Hello,
Searching for possible solutions to a problem that I am having. I purchased an ACER Aspire One in Dec. 2008. I did the memory upgrade to 1.5 GB and it has been running great. However, this past weekend my aspire one began to display error messages. It begins to boot and reports a windows error. The "R" option will not repair the problem. When the R option is selected it shuts down. I try to boot to an external CD-ROM and it shuts down. I enter bios and try to set the boot options and it shuts down. I have removed the battery and the same problems occur.
If you face the laptop, lift it up and on the left hand side towards the battery there is a vent (not the large vent that stretches across the front). This is where I tapped it and it worked. Have to say though I needed to give it more than just a gentle tap before it started working. Nevertheless I am amazed that this worked. I though it was going to be off to the repair workshop for a few weeks.
Unbelievable...me too....just had the same problem on my nieces unit, had already flashed the BIOS but no joy....three taps on the fan grating and bingo !!...thanks
Really, I was a mere 20 seconds away from smashing my Acer Aspire One to smithereens after finding out that not only had it "died" but that it was one day out of warranty. I attempted the BIOS restore - nothing. And as sceptical as I was about tapping the underside of a netbook to get it working...I tried and it WORKED! Thanks peeps and housies, you just saved me a whole lot of casharoo!
+1 for the tapping the fan trick. My Acer netbook would shut down during the boot process before it got into windows. I thought it could be a bad hard drive, but it did the same thing while in the system bios. I did a search online and stumbled on this thread. I turned the Acer on and started tapping on the bottom and it started right up. Thank you for figuring this out for me.
I bought one today and the thing closed down after 30 seconds. The tap on the bottom trick did it though. Let's hope it keeps that way. Slightly worrying that this is happening though as it doesn't inspire confidence in the build quality
My wife's Aspire 1 kept shutting down on start up. I noticed the battery light was yellow, not the usual green. I borrowed our daughter-in-law's ACER power supply for a laptop (same interface but bigger power supply). It booted right up with the larger power supply.
After about 10 minutes, the yellow battery turned green. I swithed the power supply back to it's original smaller supply and the laptop worked fine. After about 20 mintes of charging (while on), I was able to cycle the power on the netbook and it worked fine.
It appears the ACER Aspire 1 netbook does not want to boot up if the battery is too weak. The larger rated power supply apparently had more power to spare for booting up. The power supply that comes with the Aspire 1 netbook must be a bit on the weak side. It is best to plan ahead and keep the battery charge or get a bigger supply (use one from a larger ACER laptop).
My Acer Aspire One was just a couple of months out of warranty when it would shut down right after Windows boot-up. I tried the "tapping-the-fan" trick, and it worked! Thank you for posting this! I almost gave up because I didn't want to pay to ship it to the Acer service center.
My fan is a little louder now then usual but I think its really funny, I encountered the same problem and it works now after tapping, I sersiouly thought my laptop was damaged
completely crazy. This was happening to my Acer One, and the tap sorted it! This is almost as good as when I wouldn't start at all and followed the BIOS flush to rectify a completely non-starting machine. Ah this machine is a bit like an old mini, complete pain when it won't start, but on the whole is reliable and is a great little netbook for 99% of the time
omg the three taps idea was great. worked for me(y) I am so happy! I had my assignments and lab due on the same day and my compture just wonnt stay on for more than 30 secs. its happily working now (been working for the last 10 mins:P)
thank you very much
really appreciate it
I have that laptop and I hate to say this but when mine did that it was a hardrive failure. Luckily I found someone who could copy my busted harddrive onto a new one for 170.
Oh my gosh, it worked!!!! I was about ready to throw the computer in the trash. I was so upset in frustrated. I will admit I hit it pretty hard about 8-10 times and the fan didn't come on. I was about to give up. Then, it just came on! OMG! Thanks You So Much!!!
thanks everyone I cannot belive it worked but hitting if fairly hard made it work again I am so happy. I didn't lose all my pics and wrighting, now to back it up onto my flash drive.
I am bookmarking this website btw
Dudes,
I have been reading these forums for the whole weekend about the shutdown problem with the Acer Aspire One AOA150.
Tried all the solutions, including taking the netbook apart, and nothing worked.
FINALLY I GOT THE SOLUTION THAT WORKED FOR ME!!!! :-)
Basically it is the CPU overheating. I think whatever controls when the cooling fan switches on does not do its job with the latest BIOS update (Which IS needed to get the battery to charge).
I installed: Acer Aspire One (AA1) Fan Control for Windows XP/Vista.
Here was my solution. I replaced the harddrive and it worked. It appears that I had corrputed windows files that could not be repaired by windows. I had already opened my case to upgrade the menory so I didnot have a warranty issue. I found all drivers at the ACER website.
While this was an extreme measure, it was my only option.
Same problem. One fine morning, the netbook just started shutting itself off after 20-30s.
It appears that the previous night, it had fallen down on the carpet and for some reason the fan had stopped working. I realized it as I couldn't hear the hissing sound when I booted.
After trying several things and scouting on the net for answers, I gently tapped the netbook around where the fan is and booted again. This time, I could hear the fan hiss. The netbook works just like before now!
Bottomline: It can be the fan problem. Hope this helps.
I've been using the aspire one instead of my big laptop since this is so portable. The yesterday I had teh exact problem you all described. I would turn it on... it would boot up... get into windows for maybe 5-10 seconds and turn it self off. I must have tried this about a half dozen times. Then I finally gave up.
I removed the battery, and left it out for about 15 hours.
Then when I put it back in, the laptop booted up fine.
I don't know if this is coincidence, but it may be worth trying.
I had the exact problem and the same fixed it for me... I took the battery out, booted the laptop and then put the battery back in while the OS was running. Seems fine now.
Dude,
Same problem as above.
I spent the weekend without my netbook working.
I got back home.
Read this forum.
And tapped the bottom of the computer ... the fan started running and it boots!!!
And this is after trying the flash bios thing!!!
Same situation. Great advice. Started working after I gently tapped the bottom around the fan area, fan starting making noise and it started properly and stayed on.
tapping the bottom helped (after taking the computer out of its protective case). Also check for cat/dog/people hairs around the air intake (below the front of the computer). Hard to think a dog hair would stop a fan (the fan must be extremely flimsy), but clearing the area of hair seemed to help.
There's a utility called a1fancontrol which lets you set temps when the fan comes on and turns off, also shows you CPU temp. 100 degrees C in the first 20 seconds seems quite unusual.
I read your comments about tapping the fan and had a good chuckle. My Aspire One's battery won't charge, and I started phoning around for prices. Until I read the forum. With great flourish and still laughing, I tapped the button as you guys said .... AND MY BATTERY STARTED CHARGING. I couldn't believe my eyes. I am still laughing, but with admiration and in utter astonishment! This is the best advice I had in ... maybe ever! THANK YOU!!!!
Thanks very much for the info. My wife's Acer was playing up over the week-end and I was just about to take it back to the shop and kick off. I tried the "three taps" and it's now working fine again. Thanks again.
When I first read about this tapping method I didn't believe it would make any difference. After long 30 minutes of tweaking with BIOS I finally tapped it and now my netbook is as good as new. Thank you :)
I thought this tapping thing is the biggest prank and a waste of my time searching for a remedy for my dying netbook after 20 seconds of turning it on. But I gave it a try, and it's working! Thank you so much :D
wow. found the old Bios re-flash thread. tried that trick over and over for almost an hour. then found this thread after more seaching since still nothing worked. tapped the thing on the bottom for a few seconds, and NOW IT WORKS.
i can't believe it.
Hello,
My Acer was in a computer backpack that I placed on the table when suddenly it fell to the floor with the netbook side landing first on the tile floor. After that I could not get the netbook to make it into windows. When I pess the power button is was 34 to 35 seconds running then shut off. At first I though I killed the hard drive then I notied it did the same thing when I hit F2 to run the BIOS exactly 35 second from the time I hit the power button go into the BIOS then turn off.
I did the tip you guys mentioned here by tapping on the button where the fan is located and DAM it is working now. Thanx I thought I just kill the thing I love most. Just don't tell my wife. :-)
G}{ost
praise the lord !
this actually worked LMAO
it got messed up as I was trying to take to fighting people apart. my laptop bag broke.
so I thought this was going to turn out to be a very nasty thing for me. and all I did was showing people to be in christmas spirit :(
i started looking for answers and first thing I stumbled on was this thread..
thank you so much as this saves me a lot of pain in the you-know-where and some other parts-from-behind
