AA0 531 wont boot

Sorry for clogging up this board with anther common problem i would assume, however i cant see any support in other forums for my particular model.

I would ring acer support however not paid til tomorow and havnt got credit.

Basically it switches on ok, goes to boot and its a black screen with a small white dash in the upper left hand corner.

been through the boot setup but nothing jumps out at me. Heard it could be a problem maybe with bios?. This started with it shutting down after saying there was a problem with some hardware.

Any help with be great cheers

 

The symptoms you've mentioned say to me that theres either a software or hardware issue with the hard drive / SSD in your machine. Next time you're in the BIOS settings, check to make sure it's detecting the hard drive. Also check the boot sequence and make sure you don't have any USB drives or SD cards inserted. I mention SD cards because a short while ago my SD Card had dirty contacts and was extending my boot-times owing the the BIOS searching for devices. The same thing has happened when I'd left a defective USB drive plugged in.

If the BIOS is detecting the hard drive properly, your next task should be to try and boot into safe mode by repeatedly tapping F8 during boot so you can access the text-mode menu (then choose safe mode). The computer will still only have a 50% chance of booting at this point if there are hardware or software errors on the drive. If you can access safe mode, start off with scheduling a complete disk check.

* Start -> Run (or Windows key + R)
* Clear the contents of the run box, type in CMD and press enter (or click OK)
* Once you've got the command prompt window up type in the following CHKDSK /F /X /R

If the above instructions don't start the disk check in safe mode, it will ask you to schedule it for the next reboot, if this happens, type y and press enter, close the command window but don't reboot just yet. In safe mode it should be able to safely dismount the drive and run the check.

You should also run a virus scan while in safe mode. I am assuming the hardware errors you mentioned resulted in a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) and the computer shutting down. These errors can sometimes be caused by malware making alterations to the system.

If you can't get into safe mode, you may have to remove the drive and temporarily hook it up to another PC to run a thorough disk scan and a virus scan.

If none of the above work, you might have to try running a factory restore. Backup your files first. If you can't access the drive to backup your files, hook it up to another PC and manually locate the files you wish to save and copy them to a safe location.

Tech support will probably get you to run a factory restore anyway. Flashing the BIOS may bring your machine back to life, but unless you can boot into an operating system, or at least DOS mode, you're only option will be to blind flash. I would suggest not doing a blind flash at this point as you computer is still able to actually get to the point of loading an Operating System from disk. Unless you've successfully done a blind flash before, there is a very real possibility that the blind flash could fail and render the BIOS useless, which in turn means you may suffer the black screen of death, where your machine will no longer even post. If you can get into an operating system or at least DOS mode, you can use your hard drive, or a fully loaded USB drive to run a BIOS update if needed. That and you will be able to see what is actually happening.

If all else fails, use another computer to create a USB-bootable Linux distro. From here you may have access to tools which can resurrect your system. Before making any changes to your system under linux, take advantage of the memory test which seems to be part of the boot process of just about every linux distro out there. (it is usually an option in the menu before loading the distro)

Hope this helps

 

Swarvey's advice is very good IF the BIOS is working. I've had two episodes of black screen in 2.5 years of ownership of an XP Acer, and was close to replacing the machine, but the famous "Macles" BIOS flash technique you can find on this site worked both times to bring it back to normal. I'd recommend trying it before getting into a serious teardown of your system. Here are my own note on the technique:

viewtopic.php?f=50&t=4153&start=40

BIOS versions for my Acer are available here but be sure you get the right BIOS for your system:

http://macles.blogspot.com/p/acer-aspire-one-bios.html

 

cheers guys when im off work ill have a try, seems like it will be something to do with the bio's we shall see

Cheers once again

 

Yeah for the mos part my suggestions were assuming your BIOS is functional. I've just re-read the OP and it sounds like the BIOS is indeed working, as OP mentions going into the BIOS setup to check for options. Another theory I've just had pop up into my head is a complete lack of free space on the hard drive. Sometimes you get the BSOD, sometimes the computer just won't do anything. So maybe another quick and easy option would be to put the drive into another machine that's already running an OS checking out what the free space situation is like on the AAO drive.