I press the power switch on my Acer Aspire RC900 and PC shows up on the screen on the harddrive, however the computer won't boot. When I press the power button to turn it off, it won't switch off.

Just order an official recovery cd directly from Acer
https://secure.tx.acer.com/RCDB/Main.aspx?brand=acer

Ensure that you havent got a cd in the cd rom then reboot, press F2 or Delete to enter the bios and look for boot options, set the primary boot to your harddrive press F10 and press y to save and exit the bios, Press F11 and set that to boot from harddrive and let the computer boot, if it still dosent boot to windows then the hdd has become faulty, or has been wiped of the operating system and windows will need to be reinstalled.

Go to boot menu by pressing Boot option key while Laptop booting up and then check the the Harddrive status. If harddrive is not listing anywhere in bootmenu, unplug and plug the Harddrive again. If it will still not work, replace the Harddrive and reinstall the OS.

Try formating your harddrive and reloading the OS. If that doesn't work you might need a new harddrive.

Acer Aspire RC900?

1) Computer off, unplug the power cable from the surge protector. Now unplug it from the computer (Power Supply)

(Unplugging the power cord from the back of the computer, while still plugged into the surge protector, may cause a voltage spike.

This could result in frying out the Power Supply, and may also fry out the Motherboard, Processor, Ram Memory, and Graphics)

2) Viewing the Acer Aspire RC900 from the Front, the Left side panel, is the panel that removes.

3) Viewing the Acer Aspire RC900 from the rear, look at the right side. (Left side actually, but now the computer is turned around)

There is a Cover Release Latch that is close to the outside edge, and towards the top.

It is whitish in color, and approximately 1-1/2 finger digits long, and half a finger digit wide.
(Universal measurement I figure. Using the Inch system it is approximately 1-1/2 inches long, and 1/2 inch wide)

Pull this Cover Release Latch to the right. (Towards the bottom of the computer if it were standing up)

You will see that this side cover, has a formed shape that you can put your fingers in, to pull the side cover towards the rear of the computer.

Pull the side cover back towards the rear of the computer to remove it.

Advise:

Your body carries Static electricity,
Static can fry out (Short Circuit) the hardware components inside a computer.

Touch the metal frame of the open computer case BEFORE you reach inside, to relieve your body of Static.
(Not shouting)

If you get up, walk away, then return, Touch the metal frame again.

Computer unplugged from power, you are safe.
Touch the metal frame of the open computer case, your computer is safe.

Have any more questions concerning this, I'm right here. Please post in a Comment.
Regards, joecoolvette.

i had a similar problem with my acer aspire 4315 (witch i got for free because of this problem :D ) and i just reinstalled vista then it worked just fine

When you power up the laptop press F1 or F2 or "del" key to enter in bios setup.
Then check your harddisk is detect or not?
Then also make sure SATA option is disabled in bios.
Then go to boot option and set first boot device as your harddrive.Then save settings and exit.
But if you even not able to enter in bios then you have reset bios settings and Refix RAM memory .
For that open back cover fo laptop and find cmos cell on motherbord pull it for 10 minutes so all settings of bios goes to factory defaults.
Let me know if you need more assistanse.
Thanks.

sounds to me like you need to restore your bios settings to default. if you can get into bios usually by pressing delete then it shouldnt be too hard. if that dont work the next easiest thing to do is to take out the battery that is inside the laptop somewhere on the motherboard! this will clear bios settings after about 2 or 3 mins of being out make sure the computer has no other power going to it when you take out battery

Replace the motherboard.

It seems like your harddrive has given up the ghost or thrown out the operating system.Power up the machine and enter the bios (Press either Del,F1,F2 to enter) once in bios check the system can see the harddrive,9 If bios can,t recognise the harddrive then it,s dead, If it can then the next step is boot options and make sure it it booting from the harddisk.
If It is then see if there is a recovery progrom in the bios that will enable a system restore,If not then change the boot option to start with a Cdrom and put in the recovery disk that was supplied with the Pc.

When going through the process with the cd you will soon find out if the harddrive is corrupt or Dead.

When using the cd if the system