Acer Aspire One issue.

**[wingnut]** · 11th February 2010

Won't rant on about the level of tech suport from Acer but let's say i am not happy.
The wife's AOA150 won't charge the battery and will only run on mains ac. Have googled the issues and it seems the bios it is running (V3301) is notorious for failing to charge the 6 cell batteries if they run dead. A quick bios update to (V3310) does the trick or so the forums say! Acer deny anything of the sort and say that it's the battery and I have to buy a over priced one from them! Not on your chuffing nelly mate.
So d/l latest bios, chucked that and flashit.exe on a usb drive pen, renamed the 3310.fd file to zg5ia32.fd as per intructions on acer's and several other sites. Then followed steps to flash bios and I think it works as the screen stays blank and the memory pen lights up as if data is being read but when i go back into the bios and syste, menu's they both still say the bios is 3301, so it hasn't worked.
Can anyone help? Please?

**ss30** · 11th February 2010

after the updata will it still boot to an os

**[wingnut]** · 11th February 2010

Oh yeah for sure. But I don't think it is updating that's my issue.
Not sure how to tell if it is updating aor how to get to update as I must be doing something wrong.
Currently holding fn + esc, powering up the machine, releasing power button the 5 secs later the fn + esc keys.
Should I see text on the screen or....

**maltloaf** · 11th February 2010

are you positive the battery is good ?

anyways, the aspire one forum is a great source of info, there's a load of very knowledgeable people over there. Enjoyed that when I had mine, for running osx etc.

http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/

**Doctor Who** · 11th February 2010

have you formatted the stick to fat16 - i had to use that format to get my asus netbook to see the new bios update

**koola2** · 11th February 2010

Unless the BIOS is corrupted I would not use that method to flash the BIOS. I have used it twice to fix the corrupt BIOS but it always left the BIOS version as the old number (another so called known error)
Try the method on this page to upgrade the BIOS http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/07/flashing-bios.html worked better for me.

You can check the BIOS version my entering the BIOS screen on boot and it has a version number.

Also I got a new six cell battery from eBay (via HK) which was cheap and works great can dig out the seller if you like.

**Pegasus** · 11th February 2010

Not looked at an Acer machine "in depth" for a handful of years now, but there is no way on this earth the BIOS controls the battery charging (if it did, you would have to have the machine switched on to charge the battery).

Simple rules of battery charging have always been if you let the battery run completely flat, it will NEVER recover 100% afterwards.
Newer battery technologies (eg, Li-Ion) are slowly improving on this "failing", but it is nowhere near 100% yet.
If your current battery is either Ni-Cd or Ni-MH and you have let it run properly flat, then it's all downhill for the battery from that point on I'm afraid.

**[wingnut]** · 11th February 2010

Totally agree with you Pegasus. But the following thread made me think otherwise:

Battery not charging on Acer Aspire

Dear customer,

Recently it was identified that a small number customers were experiencing a problem with the battery where it would not hold a reasonable amount of charge. We have released an update that should be applied to your computer to resolve this issue. Please complete the processes below and should you have any problems please do not hesitate to contact Acer support on 1300 365 100 or log a service request online at www.acer.com.au/helpdesk.

Thank you, Acer Support

Have now flashed my bios thanks to link a few posts above and all is good, battery is charging (Didn't at first had to drain all charge from system first by holding power button for a few minutes, but now is good.) Have also spoke to brother in law on this as he has the same model and his was sent back to Acer for an update because of the same issue.
Not sure what to make of it, but it's worked and there's no need to buy a new battery yet!

**Pegasus** · 11th February 2010

Originally Posted by [wingnut]

Totally agree with you Pegasus. But the following thread made me think otherwise:

Battery not charging on Acer Aspire

Have now flashed my bios thanks to link a few posts above and all is good, battery is charging (Didn't at first had to drain all charge from system first by holding power button for a few minutes, but now is good.) Have also spoke to brother in law on this as he has the same model and his was sent back to Acer for an update because of the same issue.
Not sure what to make of it, but it's worked and there's no need to buy a new battery yet!

Battery failing to charge, and battery failing to hold charge are 2 seperate issues Wingnut.

When the machine is powered off, the BIOS has no say whatsoever (obviously) and if the battery is good then it will charge.
Once the machine is powered on, the BIOS may very well be in charge of the show (depends on how you have it configured), and it is possible that if the BIOS is controlling the OS resources then you may very well think the battery isn't working.

**[wingnut]** · 11th February 2010

Battery failing to charge, and battery failing to hold charge are 2 seperate issues Wingnut.

Duh, I know. My issue was with the battery not charging, I google'd this and it brought me to that thread I only copied and pasted that wording in case someone wanted to see it or disputed the fact.
Again my issues is not with it holding charge, it just didn't charge period. I was aware of a potential fix based other peoples findings, hence trying to flash the bios from the one shipped with it to the latest in an effort to sort my issue without resorting to buying a new battery just yet.
My method of flash the bios was not working and the linked method works a treat. Netbook is now charging which it didn't before so all is good so far. That's not to say that in the morning I might find the battery is knackered and it isn't holding it's charge. If that's the case then a new battery it will be. Simples.
Thanks to all who contributed. Much appreciated.