AA1 linpus screen goes black, seizes up, power light on

I've been searching the forum for my problem and whilst i think i've found the answer (my machine is screwed right out of the factory), I'd just like to verify my problems....

Basically when using the battery only, the screen goes black without warning, even though the power light remains on. It's not in sleep or suspended, it won't wake no matter what. It kicks in at different points (sometimes 75% battery power, sometimes 61% etc) and the only way to solve the problem is to hold down the power and then reboot. It's incredibly annoying!

I've done the usual suggestion for the 8GB SSD linpus edition when there's battery problems, ie installing kpowersave update, deselecting all suspend options etc, though i'm wary about flashing the BIOS as this doesn't seem to remedy the problem in a lot of cases. Also, I've never used linux/linpus before in my life (OS X user) and i have to say it seems extraordinarily complicated to do even the most basic installation if you're not used to entering code.

One other thing I've noticed about my AA1 is that the battery light never goes on when it runs on the battery, and it's orange when it runs off the mains - is this normal? I've not done the fan update but would this remedy the problem - is the computer shorting out for some reason?

Another thing i was wondering was is it worth installing the KDE or GNOME desktop environments? And finally (!) if i run the software updater i get a bunch of packages available but have no idea what they are, so when i say install, the AA1 can't resolve dependencies and says: 'notification-daemon-xfce conflicts with notification-daemon' - what is this?

Many thanks in advance for any help - this would be a great little machine if the battery worked!

 

It's broken. Send it back for repair or replacement. Probably a faulty voltage regulator. My first AA1 was like this, died at 60% battery.

The battery LED is orange when recharging and green when fully charged. It is unlit when on battery power.

 

Funny, I had the exact same problem from day 1,

It did it with Linpus, and I've since installed Ubuntu (8.04, 8.10 then 9.04) where I get the same problem. It seems that the lower the battery gets, the more frequently it occurs. After the battery gets below 60%, the machine usually powers down before it finishes booting.

I've also installed the latest BIOS (and everything inbetween). The latest BIOS change log mentioned a fix for (over)charging issues, but this problem definitely still exists.

If it's definitely the hardware then I might give Acer a call.

 

Just to let anyone know, I flashed the bios to 3309, installed the 1.0.15 recovery download iso, updated kpowersave, did everything i've read (i think!) suggested on the forums here and elsewhere - and it still does the same thing.

So i think it's safe to say that Acer's quality control out of the factory isn't too hot. It's now being returned for repair...

 

There is a simple test for this:

Charge your battery to ~70%
Boot the Aspire One on battery power
Press F2 to go into the BIOS settings and leave it there
If the machine powers off after a few minutes (when the battery drops to ~60%) then it is a hardware fault, not a software fault.

 

Thanks, I'll try that - however, judging from all the other posts on this forum and elsewhere, I reckon that whilst lovely to look at, the AA1 is cheap and nasty on the inside...

 

Possibly. 33% failure rate for me (2/6 returned as faulty).

 

Mine's actually pretty consistent. It only ever does it during the boot cycle (before X/gdm loads), and it becomes more frequent as the battery gets lower. Has been like that since I got it, even on Linpus. It's actually never done it while on AC power.

It started doing it at other times (while booted to X) when I first installed Ubuntu Janty Alpha 4, but it stopped doing it just before Alpha 5 was released. I guess that was actually software. Still does it when I try to boot off a half-dead battery though.

 

Out of interest, if i boot it in BIOS safe mode and it stays on, how am i to determine what the software problem is that causes the 'seizures' if the only thing thats on there is the acer linpus lite os (initial installation tried, recovery dvd tried and updated iso download tried)?

 

If the machine will not stay powered up after a fresh reinstallation of the Linpus OS from the factory supplied DVD then I would suggest that the problem is of Acer's making and not your own. As such you should return the machine to Acer for repair/replacement.

 

I sent my AA1 back to Acer for this problem (screen 'dies' at around 40% battery life even in the middle of typing something; power light stays on; can't get it back unless reboot). I'd had the problem since I bought it in Jan '09. All Acer appeared to have done when I got it back was to have changed the BIOS to V0.3309, although they also said that they'd 'reseated' the motherboard (whatever that means...). To my (non)surprise, the machine still 'died' at around 40%. I complained to Acer and was going to send it back again but decided as a last resort to leave the machine going after it had died (ie) until the battery ran out of charge completely. I then charged it up fully and tried again. This time the machine died at around 23%. I repeated it and this time it got down to 4% battery life before I chickened out and put it on charge. Hopefully this has done the trick. I can now start to enjoy what's a very fine little computer!

 

Hi - the above turned out to be a false dawn. The AA1 reverted back to its failing at between 30% to 40% battery life remaining. I sent it back to Acer who returned it very quickly, having changed the battery and claiming that it now worked correctly. It didn't, and if anything, the problem appeared to be getting worse. It even once shut down at 51% :x I sent it back again with a nice letter explaining what had happened and what tests I'd run etc. Acer returned it within the week. The repair note stated 'Third repair, Senior Technician action' (or something to that effect). The note also stated that the motherboard had been replaced. I'm happy to report that the machine now runs down to sub 10% battery power with no sudden shut downs and I am now a happy chappie....

 

Just incase anyone's interested - or if anyone else is having similar probs - i installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix on my Aspire One and lo and behold, the problems disappeared; the battery goes strong for hours!

Huzzah!

Not only that, but i have to say Ubuntu is a lot better than the Linpus Lite that come installed, which i found a nightmare....

 

I confirm richyratton's experience.

In my case with Linpus the screen would regularly go black at charge levels below ~40% but I don't get the problem with Ubuntu 8.10 or 9.04. However it returns if I implement all the power saving tweaks on the Ubuntu Aspire One community web pages ! The problem is also present with Moblin.

My interpretation is that the machine is defective but if the distribution doesn't implement efficient power saving then the problem will not occur.

 

I've always used Mac OS X so am new to Linux and whilst i've learnt about coding in the terminal for tweaks (ie copying/pasint things i've found on the internet) I'm not exactly an experienced user. However, I gather that Linpus Lite is Fedora based, as is Moblin - which i've also tried and which i've also experienced battery blackouts with - so this would suggest to me that the problem lies within the Fedora power manager somewhere. Especially since I'm now running Crunchbang with no problems as I found it faster than its Ubuntu parent, the UNR.

I actually prefer Moblin over anything I've used, not least because it seems the most responsive distro whilst already being in its first release, so I was wondering if Zaphod or anyone else knew of any way round the seizures since it must only really be something relatively easy to change, power manger wise? Or is it actually something deep in the coding of Fedora?

Many thanks in advance

richyratton

 

I am no Linux expert either, my approach also being to copy/paste things found on the web. My solution to the seizures has been to run Ubuntu Netbook Remix which suits me fine.

My feeling is that it is not a problem specific to Fedora as I get the seizures with Ubuntu too if I apply all the power saving tweaks in the Ubuntu Aspire One community documentation. It might be worth trying to understand those tweaks to get some insight into a solution to the problem.