Won't boot,anything else I can try before Flashing the Bios?

Hi there,

Just to make things worse, it seems that I managed to delete the message that I thought I'd just posted! (if there are 2 similar ones now, my apologies). Ok, here I go again....

After not using my A150 for a couple of days, I am now greeted by a lovely black screen, a very faint whirring (think its the HDD as it doesnt seem loud enough for the fan) and just the two lights - ac and power - and nothing else. It does the same if I try and boot up without the ac attached, ie just form the battery. The only way to turn it off seems to be to hold down the power button for a few seconds.

I've looked through the forum under "black screen" and "notebook dies" and found people with similar problems and tried their initial fixes - removing the ac and battery, hold down power button for 30secs and then try again - but to no avail. It seems that the only course of action is to Flash the BIOS. This seems to have a few inherent risks and I'm loathe to try it unless there are no other options open to me. The unit should still be within the 12 months guarantee but I've had the RAM upgraded and I changed the OS over to XP - I've seen people asking if this would invalidate the warranty but not seen a clear cut answer. This would be a last resort (sending it back to the factory) as I'm looking to go travelling in the not-too-distant future and don't want to have to wait around for one of my most necessary pieces of kit!

Can anyone point me in the direction of a posting that I may have overlooked, feel free to mention even the daftest sounding and most obvious solution - I'm not proud and I'm no expert with computers. I've trawled through "black screen" and "notebook died" postings but haven't really seen anything too different.

I take it the BIOS flashing section is the one covered in this... http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/08/acer ... overy.html Whats the most up to date BIOS or is there a preffered one that you all use?


This is TERRIBLE TIMING as I was just about to try and fit a new WD Scorpio Blue 500gb HDD - I've just been trying to pluck up the courage to pop her open (not amazingly confident when it comes to the hardware, but I figured I'd give it a go) and slot this in and now this has happened! :x I guess the other way to look at this is that it's better that it's happened while I'm at home and have access to a pc and the net and before I dropped in the new HDD....


Thanks to those of you who take even just a couple of seconds to try and help me along and point me in the right direction!

(let's hope this one actually makes the forum!)

 

Big diddo here....

My AA1 is doing the exact same thing.... for me I was trying to run Moblin from a thumbdrive and it was in the process of booting when things seemingly went wrong. Have been searching for a fix ever since (1 month). Can't find a thing but will give the Bios Flash a go and let you know it works.

 

Irritating isn't it? Cheers, I'll appreciate the heads-up Kinger.

 

I sent my dead machine in on the warranty after macles' trick didn't work (I had done it successfully before). They said in their email before I sent it in that if they found signs of damage not covered by the warranty they would contact me to see if I wanted to pay for repairs or just send it back.

I was a bit worried because I had dropped the computer a short distance right before it stopped working, but they sent it back working with a note saying that they has just flashed the bios. My unsuccessful attempt to flash the bios didn't seem to have any effect on the warranty, so I would say you have nothing to lose by trying it. The computer was a linux model upgraded to xp, so I wouldn't worry about that either. The ram upgrade could be an issue though.

 

Thanks for that. What sort of time frame are we talking from you sending it out to you having it back in hand? Yeah, I'm unsure about the RAM upgrade with regards to warranty - I keep hearing conflicting opinions on that.

 

They actually sent it back so quick I was worried they hadn't done anything to it. They got it on a Friday (actually on the anniversary of the day I bought it thanks to the slow courier) and surprisingly they shipped it out on Saturday. Altogether it was a bit over a week. The only complaint I have was that the keyboard wasn't working properly when I got it back but I fixed that myself pretty easily (took it off and reattached the connector). One other thing, they said there was an additional 90 day warranty on the repairs. This was in Canada, not sure how these things vary country to country.

 

Whoa, if only I could be assured that they'd be that quick over here! I'll have a quick look into the logistics of sending it off, but I guess I may have to bite the bullet and do the BIOS thing, unless there are any more suggestions?

 

Well so far the bios flash is not working. Power light just keeps flashing forever. Any particular USB port work better than the others?

 

I had the same problem, and followed the instructions for Flashing the Bios and used the USB port on the left side of the computer. Everthing worked great and the computer is now working just like before. Just follow the directions and it should work fine.

 

Well, in the end I was pretty much backed into a corner as I wasn't 100% that it would still be under warranty after changing the OS and upgrading the RAM so I went ahead and "Bingo" up she popped! The tutorials mention the machine restarting itself so I was more than a little concerned when nothing had happened after over 330 mins but when I powered it down it fired up with no problems (fingers crossed!).

So thanks to those of you who posted on here, the dreaded black screen of death is (once again - fingers crossed) no more!