Dead aspire one

since you all have yours up and running. i would greatly appreciate it if someone could give me step by step instructions please. i have been reading these forums for 3 hours doing everything i have read. and i still got nothing but a blank screen. did the ms-dos usb thing. did the create a startup disk thing. tried 3109 and 3114 thing. hit the fn +esc keys along with power like the websight said. I GOTS NOTHING. i've been screwing around with pcs for years now. so i'm not a noobie. but i must be doing something wrong since i seem to be the only one with a dead aa1. i have the xp version with 120 hdd. i press both fn and esc at same time. hit the power button. power blinks. release the fn and esc keys press the power button. she turns solid. but nothing on the screen. nothing but blankness.


NEVERMIND, FIGURED IT OUT...

 

For the last few post I've been trying to figure out what happened before our systems went dead require a bios reload. So far it looks like people were loading different operating system from cd or bootable usb drives. It appears that the problem is not happening with the original operating system image. Was this the case for you? This is the best value in netbooks and I'm looking to avoid this problem until we have a fix from Acer.
This is only a guess but I think the problem has something to do with the Master boot record getting modified/erased, the Acer D2D recovery option in the bios being left on with a modified Master boot record or the way the usb drives are being prepared. Maybe it might make sense to leave the D2D option off within Bios when screwing with the hard drive/ssd. This option is useless anyway when you reinstall a different operating system. This is only an educated guess and is not yet confirmed. If others have any input please share. We must find the common factor and try to work around the problem.

 

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NEW UPDATE
I took apart my AAO 6+ times and am now a pro at it. I decided to take out the RAM and what do you know, the screen showed up with something. The bios still said .3114 (even after downgrading) and it correctly showed my SSD, but no OS would start. So I decided to try putting the RAM back in, and it works with the extra 1.5GB. I used the restore disc to reinstall Linpus and everything seems to be working so far, its going through updates now. If it messes up again, I'm getting new RAM.... The only problem is that the bios and the OS only detects the original 512MB. So, I assume I need to get different ram.

 

The new BIOS will probably fix the problem.

 

And REMOVE the FOUR lowest brightness settings!!! Are they completely crazy, that would render my machine UNUSABLE! I use the lowest setting all the time, at 4 clicks up everything is washed out and unreadable. So I can have a machine that won't die any more but now I can't read the screen! I've never been so mad about a purchase, sorry.

 

macles: let's hope that 3304 does.

 

Really? I can easily use mine at full brightness. You should check your calibration, something is wayy off there and it's not the machine's fault.

 

I do use mine at full brightness outside in the direct sunlight of course, it is not that I can't use it full bright when there is enough ambient light. Where I work we have subdued lighting, and by 4 clicks up the characters are starting to fill in and the screen hurts my eyes to look at. I compensate by tilting the screen back all the way, but 4 clicks up is going to be way too bright. My eeePC 701 is fine in this environment. I have the brightness settings in the intel manager set to the defaults, and have not run any gamma calibration software or anything. I just need the lowest setting most of the time. Maybe I can get some kind of filter to put over it; cut up a binder or something. I guess it is my fault for trying to use it in lower light and not the machines.

 

Mine re-dead today.... I was on Linpus, i have just reboot, no USB key plugged in and zouuuuu I had to reflash bios :roll:

 

Well I’m very happy to hear that a bios release will potentially fix this issue. The only time I use the low brightness setting is when my battery is about to crap out; so this little annoyance does not bother me. My major complaint is this dead bios problem which renders the netbook a brick and could happen at the wrong time. It must have been driving Acer nuts for so many returns and the negative publicity on forums like this. But then again Acer could have sold half a million of these with only a small percentage having this issue. Got to figure that the only one’s coming to this forum are people willing to tinker or people with issues. I know for a fact that my wife or daughter would not come here if they have this netbook. And so far I have not seen this posted on Engadget or Gizmodo as being a huge issue.

 

Well, it's definitely put me off from buying one. I really hope this fixes the problem as it's a great machine.

 

I updated BIOS to version 3.301 and it DOES NOT solve the problem described here.

I read in this post about version 3.309. Is there any higher version than 3.301 available now?

 

Should someone start a poll to see if the majority of people getting this problem is due to a ram upgrade or bios flash or some other type of upgrade?

Its a bad problem, but mine is fine. I have to say this thread worries me though, so a poll to see if people who just buy it and leave it as is are not having the prob would be helpful.

 

I did a caluclation based on the poll on this forum a couple of weeks ago that of the ~4000 that had registered around 20 had experienced problems. This is admittedly not scientific but it would suggest something of the order of 1 in 200 failing. Most of these were fairly shortly after purchase so had probably not been used more than say 100hr. This might suggest that up to around 5% of all machines would fail in the first year (warranty period) although this would be different if it was an infant mortality problem (e.g. faulty motherboard). At these levels Acer will be getting many 10's of thousands of machines back. Even if the fix is a simple reflashing of the BIOS it would be a major headache. Conservatively I think it would cost a minimum of $100 per machine so this will be very expensive for them.

 

It would suggest no such thing. People who aren't modding software/hardware and haven't had another issue, aren't the majority of this forums population. That poll is like going to an AA meeting and saying 100% of people get addicted to alcohol. Not that I don't think there are issues, I just have done tertiary level stats and research, and incorrect methodology annoys me

 

Sorry for late reply to this thread but for dead AA1's go here:

http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/08/acer-aspire-one-bios-recovery.html

 

We KNOW what the problem is already, it's booting off of usb. it seems to hang the bios on occassion. people who don't intend to do that will NOT have this problem. and it is NOT related to hardware mods. That's an entirely different issue. Please read before posting.

 

I thought 3304 was coming out today. I did not see any reference to 3309. i'm praying that 3304 will fix this issue

 

yeah right your the GURU :lol:
Mine DID it WITHOUT any usb device added or unplugd or so and with almost full batt. so :?: :!: :idea: ...........................
you can donate me for that

 

First of all, that's uncalled for.

And second of all, did you install anything other than Linpus on it?