Acer ATC-120 keeps restarting/shutting down, please help!

Hi Overclocker Community!

So I recently purchased a prebuilt Acer Aspire ATC-120 (http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/DT.SV8AA.002) to replace my old custom built computer. I swapped a few parts (Rosewill 700w power supply, 9800GT PCE videocard, 2 SATA 2TB hd, external exhaust fan) from my old computer and now it keeps restarting/shutting down on its own. When I try moving files from one hard drive to the other, the computer keeps restarting/shutting down. Also, it now won't load up the BIOs screen in the beginning. Instead, it goes right into Windows 8. I'm thinking it's a overheating issue, but the computer doesn't feel hot at all. Could it be that I'm overworking the CPU too hard and it's causing it to shut down to prevent overheating? Does anyone also know how to get back into the BIOS Setup again? I tried pressing and holding the "del" key but it no longer works to get into the BIOS.



Also, I'm new to the community with basic knowledge of computer building. I'm open to suggestions! Thank you!

Also, just even plugging in a usb wire into the usb slot on the tower, the computer immediately shuts down/restarts itself. I have never had an issue with a computer like this before. Ugh.

Sounds like a driver issue to me. The motherboard chip set for the new computer needs to have the appropriate drivers installed. When you moved the hard drive from the old computer over, Windows had already installed drivers for the old motherboard chip set. Really, the best thing to do is to do a fresh reinstall of Windows. Then download all the drivers for the motherboard that Windows 8 does not have natively. You can check in Control Panel/Device manager to see of any devices still need drivers. They will have flags by them. Then go to the computer manufacturer's website and download the ones you need.

Hi Trents,

So I upgraded the hard drive it came with to a SSD and I used acronis to clone it from the original hd. However, the two other storage hds (slave drives) I installed from my old computer. The two storage hds were run by Win 7 from the old build. Should I still continue to reformat my operating system? This is my first time using a Win 8 desktop and I definitely miss Win 7! Thank you.

Thanks for the clarification. I misunderstood what you were trying to say in your original post. There should be no reason the two hard drives from the old Win 7 computer should not work but I may be missing something.

First, I would remove all unnecessary hardware from the computer and reset the CMOS with the jumper on the motherboard to make sure all the bios settings are restored to baseline. Hopefully, this should allow you to enter bios. Then set the date and time correctly as well as the SATA mode (AHCI vs. IDE vs. RAID) you want AHCI mode. Do you know what I mean when I say to reset the CMOS? Make sure the USB mode is set to Legacy.

Then reconnect the extra drives. See if this corrects the problem. If not, I would indeed do a fresh reinstall of Windows 8.