New Aspire wont boot up.

I bought my daughter an acer aspire one with windows xp and the 120 gb hard drive for Christmas. She used it for a few hours and it shut itself down. When trying to restart the computer she gets the black screen saying that windows did not start successfully giving the options of starting in various Safe Modes, Last Known Good Configuration, or Start Windows Normally. No matter what option is chosen it it flashes to the black Acer screen then back to the black screen saying windows did not start succesfully. How do I get the computer to start up? Thank You!

 

Okay after turning off and trying to restart it several times all I am getting now is a black screen. I get the green light on the power button and a black screen nothing else. If anyone can help I would really appreciate it. My daughters christmas present seems to have only lasted a few hours. If there is something I can get from another machine to help I have another aspire one as my son got one for christmas too.

 

Don't want to be the bearer of bad news and that but it sounds like the very same problem i had with mine. Turned out to be the bios and the only way i was able to recify is by flashing the acer;s current bios with a newer version.
If its new i'd return it to where you bought it from.

 

I was expecting bad news. Unfortunately I bought it from tiger direct who won't accept returns on it which I didn't realize until after I purchased it. So my only option is to send it back to Acer or fix it. I don't really want to send it to acer so since I have another acer I would like to try and get it going before having to send it back. If you have instructions, or would be willing to walk me through the process on how to do this I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

 

Try this helpful tip from the master macles:
http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/08/acer ... overy.html

 

Treker - thanks for the link. I have a question. It says to:

First format an USB stick with FAT. HOW?

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. Since the acer wont boot up I'm assuming I can do this from another computer then remove the stick and put it in the non working acer for the next step. Correct?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.

 

On another windows computer, download the files. On the USB flashdrive, right click and format the drive to FAT. Then install the files to flashdrive, renaming bios as he says.

 

Okay I am off to walmart to buy a new flash drive. Does it matter what size? Is 4GB big enough? Also do I get the bios from the other acer aspire one? If so how? Or do I download it from the online source that macles has on his page? Thank You so much for the help. You will make my daughters day!

 

Yes, 4gb is fine. In fact I backed up by entire 8gb SSD Windows installation and a few programs with a 2gb flashdrive using Ping. I keep a very small 64mb flashdrive around for bios updates.

 

Okay I got flashdrive, downloaded the file, there were several to choose from but I downloaded the 3305 file. Transferred the flash it and 3305 file renamed it but still no luck. when I unzip there is actually 2 3305 files, a fd file and a ms dos batch file. Did I use the wrong one? I used the fd file and renamed it. Treker? anyone....Help!

 

You seem to have done all 0k. i followed 'Macles' too. I just put the Flashit.exe file and renamed the .fd file as per the instructions. Only difference is i used the 3308 bios file.

 

Okay i will try the 3308 since the 3305 isn't working for me. Thanks!

 

ok no luck with that either still dead. any other ideas?

 

Sorry, no i haven't. If you've followed macles guide to the letter i'm not sure what to suggest. Sorry.

 

Did you use upper or lower case letters when you renamed the .fd file? Did a little 'Googling' and when renaming the file some links say you must use uppercase letters so file reads ZG5IA32.fd.

Also some links to this problem mention that it doesn't cure all cases of the black screen and the only remedy is sending unit back to Acer.

 

I used all uppercase, even for the .fd so I will retry it exactly as you have it. Also I used the letter I not the number 1 is this correct. Thanks for all the help. Also I was going to try and back up the other acer on a flashdrive and then restorethat onto the bad one before I sent it back to acer. Question if I do that since I am not getting the screen to choose f12 how will I get it to recognize the usb drive and restore it? Or is this not possible? Thanks!

 

Yes, use the letter I. As regards the backup i don't think thats possible due to the problem with the bios, sorry.

 

Thanks everyone for all the help, but it seems this computer is really dead. So back to acer it goes, hopefully it won't take them to long to resolve the problem. I think I've learned my lesson on saving $20 dollars versus buying it at a retailer that I can return it to.

 

Same problem. Tried the BIOS solution, but to no avail. I hope this is not a larger issue with acer, as most reviews I have seen were positive. Seems like the BIOS problem is widespread though.

 

This happened to me last week, one minute working fine turned it off for a couple of hours and then nothing. As it was within 28 days of purchase I took it back to the retailer, they phoned Acer and were told it was a software problem and would need it in to fix. Well my contract is with the retailer and not Acer because thats were I bought it.

Told them I wanted my money back, and got it. Then promptly bought another one for £30 less in the same shop.

So it seems Acer know there is a problem with some of the machines!