Acer AO721 Powers Up but Nothing Shows on the Screen (Black Screen)

Applicable for:

Aspire 1430/1551/1830T Series

Aspire One 721/753 Series

UPDATE: Flashing AO 721 from Windows

Last Wednesday, my Acer AO 721 screen went blank mid-way while booting-up. I was afraid it's another "motherboard issue" again.

Last July 2011, the same thing happened to my laptop. I could see the power button lit up but nothing showed on the screen. Since it was still covered by the 1-year warranty, I brought it to the Acer service center at SM North EDSA. Two weeks after, the technician told me they couldn't figure out what the problem was so they endorsed it to the main Acer service center. A month after, I got my laptop back and they said that it was a motherboard problem so they replaced the motherboard with a new one.

This time, I was seriously worried to bring my laptop again to the service center because:

1. It's no longer covered by warranty so I will shell out some serious amount of cash if they replace the motherboard.
2. Repair takes a minimum of 2 weeks at the service center and I needed my files soon because I had to compute my students' grades.

Thankfully that night, I told my ex about the problem. When I told him it was updating registry when the screen went blank he said it's a BIOS problem. He said I need to flash (update) my laptop's BIOS. I spent the whole night till the wee hours of the morning searching for and trying solutions specific to my computer model.

Apparently, according to my research, this common problem has something to do with a faulty BIOS and not really the motherboard. Perhaps that is why the service center technicians thought that it was a motherboard  problem after reseating hardware and nothing worked.

Here are the steps to the solution that worked. They may be found at page 78 of this manual.

 Important:

** Files needed:

     BIOS firmware ver 1.18 (download from Acer site under BIOS tab)

     Crisis Package Source (You can download from my Public Sky Drive folder)

** Battery should be inserted and power cord plugged because a power interruption during update can make your computer inoperable.

Step 1: Create a Crisis Disk

1. Prepare a removable USB storage device with a capacity size greater than 10 MB. Note that all data on the USB storage device will be cleared during the creation of the Crisis disk. (Use only a flash drive. I have used an external HD and it didn't work.)
2. Set up a system running the Windows XP or Windows Vista OS and plug in the USB storage device into an available USB port. (Crisys Disk setup can only be done in a XP or Vista x32 OS. I have tried XP compatibility mode and Virtual PC XP mode on Windows 7, they didn't work.)
3. Decompress the Crisis Package Source.
4. Select WINCRIS.EXE and then select Run as administrator. (It has to be run as administrator to copy the files into the flash drive, otherwise it won't work. Copying the files manually will not create a working program.)
5. Keep the default settings and then click Start button. (Choose USB drive as destination.)
6. When the pop-up warning dialog box appears, click OK to create the Crisis disk.
7. Click No if you do not want to create another Crisis disk.
8. Eject and reconnect the USB removable storage device, and make sure it contains the following three files:

        • BIOS.WPH

        • MINIDOS.SYS

        • PHLASH16.EXE

* Credit goes to our school technician, Edgar Blanco, who created the Crisis Disk for me because I do not have Admin access to our school computer which runs an XP (I don't have an XP computer at home anymore.)

Step 2: Perform a BIOS Recovery

1. Shut down the BIOS failed computer.
2. Connect the USB storage device containing the Crisis Disk files to the failed system.
3. Press and hold the <Fn> + <Esc> keys (this is the BIOS recovery hotkey), then press the power button. The BIOS recovery process begins. When the process is complete the system will automatically reboot. (A youtube video requires that you press the power button continuously. However this is not necessary in this process. Press power button only once. Hold Fn+Esc for about 5 seconds before releasing them. Also, the power light doesn't blink while the recovery is ongoing.)
4. Disconnect the USB storage device from the system. (Do this once the system shuts down otherwise you will have to start from step 1)
5. Perform a BIOS flash procedure to update the BIOS firmware. Refer to Running the Flash Utility section below.

Step 3: Flash (update) BIOS

1. Rename the BIOS file as “XXXXXXX.FD” (This is the JV10N118 in the Winflash64 or Winflash32 folders in the BIOS_Acer_1.18_Windows files.)
2. Copy the “XXXXXXX.FD” file to the bootable USB device containing the Crisis Recovery disk files.
3. Turn off the system.
4. Insert the USB storage device containing the renamed BIOS file and the Crisis Recovery disk files to any USB port.
5. Press and hold the <Fn> + <Esc> keys (this is the BIOS recovery hotkey), then press the power button.
6. Release the <Fn> + <Esc> keys after POST.

The whole recovery and updating process took me about 15 minutes as recovery and flashing take about 7 minutes to complete. However, the whole searching for solutions and working on them including creating the Crisis Disk took around a day and a half.

Follow the instructions carefully and be patient in doing this so you can recover your computer and don't lose your computer in the process.

Good Luck!