New BIOS v3.304

Thanks.

I think i'll leave well enough alone. I'm not having any probs but my fan is a touch noisy, but not enough for me to risk screwing up a bios update as I've never done one with a bootable USB stick.

I thought a bios update would just be a download like a driver update is ?? Do any Companies do bios updates that way, or is this just for the acer ones?

 

I was able to update my bios on my linux aspire one. I found that all of the posted solutions were not complete (The missing steps may be obvious to most people). The Linux UNetbootin - Universal Netboot Installer for making a USB stick bootable did not work for me. When ran on my aspire one, the program could not find an USB stick. Why did acer make the update so difficult?

 

acer didn't make it more difficult. It is the normal procedure to update an bios. (of motherboard, scsi card, raid card etc.)

 

Unetbootin is so simple and I really can't understand why people failed to do so. I did it in couples or minutes and it booted fine with my AAO. The instructions are very well wriiten.

 

Some companies have utilities for flashing BIOS from windows. However this is risky buisness since in windows you always have other applications running and possibly screwing up the process. Since BIOS flashing is such a critical task most companies require the use of a dedicated and well tested DOS environment for the flashing.

 

I think I've read somewhere that the fan noise is due to some units having a part of the fan blades hitting the enclosure. Since I don't think the fan is noisy at all. In fact I can only hear mine when I stick my ear near the vent. And my room is very quiet.

 

I can tell you that not all v3.304 BIOS's are the same! I downloaded and installed the one from acer panam site. When I was running my AA1 the fan would stop for a while and then kick in with full speed, slow down and stop and go through the same cycle.

I then downloaded and installed the one from acer EU site. This time the fan is on all the time at low speed. BTW. In all cases I had my AA1's battery fully charged and running from mains.

acer has some explanations to do about this.

 

They are the same. Do a md5sum on them, they are all bit identical.

 

That's the trouble with far too many people writing Linux documentation---blame the user. No, documentation is software. If it doesn't work for someone, then it's buggy. I can, looking at the instructions, see various issues for the newcomer. There is no explanation of how to format the drive in Linux, it just says format the drive.
There's no explanation of what is meant by the root directory. There's not really a clear explanation of whether the name change is the same as for the instructions written in August or should the name change be adapted to the new bios name.

Disclosure--I just glanced at them, when I got the black screen, I thought, AHA, I have a legitimate reason to return this and wait for the 6 cell. So, I didn't try the instructions. However, as somone who <modest cough> frequently gets thank you emails from people who view my pages and tell me that they didn't understand samba/mutt/KVM or whatever till they read my articles, I do feel I have gotten a feeling for what the newcomer won't understand.

So @macles, firstly, don't think me ungrateful for your marvelous and helpful pages. My only comment here is that in your writing, you are making a few assumptions about some folks who got the Linux version and are still trying to come to a better understanding of it.

@tot31, please understand I'm not looking to fight about this or even criticize what you said--it's just that what I, for example, find simple doesn't mean my father who has used Windows all his life, would find clear. I have seen on various tech forums, too much eagerness to blame newcomers for lack of knowledge that isn't always that easy to come by.

Just to give an example--years ago I wrote a document for a user. It contained the words, "Right click on this, blah blah."

The next day, she said, it didn't work. I asked her to show me what she'd done--she was a complete computer novice (but a bright woman--just not at all experienced with computers.) She hadn't understood that right click meant click the right mouse button--this was back in the days before every employee had their own workstation and computers were a bit new.

 

This does not explain why the fan speed modes are different. I will try the BIOS from the Taiwan site later today and will let you know the outcome.

Edit: I have tried the BIOS from the Taiwan site and the result is the same as the one from EU. Fan running all the time slowly.

However, there is a new acerfand file here:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=300&p=25910&hilit=silent+fan#p27621
I have tried it and it works.

Thanks are due to all those who have been involved in resolving this fan noise problem.

 

My point was, using unetbootin in windows is much simpler than in linux. I could understand if someone is trying to use unetbootin in linux and fail to do so as it requires some dependencies but in windows it's just a matter of run the app and click. Isn't windows is all about point and click and you are good. In fact there are a few HowTos to prepare a usb stick to do bios upgrading as an alternative to unetbootin, for instance http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=1264. This tutorial for example is very clear and informative enough to prepare a usb stick to do the bios upgrading. Don't worry I'm not taking your post as to criticize what I've posted cause I see it as a good open discussion.

 

Fair enough--you're right, that tutorial is quite detailed. It's excellent.

Giving the Linux one my acid test--can I give it to my boss' boss without fear--it didn't pass.
However, that Windows one does.

Once again, I think macles does a wonderful job with all his things and, because of the way writing can sound much different from what is meant, I hope that my earlier post isn't taken as saying, "What a crummy tutorial." My only point was that I could see about 6 different questions a beginner would have. Let me emphasize that the macles site has been quite helpful to me.

 

No problem mate..cheers. Actually I always use that method to prepare DOS on usb stick until I found the unetbootin tutorial which I think it's so much easier and simple. Only one application can do the magic thing.

 

It's supposed to address this issue... we'll see if there will be more users with black screen of death with this BIOS.

 

HELP!! I have downloaded the latest bios version from;

http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/no ... e_110.html

got the yellow bar in internet explorer, clicked on download file then nothing seemed to happen!

Restarted

Then nothing!! just a black screen and fan noise, no acer splash screen no nothing!!

CAN ANYONE HELP PLEASE!!!!!!!!

 

I would try the instructions posted here for doing a blind flash:

viewtopic.php?f=50&t=4153

I think your mistake was trying to flash the bios in windows. You can't flash the Bios from windows. You need to boot into DOS using a bootable USB stick.

 

I updated ny AOA150 from v.3114 to v.3304 (current non-beta version) and all went well. Thanks for the clear instructions

Everything seems to be working. However, using "TaskInfo" (third party utility), I noticed that the ATOM processor is now running at almost full speed even when using battery power (1.5 GHz to 1.6 GHz w/only 5% CPU load!). Prior to the update, it would coast at between 500 MHz - 600 MHz unless many applications were running at the same time (CPU load > 50%).

Question: If this remains as it is then the battery will drain much faster. I have a new 6-cell battery (bought it a couple of weeks ago) and I now wonder if v.3304 changed something with regards to the CPU speed steps? If so, can I change this in BIOS or elsewhere?