How to Fix Your Acer Aspire One Netbook if it Does Not Power On or Display Anything

I’m sure a lot of you have run into problems with the Acer Aspire Netbooks. I’ve personally now seen 6 of the Acer Aspire Ones develop a problem where they will light up their little LEDS but nothing will come on the screen. So far I’ve sent these units to Acer for repairs. But I think I’ve found the solution.

Acting on a hunch that this was a BIOS corruption I searched the net and found this helpful tidbit:

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.

I have not tried this yet but I’ve decided to post it on the site so that I can update this post as soon as I try it out. If anyone gets a chance to try this please comment below.

Source: http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/08/acer-aspire-one-bios-recovery.html

61 thoughts on “How to Fix Your Acer Aspire One Netbook if it Does Not Power On or Display Anything

  1. Wow! This worked great. I was about to chuck this unit after searching for weeks for a solution. Glad I stumbled onto this. Thanks a lot!

  2. HI All… I did exactly what was instructed above now my Acer One ZG5 is a brick. It will not charge, light up, start, nothing. Did I fry my motherboard?

  3. Hello,

    I have an problem in Acer Travelmate 5730,that is when I run laptop more than 15 minutes and stop,after that if I want to run again immediately after the shutdown ,when press on power button laptop not run but show yellow LED flashing.After about 10 mins if again press power button laptop run without any problem .Please help me about that problem.

    Your valuable opinion will be highly appreciate.

  4. i did all the steps and tried 2 different flash drives… neither of my power lights flicker after letting go of esc and fn… please please help!!! the light on one of the flash drives comes on when laptop does then it goes off…l

  5. hello,
    my acer aspire d250 had cooler problems and noise and i replaced the cooler with a new one
    after assembling I wasnt able to start the notebook, the power button light up and remains, the fan starts for 2 seconds and then stops, and nothing else happens, it is staying like this for too much time , black screen and so on
    i think it might be the processor
    could you give me some advice?
    thanks

  6. I followed the instructions for the flash with the usb key and it worked perfectly. God Bless you. You saved me from a lot of headaches. I thought the AOA150 was completely dead but you resurrected it. Once again, many many thanks.

  7. Thank you all very much. Especially to Lori, you are the best

    Lori Says:
    September 5th, 2011 at 2:08 pm
    Just to see, I pressed Fn and Esc for a few seconds (without the USB stick part) and it booted up again after sitting dead all day. Try this first=–very easy. No USB Bios flashing required.
    So this is what I did:
    plugged in, battery in.
    Held down FN and ESC for about ten seconds.
    Power button blinked a few times and it came back on.
    Thanks!!

  8. my acer Aspire 1 d255 got no power after re installing it with new windows 7 OS. no power at all… any solution master?

  9. my acer aspire 1 d255 got bricked after reinstalling OS. no power at all… any solution? plzzzz….

  10. I tried holding down the fun and esc and the amber flashing light turned into green light. Still won’t turn on though. It then flashes orange than green orange and green. Now when I try again it won’t turn green anymore.

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