Acer ZG5 Netbook - BIOS Doesn't See HD, HD Recovery Went Fine. Now won't boot.

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nepcrepair

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Hello All!

I am having a very unusual problem so I figured that I would reach out to
everyone here and see if we can find a solution.

A regular customer of mine brings in this Acer Netbook. It is labeled model
ZG5 on the bottom, and BIOS shows the model as A0A1100. It was brought
in because it will not boot.

The hard drive in this netbook is a 8GB SSD. So after seeing for myself that
it won't boot I put in my Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (XP). The drive is there
in file explorer. It does not say it need formatting, but it is completely blank.

So, luckily, the customer also brought in the Acer restore disks. I ran the system
restore and it went just fine...until reboot. Upon reboot the netbook says that there
are no boot drives and halts.

So I again boot the PC with the UBCD. Go back to file explorer, and all of the files
from the restore operation, that should be there are, (Window dir, Documents and
Settings, etc.) So now I just figure that there is a MBR issue. Using the tools on the
UBCD I fix the MBR and also check it, and the MBR is there.

So then I reboot, and again, it can't boot. Again it says no bootable drives. Now I go
into the BIOS settings and the listing for installed Hard Drives is none. The BIOS is
very limited as to what you can change. There is no HD settings, no HD auto-detect,
no HD modes, etc.

Also, let me mention that I have updated the BIOS to the most recent available and that
still does not work. I'm at a loss here guys and I need some help. The system restore
went fine, and the Windows files ARE on the drive. It just won't boot, and BIOS see no
hard drives. I ran FIXBOOT and FIXMBR and neither worked.

Any ideas???
 
did you see if it another machine will boot from it? I know windows will BSOD, but you should try it to see if its the netbook or the hdd thats having issues.
 
JW The Computer Guy said:
did you see if it another machine will boot from it? I know windows will BSOD, but you should try it to see if its the netbook or the hdd thats having issues.
Click to expand...

I thought of that but I don't have the correct adapter. I need a ZIF to IDE
adapter. I ordered one but it will take several days to arrive.

The hard drive is a P-SSD1800 8GB SSD Drive ZIF.

:)
 
I ran into this on a different model Acer netbook (AOA150) a couple of weeks ago. I finally got it working by disabling the "Quick Boot" option in the BIOS. After that, the BIOS recognized the drive and booted from the SSD. I was then able to go back in and re-enable the "Quick Boot" option and it was still able to boot from the SSD. I can't explain it but if that BIOS has the "Quick Boot" option it is worth a try.
 
BM-Networking said:
Theres a possibility that the connection for the hdd needs to be reseated.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. However, I have already had this drive in and out a few times and each time I made cure it was correctly connected.

Thanks again for the advice though.
 
strollin said:
I ran into this on a different model Acer netbook (AOA150) a couple of weeks ago. I finally got it working by disabling the "Quick Boot" option in the BIOS. After that, the BIOS recognized the drive and booted from the SSD. I was then able to go back in and re-enable the "Quick Boot" option and it was still able to boot from the SSD. I can't explain it but if that BIOS has the "Quick Boot" option it is worth a try.
Click to expand...

When I get back to the shop tomorrow, I will try what you have mentioned.

I have to ask, did you have this same exact problem? Where the drive would
take a system restore, you can see the files on the drive, but it just wouldn't
boot or be seen in BIOS?

I had a similar problem last week with a tower PC. But it was that the drive
wouldn't boot after a disk clone. I simply ran FIXMBR and then all was well.
No such luck with this one though. I will try disabling "Quick Boot" as soon
as I go in tomorrow.

Thanks for the advice and I will post back to let you know how it went.
 
Last edited:
Not exactly the same problem, the netbook had been booting from the SSD fine then suddenly couldn't find the drive. My first thought was that it (SSD) had failed.
 
Well I tried disabling "Quick Boot", and it still does not find the
hard drive. It isn't found in BIOS and the netbook still gives the
error: No Boot Device.

Also also tried disabling boot from network, as suggested by many
in another forum. When boot from network is disabled the system
continually boots right to BIOS.

For the first time in a while, I am actually at a loss as to what to do
next. Anyone else have any ideas? Please?
 
strollin said:
I would try to clear the CMOS. I'm not 100% sure of the way to do that on the Acer model you have there. Here is a link to some info that might help: clearing-cmos-of-acer-aspire-one
Click to expand...

Thank you for your suggestion.

The instructions in the link did pertain to this netbook. The BIOS clear went
fine. However, it did not solve the problem.

BIOS still does not see the boot drive. Using UBCD, I can see that all of the
Windows files are on the drive. I can also see that the MBR is there and it is
not corrupt.

But still...BIOS doe not see the drive, therefore it still won't boot.

???
 
strollin said:
The only other thing I can think of is to try it in another system. You have the adapter on order, right?
Click to expand...

Actually, I ended up ordering a replacement drive. I got it for $25, free
shipping. The adapter was about $17 including shipping. So it was a
no brainer.

As a side note I did find an adapter, shipped from China, for about $5.
I'll get one to have one in my tool kit. But, for this job I couldn't wait the
4-6 weeks for it.

I'm just hoping that there is nothing wrong with the mb, that is causing the
problem.
 
Well, pit the new drive in and still have the same problem. BIOS just
won't see the drive.System restore went fine, MBR is intact, but it
just won't boot. BIOS won't see the drive.

I'm at a loss here, anyone have any more ideas?
 
The only other thing I would think it could be is an issue with the BIOS itself. Whilst googling I found a few people saying that they fixed this issue by doing this.

Here is a link to the update that they downloaded:
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_one_150.html

Im going to quote the rest of the instructions from the post:
"d/load the bios update 3309, open the folder and copy two files to a formatted fat usb stick. Rename the file FLASHIT to FLASHIT.EXE and the second file 3309.fd(bios file) to ZG5IA32.FD rename them precisely like that, please check your spelling is correct. Insert the usb stick into the usb left hand side make sure the charger is plugged in . Hold down keys fn+esc and power up the laptop, when the power led begins to blink release the two buttons and press the power button just once, observe the usb stick flashing indicating it's flashing the bios, please note this can take a few attempts, I once struggled for a few hours until I finally tamed the beast :) be patient okay, I would like to point out if you wish to update within winxp use the same bios update 3309 , extract the zipped files to a formatted usb stick and rename the two files again but DO NOT REMOVE or interfere with the other files in the folder , with the laptop up and running open the folder and click on the Insysdeflash file only within the winflash file, this will flash your bios within windows and update it to the latest version, I read that flashing it when using the fn+esc keys merely restores the bios , I have tested this and mine updated to 3309 only when I flashed my bios within windows using the complete d/loaded bios update as mentioned . It will be worth reading the read me file to see what has changed in this bios version, I can tell you that for those out there that have password issues i.e. hdd set, the need to enter password with upper case is not a requirement more and there are a lot more fixes too, enjoy and I hope this bit of info was useful:)"


I don't know if this will be useful to you or not and I cannot vouch for this person, but this would be the only other thing that you havent tried and it seems to me that this is what you will need to do. I would tell the customer the risks of flashing the BIOS and let him decide. Here is a link to where this info was found.

http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-95127-acer-aspire-one-zg5-won-t-boot-up


Hope it helps.
 
VashEXE said:
The only other thing I would think it could be is an issue with the BIOS itself. Whilst googling I found a few people saying that they fixed this issue by doing this.

Here is a link to the update that they downloaded:
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_one_150.html

Im going to quote the rest of the instructions from the post:
"d/load the bios update 3309, open the folder and copy two files to a formatted fat usb stick. Rename the file FLASHIT to FLASHIT.EXE and the second file 3309.fd(bios file) to ZG5IA32.FD rename them precisely like that, please check your spelling is correct. Insert the usb stick into the usb left hand side make sure the charger is plugged in . Hold down keys fn+esc and power up the laptop, when the power led begins to blink release the two buttons and press the power button just once, observe the usb stick flashing indicating it's flashing the bios, please note this can take a few attempts, I once struggled for a few hours until I finally tamed the beast :) be patient okay, I would like to point out if you wish to update within winxp use the same bios update 3309 , extract the zipped files to a formatted usb stick and rename the two files again but DO NOT REMOVE or interfere with the other files in the folder , with the laptop up and running open the folder and click on the Insysdeflash file only within the winflash file, this will flash your bios within windows and update it to the latest version, I read that flashing it when using the fn+esc keys merely restores the bios , I have tested this and mine updated to 3309 only when I flashed my bios within windows using the complete d/loaded bios update as mentioned . It will be worth reading the read me file to see what has changed in this bios version, I can tell you that for those out there that have password issues i.e. hdd set, the need to enter password with upper case is not a requirement more and there are a lot more fixes too, enjoy and I hope this bit of info was useful:)"


I don't know if this will be useful to you or not and I cannot vouch for this person, but this would be the only other thing that you havent tried and it seems to me that this is what you will need to do. I would tell the customer the risks of flashing the BIOS and let him decide. Here is a link to where this info was found.

http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-95127-acer-aspire-one-zg5-won-t-boot-up


Hope it helps.
Click to expand...

Actually, I did try this a few days ago. But the page you linked to is the
Europe Acer page and they have more files and info than the US page. So,
I do thank you so much for your post.

The BIOS flash I did a few days ago was version 3309. I am going to try an
older version (v. 3304) and see how it goes. I did notice that after i reflashed
the BIOS with v. 3309 that the text that states the version was distorted.
Maybe corrupt? Who knows at this point.

I'll post back with the results of my BIOS "downgrade".

Thanks again for your input.
 
Ok here are the results of my BIOS downgrades:

Ver 3114 - Successful flash - HD Still Not Found
Ver 3304 - Successful flash - HD Still Not Found
Ver 3305 - Actually flashed as v 3304 ??? - HD Still Not Found
Ver 3308 - This one took forever - HD STill Not Found
Ver 3309 - 3 Times its still v 3308

So I guess that I'm kinda SOL at this point. I'll play around a little bit
more and then probably give it back to the customer tomorrow. For me
this is like total defeat. 15 years in the biz and I have never been stumped
...until now :(

If anyone else has any other ideas I would truly appreciate them.
 
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