Netbook screen goes black randomly

Oh crap. Is that what we're going to have to do? Mine has crashed in standby three times already today. :evil:

 

I know I posted about this in another thread but I can't find it so....

I had this same issue too. Blank screen around 30-40% battery power, can't do anything except hold the power button to shut off. Software updates and BIOS updates didn't seem to help at all. I had called tech support, and the service rep decided to see if it was only a battery issue and sent me a replacement battery and charger. Unfortunately, the issue still happened with the new battery.

After another couple of weeks (I didn't do anything about this because I had a business trip and then was busy), the blank screen seemed to happen gradually sooner and sooner. I called tech support again and they had me send the unit in. Today I just picked up my AAO from the FedEx facility (cuz FedEx and UPS can never deliver when people are home, only when they are at work :x ). They had replaced the main board and updated my BIOS.

The verdict? I let the AAO run down it's battery. It got down to 5% and then automatically went into standby like it should.

(Side note, I am impressed at how quickly they repaired the AAO. They received it on one day, fixed it and immediately shipped it out the following day.)

EDIT: As an added plus, I get to keep the extra battery. Maybe I won't bother trying to get a six-cell...

 

Has anyone had this issue outside of Linpus? Does this happen on the Windows Xp ones? I was just wondering if it is an OS issue or a hardware issue. I have this happen to mine as well since I received it.

 

Tomasblas said:

I think I have the same problem.

AA1 150 bought 20th August is Spain with no modifications (1 gb RAM, 120 gb HDD, Linpus OS, 3-cell battery, BIOS 3.114).

--> Mine is ZG5 also bought in Spain in August but the 512MB RAM with 8GB SSD

When operating with batteries and the level is below 20%, I have suffered this problem more than 10 times. I think it never happend when the power supply plugged.
--> Exactly the same as me

The screen goes black, the fan still running, but the system is blocked because the led of caps lock doesn't respond to the key.
--> Exactly the same as me

I have to turn it off pressing the on/off switch during several seconds and then the computer restarts twice. The first time it only goes to the Aspire One blue screen, takes some minutes and then restarts again with normal Linpus.
--> Same as me, first start could be to do a fsck?

Is this the same problem for you? Any solution?
--> Same problem plus the fact that if I leave xmms running playing music this does not happen, so seems to me the system stays active as there is a cosntant CPU task or something?

I think that downgrading my BIOS won't solve this problem.
--> No idea, but not risking it

I don't want to go to technical service if the only thing they will do is restoring my OS. I think this is not the solution either.
--> I agree, but it is very annoying when you know you have 20% battery left to lose your work. Let me know if you find a fix or take it back to the technical guys.

Thank you for your feedback!
--> Gracias a ti ;-)

 

I've run into this a couple of times on my machine, running Ubuntu 8.10. It feels like a video driver or X11 problem, because a Control-Alt-1 will bring me to a console, so the system is still running fine.

Perry
www.kidpub.com

 

The standard Linpus system doesn't let Ctrl+alt+f1 bring up a console. It can be activated by changing a flag in the xorg.conf file and I have done this.

I have just had the black screen problem but ctrl+alt+f1 didn't bring up the console as I had hoped. Perhaps next time :?

 

Mine has the same problem and I don't like it!
I bought it during a trip in US ...

I tryed to update with the new bios but it is the same...

 

Hell I have the same problem!! only it happens at any time. The machine is still responsive (caps lock works, i can access through the lan, it powers off as it should if i click on the power button, etc.)

Problem is the screen goes off apparently as a result of heat from normal working conditions.

Haven't called Tech support yet..

Is this common? is this a HW thing? (i think it is) I ask 'cause a lot of people are reporting black screens as a result of a known Bios problem. Only, no one mentions a fix for this 'known problem'...

Anyone have a hint?

Regards..

 

I've had what similar behavior but a reliable different way to cause it. Brand new 110 (Linpus), runs fine on mains power or battery, but if it's running off the mains and I switch off at the wall (or unplug the power cable from the Acer) I get the black-screen-no-response-to-keys etc. problem. This is reproducible every time.

I've hit the problem once running off battery; it was around 55-60% battery remaining when it black-screened. As I only bought it on Tuesday, this is going back to the store tomorrow and I'll swap it for another identical one and hope that doesn't have an identical problem... Unless anyone has any comments about this being a different known problem on certain models/batches/BIOS's etc.

I've not tried flashing the BIOS yet - I've held off putting any personal data etc. on the machine till I was happy it was all working fine, so I figure first step is simply take it back to the store, say it keeps dying, and see how the replacement one goes. If it happens on that too, then I might start thinking about BIOS fun...

Toby.

 

@toby_d
Have the same problem as you. At first, I would get a blank screen maybe 40 minutes into using it. Then the time slowly was reduced until it would shutdown after 2 minutes. It did not matter what % battery life was remaining. This was on the original BIOS so I decided maybe I should update it. Doing so had no effect and I was experiencing the same issue. I went ahead and used the recovery DVD to restore the linpus OS. It worked for 2 minutes again and then crapped out on me. I even reverted back to the old bios thanks to Macles blog but this did not help either. I was curious if it was a hardware problem such as memory so I ran a few diagnostics programs using Hiren's bootdisk. Interesting enough, I received a black screen while in dos doing a memory scan. Doing the same memory scan plugged into the AC adapter showed no issues. Yesterday, I tried powering up my Acer on battery and I got nothing. No lights, hd activity, screen change. Completely dead. I plugged it into the AC adapter and it powered right up. :?

I was going to install Ubuntu on it thinking it was linpus causing the failures in xserver but I read somewhere that someone else was having the same issue in Ubuntu. I also read somewhere that this is due to overheating which I could understand if a capacitor was already blown after the first meltdown. The times would decrease as the capacitor became increasingly hotter. I've had my One for 2 months now (exactly to the day which was weird). I sent it in to Acer today to see what they could do with it. And here I was all excited to test the new release of Flash 10 for linux... I'll post an update when I receive something from Acer.

I don't know, I'm not a doctor. But I'll tell you what didn't kill her ... smoking!

 

Just to add my 2 cents...i posted about this exact same issue here... http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=4787

I've now finally gotten round to updating the BIOS and now the problem has gone! I upgraded from version 3109 to 3304 and right now I'm on 9% battery level and trying to run it empty.

I have a 110 originally running Linpus but now XP and the only hardware mod I've done is to add 1gb of RAM to it.

I'm now one very happy Aspire One user

 

Athique, I'd be very interested to know whether the problem stays away. For me, even with the latest BIOS revision, the black screen of death keeps occurring at seemingly random levels of battery charge. It's getting frustrating to say the least.

 

Damn...the problem has come back and I've got the latest bios as well! :x

 

I sent back my first 110 last week. It would lock up randomly when the remaining battery life fell below 60%. I suspect that the voltage regulators on the main board were faulty.

Replacement is working fine so so far, right down to 10% with no issues.

Both machines have BIOS v3109.

 

it can be a corrupted RAM socket?

 

Yup, same thing for me too.
Around 65-70% of battery load, the screen goes black. I can't do anything than reboot. The power led is green.
Closing and reopening the lid doesn't solve the problem.

I read the topic, and whate are now the solution?

-> Upgrading the BIOS?
I did, as some other users in this topic, and as these users, it doesn't solve the problem.

-> Reinstall the Linpus?
I reinstalled the linux distribution, and same thing happen.

-> Change the battery unit?
I didn't try, but it doesn't solve the problem

-> Ask Acer to get back the aspire one?
What they can do?

 

I got mine on Tuesday.
Unboxed it, ran updates, restarted...wait, no restart!!!!?

Thing is, it did restart...but the screen was black, as if it was off. LEDs were working, I could see what was on the screen when I hold it up to the light. It was frustrating. I sent it back to get a replacement or repair (Newegg). Wish me luck.

 

Same problem here.
I loaded BIOS 3309 on it but screen still goes black :evil:
Any solutions out there apart from sending it back to Acer which I would hate to do....

 

Same problem here, I just picked up a blue One with XP from Wally Mart two days ago (three cell, there was no way to tell), battery was at 95% and the screen went black for like 30 seconds with a few flickers of beeing able to see the screen. Should I return it to wal mart, send it back to acer, or hope it was just a fluke?

 

I could fix it on my Linpus AAO by installing the newer Linpus operating system.
I read some fixed for XP in this forum too. I guess it has to do with the WebCam drivers.
Just search the forum and you'll find it.
For Linpus, do a software update (not thru LiveUpdate but by installing the entire OS from scratch - search the forum for detailed instructions).