Acer Aspire One won't run on battery, only on main.

I got an Aspire One a few months ago and it worked fine. I hardly ever use it.

I brought it with my on vacation and when I went to boot it up, it wouldn't turn on. Figured the battery was dead so I put the power cord in and turned it on.

After an hour or so, I unplugged the power cable and it instantly shut off. Thought it was weird, but whatever.

I just now noticed though that the battery light blinks orange. XP says the battery is 100%, but if you unplug the AC power, it instantly shuts off and it can't be turned on without the AC.

Any ideas? Worked fine a month ago and I probably haven't even touched it since then.

 

Hmm..try to remove the battery and leave the netbook for like half an hour. Then put it back and try again. It does sound like a faulty battery though..

 

I have the same EXACT problem!! please let me know if you found a solution to your/our problem other than applying to acer for a replacement. thanks

 

My Acer is doing the same thing. I am sending my netbook to Acer to let them fix the problem. My guess is that the battery is faulty and that they may need to recall some batteries. I will keep you guys posted on what Acer says or does.

 

There have been a few reports of faulty batts on Aspireoneuser.com...

Some people have had luck with Acer expressing them a new battery, wherin they send you the new one and then you send them the old. Call and see what you can work out.

Even if it takes a week that you can't use a battery, it's better than shipping your baby off in a drab brown box...

Also, you can try flashing your BIOS with the utility provided from Acer's DL site. Newest is v3309, and has been reported by many to fix issues such as these.

Read: http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=11734

Except that you can download that file from Acer here: http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_one_150.html

Just unzip, and run the exe from within Windows. Machine will reboot, and you should be good to go.

 

I am running Linux and have the same problem and did what was said above and it dont work?

 

The power jack are also used as a mechanic switch , about setting the proper power source .

If the power jack got misused even ones , the damage to it , its permanent .

What i am trying to say are , that in the scale of importance ...
The power jack comes first , and the condition of the battery second.

 

Batteries can die if they are left in the laptop for a long time without charging. Some drain from the battery will take place and can put the battery into a deep discharge and it can 'forget' how to charge.
Most modern batteries cope will with being topped up very regularly and can also cope with full discahrge and recharge cycles. Some manufactures will recommend a particular approach, but generally draining a battery very deeply will result in failure to charge. Sometimes this can be rescued, but sometimes it cannot.

 

hi! i had the same problem. dead battery! i own an acer aspire one A110 with linux installed. when i powered up using the power cable, power management in the OS (linux in my case) showed battery power 100% charged. confusing? you bet! the laptop was telling me that the battery was fully charged but when i tried to start up using the battery - nothing! i tried charging the battery without turning the machine on (just plugged in to the mains using the power cable and left it for a few hours). the little battery indicator kept blinking red but nothing happened, the battery didn't charge up. i took the battery in and out and tried again umpteen times. nothing!
then i noticed something - when you pop the battery in and out of the pc there are two clips at each end that lock the battery in place - i hadn't ever thought about locking the clips in place. i thought the battery kind of clicked in to place and the locks clicked in to position automatically - they don't! (bad design detail if you ask me). if you lock the battery in place with the clips then everything works. the battery charges up (the red light indicator stops blinking and remains constant while the battery charges and then turns green when it's fully charged). everything works as it should! if you don't lock the battery in place using these clips then it's as if the pc doesn't recognise that the battery is installed. it's as simple as that. well... it was for me. hope it's just as simple for you too.

 

OK, folks, here is the real answer. Some models of the Acer Aspire One have a small code problem in the BIOS. That problem prevents a discharged battery from recharging. Acer can update the BIOS quite easily and all will work fine. Your batteries are probably A-OK. You just need a code tweek. I got one on mine and all is well.

 

i am having the exact same problem...
I just got a "new" battery from Acer, didnt solve it

I have Acer Aspire 1 A150 with XP

So flashing the bios worked for everyone?


*#$% Acer!

 

Folks, these batteries are kaka. I bought two of the little Aspire Ones with the UM08A73 2200 MAh LIon batteries in them. The first of these gems I have been using very lightly for the last four months or so. The other one sat in a box for a long time waiting for me to configure it for my Australian design partner.

I plugged both 'pooters into their bricks and let them run on my desk for a day as I was doing Windoze updates and software installation. After that I unplugged them, and guess what? Zippity do dah.

I tested the batteries at their power terminals. Open circuit. This tells me that the thermal fuses inside the battery pack on both batteries have all opened. The packs are now essentially useless because the perfectly good LIon cells are electrically isolated from the outside world!

What the heck is Acer up to?!?

 

Sorry, meant to include this: I am an electronics engineer by trade. I do radio control aircraft and have smart chargers for charging LIon, LiPo, NiMH, etc. I hooked one of the kaka batteries up to a charger and the charger confirmed that the leads are open. No connection to the cells. Craps!

 

If you are what you say .... you can revive the pack , as some one and NOT all the batteries are discharged to zero .


I did that ones ( individual charging ) , and it worked for few weeks , but as long i left the laptop for two weeks out of use , the kaka battery set , did it again .

The reason that happens , are because this battery packs are using very old batteries , production before three years, called as kaka production at 2009

 

Hej guys, i had the same problem, i called the Acer support and they told me to update the bios, surprising it fixed the issue

 

Another option that worked for me on three Aspire Ones (before anyone suggested a bios update might fix it)(didn't work on two others I tried however but might still be worth a shot if nothing else works)-
-With the netbook powered off remove the battery
-Power it on with it plugged into the mains and leave it for a couple of minutes until it fully boots up
-Carefully slide the battery back into the netbook and leave on for 10 mins plus- if your lucky the battery should now start to charge (if it does leave it charging for at least 3-4 hours straight and you should be back in business)

I had to repeat this process a couple of times on one of the netbooks before it started to charge.

 

There is a "time out" time , if the internal charger fails to start the charge.
By reinserting the battery , the charger does another try ...

Not all laptops have the same amount of " time out time " .
But its true , that if you repeat this process a couple of times,
its possible to work . ( start a charging cycle )

Mostly its had to do with the condition of the batteries ( how damaged they are ) .
The less damaged ones could start again , but you cannot call such a pack as healthy !!

 

I had the same problem.
I did update the bios.
It fixed the issue.

link :
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_one_150.html
download Bios v.3309

Thanks for the information !

 

Yes, I am who I say. I took one of the battery packs apart (through the controlled use of violence) and discovered that the cells were all right, but there was no electrical connection at all between the cells and the connector pins. The cells would take a charge directly off of my charger, but no combination of connections to the pins on the battery pack would show any connection whatsoever.

However, on the remaining pack I tried the trick of reinserting the pack after the unit had come up on AC power. That pack started charging again and returned to active duty. Now what?!?

 

I have the same problem!! And I just fixed It.
My Acer Aspire One was fine for a few months. Then all of a sudden the battery will not hold a charge. I found this out by accident, when someone tripped on the power cable and my laptop immediately shut off.

Looked up onlline and Acer has a battery replacement recall on. Especially for Aspire Versions, See if yours Qualifies at the www.acer.ca

Also, did a lot more research into what the suggested ways to fix this issue
1. get a battery tester program (free one BatteryMon2)
2. If your system saids 0.00V on the battery that is bad (with BatteryMon2)
3. Download the BIOS Updater from the Acer Drivers & Downloads Section
Make sure you are downloading the correct version for your Laptop
4. Install the New Bios and Your computer Restarts
5. Run the Battery Monitor program Again
6. Your voltage should be around 9.00V and up
Ta da Your Charging issue Solved.

If that does not work than your battery is toast. Call Acer for the Replacement Warranty. Good Luck Hopefully This helped Someone.

 

This worked a treat for me!!

Thanks!

 

From what I found out is that the batteries they are using have their own bios type chip with an overcharge protection that turns on so your system doesnt overcharge your battery and basically destroy battery life. The cheap H20 inside bios' seems to not recognize any of these type of batteries with overcharge protection so the bios cant tell the battery to stop blocking the charge its trying to give it. Kind of like my girlfriend when shes mad at me for nothing lol!

 

Hi, I tried everytinhg said on the forum, but it didn't work. Finally I upgraded my bioss to ver 3309, and my battery started rechaging again!!! My previous bioss was 3305, it had a bug related with recharging dead batteries.

To install a new bios a had to create a bootable USB:
1) Dowload HPUSBFW
2) Download bootme
3) Download bioss version
4) Unzip 3 files
5) Connect a usd pendrive
6) Run HPUSBFW
Select your usb device
Pick quick format
Pick create a DOS startup disk usign DOS system, pick second folder of bootme
Cllick on start
Wait for it to finish
7) Copy al files from you new bioss folder to the root of your pendrive
8) Pop in your battery and plug the netbook to AC.
9) Insert the pendrive to you netbook and boot. It must from the pendrive if not change the booting sequence by pressing F2 when netbook is boting.
10) Once you boot from the pendrive run NEWVERSIONBIOSNUMBER.bat and follow the steps. It will shut down your netbook and start it back on. (It may take a while)

Immediately after the battery will show charging

Good luck!!

 

You don't have to create a bootable USB if you have an UPS. Just run InsydeFlash.exe from the folder WINFLASH contained in v.3309.zip and then reboot (for several times). I did so and updating BIOS resolve the problem to me.

 

I had this prob. When I had battery pack dismantled found battery voltage was < 8V. Charged battery with a charger connected to + & - bypasssing circuit board, until it was @ 10.9V. Put it in PC, turned it on with charger and bingo - recharged and has worked since.

 

The BIOS upgrade seems to be the One True Fix for this persistent problem. Too bad that I discovered this after taking apart one of the packs; gotta spend another $50 for a pack for a $260 computer. Doesn't seem fair, does it?

 

This worked for me, no more blinking orange light. I registered JUST to THANK YOU!

THANKS!

 

Linux-based Acer Aspire One Non-Charging Battery Solution

THE FOLLOWING DID NOT WORK:
a) Ensure both battery clips are locked into the lock position.

b) Remove battery. Power on with mains plugged in and let it fully boot up. Slide battery back in (and lock). Repeat a couple of times if necessary.

c) Unplug everything. Hold the power button down for about two minutes to fully power-down the main board. Plug it all back in again.

THE FOLLOWING DID WORK:
d) Update BIOS to v.3310. But the problem is almost all instructions seem to be for Windows versions of the Acer and/or not to work as intended due to impossibility of getting .exe files to run. The following worked:

e) BIOS update for Linux-based Acer Aspire One.

STEP 1: On a separate PC:
1. Go to Acer Support - Welcome to Acer Support or Acer Support - Drivers & Download
2. Click on Driver & Downloads
3. Select Product Family “Netbook”
4. Select Product Line Aspire One
5. Select your Product Model i.e.: AOA150 (located under your computer, after MFG.Date:xxxx AOA 150 – xxxx)
6. Click on the BIOS tab below (don't worry if you don't see Linux listed – BIOS is OS-independent)
7. Download BIOS to a temporary folder on your PC
8. Extract and make sure you know where you put the extracted files. You will only need three of them.

STEP 2: On a separate PC:
1. Ensure a USB memory stick is plugged in and run UNetbootin by downloading and running from: UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads
2. It will prompt for a “Distribution” – change this to “FreeDOS”.
3. At the bottom of the window ensure the “Type” is “USB Drive” and check the “Drive” is the drive letter of your USB memory stick.
4. Click on “OK” and FreeDOS will be installed onto the USB drive. At the end don't Reboot.
5. Now copy some of the extracted BIOS files onto the USB drive as well. The only files you need copy are three: go to the sub folder BIOS_ACER_3310_Windows_AOA110 & AOA150/Dos_Flash, and copy the files 3310.BAT, 3310.fd and FLA.EXE to the USB stick
6. Remove your USB stick from the PC, and plug into into your switched-off Acer.

STEP 3: On your Acer:
1. Reboot the Acer and press F2 at the initial “splash screen” to go into the BIOS settings.
2. Once in the BIOS arrow across to select the Boot Menu and move the USB HDD to the top of the list (using F5 and F6 to move them up and down). (I also moved USB FDD and USB CD-ROM)
3. Press F10 to save and exit.
4. Your Acer should now boot from the USB stick.
5. The FreeDOS screen will appear with an option to select a default option. Do this.
6. You will now be presented with a list of boot options – select option 5 (FreeDOS Live CD).
7. You'll get an error message about missing CD-ROM, which you can ignore and you'll be at the DOS A: prompt.
8. At the DOS prompt go to the B: drive (i.e. type “b:”, without quotes, and hit enter – the B: drive is you USB stick) and run the the 3310.BAT script (i.e. type 3310.BAT, without the quotes, and hit enter.
9. The BIOS should now install and reboot your Acer. Click on Settings and then System to check your BIOS has updated.
10. Restart your Acer and repeat 1. and 2. above just to make sure the Boot priority order has your hard drive at the top of the screen. It will probably have reverted automatically to the original order. If not, use F5 and F6 to put back in the original order.

These are a combination from:
Blog Blog Archive Acer Aspire One Update BIOS Using Linux
Acer Aspire One BIOS Update Instructions | NetbookTech
Acer Aspire One - Updating the BIOS | Artiss.co.uk

 

Thanks to the previous poster, excellent instructions.

Just in case anyone else finds the same as me...a: and b: were both freedos for me, I had to go to drve c to finf the files I'd copied.

 

Just registered to thank rheeks. Was a little bit wary of updating the BIOS, but it worked a treat. Instead of the notebook thinking battery is 100% charged, it is now charging away.

My Dad had the netbook for a couple of years without using it. I thought the battery was Screwed (as one of the posters here said, forgotten how to charge)

But fair play to peeps for knowledge sharing. Its great to find detailed, no nonsense instructions to do exactly what you are looking for.
Good man\woman yourself rheeks!

 

rheeks or anyone:

Is there a way that you can email me and you can help me with step by step on how to do this. I know its here on the discussion, but I must be doing something wrong because it still not working.
Thanks

 

Hi All,

I've got an even weirder problem. Initially, my battery indicator said it was 100% charged, so like everyone else, I unplugged my AC, and my laptop went off completely as if the battery was dead. So my laptop worked only with the AC plugged in, but now, my laptop would not start EVEN with the AC plugged in. It has a life of its own and turns on once in a while when plugged in the AC!

Then I realized that if the battery indicator is 100%, then the laptop shuts down as if the battery is dead. Even if you take the battery out, the AC plug will not power the laptop. It's like the Laptop won't recognize the AC charge after the laptop shuts down itself. I have to wait until the battery drains out to less than 95%, plug in the AC, and then the laptop powers on. But when the battery goes to 100%, then bam, my laptop shuts off.

What can I do????

Thanks!

 

No way. NO WAY... well... actually, WAY and THANK YOU!!

Its an old thread, and I registered just to say thanks! Such a simple solution that evaded me all this time. I thought the same thing as you did regarding the clips (the one you have to lock in place at least).

I have to say I'm a very casual user of my Aspire One, especially since the battery wouldn't charge... Also, the last I remember, it discharges in under an hour (original battery from 2008). But at least almost an hour is a little bit better than nothing.

Now it finally says so-and-so long time until charged, whereas before it said "laptop battery is charged" (Linux Ubuntu 10.04), but it was not. Also updated BIOS to no avail, but at least now I have finally done that (updated the BIOS).

Thanks again for posting the solution!