Acer Aspire One BIOS 3305

October 2, 2008

You can download it here, release notes are included. As the minor version bump already suggests there are only a few changes. Two of them are battery calibration related, the other one is a fix for the crisis mode which refers to the BIOS recovery routine as described here.

If you have not already prepared a bootable USB stick read how to do so here.

The BIOS is now also available from Acer Japan here. It's only the BIOS file with no tools to actually flash it. Instead Acer Japan uploaded a tool to flash the BIOS from within Windows, available here. It's official so it's probably safe to use.

Acer Taiwan put the BIOS online now as well, available here.

And finally the BIOS has been uploaded to their european server. There is actually a text file included which recommends to flash the BIOS from DOS via a bootable USB stick.

OneHead

You are our hero, macles* !
If you have some inside track with Acer, *please* ask them to put back the dimmer backlight values .... it's too bright, kills my battery and the only option I have is to revert to a BIOS that bricks the machine every few days :-(

Oct 2, 2008 11:33:00 PM

tomasblas

Thank you for the update! It has not been released yet in the Acer site, even in Taiwan!

As the improvements were mainly about battery levels, I hoped it will solve but problem but unfortunately it doesn't. My AA1 freezes and the screen goes black when the battery is below 20%. No problem while wired.

Do you think this issue will be solved with future BIOS upgrades or do I send my AA1 to the technical service?

Thank you again!

Oct 3, 2008 10:59:00 AM

Anonymous

If you REALLY have some inside track with Acer ask them to add the ability to disable the onboard memory

Oct 4, 2008 1:39:00 AM

Arth

Yo actulize el Bios de mi Acer Aspire One con el nuevo Bios v3.305 y la netbook funciona de maravilla, la pantalla no parpadea cuando la utilizas unicamente con bateria, y el ventilador hace menos ruido, funciona de manera mas suave, en general la computadora se siente notoriamente mas veloz.

Oct 4, 2008 6:24:00 PM

Anonymous

arth wat zeg je nou
ken er geen ruk van lese

Oct 5, 2008 3:25:00 AM

dongxw

Can you upload the new bios file to another website?
I cannot download it from blogspot completely.
Thanks.

Oct 5, 2008 5:21:00 AM

Anonymous

I got problem on hibernate in winxp so I flash back to 3304 everything work fine.

Oct 6, 2008 2:14:00 AM

tomasblas

Hi!
I updated to 3.305 last Friday and today my computer switchs off around 35 seconds after I turn it on. It happens in any case: if I don't insert the BIOS password, if I access BIOS, if I stay in the grub screen, if I start Linpus or if I start Ubuntu.
I am afraid of using the restore BIOS procedure because I think it will shut off during the flashing process.
What do you recommmend??

Oct 6, 2008 7:27:00 PM

Is the fan running? The AA1 turns itself off to prevent overheating after about 30-60 seconds if the fan is not working or disconnected.

Oct 6, 2008 7:44:00 PM

Anonymous

Does this BIOS correct the issue of the blank or black screen after the battery drops to 20-30% remaining?

Oct 8, 2008 3:12:00 AM

Anonymous

With this BIOS I managed to get to 9% battery left before the black screen occured (Linpus). With 3.304 the black screen occured about 30%. So it is not solved here, but a bit better.

Oct 8, 2008 1:40:00 PM

Chuck

my aa is alive again.
macles... i love you.
you can marry my sister.

Oct 17, 2008 12:07:00 AM

Paco Rivière

Since yesterday it is official here: ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_one_110/bios/

Oct 18, 2008 2:36:00 PM

Anonymous

Macles...you are the hero of the Linux uninitiated! I have tried everything you have said and has worked extremely well apart from reflashing my BIOS where obviously I am doing something hideously wrong. I have done the UNetbootin no probs. When I reboot pressing F12, however, I get 3 options (No.2 is to boot from the USB which I am trying). There is no option 5 available at that stage...am I right?
Then it shows Loading /ubnkern.... and then Loading /ubninit.... where it hangs
Please, OH GURU!, what am I doing wrong? As you can imagine I am a total idiot with Linux

Oct 25, 2008 11:06:00 AM

Anonymous

"Then it shows Loading /ubnkern.... and then Loading /ubninit.... where it hangs"

Had the same problem using an old USB-stick. Tried a new one and it worked fine. If you have another USB-stick available it could be worth trying?

Oct 25, 2008 11:03:00 PM

Anonymous

Thanks anon...in the end I used my windows based pc to copy on the USB all the necessary files and then when I used that on the aspire, it worked a treat.

Oct 26, 2008 6:53:00 PM

Anonymous

I used BIOS version 3.304, and my AAO1 still works until I shut down the computer on 12 % battery status.

Oct 27, 2008 9:56:00 AM

sparky

I have tried all the above and used 3 usbs to try and update bios get to option 5 then try and change to c but it states does not exist or any other letter for that matter when I select option 5 what do I then have to do. New to linux but had done everything else on this site and it all worked perfectly even upgraded to 1.5gb ram Please help

Oct 28, 2008 6:53:00 PM

elmimmo

Am I the only one getting the "No CD-ROM drive to use; XCDROM not loaded" message, and having the computer stalled?

Nov 2, 2008 3:07:00 PM

Anonymous

So there is no BIOS update for Linux users?

Nov 4, 2008 4:38:00 AM

Anonymous

BIOS is independent of OS.

But how exactly do you do this? My guess is booting from usb and typing the filename #. Is this correct?

Nov 5, 2008 12:39:00 AM

Anonymous

So far I have gotten 3305 file and renamed it to "3305.fd".
Loaded unitbootin on a FAT usb stick.
Booted alternate and selected USB stick.
Now in FreeDOS I have 5 options but am not sure which to choose.

AA1 linpus version.

Nov 5, 2008 12:47:00 AM

Same guy as last two

OK Ive chosen 1 and it seemed to work.
Here I entered "C:" and then "DIR" to see the files.
I see the 3305 file and a few others. How do I access that file using DOS command?
Thanks

Nov 5, 2008 12:58:00 AM

Anonymous

Two months old AA1 WinXp 120GB 6 cell batt user from Hong Kong. Previously used bios 3114. Encountered blank screens several times. Hard reboot solves the problem. Flashed it last weekend with Winflash to 3305. Blank screen appeared twice already. New bios doesn't solve the problem.

Nov 11, 2008 3:00:00 PM

tommy

Can you please please help me..

i have one of those aspire one netbooks and after just one week it now cant boot because of a missing hal.dll file
and since i didnt get a cd without (not that i would be able to use it) i cant do anything

i tried network boot
i tried flashing the bios to 3307 (wich i think worked)

but it still missing the hal.dll file

please please help me

fliprip@hotmail.com

Nov 17, 2008 5:38:00 PM

Anonymous

Tommy. Use the menu option to restore your os..

Nov 19, 2008 12:04:00 AM

Anonymous

I had a problem with the blank screen issue when the battery level got below around 58%. Turns out it was a software issue. I uninstalled the Kpowersave utility using the package manager (search for Hacking the Acer Aspire One), then if you reinstall it you get a new updated version which seems to have fixed the problem.

Dec 11, 2008 1:53:00 PM

Anonymous

finally after hours , i did it. just read and understand each step....100% work. make sure rename the bios file and put on the root flash drive. if flash drive just blingking 3-5 sec only means something not right in the flash drive. if you put right file flash drive will blinking about 15 sec and will reboot automaticlly.

Dec 20, 2008 11:35:00 PM

Anonymous

thanxs maccles for your advice regarding bios recovery,it did'nt work first time but eventually i re-read the instructions and discovered i had not pressed the power button once after it starts to blink,following my correction my baby laptop sprung into life. i have now removed the ridiculous linux linpus doing a normal format and it runs like clockwork on win xp pro and is surprisingly fast.

Dec 25, 2008 11:19:00 AM

Anonymous

ok,i did the steps 5 times, still nothing. Puter just sits there with the fan on and nothing else happens after waiting 10 minutes each time.

1. puter light lights up

2. screen is black

3. insert flash drive w/all 3304 files on it and the flashlight util

4. push fn & esc key

5. push power button

6. release fn/esc key

7. push blinking power button 1 time

8.wait 10 min - NOTHING happens

Does anyone know of what I might be doing wrong?

Jan 1, 2009 6:34:00 AM

Anonymous

Thank You
A dead machine brought back to life I was loading fedora 10 and messed up the machine it was dead apart from the fan and the green light.Your bios solution
fixed it
Just a word of thanks
All the best
Brian
(Ireland)

Jan 3, 2009 1:51:00 AM

Anonymous

Thank You!!!!
followed your link on another website
revived my netbook
saved me from sending it back

Jan 4, 2009 4:42:00 PM

Anonymous

"Then it shows Loading /ubnkern.... and then Loading /ubninit.... where it hangs"

I was having this problem and have managed to get around it. I tried a number of things but the one that seemed to do the trick was to use syslinux with the -s argument which according to the syslinux website does a "safe, slow stupid" boot.

First, I installed the syslinux package:

sudo yum install syslinux

Then I used unetbootin as usual to install freedos on my usb stick.

Finally, I ran:

syslinux -s /dev/sdb1

If you do this then take great care to ensure that /dev/sdb1 is actually your usb stick! Use df to check it. In my case it showed that /media/USBDISK was mounted on /dev/sdb1. I did a cd to /media/USBDISK and an ls to double double check.

HTH

Jan 5, 2009 11:19:00 PM

Anonymous

Oh - I'm sure people would work this out but the syslinux command above should be run under sudo.

By the way. Not sure whether this is the best place to mention it but it's probably worth mentioning another issue I encountered with unetbootin:

Don't click on any of the hyperlinks when running unetbootin under sudo. If you are lucky, you'll get a message saying that firefox is already running. However, if firefox isn't running then it'll launch a session as root. Not a big deal straight away but it has silently changed the ownership of your firefox preferences file(s) to be root. From now on whenever you launch firefox from the desktop you'll get the firefox first run screen and the default settings. To fix this use something like:

sudo chown -R user.user ~user/.mozilla

HTH

Jan 6, 2009 12:40:00 PM

Anonymous

the bios update worked fine but the blank/blank screen issue was not solved. I updated the kpowersave software and the problem is fixed!!! (ASPIRE ONE -110 LINPUS LINUX)

Jan 7, 2009 6:40:00 AM

Anonymous

I received my AA1 as a bday present from my husband last September. It died on xmas day and now I wish to thank you aMILLION for the recommendation. I followed the steps you gave and wallah my AA1 is working now. Lets see when I shut if off.

It is my wedding anniversary today and I this is my best gift for the day. I shall call ACER now to cancel collection of the unit.

Again, MACLES ... U DID A GREAT JOB!!!!!!!

from Dubai, UAE

Jan 10, 2009 8:33:00 AM

steve

Happy new year and thank you for this forum

I have a question please: my aspire one 150 linpus was sent to the acer repair center in switzerland because it was not working anymore. that was recently, dec 22 2008.

they returned it to me with a "new" bios, and when I check with the F2 key at startup, it reads now "bios version 3114"

I don't think it is the most recent, though the computer was sent back to me the very early days of january 2009

should i flash this "old" bios version for a more recent one, or is - according to your knowledge - this version 3114 "reliable" ?

I have not checked what was the very first bios version installed in the computer. Is there any way, logfile or anything to find a record inside?

Many thanks for your good work

Steve

Jan 19, 2009 9:27:00 AM

Just update to version 3305 or later to be safe. The newest version, currently 3309, usually works best.

Jan 21, 2009 3:58:00 AM

Anonymous

I have managed to get my computer up and running again, thank-you. My problem now is that I cannot "sign-in", as a result, I cannot access my files (my documents). Thoughts/suggestions?

Jan 21, 2009 10:31:00 PM

Anonymous

due to a acronis ghost backup i booted xubuntu and used cfdisk to fix my partitions. then i reboot to recover my ghost on my new partitions with usbstick. my acer went black and i thank you soo much becouse it worked to recover BIOS. i was a little bit nervous becouse this computer was brand new and waranty is lost becouse i uppgrade ram. soo thanks for everything.

Jan 24, 2009 11:51:00 PM

sadiq baig

thanks a lot
i upgraded the bios using usb card reader and sony memory card that i used to use it with cybershot dsc p-50 model , earlier my aspire one laptop was not showing bios , i mean it was only showing black screen after , i power on , now it works , thanks a lot , also i connected usb card reader on the right side 2nd usb port near headphone jack.

Jan 25, 2009 10:59:00 AM

How do i know what bios version i have?

Mar 20, 2009 4:06:00 PM

Anonymous

I've tried to do this on my machine (AA1 150 XP) but can't get it to boot. USB led blinks for a few seconds then stops. I do have the ASpire One recovery disk-is there a way I can use this to set up the USB rather than downloading the BIOS?. Thanks

Mar 23, 2009 7:39:00 PM

Anonymous

someone remember what was this program to flash your AAO available from Japan?

Piotr

May 24, 2009 1:38:00 AM

fclotet

I had updated the bios from 3305 to 3308 and my computer switches off around 35 seconds after I turn it on. It happens in any case.

The fan is working... I can hear that it is working fine... This behavior never occurs before. The only task I did was updating the BIOS without any other change and i having this wrong behavior.

Is there any issue about a bug for the new BIOS?
Do i try to downgrade to 3305?
Any suggestion?

Sep 23, 2009 3:14:00 PM