Posted in I’m sure a lot of you have run into problems with the Acer Aspire Netbooks. I’ve personally now seen 6 of the Acer Aspire Ones develop a problem where they will light up their little LEDS but nothing will come on the screen. So far I’ve sent these units to Acer for repairs. But I think I’ve found the solution.
Acting on a hunch that this was a BIOS corruption I searched the net and found this helpful tidbit:
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.
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.
I have not tried this yet but I’ve decided to post it on the site so that I can update this post as soon as I try it out. If anyone gets a chance to try this please comment below.
Source: http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/08/acer-aspire-one-bios-recovery.html
August 22nd, 2009 at 5:46 am
Thanks for the info… RSS feed added
August 22nd, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Glad to hear you liked it. BTW I removed your link. No commercial sites please.
October 1st, 2009 at 6:16 pm
It’s not the BIOS. It’s not the battery. It’s the heat sensor. Try putting your POS Acer in the freezer for an hour or two. Take it out, plug it in and fire it up. It will work for maybe four minutes before shutting down but at least you can get it to stay on for more than 20 seconds just to prove what the problem really is. It’s a hardware issue.
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:47 am
But people still have this problem when they’ve left their Acer sitting turned off for a long time.
I agree that the broken Acer Ones are hotter then normal but putting the entire notebook in the freezer seems to invite more damage then less.
The best thing to do is send it off to Acer if it’s under warranty.
January 30th, 2010 at 7:16 am
This fixed my broken Netbook! The official instructions are on the Acer web site here
http://netbooks-us.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/66/session/L3NpZC91RzV5S2hUag==#nowhere
You have to release the buttons as soon as the power light on the power button starts to flash (not the AC power light on the left) You will then immediately see the USB stick access light start to flash away and you know you’re in business. Then everything goes quiet and you think “oh crap that didn’t work either” then suddenly - the BIOS screen appears and off you go!!!! WOOO!!!!
Thanks!