Acer Aspire one dead

pabaac

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Oct 17, 2009
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I have an Acer Aspire One that has suddenly refused to do anything. When I turn it on, the on light is on, and the battery light is amber, and there is a whirring sound from the vent. What's wrong?
 

Rock_n_Rolla

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Sep 28, 2009
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Something's definitely wrong with that, hardware failure for sure.

- http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/
Though it may take you an hour to find the answer, if not,
asking someone there will definitely help you a lot to solve
your AA1 problems. :)
 
I think I read an article recently that there was a recall on the Acer Aspire line due to a heat problem that was damaging a mic cable internally? No idea if it's at all related...

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/10/12/acer-aspire-laptop-recall-due-to-microphone-cable-overheat-issue/

http://nexus404.com/Blog/2009/10/11/acer-issue-aspire-aspire-safety-recall-due-to-overheating-issues-aspire-aspire-as3410-as3810t-as3810tg-as3810tz-as3810tzg/

Otherwise I'd guess it's a CPU/Motherboard issue.

Go to this link and enter your laptop's serial number to see if it's in the recall:

http://customercare.acer-euro.com/customercare/AcerUpdate.aspx?CID=SG&LID=ENG&IType=JM31
 

plasmastorm

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Oct 18, 2008
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Sounds like the problem I had on my Acer One, turns on but does not boot/post.
Here's what I did to fix it.

The AA1 has a built-in BIOS recovery routine, making it possible to flash the BIOS even if the system doesn't boot anymore. It's only meant for emergencies and may void your warranty, so use at your own risk.

Follow every step carefully!

First format an USB stick with FAT.

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.
Bios download can be found here: http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_one_110.html

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.

The BIOS has been flashed and all settings reset to default.

If for some reason you made a mistake during the procedure and it doesn't reboot by itself wait 5 minutes before turning it off, just to be safe that it isn't still flashing the BIOS.
 

pabaac1

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Oct 31, 2009
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If I cannot use my AA1 how can I format and download to flashdrive?
 

sudsjain

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When I tried to turn on my ACER Aspire-One AOA-150 the screen was completely blank. At first I thought the LCD was dead but since I also didn't hear any sounds on boot I was convinced the netbook was dead. Then I lucked into the instructions for how to fix it with a BIOS update from a USB drive.

I have a few comments that may help.

1. The instructions are also on the official ACER website
http://netbooks-us.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/66/kw/flashit

2. It's confusing as to where to get flashit.exe. Turns out this is included in
the BIOS zip file you get from ACER.
http://gd.panam.acer.com/home/
Click Netbook --> Aspire One --> AOA150 --> BIOS
and download the 2.7MB zip file.
When you rename the FD file to ZG5IA32.FD use all caps and capital letter "I" instead of "1"
(the number one)

3. It's a little confusing as to when to release the Fn + ESC keys but you can
keep trying till you get it right.

4. Finally, the ACER instructions say that this fix works only for the AOA-110 and AOA-150