Plants vs. Zombies
January 7th, 2010
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Aspire 1 One
October 29th, 2009
Two Acer Aspire Ones have died on my watch. A pink 150 and a sapphire blue AOA 150-1447. Both were almost a year old. In both cases the failure occurred after closing and opening the lid (when they should have gone to sleep mode) They act like they want to boot, make hard drive spin sounds, but never display on the screen. The good news is that Aspire has built-in a BIOS recovery routine, so it is possible to flash the BIOS even if the system doesn’t boot anymore. (note that the windows license sticker is right where it will rub off. Put some clear tape over the product key so you don’t loose it.)
The following steps completely recovered one of my two Aspires:
1. Format an USB thumb drive as FAT. (My Computer – right-click the USB drive - select FAT and format.)
2. Download the latest BIOS to your USB stick: (ftp://ftp.acer-euro.com/netbook/aspire_one_150/bios, ftp://ftp.acer-euro.com/netbook/aspire_one_110/bios).
3. Open the downloaded BIOS file and put both “FLASHIT.EXE” and the BIOS file (named like “3011.fd”) in the root directory (main folder) of the stick. Rename the BIOS file to exactly “ZG5IA32.FD” < – - everything between the quotes.
4. Connect your USB drive to Aspire 1 while it is powered off.
5. Make sure the battery is installed and the power adapter is connected.
6. Hold both the ”Fn” and “Esc” keys down together, keep them pressed and press the power button to turn the Aspire on. Release all these keys after a couple seconds, the power button should be blinking.
7. Press the (now flashing) power button. The power button will continue to blink. Your Aspire should initiate the BIOS flash at this point. Do not interrupt this process! You should see it briefly access the USB drive (USB lights blink), the Aspire will reboot shortly after. You will see the Aspire power lights go on and off and then it should reboot. Wait patiently.
8. If a full reboot happens rejoice when you see life on the screen again! Your BIOS has been updated and all settings will be at default. This whole process should be no longer than 5-10 minutes.
This worked for my blue Aspire, and not the pink one. No matter how many ways, different BIOS files or USB formats I tried nothing worked. The Pink one would not access the USB. The only difference between the two was that the USB light never flashed during the process. It ended up requiring an RMA and a new mainboard. The warrantee process was quick, within about two weeks total the original pink machine came back fully repaired.
The world has gone mad.
October 9th, 2009
A practice tweet:
I almost woke up for a few minutes today. Something about Obama getting the Nobel Prize, and something about bombing the moon? I am going back to sleep.
I think I will stick to blogging.
Ps3 Game over.
September 28th, 2009
My barely used PS3 died. The sony curse is still with me. I tried to connect it online which required a firmware update. As soon as the 3.0 software installed, my PS3 ended up with a blinking red light of death. This was a barely used machine, no more than a dozen hours on it. Of course Sony swears up and down that the firmware could not have caused it. I wonder how many of the older machines are burnt up by the new software? Will I send it in for repair, or just buy a new slimline model? What on Earth possesses me to continue buying Sony?
I saw the chance to take this thing apart and see what makes it tick. (Or rather not tick.) As I suspected, there is no burnt capacitors, no indication of heat. As perfect inside as it was out. Can you believe the size of the main fan?
Them’s good readin’
September 5th, 2009
While Hannabit says Mythos will come back, Runic is moving forward on a new design! Torchlight. This is a good article on the new project!
It’s a what??
August 11th, 2009
If we get our young’uns to sport these, they will look way moby! Then we can keep them in zoos without supervision.
Why Vista Makes Me Grr
August 3rd, 2009
I have not been keeping record of why I can’t stand Vista. Microsoft is so ashamed of their work they call it “Windows 6″ for the service packs. Anyhow the recent support cry was for a webcam, which Microsoft kindly and intentionally removed support for. Apparently something in Service Packs can help, so here is the friendly message:
One hour? That is longer than installing the OS takes! Plus the service packs are no longer cumulative, so SP1 has to go first. What a joke! A gigabyte download and all of this to add support for a native XP function. Please indicate whether you want to read this post. Windows needs your permission to do what you are trying…
Nods to nice Utilities.
July 27th, 2009
Ever download a trial version to handle one of those EVIL proprietary image formats like .daa or .uif? Thanks to Luigi’s tools problem solved. I tested UIF2ISO and DAA2ISO using a multi-part image. Very sweet. Whoever creates non-standard image makers like MagicISO or PowerWhatever makes me angry.
