Got the BIOS Black Screen.... BUT.....

Well, finally after about two months and limited use, it happened. Black Screen.

I assume this is the infamous BIOS error. I complained and I complained here on this forum about how my laptop was working fine, but that I was deathly scared of this happening. You all assured me I'd probably be alright. Well...

However, this isn't an actual BLACK SCREEN. It's just a pure DEAD black screen. I don't think there's any activity whatsoever. Is this proper?

I've had other errors with this laptop which lead me to believe it is not a good product. Off the top of my head, I've had a black screen when coming out of hibernation which said something about "RealTek controller" not found. After that, I would just power off and then on, and I'd be ok. I've also had a random pitched light blue screen (the color of XP) come on while working, and stay there doing nothing. Then sometimes when coming out of hibernation I also have this weird error bubble come up at the logic screen saying something about an odd file that looked like random like "$&&902" could not be saved.

I'm not going to bother buying a flash card just to flash the BIOS. Nor do I trust myself to do it on my own. I'm going to take the laptop to the store and demand that they do it.

 

Well.... ?

Is what I described the black screen BIOS error, or is it some kind of screen error?

HELP!

Please tell me what you know!

 

what difference does it make if you're going to make the store resolve the problem anyways? :?:

 

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I want to know what the problem is so I can explain to them that I know what the problem is?

If it's the BIOS problem (is it?....) then I'll tell them what I read about it.. that Acer is replacing units that have the problem. In that case I'm gonna try to exchange mine for the 6 cell 160GB and just pay the difference on it.

I know what I'm doing, but I need information... .... .... ...

Is it the BIOS error I have or is it some kind of rare screen problem? I'd like to know before I go to exchange it or get it fixed, so I can haggle with them with the information I have.

If I know that it's the BIOS error I have I can also save the idiots time to dick around and examine the laptop... I can tell them straight up that they need to flash the BIOS in the case that they won't let me exchange it...

...

...

 

The screen seems to be completely dead. Like it's not turned on.

And can anyone help me with the other errors I mentioned? Are they common symptoms of the BSOD?

 

Geeze.

 

Well... not that anyone cares, but...

The store would not even touch the laptop since I did not purchase an extended warranty. They just gave me a number to phone Acer so I could send it back there. I wasn't about to go through with that. So I've flashed the BIOS myself and I'm working again.

However, when I used the flash stick, I checked and my BIOS was still 3114! But since I could log into Windows once again I was able to flash the BIOS with that special Windows program and it worked and now I'm at 3305 or whatever the name is.

But isn't that odd... I flashed with 3305 and 3114 was retained? How could that have happened?

 

I missed that topic. In the first post you said your AA1 is two month old - is it?? Why then shop does not want to use your standard warranty?? AA1 just stopped working - that's all you know. There is no difference if it's software or hardware problem. AFAIK there is one year full warranty for this machine. Did you do any internal mods in the meantime??

Glad to hear that

There was information about this in this forum. Emergency BIOS flashing is restoring only BIOS functions leaving BIOS version number not touched unless you do proper flash on working system with bootable USB. In that case flash utility is also changing BIOS version information...

 

Well I did flash with a flash card the first time. It had 3305 on it. I followed the instructions where you press Fn + Esc and then the power button. But it still came back as 3114.

Any way, the store said they are under rules from Acer that they are not allowed to work on their products - the customer has to send warranty products back to them by himself. I'm not sure if they meant this for all Acer products or just the Aspire One. But they said the only way was to contact Acer myself, get them to send me a shipping box, and then send the laptop back to them.

That's what I get for not purchasing the extended warranty.

So basically it's a worthless warranty I'm under.

 

That's because that's a BIOS recovery, not a BIOS update procedure.

The extended warranty is from Acer or from the computer store? if it's from Acer, that's fine, but if it's from the store and they won't do anything to help you, then how do you get the additional warranty period? :?:

 

Are you saying that you could do the BIOS recovery process even without the flash stick? I don't get why you need it in the first place then, especially considering that you are supposed to download UPDATED BIOS to it. Why do you need updated BIOS to recover your old BIOS?

I read about this process on that site that has helped thousands of people get their Aspire Ones working again.... I don't understand why this detail wasn't put there? They make it sound like the process will give you new BIOS...

Any way, from what the people at the store told me, they WILL be able to work on your Acer laptop for you, or send it back themselves, IF you did purchase that extended warranty. The extended warranty essentially gives them permission to work on your laptop or send it back to Acer if something goes wrong.... but if you only have the Acer warranty, you have to do everything yourself. The warranty it comes with is between you and Acer... while the extended Warranty also gets the store involved.

 

You always must boot up PC from USB with any BIOS available on it. That's the way it works.

And it is really good explained in this forum. F.e. here:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6586&p=43775&hilit=bios+recovery#p43775
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=903&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=bios+recovery
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=4153&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=bios+recovery


There is a lot more