story about motherboards. Client wants to know if it’s the motherboard, CPU, RAM or other without swapping. The PC industry never evolved to have such diagnostics so we swap and test.

To rproffitt Moderator

In reply to Even at the shop.

THANK YOU VERY, VERY MUCH1
Have learnt a lot from you. I really appreciate.
I have decided to replace the motherboard of Acer T3-715

[Author]

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