UKC

Failing that, anyone who knows how to recover an Acer Netbook?
It failed to boot, wouldn't do the Alt+ F10 to auto recover, and Though I have now managed to switch the drive 'on' so I can see it now, I cannot see anything to 'start' a recovery?

Any good ideas? I have read SOOOOO much conflicting information out there, so I'd appreciate a bit of hand holding here!

Cheers all.

In reply to Tim, the Grey:
ah, netbook I saw after i'd posted. sorry, laptop yes but cluess on netbooks. good luck

In reply to blanchie14c: Hey, I'll try anything just now...
It has a USB stick in one port, and an external DVD in the other 2!

This machine is downloading drivers etc, in case I just go with a clean XP re-install.

In reply to Tim, the Grey:
will it take windows 7? better by far.
Have a scan around for any windows xp boot disks, some clever coders out there build the recovery console into something you can actually understand! Not sure how netbooks work if i'm honest, someone will be along who does though. Maybe when Dominion is on-line, hes the UKC guru usually

In reply to blanchie14c: I guess I have to phone him. I've drunk enough beer with Dom over the years! I've not seen him for about a year now, since a wedding, I think!

Cheers mate.

In reply to Tim, the Grey:
Yea good luck, buy a laptop!

In reply to blanchie14c: I did, and then promptly emptied whisky in it...
Kept it going for 18 months with an external keyboard, but it was TOO heavy (17") to carry with camera kit as well.

This wee beastie turned up on DABS for £179, so I jumped on it. It's been fine, but just keeled over Boxing Day... I think it heard about the iPod my 15 year old was getting!

In reply to Tim, the Grey:

Acer Aspire netbooks

Acer Aspire One BIOS Recovery Method
It happens. You switch your Acer Aspire One on, the power light goes on, but the screen stays blank.

Luckily, Acer have a little trick up their sleeve, that allows the BIOS to boot sufficiently to load a BIOS update from a USB flash drive, and re-flash the BIOS.
Quick Summary
Prepare a FAT16 formatted USB drive
Download a BIOS update from Acer
Put two files from the update onto the Flash Drive, renaming one of them
Put the USB drive into the Aspire One
Hold down Fn and Esc when you turn the power on, then press the power button again.
The Aspire One will re-flash it's BIOS using the BIOS file on the USB drive, and reboot in working order!


Now you need the files to put on the drive

These can be downloaded from Acer's support site
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_one_150.html
Download the latest (at the time of writing, 3114) and unzip it.

There are two files of interest, one is called FLASHIT.EXE and the other is called something like

ZG5_3114.fd

That file needs to be renamed to

ZG5IA32.FD

Please note that is an I(eye) not a 1(one) between the 5 and the A

Now copy these two files onto your prepared flash drive



Flashing the BIOS
It's at this point you need your “broken” Aspire One.
Make sure it is switched off, that the (charged) battery is in, and the Aspire One is connected to the power supply, and plugged in. Plug the USB flash drive into the left-side USB socket.

Hold down the Fn and Esc keys together, then press the power button. The power button should start flashing at about a one second interval. Release the Fn and Esc keys, then press the power button once more.

In reply to Tim, the Grey:

I was just about to post up YOU NEED DOMINION
But he just posted so I will leave you in his MOST CAPABLE hands...

The guys is indeed a computer guru!

In reply to Dominion:

I told him last night to contact you and he said he owes you some beers.

Happy new year Dom.

In reply to sutty: Cheers Keith, and Dom!

Dom, I shall do EXACTLY as you have writ...

Sorry, I never got near a computer yesterday.

Hence my belated THANKS!!!!!!!!!!

In reply to Tim, the Grey: Can you boot the Netbook in "Safe Mode" and try to see if "System Restore" is swtiched-on

In reply to Tim, the Grey:
If the advice so far didn't work, this is the set of instructions I've used.

http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/08/acer-aspire-one-bios-recovery.html

The precise sequence of Fn, Esc & Power Button has to be exactly right.

In reply to elsewhere: I've not tried anything yet, I got distracted by Mars Attacks, on tv.

I've NEVER had eRestore available on the thing, Alt=F10, or F10, has never worked...

In reply to Tim, the Grey:

On my GFs laptop, sometimes it won't start up if there are USB cables plugged in.

In reply to Tim, the Grey:
There seems to be a specific issue with Acer Aspire One netbooks.
I think it's happened to mine twice but everything (Ubuntu if that matters) has come back OK. I now keep a scrap of paper with the instructions and an old USB drive for the recovery files with the netbook.

In reply to Pauline:


The boss has an Aspire One, and his borked out with the black screen of death. So I found out how to fix it and wrote that article a few months back. (There is more to it, but it's about prepping the USB drive using linux)

That's not necessarily the fix, though, in this case.

That's for a specific issue, where the computer seems to be booting, but you get absolutely nothing on the screen.

In reply to Dominion: Cheers Dom. Working on the theory that it can't get worse, I'll do that anyway! It may just cure the underlying fault.

In reply to Tim, the Grey: Dom? Before doing anything, I re-read, and re-check things...

Those instructions are for a D150?
Mine's an A0531h.

Does this make a difference?