Acer Aspire One shut down issue « The Acer Guy Forum

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Acer Aspire One shut down issue

(88 posts)

Started 3 years ago by Cal5
Latest reply from dreadlord

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Posted by: Cal5
Member

Hi,

I have an Acer Aspire One (Windows XP) which shuts down on me after I log in to Windows.

The laptop boots up as per normal but after showing the desktop from between 10 seconds to 1 minute it just turns itself off.

I have tried booting it up in safe mode but it still turns off after I get passed logging in and on to the desktop screen.

I have had the computer for 2 months but have only experienced this problem in the last few days.

The only change I have recently made is to install Skype. May this be the problem?

Anyone with any advice/help would be appreciated.

Regards,
Cal.

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: TechieDiva
Moderator

try going to safe mode by pressing F8 before windows boots. if it works here, then you do indeed have a software issue.

however, it sounds like it might be overheating. does the fan seem unusually loud? if so try blowing some compressed air in the vents on the left.

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: Peter
Moderator

Be careful when using compressed air. You can overblow the fans causing them to spin faster than they were designed to spin and damage them.

I have also seen spyware initiate auto-shutdown on computers before. Use a few programs like, Avira, Spybot Search and Destroy, Advanced Windows Care to do a sweep of your system for malware. Use multiple programs to ensure you've gotten it all. (Just don't have more than one active at a time as they can interfere with each other)

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: blacky
Member

I'm having the same problem with my Aspire One. Safe mode doesn't help. It shuts off within 30 seconds to a minute - regardless of whether it gets fully booted or not. I've had mine a little over a month now.

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: blacky
Member

OK, It is working now again. I don't know why...
This is what I did:

First, I unhooked the battery and the power cord.
Then I held the power button for 20 seconds.
Then I plugged in the power cord without the battery and turned it on... but it just shut off again as usual right after it booted up.
Then I put the battery back in and left the power cord plugged in. When I turned it on this time it stayed running. It has been going now for about 15 minutes with no problems.

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: Cal5
Member

Thanks Blacky.

I tried your method and got slightly longer (2-3 mins) before it again shut-down.

Is yours working fine now?

Regards,

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: Skipuppy
Member

Well folks, there is a third Acer Aspire One that starts up and shuts down in about 30 seconds. I got mine in November and had no problem until 1/5/09 when I tried to turn it on and nothing happened. I called tech support and they asked me to send it in for service which I did. On 1/13/09 I got it back they said they had re-flashed the bios and it was fine. When I tried to use it - I had had the disk drive erased before sending it in so I went into Bios and was looking around when it just shut down. I tried with the battery in and no AC and I tried with AC and no battery and I tried with both the battery and the AC and it would just start up and then shut down in about 30 seconds. For what it is worth the machiine is a 160GB, White, 1GB RAM, 6-cell battery version with XP. Anyway on the 13th I got it back and called to say it was still broken and they told me to send it in again, which I did. Today, 1/27/09 I got it back and they said they reloaded the system on it and checked it and it was fine. I tunred it on and it started to load windows and as the little startup song was playing it shut down. Again I tried with just the AC, just the battery and both and still it shut down. So I called again and took it over to FedEX this afternoon and sent it in with my AC adapter and my battery.

I have to believe that since I had erased my boot partition - filling with 0's, 1's, etc it isn't a virus. Also it happens if you just go into Bios without booting the system.
I also don't think it is really 'broken' since it turns on and boots but then shuts down. I think there must be some kind of power or thermal circuit breaker type action happening. Based on finding three machines having the problem on this board I have to say that it is likely that there are many others out there that just haven't found this site yet and I have to conclude that the problem is some kind of harware issue, most likely, in my mind, a power handling issue on the mother board.

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: fckacer
Member

I spoke to acer for 4 hours today. I got hung up on once and the other 3 were not able to do anything but say to send it in again.
I sent it in once with the same problem and my wireless was working on and off.
They apparently fixed the wireless, not sure how because the computer does not even turn on for long enough to fully load windows.
They said they fix it and they completely ignored the powering off issue on the report.
I am sending it in again tomorrow.
What a waste of money
ps. mine does not stay on for longer than 10 seconds

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: fckacer
Member

oh i forgot - they are willing to get purolator to pick it up - no cost!

fckacer

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: darrenp
Member

I am having exactly the same problem (now using the wife's computer Samsung NC10). The Acer just jkeeps switching off shortly after booting up. Has anyone actually found a solutiuon to this?

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: Andei
Member

I have a computer on my work bench right now that is an Acer Veriton M460 which is having the same shut down issues. It does run in safe mode for a couple of hours, but normal mode opens up and shuts off within a few seconds.
I tried running a chkdsk on it to check for drive errors, but both times I tried it would not allow it. This may be drive related. However, I put this drive on my work computer and did the error check and it found no errors.
What is this? Planned failure?
Does anyone have a solution? I hate to reload this if the problem is the motherboard and not windows.

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: kamaleon22
Member

I had the same problem and did what blacky said he did. I did the exact same thing he did and the little laptop works now. It does not turn off. Thanks blaky

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: fraidso
Member

I can't believe it. Brand new, out-of-the box acer aspire one shuts down in 30-60 seconds.

Tried it with and without battery, plugged and unplugged.

It shuts down even if i wait it out in the bios screen.

What can i do? I can't risk trying to flash the bios because it doesn't stay on that long.

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: Peter
Moderator

I can't say that I know of any netbook having this issue in my area. That goes for Acer and other brands. They've been fairly solid units. (all except HP's via based netbook which is no longer in production)

You should be able to get a new one, either from the retailer, or from Acer.

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: Hagglegirl
Member

I am having the same problem with the Aspire Netbook I bought 3 weeks ago. I am going to try blacky's fix... I'll let you know.

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: Skipuppy
Member

I got my Acer back from service today and it is now working fine. They replaced the hard drive and that seems to have fixed the problem.

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: alvin
Member

thank god i found some people with the same issue. mine lasts anywhere around 1 minute or less, then shuts down. i tried blacky's fix to no avail. I've installed a touchscreen kit, so my warranty is void -_-

seems like a hard drive replacement would do the trick?

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: Russ
Member

I'm having the same problem with a literally brand new out-of-the-box Aspire One. Tried Blacky's solution to no avail. It's been 12 hours and nothing heard from Acer online tech support. I'll probably be returning the unit. Undecided whether to seek refund or exchange.

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: alvin
Member

I went on the aspireoneuser.com forum last night and they suggested something slightly different, or I just misinterpreted what was said on here.

1. Unplug AC
2. Unplug battery
3. Hold power for 20 secs
4. Plug in AC (no battery)
5. Power on
6. Wait a couple seconds so you know it's booting, then plug in the battery

A step 7 that I also did was to instantly run a bunch of applications to just keep the system active as hell. I have no idea if this last step made the difference, but I'm back in business!
Rebooted about 3-5 times now without any unexpected shutdowns so far.

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: yellow109
Member

I have same problem.

I receive from Acer support, the same instruction.

But nothing change.

I have compared with an other aspire one, and I discover the fan does'nt work.
The fault netbook is make no fan noise.

The problem is the CPU get hot, and the netbook shutdown for security.

Sent to the compagny for repair. I don't try to open hit.

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: MavisPuford
Member

I have the same problem. My Aspire One with 1GB RAM and 160GB worked perfectly fine the other day at school. I didn't expose it to any extreme heat or cold, didn't drop it or anything. Now when I try to boot it up, it will turn off within 30 seconds or so no matter where it is. If it sits in the BIOS settings, if it's booting windows etc.

I have tried the battery removal tip and have had no success. I removed it, held the power button for 30 seconds, I even tried tapping it like a madman. Nope. When I plug the AC in, it powers off while booting.

This is really frustrating because I have only had this thing for a few weeks now. I have made no hardware modifications. All I did was create a new partition and install Windows 7 on it. It's most definitely a hardware issue though. I don't wanna take it apart and I don't want to send it in, but I might just have to...

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: Peter
Moderator

I would advise everyone to try a static reset. You have to remove your hard drive, ram, and battery and NOT have the AC adapter plugged in to do so. Once all components listed are remove hold down your power button for 60 seconds. That solved the issue with a customer I had.

Posted 3 years ago #
Posted by: MavisPuford
Member

Thanks for the reply Peter. I would love to do that but I am scared of voiding my warranty. After some observations, I've noticed that my fan doesn't seem to be spinning. To double check, I put the Aspire One in it's case (a tight, zip-up case), then tied it real tight in a grocery bag, and put it in the freezer for five or ten minutes. Then, when I powered it on, it lasted a lot longer than before and then shut off. It's definitely a ventilation/heating problem.

Posted 2 years ago #
Posted by: Peter
Moderator

If the fan isn't spinning then you've got to get on the phone and call ACER and get it fixed!

Posted 2 years ago #
Posted by: jby601
Member

Definitely the fan in my case. Brand new machine, did exactly as others have described - turning itself off after about 30 sec. I began trying to take the case apart, luckily for the warranty I failed, but when all was reassembled there was a whirring noise that had not been there before - and it stayed on!

Posted 2 years ago #
Posted by: snapsix
Member

I run into this same problem after i updated a new bios version. I had no problems with my old bios (v.3305) but after updating to newest (v.3309) this shutdown problem started to occur. It didn't matter if i went to bios (F2 right on startup) it still shut down. Another thing i noticed was the fan was very loud compared to older bios.

I managed to get my notebook running after i unplugged the AC power and used it only battery powered. I downloaded the older bios version (v.3305) from:

ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/netbook/

and with the help of windows flasher (Insydeflasher.exe) that came with the newer bios (v.3309) i managed to downgrade my bios to the previous state. I had to plug the AC cord back before it started flashing. Luckily it didn't shut down during the process.

Now everything is back to normal. Fan is not loud anymore either.

This solution worked for me but may not be the right solution for you. I don't recommend you to try this if you don't know what you are doing hence failed bios update will usually turn your computer into a paperweight.

- Mikko

Posted 2 years ago #
Posted by: snapsix
Member

I forgot to mention - if you want to check your system bios version you can do it by pressing F2 right after power on. It's somewhere in the middle of the bios front page. You have time to check it even if this problem occurs on your computer.

- Mikko

Posted 2 years ago #
Posted by: lawschoolmama
Member

I am taking the bar exam next week, and purchased my Aspire one for this purpose. TOnight I turned it on, and it shut down right away. I am glad I found this thread, but now what do I do? The examsoft software I am supposed to use next week will only let me use this computer. Does anyone have anymore info about fixing this? My fan is not going on!! HELP!!!!

Posted 2 years ago #
Posted by: Peter
Moderator

There are instructions on how to flash your bios on the acer website. There is a link in an above post to acer's website where you can download the bios that fixed the posters problem.

Posted 2 years ago #
Posted by: tripzero
Member

I had this problem out of the box (30s then would shutdown). I tried the battery removal/ 20s power hold thing with no success.

I ended up flashing the bios with 3309 located on acer's website. The bios it came with was version 3305. I followed this to flash the bios:

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

Hope it works for everyone else too.

Posted 2 years ago #