The Acer Guy Forum

The Acer Guy Forum » Problem corner

1. 

   Posted by: wombat
   Member

   Hello all, here is hoping that someone can help me out here. Been given this laptop to sort out and it is putting up a fight.

   This came with a Toshiba IDE drive that appears to be failing with bad sectors etc. I've got the data off and recreated an OS disc so sorted there.

   I just put in a new Samsung 160GB drive and was a little perplexed that it doesn't show up in the (pretty sparse) BIOS at all. I updated the BIOS to the latest one on the Acer site but still no go:( Tried cable select jumpers etc.

   I've tested the Samsung with an external adaptor and it formats fine. If it isn't compatible I can put it in a caddy and use it with my MacBook at least.

   Is this laptop locked to a small selection of drives? If so can someone let me know what will work.

   Fingers crossed someone can help, many thanks.

   Karl

   Posted 1 year ago #
2. 

   Posted by: TechieDiva
   Moderator

   old unit, might be running into 48bit LBA issues. try a drive 120GB or smaller.

   also check for jumper setting to limit capacity on your 160GB drive.

   Posted 1 year ago #
3. 

   Posted by: wombat
   Member

   Thanks very much for the reply. I didn't think the system was old enough to be suffering from those kind of problems, I guess things are a little more conservative in the laptop world. Actually thinking about it logically, about then 80-120GB was about the largest drive available.

   I have had an email from Acer now hinting that it might not support 160GB, though not exactly confirming it!

   I'll use the drive myself and source a smaller one (alas don't think there is a jumper setting on this one, I'll check as soon as I am home).

   Thanks again for your help.

   Karl

   Posted 1 year ago #
4. 

   Posted by: zs
   Member

   Hi everyone!

   I have similar problem with my Aspire 1641. I know that my machine is an old fellow but still I bought a new 120GB Samsung IDE HDD in order to replace the factory WD which has bad sectors by now.

   The BIOS does not recognize the HDD despite being only 120GB one. The BIOS does not give an option of manual detection.

   I saw some similar cases but no solution.
   Do you have any idea?

   Thank you in advance!

   zs

   Posted 1 year ago #
5. 

   Posted by: MarcM
   Member

   I have jost solved this problem after about 1 week of frustration trying to fix my nephew's old 1640 Acer Aspire laptop, and it's really simple..

   I found a link here: http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/hardware/3884709-acer-laptop-not-detecting-new-hard-drive.html

   basically, get the new Bios here(not found anywhere on the Acer support site): ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_1640/bios/
   Instal the flash Bios program and flash your Bios to this version, and hey presto.. the laptop suddenly recognises the new Samsung 160GB HDD and I'm busy re-installing XP...
   HTH
   marc

   Posted 1 year ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.