Need Help Please

Hi everyone i'm a newbie. hope some one can help. have read some of the other topics and there are some similar situations to mine.
bought acer one have no recovery disks and i did a stupid thing and changed something in the bios. dumb dumb dumb :roll: :roll: now when i turn it on all i get is a black screen it does not boot or anything. i think i changed it to boot from an external drive or usb.
prior to this it was booting and going through to xp no problems now its not any suggestions.
I have a bit of computer knowledge but not with laptops.

any help would be appreciated.

 

if when you turn it on you are getting the light on the power switch and then fan is running but there is no screen activity well then your bios needs to be flashed.

http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/07/flashing-bios.html

this is very easy so dont be scared to do it

 

before doing the flashing of bios, do you still remember what are the changes you made in BIOS? maybe, its just the prioritization on booting. (hopefully). doing the flashing would require some knowledge but remembering what you change is much much more simpler.

 

http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/08/acer ... overy.html

Sounds like you need to do this first to get the system up and running. Then you would follow the other link to update.

 

ahh yes good point from both of you thanks

 

you are right on the mark the boot order was changed to boot from usb why i dont know but it has caused some problems i now have an expensive paper weight.

thanks all of you guys who have giving some help. i will try all these things and let you know how it pans out.

 

hey guys just wondering my bios is version 3114. the ones on the pages you gave me link to are less. what should i do

 

IMHO, stick with 3114.

Download the 3114 BIOS update from the Acer Support site.
Unzip the BIOS update and copy ZG5_3114.FD and FLASHIT.EXE to the USB stick.
Rename ZG5_3114.FD to ZG5IA32.FD on the USB stick. Note that 'I' is the letter "aye", not the number "one".
Perform the BIOS recovery procedure as documented in macles' blog.

If you don't have access to another BIOS image then you can just use whatever version you do have and perform a normal BIOS update to another version later, when your AA1 is working again.

 

Wow! You must have made some extensive changes in the BIOS for your Acer One to clam up. Changing the boot order only tells Windows (or whatever OS you are using) to search for the "boot record" in a particular order. It will search in whatever order you set up, but if it doesn't find it on the pen drive, it will look on a CD ROM drive, and then on your hard drive. Default is hard drive first, but I have mine set up to boot to a pen drive first so I can run Linux right off the pen drive if I want to play with a different OS. Shut down the machine, pull the pen drive, reboot and it comes up in Windows XP with no changes. If I don't plug in the pen drive, with Linux on it, the BIOS then senses "no boot record" (because there is no pen drive plugged in) and goes on to the hard drive where it "finds" the boot record for Windows and it comes up normally. Good luck and make sure you follow ALL the instructions on the Mackles post for a successful BIOS flash. It is the best set of instructions I have seen and takes all the guesswork and fear out of it.

 

Hey guys its me again the nut that changed the bios. I have copied the files to usb fat. flashit.exe and bios. gone through the procedure but no it hasn't worked could i be doing something wrong or could there be a problem with the files i can here the laptop but its just not doing anything.

 

I have two things to ask:

1) When you turn on the unit and press f2, does it go to bios? If you can go there, then just change the boot order putting HDD/SSD as first boot.
2) Do you have an external dvd or cd drive and an OS installer (any OS would do)? Try installing but no finish the installation process. By this, we could check if the HDD or SSD can be found by Motherboard.

IF Both no, i guess, its better to bring it back to ACER. here in our country, i refrain from flashing the bios (Still the factory given 3009 or something) because that would void the warranty.

 

Might be worth trying a different USB stick, if you have one. The first USB stick that I tried didn't work, but the second one did. Also, if the USB stick is formatted as FAT32, try FAT12 (FAT) instead.

 

A-one-nut's AA1 is obviously bricked.

Sorry friend, I'm calling "bullsh*t" on this one. Where in the Acer Warranty documents does it state that flashing the BIOS will invalidate the warranty? BIOS updates would not be available on the Acer Support site if this were true. If the BIOS is recovered to the factory installed version, how will the Acer Support department know that that BIOS has been updated. Indeed how will Acer know which BIOS was originally installed at the factory?

 

Thankyou all for your help on this one but I think I'm at a stale mate. No when I use F2 to nothing happens there is no bios. Because as you said that would be easy to change the boot order back. And yes I have tried a couple of different usb's and that hasnt worked either. I guess my AA1 is bricked. I am now at a loss. I dont know what to do :?

 

hmm have you spoken to the ppl u bought it from will they take returns?

 

+1 on that. Sometimes AA1s with a black screen cannot be resurrected with a BIOS recovery, there may be a more fundamental hardware fault.

Your supplier and/or the Acer Warranty should bail you out here.

 

yes although acer support and all of that is very bad... good luck!