SEARCH

The How-To Geek Forums Have Migrated to Discourse



Join the Discussion at discuss.howtogeek.com

How-To Geek Forums / Windows 7

(Solved) - Acer Aspire One Netbook Not Working Properly

(19 posts)
  • Started 5 months ago by lathesiab
  • Latest reply from LadyFitzgerald
  • Topic Viewed 508 times

  • View Accepted Answer
  • Remove Solved Status
lathesiab
Posts: 10

My nine year old has an Acer Aspire One Netbook (model AOD255E) that is not working at all I can't figure out what is going on. It worked fine this morning when she used it before school. When she tried to get online a few minutes ago, the computer had problems. What happened is she entered her password, it loaded to the desktop, all of her icons came up BUT on the taskbar the internet icon (the four bars) never showed up. If she moved the mouse down to the taskbar, and clicked on the start button, nothing happened. The little blue circle went around and around but the start menu wouldn't launch. If she clicked on a desktop icon (such as Acer Games) it wouldn't launch or the screen would freeze. I shut it down and restarted it and had the same problems. I shut it down again, pushed f8 and launched start up repair and no problems were detected. It restarted; same issues. I shut it down again, started it in safe mode w/networking and It worked perfectly. I scanned for viruses and none were found. I did a system restore to the last critical update (12/31) and it began working albeit a bit slow. It's a little over a year old and I'm at a complete loss as to what could be wrong. I'm not the most tech savvy person so any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

System Specs
Manufacturer: Acer
Model: A0d255E
Processor Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N455 @1.66 GHz 1.67 GHz
Installed memory (RAM) 1GB
System Type: 32 Bit Operating System
Pen and touch: No Pen or Touch Input is available for this display
OS: Windows 7 Starter

Posted 5 months ago #
Top
 
Drizzle
Drizzle
Posts: 2045

Hmm..Maybe needs a complete re install, but do hope she has made back up of important docs.Before you do that...

As you found no problems...
Could try taking out battery and disconnecting from power( any and all power source,) wait at least half hour, before reinserting and switching back on.

Posted 5 months ago #
Top
 
GuiltySpark
GuiltySpark
Posts: 4024

lathesiab ,

What did you scan the system with (program) ?

Posted 5 months ago #
Top
 
lathesiab
Posts: 10

Thank you guys for responding :)

Drizzle, I think the only *important* things on her netbook are her photos and her music files and those are all backed up so we're good there. She really only uses it for playing games, looking up stuff for school or listening to music so *thankfully* there's not too much in the way of stuff for her to lose if worse comes to worse.

It was working fine this morning so *crosses fingers* maybe the system restore fixed it?

Guilty Spark, the anti virus I used to scan it was AVG. It didn't detect any viruses or anything but maybe it missed something?

Posted 5 months ago #
Top
 
Drizzle
Drizzle
Posts: 2045

Good work, lets hope it lasts.
but many of us recommend to run these;No one AV can pick up everything...

Run Free Version.
http://www.superantispyware.co.....S_HOMEPAGE
Then
http://www.malwarebytes.org/pr.....bytes_free

Posted 5 months ago #
Top
 
GuiltySpark
GuiltySpark
Posts: 4024

AVG could be the issue, it is a resource hog that could've slowed your system down to a crawl especially on a netbook which aren't all that powerful anyway.

It maybe worth doing a scan with the free version of this : http://superantispyware.com/ (note* this is just a scanner not an AV).

Edit : Kate you beat me to it :)

Accepted Answer · Posted 5 months ago #
Top
 
G41M
Posts: 902

Would agree with GS, get rid of AVG and use Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) instead. Should the problem persists even after the system restore, I would also suggest running System File Checker to check for corrupted/missing system file(s).

Posted 5 months ago #
Top
 
LadyFitzgerald
Posts: 2232

x2 on using MSE. AVG could easily be overtaxing the system.

Whatever you do, don't waste any money on fixing it if you find you can't fix it yourself. I've had two Aspire Ones and, believe me, they (or anything else from Acer) aren't worth it. Asus makes a nice netbook but, for a little more, you can get a basic notebook that isn't too much bigger (if small size is important) that will have a faster CPU, more RAM, a bigger HDD, and a better keyboard, usually including a real num pad (both my Aspire Ones had problems with bouncing keys).

Posted 5 months ago #
Top
 
Travis299
Posts: 133

Acer laptop PCs are junk with the absolute worst CS in the industry!

Posted 5 months ago #
Top
 
GuiltySpark
GuiltySpark
Posts: 4024

But what many people don't realise is Acer provide a lot of hardware for various machines especially bespoke ones.

Posted 5 months ago #
Top
 
LadyFitzgerald
Posts: 2232

@ GuiltySpark. "...bespoke ones"?

Posted 5 months ago #
Top
 
GuiltySpark
GuiltySpark
Posts: 4024

Yes

Posted 5 months ago #
Top
 
LadyFitzgerald
Posts: 2232

Still don't get it. What are the "bespoke ones"?

Posted 5 months ago #
Top
 
Xhi
Xhi
Posts: 6298

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bespoke

Posted 5 months ago #
Top
 
Drizzle
Drizzle
Posts: 2045

Each to their own...
I have Acers since 2003, ' treat em right ' they are the same as others, and like others, if you buy a 'Friday' build, you are unfortunate....

Posted 5 months ago #
Top
 
LadyFitzgerald
Posts: 2232

I'm glad you have had good luck with Acer but, after two Aspire Ones that died (one at 14 months, the other at three months, and both received only light use), a POS desktop I can't wait to replace, and a POS keyboard and mouse that came with the desktop and were replaced immediately, I'm thinkin' there is more to it than a "Friday build" thing going on. A couple of friends of mine have also had bad luck with Acer products. You couldn't give anything from Acer to me.

Posted 5 months ago #
Top
 
MrDuck
Posts: 12

Since you don't have a CD drive, you cant do much. You can re-install from a USB drive, if you have the installation files.

Posted 5 months ago #
Top
 
lathesiab
Posts: 10

Thank you guys so much for your responses :)

I rescanned it with Superantispyware and Malaware Bytes and neither picked up a virus so YAY! :)

Oh trust me, LadyFitzgerald if I can't fix it, I'll just replace it with something else that's NOT an Acer product lol. I have had some HORRIBLE experiences w/Acer. Even while the netbook was still under warranty I had to send it in for repair multiple times (and not b/c she did anything like spill on it but for stuff like fixing the port where the charger connects to the netbook-it KEPT coming loose and then the unit wouldn't charge). And I called to just to see if it needed repair what I'd be out and they charge a flat fee of 109.95 plus tax for ANY repair and to me, I might as well by her something new if I'm gonna be out over a hundred bucks anyway ( I mean, I only paid 215.00 for the thing when I bought it).

I did dump the AVG and put Microsoft Security Essentials and Malaware Bytes instead (I had AVG on it since that's what I have on my desktop) and it seems like her comp is working much faster so you guys were spot on about that.

It's been working well so far since the system restore so *crosses fingers* hopefully the problem is solved :)

Posted 5 months ago #
Top
 
LadyFitzgerald
Posts: 2232

Fingers are crossed here, too. Good luck!

External optical drives are inexpensive and a good investment for netbooks that don't have them. I got one to use on my netbooks; it outlived all three of them. One of the reasons I upgraded to a notebook was to get a built in optical drive (lugging around and hooking up the separate optical drive was a PITA); others were a real num pad, a faster processor (the i3 runs circles around the Atom), more RAM (4 GB vs 1 GB...duh!), and more storage.

Another antimalware program you may want to consider is the free version of SAS (SuperAntiSpyware). As good as MSE and MBAM are (I use them myself), they don't catch everything, especially spyware like tracking cookies (no one program, free or paid, will catch everything). SAS will catch the occasional tracking cookie that slips through MSE and MBAM on my computer (I run a scan with MSE first, followed by MBAM, then SAS). It also plays well with MSE and MBAM; just don't try to run scans from more than one program at a time. I do weekly scans and almost never get any viruses, trojans, etc. I do get an occasional tracking cookie that SAS will find and zap for me. They are probably harmless but it is my computer and I'm darned particular about who puts what on it, especially when without my permission.

Posted 5 months ago #
Top