My SSDrive died. What are my options?

Hey, everybody. I could use your advice.

I have an AOA 110 (Limpus) and the drive seems to have died.

What are my options? Buy a new SSD on eBay for $60 or $70? like this one: http://preview.tinyurl.com/yam7rwv

I think there are other options but what are they and what are the merits?


-- - - - -
Here are a few details, if they help:
I plan on keeping Linux (although I wouldn't mind ditching Limpus)
It is past warranty.
I'm more than a Newbie but no great expert.
Finances are tight -- so cheaper is good.
Battery life is important to me. (I have the four cell model.)
Fast boot-up time is very important to me.

I'm PRETTY SURE it is the SSD but not 100%. Here's what I know:
- When I boot, I get the "Media test failure, check cable ", "no bootable devices" error.
- BIOS is showing no drives
- I flashed an updated BIOS, no help.
- It boots to DOS or Puppy Linux from a USB stick and still shows no drives.
- the machine has not had a serious drop, spills or anything like that.

- would it be worth digging into the machine and looking for a loose connector?

 

put a 1.8" hdd in... honestly, the speed increase alone is worth it, no more tweaking to get acceptable performance while avoiding micro-stutters due to ssd writes.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1-8inch-Hard-di...C_Drives_Storage_Internal?hash=item3a55b640b8

That's the same as the one I recently put in mine, 80gb for $49 (if you buy it now) and fits using the original cable. 5mm drive so it slips under the motherboard, 8MB cache and a pretty nippy (for a 1.8" drive) 4200rpm spin speed.

 

Dave,

Thanks for the advice. Are there downsides to a drive like this compared to the ssd?

When I bought the aspire one with the ssd, I was thinking it was more reliable because it is solid state. Guess not!

I don't drop my computer much, if ever, but it does get carried around a lot (I take it to classes.) with the standard jostles. I see that he drive is for an iPod -- which gets similar treatment.

As for my other question.... do you think it would be worth opening up my Aspire One and seeing if the connection to the drive is loose? What are the odds of that? The error message does say, "check cable."

Greg

 

Dave,

One more thing:

Is this the right drive? Will any 1.8 drive with a zif connector work?

1.8" Toshiba 80GB Hard Drive MK8010GAH iPod Video 5th G
1.8inch HDD CE/zif 80g

http://tinyurl.com/yakbxnh

 

Heya, there wouldn't be any harm in opening it to see if the cable was loose but I don't think it will be as the motherboard is secured down by screws as is the ssd.

The only prob with fitting the hdd over the ssd is that it doesn't screw down to the same stanchions as the ssd, which means you'll probably have to use sticky pads to secure it. That isn't a problem as the cable is fairly tight as is the space where the drive sits but it's worth giving it a bit extra shoring up with foam pads or whatever.

The 1.8" hdd's are used in ipods but the ipod has a sticky foam cover that holds it secure, however it takes a big impact to dislodge the heads and damage the platters, occasionally dropping the aao wouldn't cause anywhere near that kind of problem (or if it did, you'd be looking for a new aao as it would be in loads of pieces!)

That toshiba drive should be fine, I was going to buy one myself but settled on the Samsung one I have now for a few reasons, one being price, another being that its the standard drive in a MacBook Air (so if it's good enough for apple, it's good enough for me). A few people have used the toshiba drives in AAO's and have had nothing bad to say but you might need a different cable (I think the standard ssd cable is too thick to fit into the zif socket on the back of it. You can file it down though but it's false economy tbh)

Disadvantages - not sure, I haven't noticed any with mine. It was a bit of a chew fitting the zif cable but perseverence wins. Battery life is pretty much the same too, still get about 2 hours out of the standard 3 cell battery, not using any power saving tweaks other than standard XP tweaks, loading programs and exiting is loads quicker than the standard ssd, and although I've noticed a couple of micro stutters while typing this post out, it's certainly nothing that is intrusive unlike with the ssd, where you could be typing away, have a micro stutter and wait a good 30 seconds or so for it to catch up!

Its definitely a positive improvement and one that everyone should do to their aao's, I did have reservations about heat and battery life impact, but they're unfounded. I'm now 100% happy with my AAO, and being an 80gb drive, I can dual boot with Ubuntu or Linpus if I feel the need to go back to Linux, but to be honest - 1.5 gb ram, 80gb hdd and xp = the perfect aao for me!!

Hope this helps!

 

Incidentally, from iFixIt.com here's an image of the Samsung drive with it's shock protection still fitted, just out of a macbook air:



Mine hasn't got the rubber stuff around the outside edge or the foam padding, but it gives you an idea as to how much shock protection an OEM would use for a laptop application and you can then judge accordingly.

 

Thanks, Dave, for the more detailed response and the photo -- it's quite helpful. I will probably take your advice and get the model you suggested. I have no brand loyalty and it if fits, there is no use re-inventing the wheel.

 

Hi,

i think i have a similar problem, witha disk that keeps corrupting and freezing the OS. I use win7 (ive been through a few different OS's now), and get check disk on startups, and random frequent freezes. Ive reinstalled win7 a couiple of times too. I kind of regret getting the SSD version now since it is so slow, but it was a while back now... ive added RAM to make 1.5gb, so the warranty is out. having said that its well over a year old now anyway...

Im in the UK, and would like to get a 1.8inch drive in there, using the same cable so as to have minimum fuss. (same as above posts really)

Can anyone point to a compatible disk in the UK for the aspire one?? cheap is good!

EDIT: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Toshiba-80GB-...aptopDrives?hash=item3ca728d839#ht_2308wt_939

would this one be suitable?


many thanks,


john.

 

Yes it would fit, but it will require a flip cable as far as I'm aware.

I'm also in the UK and bought my HDD from this eBay seller: http://shop.ebay.co.uk/bobbysabir786/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

He has a few toshy drives on there for a decent price too but no more hs082hb's, which is the particular model I bought.

Also, a month on I've experienced no problems at all with the drive, or the AAO - definitely a "must have" modification to make

 

these work
Super Talent 32GB MLC 1.3 inch IDE ZIF Solid State Drive for Acer Aspire One

 

Take it apart- My SSDrive died. What are my options?

Well, I finally done it- ripped apart my AcerAspireOne 110 zg5, to try to fix the non-booting (cable connection on the SSD?), after studying a few videos and many pics. Not enough- you just cant be too careful- I tried to take off the top cover without detaching the ZIF ribbon cable to the twin batteries on the lower case (what are these for, and should I have replaced them) . Thought I ruined it- it looked canted so I tried it push it back in w a tweezer, damaging it more.

These cables are very confusing- the ZIFs have a black clip cover that pivots down to clamp the flimsy wires (where you dont even see metal)- you gently pry it up from the middle and it pops up, releasing the zero insertion force cable. Reattaching it is the crucial part though, the clamp crimps the wire- if you line it up 1/4mm wrong, and you are screwed- its got ridges that do guide it in there though. Where I had a hellish problem was the plug and slot connector on bottom middle of motherboard- that simply didn't want to release rocking + putting an almost killing force on it. The display connector is also a metal plug and slot connector that can be rocked from either side- pretty standard, as is the connector between motherboard parts. The clip on the top of the SSD card is NOT hard attached to the cable- that slides freely through the slot. I pried this thing off the sticky pad with an almost killing force- glued it back w a drop f contact cement, all unnecessary.

Even after 3 years, it's condition was almost virgin- no real dust or dirt accumulated and as far as I could see the connector to the SSD was perfect, but I took both sides apart and reattached em (never detached SSD from case).

The big news was there WAS NO RAM. We Opened the skull and THE BRAIN WAS MISSING- where the RAM is in the video that people upgrade was empty. I was stunned- guess it's on the board but never figured out where and forgot to take a photo of that side. Since it was from Ukraine w Cyrillic also, thought maybe they stole it, but its been working for 3 years all over world so it must have the too little 512K. Mobile phone modem constantly freezing so couldnt study many pics + videos.

To prevent having to take apart that devilish layer cake again, I wrote a pattern on the bottom + cut a sloppy hatch with a hot knife to access RAM later, when it comes from Ebay, though might not have made it wide enough- didnt want to trash the vents screen. Can I add 1meg of RAM to it or only 512K and how fast- see some Ebay 800Mh that they claim works in ZG? With 1.5 gig, this thing would fly. Also the RAM clamp didn't hinge flip up like I saw on the video- looked solidly attached and one just pushes RAM straight in and make sure metal clip encloses ends. While you have it off, clean the keyboard well and wash off dust on top cover. Mine was so clean (I only use clean hard surfaces)- I never even took off the fan, which had no dust.

Everyone puts a HD in it, but I like the shock resistance and simplicity of SSD- if this one is so lousy, is there a better faster bigger one that anyone recommends?? 16-32g? Will anything work that takes that ZIF cable?

Was hot too see if it worked (without which further improvements were moot) , so reassembled it in 7 hour marathon till 10:30am. Was sure it was toast, but seems to work beautiful. Wifi is so much better than big lappy that I can share my neighbors Wifi, if they accept my payment.

Here are some links from anther site: http://linuxforums.org.uk/index.php?top ... n#msg68844
Acer Aspire One Disassembly. Upgrade SSD, RAM, Wi-Fi 802.11n


This shows the disassembly process to get at the SSD, among other components. It's rather more complicated than just opening one cover - they've put it on fast forward so it won't take too long! There are also videos on You Tube showing changing the SSD on other versions of the AA1 which only require you to open a cover on the base, so it was worth checking out.

If you don't want the netbook I'll probably take it apart to see if any of the components would make nice jewellery or ornaments. I'm particularly fond of coils of copper wire at the moment but heat sinks and small pcbs with gold pads look interesting and you never know what else you might find, so if you wanted to give me something in exchange, some broken components which you've swapped out might be nice.

 

best modding video for future enquirers...
http://qik.com/video/161904