I’ve got a netbook.  So does Mrs Dr Ron:

Mine is the Asus EeePC, which runs like a charm (but could do with a re-load, when I’ve got five minutes to scratch myself).

Mrs Dr Ron’s is the Acer Aspire 1.

A few nights ago Mrs Dr Ron complained that her netbook wouldn’t start.  After some basic investigation (like checking power supply and battery) it appeared that the BIOS had become corrupt.  The computer’s power light came on, but that was about it.  Not good.

The BIOS is the “Basic Input / Output System” and contains a set of instructions which tells the computer, amongst other things, how to access the hard disk and find the operating system when it’s turned on.  It also starts simple devices like the keyboard and the video.  The BIOS is the first set of instructions that the computer loads in order to function.  BIOS instructions are contained on a chip on the motherboard, and the BIOS works independently of the operating system, peripheral devices, and all that sort of stuff.

If the BIOS disappears or becomes corrupted for whatever reason, it’s a big problem.  The computer won’t start.  Thankfully, this doesn’t happen very often, and thankfully, modern computers let you “re-flash” the BIOS, which means writing a new set of instructions to the computer’s BIOS chip.

In this case I had to re-flash the BIOS on the Acer netbook.  This is the second time in 12 months I’ve had to do this.  I’m not sure if it’s a known issue with this model, or if Mrs Dr Ron just has an electric (electromagnetic?) personality which keeps causing this to happen.

How do you re-flash a BIOS? Every computer is different, but follows a similar procedure:

• First identify what type of computer you have. This netbook is an “Acer Aspire One A150″ model.  You’ll need the exact model number, because every type of motherboard will have a unique BIOS;
• Visit the manufacturer’s website to obtain the latest BIOS for your particular system (I went here); or undertake some intelligent Googling, it shouldn’t take long.  Download the latest version of the BIOS for your machine;
• Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for upgrading / flashing the BIOS.  This might involve copying files to a memory stick, and holding a particular combination of keys when you turn the device on.

For the Acer Aspire I followed these instructions from the Macles Blogspot, which worked perfectly:

First format a USB flash drive with FAT. It does not need to be bootable.

Download the latest BIOS, and extract all files from the zip file. Put both FLASHIT.EXE and the BIOS file with FD suffix in the root directory of the flash drive. The files must not be in a folder. Rename the BIOS file to ZG5IA32.FD before proceeding. It only works with this exact filename.

Turn the AA1 off, with the flash drive still connected, and make sure both battery and AC adapter are also connected.

Press Fn and Esc simultaneously, keep them pressed and press the power button. Release Fn+Esc after a few seconds. The power button starts blinking at this point. Press the power button once. The AA1 will now initiate flashing the BIOS. After a while the button stops blinking, and the AA1 reboots shortly after. Wait patiently.

If it doesn’t reboot by itself, but keeps blinking, wait at least a few minutes before turning it off, and try again.

Mrs Dr Ron’s netbook restarted, and before long was loading Windows XP.  Good as new!  No data was lost in this process, because re-flashing the BIOS doesn’t affect data on the hard disk or storage device.

The procedure is fairly straight-forward, but it’s critical that you don’t interrupt the upgrade in progress. Doing so could damage your computer or put the BIOS chips into a state where they can’t be re-flashed or upgraded. You run the risk of turning your computer into an expensive brick. Don’t turn off the power, don’t pull out the USB stick half-way through, and don’t unplug the power supply (just in case).

If you follow the manufacturer’s instructions, you should be okay.

Good luck.

Acer Aspire 1 · BIOS · flash · netbook · upgrade