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

Is it possible that the Acer system restore disk is the wrong one? Have you tried an install from your own OEM disk?

Haven't tried from my own disk. But, now that you suggest it I will. If nothing
else, to rule it out. I'll be back in the shop on Tuesday and will post back the
results.

:)
 
Well...here is another chapter in my puzzle.

Today my ZIF SSD to 40pin IDE converter came in today. So I connected the
little ZIF SSD drive to my bench PC and guess what? It doesn't find it there
at all. Just like the netbook. Maybe it really is dead?

Well one would assume that the SSD HD is dead, right? Well I already tried a
new HD (could have been a bad one, it was eBay). Also, the original drive did
take a system restore. The files were there. I saw them with UBCD for Win.

Well I am going to try one last time. Another HD. Found one listed as brand
new from a non-eBay vendor. So I'll order it. Its only $36 for 16GB or $29 for
8GB.

Money wise, I am only invested $4.29 for the ZIF cables. Everything else I
bought was returned within the allotted time frame. So I figure, what the
hey, I try another ZIF HD.

What are everyone's thoughts?

:)
 
:eek: how curious indeed youve got my attention with this one, this is just a shot in the dark but you might like to try removing the eeprom from the motherboard and reprogramming it with an external programmer. thats what id be doing at this hair tearing stage.

Ya know, this one is just killing me.

Right now I am waiting on a brand new replacement hard drive. It was $30ish,
including shipping. Its not the same brand as the original drive. First I will test
the new drive in my desktop just to make sure that the drive is good.

Then I'll install it into the netbook and hope for the best. I beginning to think
that maybe the first replacement hard drive was no good. Which would make
the original one no good either.

I'll see, and post, what happens once the new drive come in.

:)
 
Ya know, this one is just killing me.

Right now I am waiting on a brand new replacement hard drive. It was $30ish,
including shipping. Its not the same brand as the original drive. First I will test
the new drive in my desktop just to make sure that the drive is good.

Then I'll install it into the netbook and hope for the best. I beginning to think
that maybe the first replacement hard drive was no good. Which would make
the original one no good either.

I'll see, and post, what happens once the new drive come in.

:)

I know this is an old thread but stumbled upon it as I had same problem in my AA1 and wanted to share the solution to others. I don't know if the solution was already found and just not posted here as the solution is pretty elementary:D.

The solution to this problem is most likely that you need to put the flat cable into the SSD drive the other way round into the connector.
You see, these SSD's have sometimes connector on other side of the PCB making pin 1 on the other side!:eek:
I replaced AA1 OEM 8Gb SSD with a SuperTalent 16GB SSD but although the PCB's are almost identical (same chips and layout) the connector is on the other side. You just have to flip the board over and install it that way in the AA1.

So there you have it! First post! Hope to have helped some of you's;)
And nepcrepair, I hope you haven't thrown away the ZG5 (but you haven't, have you?)
 
Hey cyberbob :)

Thanks for the input and the tip.

The cable already was the other way around. Its bent into
an "L" shape. Never did get the drive, it never came in and
had to file a Paypal claim (which I won).

So I am still in the same place I was months ago. I did not
throw away the netbook, I still have it. I have NEVER thrown
away a computer. Don't believe in that. If it 10 years or older,
then I recycle it :)

Not sure if I mentioned this earlier or not but, I did manage to
try to slave the drive into my bench pc. BIOS there didn't find
it either. Thus, still believe its the drive. Why the Win XP sys
restore worked, and the files were seen there by UBCD, is still
a mystery. :confused:

Anyway, I think I may have found a drive, and will order and
install it upon arrival. Once I do that, I will post results, or
hopefully a solution.
 
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