Acer Aspire One BIOS Recovery

August 20, 2008

The AA1 has a built-in BIOS recovery routine, making it possible to flash the BIOS even if the system doesn't boot anymore. It's only meant for emergencies and may void your warranty, so use at your own risk.

Follow every step carefully!

First format an USB stick with FAT.

Download the latest BIOS, and put both FLASHIT.EXE and the BIOS file in the root directory of the stick. Rename the BIOS file to ZG5IA32.FD, that's important. Do not remove the USB stick.

Turn the AA1 off, make sure both battery and AC adapter are connected. Press Fn+Esc, keep it pressed and press the power button to turn the AA1 on. Release Fn+Esc after a few seconds, the power button will be blinking. Press the power button once. The AA1 will now initiate the BIOS flash, do not interrupt it under any circumstances. After a while the power button will stop blinking, and the AA1 will reboot shortly after. Wait patiently.

The BIOS has been flashed and all settings reset to default.

If for some reason you made a mistake during the procedure and it doesn't reboot by itself wait 5 minutes before turning it off, just to be safe that it isn't still flashing the BIOS.

848

< 1 – 200 of 848 >

Anonymous

Thank you SO MUCH for your help! I was locked from the computer because of a bad password entered in the BIOS. Thank You again!

Aug 23, 2008 10:07:00 PM

Anonymous

Thank you!! I was all set to RMA since resetting by removing the CMOS battery didn't work. Thank you once again!

Aug 25, 2008 3:31:00 AM

Tony

Thank you so much for saving all the RMA hassle!!!!

Keep up the goods :)

Aug 25, 2008 1:34:00 PM

Anonymous

Thanks for this Tip.
Unfortunately I already sent the AAO to the Repair Center, but now I know how to deal with the problem, once it reappears.

Aug 26, 2008 3:08:00 PM

annafil

dude, thanks a lot for this tip! saved me from an unbootable laptop (had the bios problem same as a bunch of people on the forum)

Aug 26, 2008 6:53:00 PM

Anonymous

Thanks for this tip

It was very very helpfull.
Its provite me for a hartatack.
Many thanks

Bernd (Germany)

Aug 26, 2008 7:35:00 PM

Remco

Great! Thanks, you saved my machine.

One remark one your recovery routine: i think you must press Fn+Esc BEFORE turning the AAO on. At least, that did the trick for me.

Aug 26, 2008 8:18:00 PM

Anonymous

Very very Great! Thanks you saved my AA1 dead !!!

Fn+Esc.........

Thanks...

Aug 27, 2008 4:58:00 PM

TheLion

Sorry, how many times you can use the recovery procedure?

Thanks again for having saved my pc

Aug 27, 2008 5:00:00 PM

Anonymous

OMG THANBK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!! I THOUGHT ALL WAS LOST, I LOVE YOU!!!!!

Aug 28, 2008 7:15:00 PM

Anonymous

This is great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You saved my aa1 Thanks

Aug 29, 2008 10:18:00 PM

mrphares

Long story short, I connected my AAO to an ext. data projector, hit the FN+F5 to activate the ext. monitor, and the screen went black. I have restarted numerous times, and most recently tried flashing the BIOS. the the update to the BIOS worked (went from 3109 to 3114), but I am still faced with a black screen. really confused, have a presentation in a few hours and will have to abandon my sweet solution. any thoughts? btw, I did upgrade my RAM to 1.5 GB, have had no problems, running fine on Limpus, then I try to connect to an ext. monitor and up pops a black screen.

Aug 30, 2008 4:35:00 PM

Carson

Thank you! you are the best.
it's works now.
God bless you!
Thank you again

Aug 31, 2008 12:09:00 AM

Anonymous

Thanks a lot! Unbricked AAO <:

Aug 31, 2008 6:24:00 PM

Anonymous

Thank you!

Aug 31, 2008 10:01:00 PM

Thecompkid

At first, I tried it with an ancient 64mb drive I had laying around and I couldn't get it to work. I had formatted it specifically for this purpose with Mac OS X (FAT16).

I then went to reformat the drive as FAT32 under Vista, but I figured I might as well try it out with my main 4gb sandisk cruzer which was already FAT32 but had hundreds of files on it. I copied and renamed the files under vista, which I assume is significant. It worked out fine, and just in time as I am literally 37 minutes from my 7 day return deadline ;).

Anyway, thanks a ton, I'm keeping these files set up on my USB drive for that inevitable next time.

Sep 1, 2008 7:57:00 PM

Daniel Aguirre

WORKED !!!! Thank you very much!!, saved me from a 2 hour trip to the nearest service center, with all the problems it involves !!! You´re the best !!!

Sep 3, 2008 12:06:00 AM

Anonymous

Thanks for this post.
Saved my bricked Apire One.

You're the man.

Sep 4, 2008 1:42:00 AM

Anonymous

Thanks dude. You just saved my bricked Aspire.

Sep 4, 2008 1:48:00 AM

Julien

Hello,
Thx for this post, but it didn't work on my aspire, can any one help me?
Power is blinking, but my usb key isn't...

Need help plz.

Sep 4, 2008 11:14:00 AM

Anonymous

:):):):) did the trick
thanks wimpie

Sep 4, 2008 1:11:00 PM

Anonymous

and again - great job - thanks

Only 2 minutes and life is back

Sep 4, 2008 7:09:00 PM

peter

Thanks it works great, i just wanted to update the bios but this is the only way it have worked on my acer. Thanks a lot

Sep 4, 2008 7:27:00 PM

Anonymous

My goood...

My first week with the AA1 and you save me!

My AA1 bios corrupted after norma reboot ¿¿??

... but you save me!!

thanks!!

Sep 4, 2008 8:40:00 PM

OneHead

Thanks mate! Another AA1 saved here ... this time it happened with the 3114 BIOS, shut it down one night, bricked the next day. Acer need to issue a BIOS fix for this real soon!

Sep 4, 2008 9:45:00 PM

Anonymous

Thank You!!!!!!
Everything worked exactly as stated, however my BIOS still wants a PW...! :'(
Just got my AA1 a few hours ago, and thought I transformed it into an oversized paperweight after i set my password...!
At least it boots again now!
It's wierd tho, look how many ppl have exactly the same Problem... I am sure that I entered the PW correctly, just like everyone else here!!
This must be a Problem Acer is well aware of, yet they say that the User must have "forgotten" tha PW...!

Sep 4, 2008 9:47:00 PM

Anonymous

I just managed to get back into my BIOS!!! (see previous post)
Try enabling CAPS LOCK and enter your Password... even if you entered it in lowercase when you first set it (like I did...)
Maybe the BIOS has a bug and stores the PW in CAPITALS only...?!
This worked for me!
Hope it helps...

Sep 4, 2008 10:07:00 PM

wizbang

Fantastic.
Worked on my bricked Aspire One which stopped after a reboot.
This should be on the Acer website.
Thank you very much.

Sep 7, 2008 1:24:00 AM

MintyFresh

Brilliant! Thanks to this tip I was able to get my two week old and completely dead Aspire One back and running. A great relief as I didn't fancy taking out the 1Gig memory I had installed before returning it in case I got a replacement machine.

It took a couple of attempts, but once I got the system flashing the whole process took no more than 30 secs.

Thanks a million!

Sep 8, 2008 3:15:00 PM

Watjilpa

Thank you so much. Mine went dead too and now has resurrected. Hallelujah!

Sep 9, 2008 12:45:00 PM

Jonny

Well, mine just bricked after rebooting from Windows XP Home (A150). will try the procedure when i am back home. Strange thing. I maybe should have disconnected all USB devices before rebooting. Had an Huawei E800 3G-card, a mouse and my 8GB USB-key connected to it. The memory key contained a file called 0803.rom. I hope this did not kill it, as i already voided the warranty for adding internal bluetooth :(

Sep 9, 2008 1:11:00 PM

Anonymous

Well, worked fine though i did not use a bootable stick at all. just flashit and the BIOS-image seems to be enough. I could watch the process on the LED on the memory stick. After flashing, all lights are turned of and the device seems turned off for a about 20 seconds, but it is not. So don't disconnect power, just wait and it will come back to life :)

Sep 10, 2008 1:48:00 AM

a44l

Worked great. Thank youfor the help. I ope acer will fix this problem with a bios update

Sep 11, 2008 2:05:00 AM

Anonymous

I just bought my AA1 two days ago and I was able to install a 250HD and replaced 512MB with 1GB memory. I installed Vista and was running beautifully with Vista everything working, lan wifi touchpad cam audio.... until I pushed my luck and installed OPENSUSE on another partition and it bricked my AA1. I was worried that having opened AA1 at least 1/2 dozen times, I think I voided my warranty. YOUR PROCEDURE SAVED ME $350... THANK YOU!!!

Sep 12, 2008 8:34:00 PM

Anonymous

Wow - thanks - amazing - my replacement Aspire One just black screened , but this time I knew what to do - Thank You

Sep 13, 2008 4:56:00 PM

Anonymous

Worked great,Thank you so much. I just save 350€.

Sep 13, 2008 7:01:00 PM

Anonymous

Thnx m8 just gave my One the same treatment as it had died... Now it works again.. Hope this is gonne be solved soon cause my One's only 3 days old....

Sep 13, 2008 10:40:00 PM

Anonymous

I had tried the method to restore my bricked Aoo. I tried a few times and it did not work. Then I found the problem, I mis-typied the file name of the FD file. I put "1" instead of "I". Someone said they cannot restore their Aoo. This can be a reference.

Sep 14, 2008 8:08:00 AM

Trib@l (Austria)

THX!!!!
My Bios was bricked and your method helped me out!! :)

Sep 14, 2008 11:45:00 AM

Chris (Austria)

THX :)
Great work man!
Best regards,
Chris

Sep 14, 2008 3:05:00 PM

Anonymous

Well my A150 just bricked a second time. I investigated a bit and found out, that my external HD was causing this, though my 3G-card and my thumb drive were save.
I would really recommend u to disconnect !!all!! USB devices, especially storage class, from your netbook before doing a reboot.
If you do, there might be a good chance of never running into this kind of trouble.

Sep 14, 2008 8:30:00 PM

Anonymous

Yeah! Another AA1 was saved from hell! Hallelujah!

Sep 15, 2008 5:31:00 PM

Anonymous

Another AA1 resurrected! You rock buddy!

Sep 15, 2008 10:57:00 PM

ali

YEAH! you are the man you are super hero u are my man god save you. you save my aa1 life. i love you man

Sep 16, 2008 1:19:00 PM

Anonymous

TNX FROM RUSIA !
den

Sep 17, 2008 2:52:00 AM

Anonymous

Hello
I am about to try your Bios flash procedure, but can you tell me please where do I get flashit.exe?

Thanks in advance

Frank Parkinson

Sep 17, 2008 8:21:00 AM

Anonymous

Hello again

I found the flashit.exe on the latest Bios download (also found through your site!!)

Reflashed the Bios (though I am not certain which one, as there are now 2 on the USB stick.

Anyway, the Acer now works fine.

Thanks again for your great help - Acer should be paying you for sorting out their cock-up!!!!

Frank Parkinson

Sep 17, 2008 9:02:00 AM

Anonymous

This just saved me a whole lotta trouble with the acer service center, i just wished id seen it before i ripped my A1 apart trying to fix the problem. replaced ram, removed cmos batt, took it apart around 6 times trying different configurations all in vain.

well the good thing is i learned how to take it apart for future moding..

anyways, a big THANK YOU!!! this was the simple answer all along.

Sep 17, 2008 9:26:00 AM

Anonymous

A BIG THANK YOU!!!! As above saved me a ton of trouble!

Sep 19, 2008 5:20:00 AM

eztuxer

I've followed instructions (not sure I've grasped it all) :
Copied the 3304 file & flashit.exe @ root of Formated (FAT32) usb key, and tried to plug in in the AAO and did fn esc manip then turned it on, it blinked then hit power button once & nothing happened, the screen remains black.
Where did I blew it ?

eztuxer

Sep 19, 2008 8:16:00 PM

Anonymous

Thanks it works great,you are the greater, you seem miracle.

Sep 20, 2008 1:40:00 AM

Maxwell Starr

@extuxer - remember to rename the 3304.fn file to ZG5IA32.FD or it won't work. The flash drive should also be formatted in FAT (FAT16).

This fix worked like a charm, thanks very much!!

I can also confirm it worked from an SD Card on a USB Card reader.

Sep 20, 2008 2:53:00 AM

Anonymous

My aspire one lives again! thanks!

Sep 20, 2008 5:00:00 AM

Anonymous

Thank you! Thanks, thanks, and one more THANY YOU once again! This really works!

And quite honestly, how the hell is it possible that so many AAO users get their device bricked without doing any bad? Mine just went blank when I changed the boot order in the BIOS. In 20 years messing around with computers, I've never seen such a behaviour.

Whatever, it's booting again. Phew!

Sep 20, 2008 10:20:00 AM

Anonymous

Just adding my name to the happy list! This worked so well. Thanks so much for this information! I was ready with a screw driver!!THANKS!!!

Sep 21, 2008 12:55:00 PM

Anonymous

thanks a lot
somedody helped me to have the right files and it took less than 3 minutes to flash and reboot

Sep 21, 2008 6:18:00 PM

Anonymous

Muchas gracias por la informacion, mi pequeñin vuelve a vivir gracias al cambio de la Bios.
Thank you so much.
Fernando desde Sevilla-Spain.

Sep 23, 2008 10:55:00 AM

SuperStick

Just got my AA1 replacement from the service center.I had same problem. I should have done this before. Anyhow, it seems,the procedure is for BIOS recovery. Can I do the same procedure for Bios upgrading.
Thanks in advance for the info.

Sep 23, 2008 3:24:00 PM

Byk

Gracias por revivir mi AA1, en mi caso no funcionó, pero probe con el otro archivo que viene en el zip del bios ZG5_3114.fd y lo renombre a ZG5IA32.FD luego lo puse en mi usb y funciono!!!

if dont work rename ZG5IA32.FD to ZG5IA32.FD ant put in to USB, folow the intructions my USB blink 30 times aprox. and AA1 alive again!!!

Sep 23, 2008 7:08:00 PM

Anonymous

I know you have received a lot of praise for this post... well I just have to add one more! After booting gparted from a flash drive, I rebooted and pulled the flash drive out. I must have pulled it too soon or something because my aa1 refused to reboot. All I got was a green light on the power button.

So I tried the BIOS recovery and all is back to normal. Thanks again!

VVarwick

Sep 24, 2008 1:18:00 PM

Anonymous

Sep 24, 2008 5:41:00 PM

Anonymous

It's alive!!!!!!!
You have saved my bricked Aspire One.
You're the best.
Thank you again

Sep 25, 2008 11:02:00 AM

BermudaCedar

Oh my goodness!!! I thought I was so screwed!!! You've made me a very happy man! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!

Sep 25, 2008 4:23:00 PM

Anonymous

What a star - i actually thought my hard drive had failed and was going to have all the hassle of sending my One back (bought on the web !!). But re-flashing worked a treat.

Many thanks !!!!!!

Sep 25, 2008 9:14:00 PM

Anonymous

Important,
if the power button blinks slowly and nothing happens, try to release the FN+ESC earlier after you pressed the Power Button. Its not a few seconds more a second or so.
You will see the Power Button will blink faster,
then press the power button again and the usb stick will start blinking.

Thanks a lot for this tip, it made my day!!!

Sep 26, 2008 12:06:00 AM

Anonymous

Flashed 2 weeks ago successfully to 3114 with
your procedure - great tip!
but tody I tried to flash from 3114 to 3304. flashing worked as described. but after reboot the version number in bios shown is still 3114??
and yes - I used the correct file (compared it to the 3114 fd file, there are differences)

Sep 26, 2008 12:58:00 PM

Mike

My acer one just had ablank screen after a mistake with partitioning.
Once I entered the correct filename it worked beatifully.
Back to linux i think - a dual boot with provedto be astep too far for me.......

Sep 26, 2008 3:55:00 PM

Anders

It dosent work for me, its still 3114 after rebooting. I tried everything. HELP ME PLEASE

Sep 26, 2008 6:08:00 PM

Anonymous

mine died only 1 day with black screen. thx to you it is back to life again. THANK YOU !!!
excellent and even crucial steps to bear in mind for all AAO user !

Sep 27, 2008 4:19:00 AM

Andy

Well Min's died. Second one to do so. First went back and was replaced, This one was fine then just failed to restart. Totally blank screen. Only the power button light, lights.
I down loaded the bios 3114 and 3304 it had 3114 installed when I got it. I'm a little confused as to what file the bios is. There are a 3114.BAT a FLASHIT.EXE and a ZG5_311fd. Could someone please explain which files are what and any renaming. cheers

Sep 27, 2008 8:07:00 PM

Anonymous

This sounds real stupid, but how can I tell if teh bios update worked? I can't enter the setup at boot (tried password uppercase as others have suggested), and I don't notice any changes in the way my One works...the network still only works about one start out of 3, the car readers still only work maybe one start out of 5, fan is still permanently whining away...

Sep 28, 2008 8:44:00 AM

John

THANKS!!!Saved mah One from blankscreen lolz.

Sep 29, 2008 5:58:00 PM

Anonymous

Thank you so much.. read this earlier and now, when tried to boot from usb-dvd, happened to me too!!

Quick and easy fix!!

Wxx

Sep 30, 2008 7:58:00 AM

Anonymous

didn't work for me.

i already tried all kind of usb, and 2 type of bios (v3114 / v3304), and both doesn't ressurect my AAO150. After i pressed Fn + esc and pushed power once more the led only blinking forever, and my USB stick did not react (the led light on my usb stick not reacting, it means my USB stick not detected by my AAO150)

have i missed something ?.

My AAO150 was dead after i downgrade my bios from 3304 to 3114.

Sep 30, 2008 2:04:00 PM

Anonymous

Fixed a shiny blue brick for me (completely blank screen on boot, not even any bios messages), thanks for the info :)

You should give a link to the bios, eg, in europe:

http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_one_110.html

Oct 1, 2008 3:52:00 PM

Steve Parker

Fantastic! Thank you so much!

Oct 1, 2008 6:42:00 PM

Thanks Macles, thank you for sharing your knowledge, experience and insight with the rest of us. I've had two AA0s now and the first ended up being returned to the vendor. It was definitely a case of bricking due to a faulty USB flash drive(Disgo) running Puppy Linux. It happened again on the second AA0. However, since then I learned of your method, tried it and it worked successfully. This piece of useful information is helping many users who happen across this oddity.

Again, many thanks and the kindest of wishes.

AJ

Oct 2, 2008 4:54:00 PM

Pedro- Acer ASPIRE ONE 150 - Portugal

Thanks, this information was very useful, it worked 100%

Oct 2, 2008 9:54:00 PM

Egmont - Germany

Thanks, you saved my wife's nerves on National holiday here!!
By the way: Bios Passwords are always transformed to uppercase (not the numbers though, found that out after another nervous breakdown two weeks ago)

Oct 3, 2008 11:50:00 AM

untung

Yes that is right acer aspire one BIOS password is in uppercase.

how to boost booting if installed windows XP?

Thank you.

Oct 4, 2008 1:04:00 AM

Anonymous

thank you for your information , Thanks Again

Oct 4, 2008 3:04:00 PM

Anonymous

10x but im too late for reading this post...becouse i went to the market where i was buy it and they replaced the unit with new one... :)

Oct 4, 2008 10:55:00 PM

Anonymous

Thanks a lot for info!!! works for mine AA1

Oct 5, 2008 5:13:00 AM

Simon

Great work guys...

Mine died within 6 days,even though i hadn`t added any ram ..

fix worked great...most exciting 10 seconds this year anyways ... :-)

Simon NL

Oct 5, 2008 3:11:00 PM

Anonymous

I had to boot into freedos and then run the bios upgrade from there. The upgrade was reported as having completed successfully, but after re-booting i still get the black screen of death, any suggestions?

Oct 5, 2008 4:25:00 PM

Anonymous

Thanks for fixing my Acer One dude - I was messing about installing Operating Systems, I tried to FIXMBR and FIXBOOT C:, I rebooted and the BIOS died for some reason.

Looking at the BIOS relase notes there is a known issue called "Crisis Fail" resolved in the BIOS. LOL :) ooops

Date : 2008/09/12
BIOS Version : v0.3305
EC Version : 3.4

BIOS:
1. Fixed crisis fail.

Oct 5, 2008 9:30:00 PM

Anonymous

didn't work for me.

i already tried all kind of usb, and 4 type of usp pen drives, and both doesn't ressurect my AAO150. After i pressed Fn + esc and pushed power once more the led only blinking forever, and my USB stick did not react (the led light on my usb stick not reacting, it means my USB stick not detected by my AAO150)....pleas help me!!

have i missed something ?.

My AAO150 was dead after i downgrade my bios from 3304 to 3114.

Oct 5, 2008 11:08:00 PM

Anonymous

Many thanks. It worked.

Side note for other users.

1. Make sure your press and hold both key Fn + esc before pressing the power.
2. Release both Fn + esc keys when power light starts to blink.
3. Press power once when the power light still blinking.

Good luck!

Oct 6, 2008 5:55:00 AM

Anonymous

I flashed the BIOS but I still get promted for a password. And it wil still not accept the original password(yes i put in more than 8 characters). please help me. this is starting to damages my morale.

Oct 6, 2008 10:40:00 AM

Anonymous

I tore down my little baby with a cold heart and a multi tool. Took out the hub battery and put it all back together again. And now the password is gone, my baby works again. Woooohooo.
Thank you for the tear down manual. You guys rocks.

Oct 6, 2008 7:57:00 PM

Anonymous

amazing thank you so much!!

Oct 7, 2008 9:03:00 AM

Anonymous

I owe you a big thank you! This morning I woke up and my aspire one didn't work. Black screen and i haven't had a clue what was going on. Thanks so much!

Oct 7, 2008 9:23:00 AM

Jimmy Tran

Excellent!!!
Thank you so much.
It works on my Acer AspireOne-ZG5 which I thought it is complete dead.

Oct 8, 2008 3:29:00 AM

Apolinar Maldonado Santiago

Is necessary to add that in my case, I had to copy the .BAT file too into the USB stick and then edit this file with text editor to modify the call to BIOS file renamed ZG5IA32.FD for us and thed save the changes. Then procced like the process on top of this page says. good luck.. nerds

Oct 8, 2008 7:47:00 PM

silvex

I also entered a bios password , and was sure of it. After a reboot the entered password was not being recognized & i was locked out . Fortunately I tried different things & one of them is engage the caps-lock then enter the password and voila the system booted up and the caps-lock auto went off. I think it's a bios bug , but at least it works.

Oct 9, 2008 9:31:00 AM

Anonymous

Thnx thnx thnx xD LOL

I was scare!

i dont like pay xD

Uhhh

Ty , i do this to aa0 A150 windows XP 1GB

zg5_3304 bios

All works fine TY

Oct 9, 2008 10:38:00 AM

arnaud

hello

how to restore BIOS does not work for me (black screen). ultimate solution?

I get more information:

the USB drive must be formatted in Fat 16 or Fat 32?

what version of bios to use? 3305 or 3304?

Thank you.
Français

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Oct 10, 2008 12:52:00 AM

maguilar

Strange, I updated to 3305 flawlessly (at least, the computer entered in bios recovery mode, the flash card was detected and read, then after a few minutes the computer rebooted) but I keep seeing bios version 3104 on boot screen.

Oct 10, 2008 6:32:00 AM

Anonymous

nice i was so worried about my little acer, the scree doesn't work, oh crap i need to send it back and wait very long.....
and i didn't trust this bios stuff but i did it and it worked
i was so surprised and happy !!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!!!

Oct 10, 2008 11:45:00 AM

arnaud

I tried with another USB card, actually the key diode flashes. but always a black screen.

I try to open it to remove the battery and see if it's something

Oct 10, 2008 9:50:00 PM

arnaud

I removed the battery from the motherboard to reset the BIOS, but this has not changed.

I think I will return to service of Acer.
Détecter la langue

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Anglais

Traduire

Oct 10, 2008 10:40:00 PM

SAINT

Hi all, i give my Aspire One 150X a supervisor, user and hdd password. After save and restart i give the password but dont work. i restore recovery my bios but is the same situation. HELP!!!

Oct 10, 2008 11:01:00 PM

Jeff

Dude! You are the best!! Thanks, got my Acer (No screen, nothing) working in under 5 minutes...this is terrific! Acer owes you large...

Oct 11, 2008 3:40:00 AM

Anonymous

big love man, you saved my laptop!

Oct 11, 2008 6:10:00 PM

Anonymous

thank you soooooooo sooooooo much.....
u saved my life!!!!

Oct 11, 2008 8:01:00 PM

SAINT

BIOS PASSWORD ONLY IN CAPITALS AND 8 CARACTER!!! I HAVE MY AAO BACK!!! :)

Oct 11, 2008 10:54:00 PM

Anonymous

have tried all above with no joy ah well ill have to send it back thanks anaway

Oct 12, 2008 12:29:00 AM

gerardo

what a relieve! Thank you... you save my life, brother!

Oct 12, 2008 11:54:00 AM

Anonymous

Hi,
tried many times with left usb port, but nothing, then plugged usb to righthand back port. And it worked.. Really THANKS man. Unbricked my 150

Otriis

Oct 13, 2008 5:23:00 PM

zeke

the Fn + esc did not work for me.. I had to make a Boot usb, formatted with fat, then ran the 3304.bat, that updated my machine.. I had an issue with the mouse and the wireless card, now both appear to work after the bios mod
Zeke Wildflower

Oct 13, 2008 6:34:00 PM

Anonymous

Thank you - Your great work fixed mine too. Mine went south when I changed the boot order. Frustrating, as this is a wonderful PC and a great value. Sad that Aspire is so slow to post fixes especially when so many have the problem. There website is so far behind.

Oct 14, 2008 4:15:00 AM

J D Eisenberg

Thank you! That debricked my AA1 nicely.You deserve some sort of Nobel Prize for computer rescue.

Oct 16, 2008 5:48:00 AM

uschan

Normally I would not have dared to flash the BIOS and would have sent my AA1 back to Acer. However, two days ago I installed OpenOffice3 successfully following your howto. Thus, I gave BIOS-flashing a try when my AA1 died today. Successfully again. Thank you so much!

Oct 16, 2008 9:15:00 PM

oclusion

gracias! UNA AA1 DE MEXICO TAMBIEN HA VUELTO A LA VIDA

Oct 17, 2008 5:42:00 AM

kaichip

Thanks, my AA1 is alive again.

Acer should give credit to you, Macles.

Check the revision history, I notice that they keep on changing it every couple of weeks since July 2008.

What wrong with their firmware engineers?

Oct 17, 2008 1:29:00 PM

RaVeN

Gosh.... What a relief.... It lives.... Thanks a lot Macles.

Oct 17, 2008 7:57:00 PM

Nicholas

I love you. I did not have the availability to send in my AA1. Not to mention I would most likely end up losing my Ubuntu install (Wireless is a bitch to set-up) on top of many other tweaks.

Oct 18, 2008 6:37:00 AM

Anonymous

Non so come ringraziarti.Mi hai salvato dalle terribili grinfie dell'assistenza acer.
Sei un mito.
Thanks!!!

Oct 18, 2008 10:52:00 AM

Anonymous

thanks god, my notebook is back to normal again. thank you so much for tutorial

Oct 18, 2008 7:18:00 PM

Anonymous

thank you so much~
you just saved my machine!!!
when I saw acer logo again I almost jumped 2 feet. that was so touching moment! :)

and at here I also found that AA1 might has critical problem with this "BIOS issue".
and that's not good!!

thanks again!!!

Oct 18, 2008 8:38:00 PM

FireRaider

Thanks. The method works, at least the computer boots up now :)

Yes, I too set a password on bios and power-up of over 8 characters. I clearly read "8 words" if I remember well.

But I STILL can't access my bios. And putting in parts of the original pass +/- caps lock still won't help. Not that I need it, the F12 still works, but it's a matter of just having the damn thing.

I guess I'll try to use one of those bios password crackers. Those work on my home pc (bios uses hashes to store passwords, and fortunaterly they are usually very easy to crack)

Oh well, I must say I'm very happy with my mini-laptop.

all the best,
FireRaider

Oct 18, 2008 9:23:00 PM

Anonymous

it's really relaay right...my dead AA1 has been recovered. thank you for the posting...you are realy the man!

Oct 19, 2008 9:23:00 AM

Juhis

THANKS THANKS THANKS A MILLION THANX!!!!!!! you´re my personal savier!!!

Oct 19, 2008 2:00:00 PM

JOSEPH

YOU ARE THE MAN

Oct 19, 2008 4:10:00 PM

Joni

greetings from Finland,
This worked for me also!
at first it was not working, but with second time i had better luck :).

damn two days old laptop, Screen was black and power button was not working <-- i needed to shutdown the system by taking off the battery.
I almost send it back to manufacturer.
thanks!

Oct 19, 2008 6:02:00 PM

Anonymous

Thanks for the advice about the password. Yes, I typed over 8 letters.

Make absolutely sure that the caps key is on, it resets. Use only the first eight letters.

It should work then.

Oct 19, 2008 9:55:00 PM

Anonymous

Do you need the bat file, or just the flash it and *.fd file? Can there happen to be other files in the flash drive root or just those specific for the re-flash? thanks....

Oct 20, 2008 4:46:00 PM

Anonymous

YOU RULE !

Oct 21, 2008 12:33:00 AM

Anonymous

I did the same as others and entered more than 8 characters for the BIOS setup password.

I got it to work by only entering the first 8 characters and holding down the SHIFT key at the same time.

The USER password seems to be the same and only works if you enter the first 8 characters and have the SHIFT key down too.

The BIOS update worked a dream.

Oct 21, 2008 11:04:00 AM

David Brown UK

The latest BIOS 3.5 (3305) has fixed the CAPs LOCK problem with the BIOS passwords.

You can now enter with or without the SHIFT key pressed and it works.

Oct 21, 2008 11:19:00 AM

Anonymous

Thanks so much!!!
You just saved my laptop and more importantly all my uni work :>

Oct 21, 2008 6:37:00 PM

Anonymous

is this procedure can be use in acer aspire 4310? i have a problem on accesing the bios because of password. thanks

Oct 22, 2008 1:49:00 AM

Anonymous

Thank you!!!!!
You are my hero!

Greetings
amoxi

Oct 22, 2008 2:09:00 PM

Anonymous

HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was updating my BIOS and somehow fail..
I was worried about loose the warranty but this method bring alive to my deadest AA1 again!!

Thank you!!

JimmyBSOD

Oct 22, 2008 4:12:00 PM

Anonymous

Thanks for that, much appriciated!!!!

Oct 22, 2008 6:15:00 PM

Andy

I bricked my AA1 110 by downgrading from 3305 to 3114 when (I downgraded since the USB CD-ROM was not recognized with 3305).

I've tried a dozen times to flash using this method. I've tried using different memory sticks, editing the BAT file, using different versions of the BIOS, with and without a boot loader.

I've even opened up the dang thing and shorted the CMOS.

After shorting the CMOS I tried using this method again to no avail.

There is just no activity on the USB drive after I hit the power button! I've tried different ports- nothing!

Ideas?

Oct 22, 2008 10:44:00 PM

Anonymous

Another satisfied customer from macles super customer service :)

I was trying to install another xp version from mein usb stick and the display went down.

Thank You Very Very Much!!!

Oct 23, 2008 7:30:00 AM

Anonymous

oh goood thank you so much! you are the best!!! if there is a way i can pay you let me know please!!!!

Oct 23, 2008 9:58:00 AM

bagus

thank you soooo much, keep moving bro!!!!

Oct 23, 2008 2:26:00 PM

Anonymous

Hi all, this makes good reading, my AAO has also become a brick. I myself am NOT a geek so I called Acer................... they were sooooooooooo helpfull NOT. I was advised to take back to Tesco Direct for replacement or refund. I would like to try the BIOS flash but am afraid I will trash AAO even more. Anybody prepaired to do a talk through on skype or MSN?

Oct 23, 2008 3:48:00 PM

Anonymous

man, you're my hero!

worked like a charm!

Oct 23, 2008 6:44:00 PM

alesgobbo@gmail.com

After how many minutes the button stop blinking?
because mine is blinking from 20 minutes but nothing!

I'm worrying about it!
I need my aao!

What i can do now?

Oct 23, 2008 7:03:00 PM

Anonymous

I experienced the blank screen during a normal boot too. Followed these instructions and it's up and working again, many thanks.

Oh and I used a 4Gb Sandisk Cruzer formatted as FAT32.

Oct 24, 2008 1:22:00 AM

Anonymous

I have to put also the *.BAT file and rename it or not?

Oct 24, 2008 4:43:00 PM

Anonymous

OMG!!! THANKS!!! YOU JUST SAVED MY LIFE =) I WAS GOING TO DIE OF BOREDOM WITHOUT MY LILL LAPPY ^_^

Oct 24, 2008 6:27:00 PM

Anonymous

Thanks my friend! Here the trouble occured while I tried to boot my A150X by USB stick. Two days wasted until I found your article...

Oct 25, 2008 12:46:00 PM

Anonymous

Thanks!

I am up and running thanks to your post.

Oct 25, 2008 2:40:00 PM

Anonymous

Well, it was a close call for me .. Bricked my A150X this morning with external LCD and only after using just the battery as a power source to boot it worked. Started to really wonder that behaviour and since that i´ve notice that there are some problems with USB generally in the BIOS, like by changing the USB port for my mouse in the middle of the session the mouse driver disapeared and i had to re-load it again etc. Hope there´ll soon be a new BIOS.. it´s needed!

Oct 25, 2008 8:57:00 PM

Anonymous

Thank you very much for you posting here, i live far away (different island) from nearest acer service center, it really saves me a lot of time and efforts and time to fix this, you've been very helpful to a lot of people, great job!!!

Oct 26, 2008 11:59:00 AM

Anonymous

Thank you very much... I have my acer back.

Oct 26, 2008 1:13:00 PM

Anonymous

Nope, nothing doing, just keeps blinking at me. Tried 3114, 3304 and 3305. Tried with and without the battery, tried 3 different USB sticks, just blinks. I have noticed the blinking starts almost immediatly it's powered on (don't know if thats a good or bad sign)
Any ideas?

Oct 26, 2008 7:54:00 PM

dumytm

Thank you very much!

Oct 27, 2008 12:52:00 AM

David

Thx mate........

Oct 27, 2008 7:10:00 PM

PC1MH

This blog is proof the product is simply bad. Just saved another 1 week old acer aspire one 110 with your method. Returning it tomorrow for an asus ee pc 900. They already sold over 4 milj. of those this year and they don't have these silly problems. Thanks for the kick-ass post. You are my guru.

Marc

Oct 27, 2008 10:38:00 PM

arya

thanks...
never been so relieved like this..

Oct 27, 2008 11:02:00 PM

Anonymous

Another one saved!!!

Thanks a million!!!!

Had a few unsuccesfull atempts untill I found when renaming the .FD file I misspelled it.

***** Very important to have the name of the FD file right!

Thanks again!

Oct 28, 2008 12:49:00 AM

Anonymous

WOW You are my hero Thanks, God Bless You!!!

Oct 28, 2008 4:23:00 AM

Anonymous

My worked too! Thank you!

Oct 28, 2008 12:05:00 PM

Anonymous

Erg bedankt! Ik was bang dat het me niet meer zou lukken de Aspire One te laten werken. Zonder uw blog was het zeker niet gelukt!!!!

Oct 28, 2008 6:13:00 PM

gpenguin

I attempted this and it didn't upgrade the BIOS. The system works ok, but the BIOS is not getting upgraded! Ideas?

Oct 29, 2008 12:32:00 AM

Anonymous

You are a GOD!!! I tried to reboot out of Leopard and all I got was a black screen.. I found your article and now I'm back up and running again.. Thank you so much!!!

Oct 29, 2008 9:16:00 AM

Előd

Thanks a lot :D:D

Oct 29, 2008 10:19:00 AM

Anonymous

THANK YOU!!!!!! You saved my bacon BIG time :o) Got my DEAD Aspire back to life in a flash ;o)

The advice was invaluable and worked like a charm.

Thomas form Denmark

Oct 29, 2008 10:45:00 PM

Anonymous

whoaaa great tutorial thanks man it has just been 2 weeks that i bought aa1 and while playing with my firewall settings on wireless adaptor couldnt boot it back . greets from trabzon

Oct 30, 2008 10:10:00 PM

Anonymous

THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH, I only had a Mac PowerBook G4 and my Aspire One with me on vacation for a week. The fist day on vacation after powering my AA1 up...... NOTHING !! I had work to do and was SO Upset and this was the ONLY windows machine I had. Due to my Mac being a G4 chip and not an intel chip I had NO WAY of making the USB Stick bootable !! Since it was already MSDOS formatted, I copied the BIOS FILE and Flashit.exe to the stick and crossed my fingers.. IT WORKED YESSSSSSSSSSSSS !!!

Oct 30, 2008 10:32:00 PM

Anonymous

i tried it and did not work now when i start the aspire i just see a blank screen can anyone help what did i do wrong i downloaded the bios file and thats it is there any thing als i half to download ?

Oct 31, 2008 2:18:00 AM

Anonymous

Thanks so much! I have succesfully used your guide and my AA1 is safe!
Just a little question: Why after recovery procedure, is the BIOS version 3114 even if i used latest BIOS?!

Oct 31, 2008 2:02:00 PM

Anonymous

Thank you very much,my little Blue Aspire one smielly again !!!

www.dpromjai.de

Oct 31, 2008 4:30:00 PM

Anonymous

Oh man :-|

I spend:
- 329€ for the Aspire One A110L
- 2x 16GB SDHC a 36€
- 1GB RAM for 26€
- big battery for 82€
- 3x about 7€ for delivering

!!!AND NO OTHER HOPE BECAUSE I LOST WARRANTY BECAUSE OF RAM UPGRADE!!!
!!!PRETTY MUCH MONEY WOULD BE SHITTED!!!
!!!AWESOME!!!

Imagine if I couldn't make my Acer Aspire working.
Yes I think I have to post here because this is is very necessary

thank you :-|

Oct 31, 2008 5:04:00 PM

fadil

i tryed it but did not eork now just get a black screen what do i do can anyone help please thanks

Oct 31, 2008 8:58:00 PM

Anonymous

For Fadil: retry again

Oct 31, 2008 9:05:00 PM

Chris

Brilliant! This saved my new laptop!! Bit worrying though that it seems so fragile.

Nov 1, 2008 1:20:00 AM

fadil

i downloaded the bios file and that's it tryed it and did not work now i get a black screen when i turn on the laptop what did i do is there any else i go to do can anyone help me i don't know what to do please help?

Nov 1, 2008 12:49:00 PM

Anonymous

Just want to say thanks for saving my behind, turns out that check point and vista doesn't work and the result was 10 dead devices, but with your knowledge and guidance all is well

Thank you even us IT consultants get it wrong from time to time

Nov 1, 2008 8:22:00 PM

Anonymous

worked for me - many thanks

Nov 1, 2008 10:38:00 PM

Anonymous

OH man what a fix.. It works like a charm but dont forget to rename the bios file without it it cant be able to upgrade.. works 100%. Thnk u very very very very much................

Nov 2, 2008 11:15:00 AM

Anonymous

Like a few others, I bricked my AA1 yesterday after uninstalling Ubuntu from a USB key install and then massing around with XP recovery to fix the MBR. Once I did that, the AA1 booted up ok but upon booting for a 2nd time, all went completely dead.

So before deciding to pack it off for repair, I followed macles' advice here and VOILA! All is perfect again! The machine originally had v3114 but I resurrected it using v3305. Checking bios shows the correct version as well.

Thanks a billion! I thought my AA1 was toast, as well as the several gigs of backup files etc on it. I haven't been this relieved over anything in a long time :)

Nov 2, 2008 11:34:00 AM

Anonymous

Thank you so so much! My friend made a joke by forced shutdown my AAo150. Then, I opened my AAO150 and tested all major component.... So frustrating...

Thank you indeed!

Nov 2, 2008 12:15:00 PM

Anonymous

Recuperado a la primera!
I writing this post from my "resucitado" -re-alived- aspire one.
This is the sequence in my case:
1.-Verbatim usb Stick 2Gb, formatted in FAT
2.-Bios file zg5ia32.fd in the root
3.-flashit.exe file in the root
4.-Usb device plugged in the right-back usb port
5.-Fn+esc and then, press power.
6.-When power starts blink, release Fn+Esc
7.-Inmediatly,usb light blinks
8.-When usb light stops blink, press power once
9.-10-20 emotion seconds...
10.-....and AA1 restarts...is live !

This is little different that the tutorial, i have waited that the light of the usb drive stops, prior to press power once.

Very thanks !

Gracias desde Barcelona, Spain !

Xavi

Nov 2, 2008 7:33:00 PM

Anonymous

Unbelievable!! Thank you very much. Worked like a charm.

ET

Nov 3, 2008 5:14:00 AM

Anonymous

Thank You !!!!!

I had my Acer for a little more than a month when it just stopped working. It sat for about another month non-functional until I happened upon this post and followed your instructions. It worked !!! I had re-formatted my drive and installed Vista Ultimate Lite and was afraid that had done something to my computer but it works great now.
I cannot believe the number of people here that has had the same problem.

Thanks again....

Michael
Atlanta, GA USA

Nov 3, 2008 11:29:00 PM

Thomas

Thank You So Much.
Tried contacting Acer when my computer would not boot and they were not helpful at all.
Their phone system kept hanging up on me for over a week and then i found your info.

IT WORKED THE FIRST TIME, AND IN ONLY A FEW MOMENTS I was back up and running again.

Nov 4, 2008 5:13:00 AM

sahaskatta

I've got the AA1 with win XP and a 160GB HDD. I was trying to upgrade the bios and something went wrong. If i hit the power button all that happens is the fan turns on and the power button begins to flash. The HDD doesn't kick in and the screen never turns on.

I created a FAT usb flash drive and copied the mentioned files over. After booting with FN+ESC pressed the flash drive doesn't even get accessed at all. I know this because the flash drive light never blinks... The laptop power button just continues to blink. Any suggestions on getting this fixed?!? Any help would be appreciated!

Nov 4, 2008 5:52:00 AM

Anonymous

...another brick recovered.
THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nov 5, 2008 1:44:00 AM

Anonymous

Hi... can i put my own files on subfolders on this usb drive, or must i dedicate a usb drive just for the bios file and the flasher?

Nov 6, 2008 7:24:00 AM

Anonymous

Thanks.. I got my machine to be up in just minutes :)

Ches
Singapore

Nov 6, 2008 9:11:00 AM

Jari

THANK YOU! This blog really saved my day :)

I tried to update bios to 3305 and something went wrong. Not booting after flash was completed. Tried to use instructions above, but it did not work with the latest BIOS version. I guess the reason was the fact that the newest one failed.

I used the previous BIOS version 3304 and now AA1 rocks again :)

YaCCo
Kuwait

Nov 6, 2008 8:23:00 PM

Mugen

Thought my AA1 was dead. Was about to send to RMA, until i found this post. Followed your instructions and it just worked, I have to say thanks, you saved my AA1.

Nov 7, 2008 7:01:00 AM

Phillip

Macles you are a star, this was my second machine, the first went the same way, I was starting to think this was a seriously flawed device and was going to get my money back and buy a EEEPC.

Nov 7, 2008 9:29:00 AM

Hagen Schloemer

i have the same problem like sahaskatta. Is it possible that not all usb-sticks can be used for recovery? Must the usb-sticke be bootable?

Nov 7, 2008 7:22:00 PM

Milen Hristov(Bulgaria)

THANK YOU SO MUCH, you saved my laptop tytytytytyty

Nov 7, 2008 9:49:00 PM

Charlie

Macles - you are the master! After my fiddling with it, Ubuntu, XP - just can't resist playing with a new toy, my 3 days old 150 was a shiny Blue Brick. No disk lights and a black screen. The file rename confused me at first, so I tried it with the downloaded BIOS file name and - surprise, surprise it did not work. Following your instructions, and renaming the BIOS (version 3114) file EXACTLY as you said brought the Blue Brick back to life.
Many, many thanks

Nov 8, 2008 12:06:00 PM

Anonymous

cheers matey

Nov 8, 2008 12:25:00 PM

Omar

Thank you so much, thank you very much.

you've saved my AA1 and me.

Nov 8, 2008 5:58:00 PM

Anonymous

Took my AA1 back to Currys, as recomended in warranty, they weren't interested. Phoned Acer, they said as it sounds like a software problem it's my problem. Wikipedia routed me here and at last, after a week I've managed to fix it with your excelent instructions. Many many thanks.
Peter

Nov 8, 2008 10:04:00 PM

Anonymous

AMIGO I FEEL LIKE I HAVE TO GIVE YOU 300 EUROS.....YOU SAVE MY AAO MANY THANKS LAKIS FROM GREECE

Nov 9, 2008 3:42:00 AM

Anonymous

Thanks a lot for the post. You save my AA1, my money, my time....
Have reported to Acer service center, they said that it is bios problem and it tates 5 working days to solve the problem...then I imagine 5 days without my lovely laptop???

THANKS AGAIN MY FRIEND...FROM AW

Nov 9, 2008 10:41:00 AM

Anonymous

THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU <3 ;)

Nov 9, 2008 6:33:00 PM

Anonymous

Thank you so very much, you saved me a trip and headache to BESTBUY. After a reboot from XP PRO, all that there was is a black screen, no activity, then after a quick search I came here. Seems to be a common problem in these ONEs. God bless you

Nov 9, 2008 8:30:00 PM

Anonymous

hi,i bought an aspire one net book.but now it`s not working.only the acer empowering screen displayed.When i press the f2 or f12 keys it shows please wait and remains the same.Kindly advice...

Nov 11, 2008 4:52:00 AM

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