Dead aspire one

I'm running into this again, but this time the bios will not access the USB ports.

I had this problem in October and reflashed the BIOS so i know what I need to do in a normal situation.

This time the USB ports get power, the flash drives light up, but the activity light never blinks on the flash drives. I've tried 3 different flash drives (a 128MB, a 2GB and a 4GB), formatted them each a combination of either FAT, FAT32 and ExFAT, and 3 or 4 different versions of the BIOS to no avail.

Does anyone have any ideas what I can do? I called tech support and I can ship it to them to fix but of course if you open it up you void the warranty. I removed my extra ram and I'm prepared to argue but if it costs $150 to fix I may as well get another one with a better HD.

My plans for Monday when I get back to work are to try with an external CD drive and then an external A:. Then probably cry a lil'

 

If your where careful like me taking your acer apart take extra ram out then send it for warranty got mine fixed no problem
but I was vary careful taking it apart leaving no trace I opened it up. anyway good luck.

 

I had the same problem, Dead Aspire One and no acces to USB ports. Upgrading or reloading the BIOS was not possible this way.
I send the One back to the service center. It came back 10 days later with new motherboard and upgrade Bios.

WJ

 

Okay..

I was going to flash my BIOS now from 3301 to 3309. I downloaded Unetbootin and made a DOS-stick. I unziped the BIOS-package, and copied it over to my USB-stick. Then i rebooted, pressed F12, chose number 5 (Run directly as LiveCD) tried to enter B: , C: and D: but nothing. I'm using Ubuntu 8.04, and my USB-drive is /dev/sdb1 (Who came up with that?!)

I also ran Unetbootinn thru Wine, and set the drive as D:

This did not help. So, i'm stuck. Anyone having the same problem, or have had this problem? I really want to upgrade my BIOS!

Save me! Heelp! (Ok. I'll shut up for now)

EDIT: I'm using a Cruzer Micro 4GB USB-stick.

 

You'll have to change boot order in such a way that it first looks at the usb ports to boot from. Don'f know if 'run as live cd' is exactly the same?
So, change the order, and boot again, now it should start from USB if it has the correct files on it and if the stick is bootable.

WJ

 

What happened after you chose to boot as a Live CD? Did you get to a DOS prompt?
Ian

 

Yeah, i got into "DOS" But i can't change drive to B: / C: or D: ... Hmmmmz...


By the way, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!

 

Seasons Greetings.

Thank you for the easy cheesy instructions on how to resurrect my AA1. Mine took a dump this morning and I had just created a service ticket with Acer when I happened upon this site.

I followed the instructions and wah-lah, my AA1 is back up and running with BIOS v3308. I tried to locate and download the v3309 but no joy.

 

Had the same problem. Used Macles method and the Bios 3305. The system shows Bios version 3114.

 

This worked for me, my dads Aspire (8GB SSD) stopped booting all of a sudden. Did this, and it got it going. Thanks so much!

 

Hi there!

Got into hacking on my AA1 150 with XP Home. I wanted to install a Linux Mint 6 Felicia, using an external CD drive (don't ask me why), the install went well, never had any problems. I even kept the Acer eRecovery partition untouched (literally: although I forgot to give it a mount path during partitioning), but wiped the whole WinXP partition.
After rebooting the netbook, I encountered a black screen, with the fan humming, the activity lights doing nothing and the power button giving a constant green, and it seems like the whole stuff is irresponsive. I can't even switch it off by pressing the power button for a few seconds.

My questions are.
Is this some sort of BIOS problem and can be repaired with flashing?
Is it possible that by neglecting the eRecovery partition I killed the whole stuff?
Or is this only an overheating, and I should give it a sleep and check again tomorrow?
Or did I convert my AA1 into a breakfast-tray?

The warranty is valid (well, at least I hope that this accident above didn't void it), and the dude at the shop was a reliable guy.
Shall I leave it to him, and not mess with it myself?

 

I gave reflashing a run. It worked without any hickups. Mint is booting at the moment.
Thanks macles, Your tutorial is priceles(s).

 

Are you sure you're holding it long enough? It takes 4-5 seconds of constant holding before the machine powers off.

Ian

 

I had the same thing go wrong to me and this fixed the problem 100%
I will cut and past the rest.. My Bad :mrgreen:

The following is from http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/08/acer ... overy.html

macles*

for friends of the acer aspire one
August 20, 2008
Acer Aspire One BIOS Recovery
The AA1 has a built-in BIOS recovery routine, making it possible to flash the BIOS even if the system doesn't boot anymore. It's only meant for emergencies and may void your warranty, so use at your own risk.

Follow every step carefully!

First format an USB stick with FAT.

Download the latest BIOS, and put both FLASHIT.EXE and the BIOS file in the root directory of the stick. Rename the BIOS file to ZG5IA32.FD, that's important. Do not remove the USB stick.

Turn the AA1 off, make sure both battery and AC adapter are connected. Press Fn+Esc, keep it pressed and press the power button to turn the AA1 on. Release Fn+Esc after a few seconds, the power button will be blinking. Press the power button once. The AA1 will now initiate the BIOS flash, do not interrupt it under any circumstances. After a while the power button will stop blinking, and the AA1 will reboot shortly after. Wait patiently.

The BIOS has been flashed and all settings reset to default.

If for some reason you made a mistake during the procedure and it doesn't reboot by itself wait 5 minutes before turning it off, just to be safe that it isn't still flashing the BIOS.

And here is the link tto the download section to prepair the memstick Good luck
http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/10/acer ... v3305.html
http://sites.google.com/site/maclesblogspotcom/

 

I had my One for less than a month, when it did the 'black screen, fan only' thing. Sent it to Acer, they replaced the mother board. I just got it back today and the sound does not work. I'm wondering how long this thing is really going to last ... :cry:

 

The following did not work for me. Only able to get language selection but no where to save setting or to proceed with "first time setup". Can anyone help on this?

********************
ALT F2
type 'terminal'
type 'sudo oobe'
A window wil open as if it were a new AA1. You can choose language and set your password without the need of typing the old (unknown) one first.

*******************
Morten

 

I posted earlier that my AAO went dead with black screen and sent in to Acer for service... shipped it in on Dec 19, found this topic and posted on Dec 20 or 21.

Just got it back today and all they did (needed to do) was upgrade bios to 3309 level. Works great again. Would be nice if they would have referred me first to the macles site to upgrade bios myself before sending it in. Would have saved me the shipping costs and time lost with it... about 2 weeks including the Christmas and New Years holidays. Other vendors have DIY bios upgrades... Acer needs to get on with this, too, as part of standard support.

 

THANKS ------ This post saved mine.

Downloaded bios version 3308 and did the rename thing.

I was trying to install XP on the usb drive when mine froze.
I better just leave linpus on it, and leave well enough alone.

A little off subject -- but -- I have noticed that after sleep mode,
you have to cycle the wireless button to have it access the network.

Thanks again for this post!

 

Waaahh! My Christmas present died during the weekend. I'd loaded XP (wiped Linpus!), but was experimenting with Xubuntu. Then black screen and no boot whatsoever. I tried Macles' fix ("BIOS recovery") about a thousand times, but it doesn't seem to recognize the USB ports anymore.

Anyone got any tips, short of sending it back?

 

thanx for the post, worked like a dream on mine with 3309 BIOS.

Think this should be made a sticky.

cheers again freecharette.