Acer One 10 S1002 Dock Problems

My S1002 disconnects and reconnects its dock whenever something tries to access the dock HDD after a short rest. For example, if nothing is using the HDD for a few minutes, then I go into explorer and open the HDD, it's gonna open for a couple of seconds, then I hear the disconnecting sound and lose everything connected to the dock (keyboard, mouse, HDD, any external USB devices). Then I will immediately hear the "device connected" sound several times and have evrything connected to the dock working again -more or less. The dock keyboard would go into numpad mode and I have to disable it with Fn+F11. I will have 30min of access to the HDD before it disconnects and reconnects again (e.g. when playing music, transfering a file or saving a file).

I also get the random disconnects and reconnects that other users experience, as per these posts:

https://community.acer.com/t5/Windows-Tablets-and-Convertibles/Acer-One-10-S1002-Keyboard-Problem/m-p/399024#M17457

https://community.acer.com/t5/Windows-Tablets-and-Convertibles/acer-one-10-s1002-keyboard-Touchpad-HDD/m-p/421936#M18400

https://community.acer.com/t5/Windows-Tablets-and-Convertibles/Aspire-Switch-11-SW5-171-80KM-Disappearing-keyboard-USB-port-and/td-p/364198

http://community.acer.com/t5/S-and-R-Series-Laptops/Acer-One-10-S1002/td-p/436668

Sometimes it will also not detect the dock devices on startup and can only be fixed by a restart.

It's probably not a hardware problem since I cannot replicate the problem when in BIOS/UEFI settings. This only happens in windows. The only time I ever lose keyboard functions on UEFI the screen is when I detach the dock, I re-attach dock and I get the keyboard back.

Also I noticed that the HID Keyboard Device appears twice in the device manager. I never get the "no dock" problem on startup if I uninstall the keyboards from the Device Manager then do a restart. The "disconnect reconnect on HDD access" will still be there maybe 80% of the time though.

If I connect a second keyboard through the dock USB, I get 4 "HID Keyboard Device" entries. I also noticed several repeating generic names listed under "Human Interface Devices". Detaching the dock removes all the generic names and their clones, leaving just the unique ones.

I also noticed that a lot of power management settings are unavailable. I cannot see whether this happens because windows turns off the USB devices after a while.

Edit: So I tried to play music from the HDD, and as this was the first time after some rest the dock disconnected as expected. But this time, instead of reconnecting and letting me play music I got a BSOD because of DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (Wdf01000.sys)

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AMannibal

So after mulling over the symptoms, I realized I have experienced this kind of behavior before, on other computers. Whenever I plug an external hard drive to an unpowered USB hub, everything on that hub also disconnects and reconnects. Everything will be working until I put a high demand on the external HDD, things would randomly disconnect and reconnect.

So I opened up my dock and physically disconnected the dock HDD. Voila- no more random keyboard disconnects. It seems that the HDD is not receiving enough power from the tablet.

Thankfully, it looks like it's not an electronic problem, but a physical one. The clip that holds the HDD connector to the dock board does not clamp down very tightly and so electrical contact is a bit dodgy. Acer engineers solved this by putting butressing foam on the lower cover of the dock to apply pressure on the clip and therefore make good electrical contact between the connector and the board. I am thinking that this butressing is not enough in my case, so I am now experimenting and have put a couple of layers of electrical tape on the clip to help the foam put enough pressure on the clip.

This is working for me so far.

update: it seems it isnt the connector that is being butressed, but the signal tape itself.

CharmaineWho

FINALLY! A real plausible solution. Thanks, dude! But I honestly didn't get most of what you were trying to say. With dock, you mean the one attached to the hinge? Sorry. I'm not really an expert abt hardware stuff so I hope it would be possible for to do a Youtube video. Saw a similar one on YT with Acer Switch 10 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIAuKXO7ZI8], it didn't work out for me. We would really really really appreciate that. Kind of desperate here. Been months suffering from this.

[edited to comply with guidelines]

billsey

The 'dock' is the keyboard unit and it connects to the tablet to give you a stable base as well as the features of the keyboard, HD and USB.

AMannibal

Can't make a detailed guide at the moment, but here's a quick rundown.

1. Detach the tablet from the dock (the lower part with the keyboard)
2. Remove the screws from the dock bottom. I count 10 screws on mine.
3. The bottom cover is now only held in place by clips, carefully pry it open.

September 11, 2016 15721 AM GMT+0800.jpg 4. To test if HDD power Is the cause of your problems, disconnect the HDD. You could pull the black bar on the left of the red box I drew to do that.

5. Put the cover back in place but you can leave out the screws for now. Reattach the dock, turn it ON and see if you still get frequent disconnect-reconnects

6. If the disconnects and reconnects stop, then the HDD ia the culprit. I solved mine by putting strips of electrical tape vertically across the ribbon wire (red box) and over the connector (blue box). The purpose is to secure the tape to the plastic casing and circuit board - It doesn't have to be too tight. (edit: the tape losses its adhesiveness after just a few days, and I got the problem back. It seems the solution is to put 5 layers of electrical tape under the ribbon wire, on the board right beside the clip where the ribbon connects to the board. Again, still testing how well this "solution" lasts.

7. I added another layer of electrical tape over the ribbon wire(red box) to help the rubber on the bottom cover butress the wire.

8. Put the cover back from right to left and test. It took me a couple of tries before I got the tension just right, so don't worry if doesn't work the first time.

Can't guarantee it'll work for you, but so far it's working quite well for me. Goodluck buddy.

CharmaineWho

Definitely going to try out this repair. Thank you very much for the effort! But if I may, some of the instructions were a bit vague for me to understand especially the part about the putting of electric tape under/over the ribbons etc. It might help if you could post a picture of the final placement on closeup if you could. That would be really awesome of you. Hope I'm not asking too much. Thank you again!

CharmaineWho

P.S. So did your USB port started working with external/flash drives again? Cuz that's also one of the problems I'm encountering. Can't connect any memory drives through the USB port in the dock.

AMannibal

Update time: My work around has so far worked with regards to the HDD access disconnect/reconnect problem. However it seems that there is indeed also a software problem - letting the tablet fall asleep for a long time makes the dock disconnect and reconnect indefinitely again -making it unusable until restart, and sometimes even a few restarts. I have now resorted to leaving the hdd disconnected as the software problem might end up wrecking the hdd with its fast reconnects and disconnects (I could feel the HDD constantly whiring).

So far the only solution I have for this sleep DC/RC is manually pressing the power button and not letting the tablet go to sleep on its own.

As for flashdrives - yes it works for me, specially now that I have disconnected the HDD. Have you tried connecting a powered usb hub to your tablet then connecting the flash drive to the powered hub? If it works, your problem is definitely power related.

AMannibal

Just to be clear, before using my hobo fix try the ff:

1. Uninstall the USB Composite device from the device manager then restart the pc.

2. Uninstall all keyboards from device manager then restart pc

3. Clean tablet/dock contacts with cotton and alcohol

4. Clean tablet/dock contacts with a rubber eraser (just rub it, this used to solve the problem for me)

If all of those didn't work, then open up the dock and disconnect the HDD. Test for a few days. Problems should be significantly reduced. There seems to also be a software problem and doing items 1 and 2 above solves it for me for a while.

If disconnecting the HDD does significantly reduce the problem's occurence, then try my hobo-fix. Will upload image later.

CharmaineWho

Connecting the flashdrive only works when I safely remove the HDD so what happens when I have to copy a file from the HDD to a flashdrive is: (1) copy file to tab/sd memory (2) safely remove the HDD (3) connect the FD. Obviously, it's a long process but it works. Sadly, it's not the same with external drives. Whenever I plug in an ED, everything just disconnects from the tab. I don't have a powered USB hub so I don't know. Tried using your quick fix but the problem still exists. I gotta try your hobo fix when you've uploaded the photo already. Thanks!

AMannibal

Update: There was a windows update today and I haven't had trouble with the dock so far after. I have reconnected my dock HDD and so far no problems aside from a quick, one-time DC/RC whenever a new USB device is plugged in or when the tablet is woken up from sleep (Normal behaviour for my unit when it was brand new)

Will still post the Hobo-Fix pic later, for those who may be experiencing DC/RC on dock HDD access.

---

@CharmaineWho. Yup, that sounds like a power problem. My dock also can't accept unpowered External HDD's when the dock HDD is enabled. You're gonna have to use either a powered usb hub (more practical) or get a powered external HDD.

Or you could disable your dock HDD whenever you want to use an unpowered ED. You can do hat by going into "device manger", then looking in "Disk Drives", then right clicking on the dock HDD and selecting "disable". There are 3 Devices under "Disk Drives" - The SD Card, The Tablet Memory (Samsung BG3NDR for me) and the third one will be the dock HDD (WDC for me). You can confirm which one is the dock HDD by detaching the dock and checking which device disappears.

You can re-enable the dock HDD again by right clicking on it in device manager and selecting "enable".

CharmaineWho

I have tried safely removing the HDD on the task bar whenever I tried to plug in an ED. I'll try if it works when the drive is disabled. I doubt the update will resolve the issue but thanks for the info. Thanks for the speedy response!

AMannibal

As promised, here's a photo of my hobo-fix

September 16, 2016 110529 AM GMT+0800.jpg

1. Red box is where the HDD ribbon wire clips to the board. Ive put 12 layers of tape on top of it.

2. Green Box is where I put 5 layers of electrical tape under the ribbon wire. Note that this is right beside the clip.

3. Blue box are tapes I put over dock wires to the hinged part. This covers one of the cover's screw holes so I just dont screw that one in

September 16, 2016 110529 AM GMT+0800.jpg

CharmaineWho

I tried it! I just added more tapes:

I wasn't able to try to remove the HDD cuz I didn't know how to and I was afraid to make it worse.

So far, it did solve the FD problem. I haven't tried plugging in an unpowered ED yet.

The DC/RC problem has improved signficantly, however whenever the file explorer is prompted from a browser to upload a file, it occurs. It also DC/RCs when I play music files from the HDD and whenever the next song comes on iTunes.

But as I've said, it has improved so I can honestly say this is a good fix.

I'm going to observe it for a few days and see if it's only temporary.

Anyway, this is the closest solution to the problem. BIG FAT THANKS, AMannibal!

20160916_235325.jpg

CharmaineWho

Apparently, the problem came back instantaneously after the fix. Smiley Frustrated

CharmaineWho

Hey, are you still having problems with your HDD connection? I tried everything you said but man, to no avail it just ain't doing it for me. I was able to disconnect my HDD by pulling the connection physically and truly, the keyboard works just fine so it must be just what you said about the power problem. Are there any other remedy for this?

pilou

Hi all.

I am experiencing the same problem , so I am following this thread with great interest.

It seems it is a common problem. But it is really annoying, and effectively render the use of the hard disk or anything attached to the USB plug erratic.

Still looking for a fix, as disconnecting the hard disk completely kills the purpose of this machine. I bought it for that...

Phil

AMannibal

HI, sorry I haven't checked in a long time. My little hobo-fix works for me more or less. There are times when it will still Disconnect but the rate is way below than before.

Maybe changing the HDD out for an SSD may help? SSD's are supposed to draw less power. I'll try to get my hands on one and report back if it works. (Not making any promises though)

Paranoid

I have the same issue with my Acer One 10 S1002 (2 gb ram and 32 gb rom varient) . The issue is not a software issue but infact a hardware issue. The hdd is severly under powered and it draws excess current when the spindle starts to rotate(it only happens during it's first spin as any electrical motor draws excess current while it's starting to spin). This is a design flaw and some 2 in 1 laptops doesn't support a hdd to avoid this issue. But some laptops does support external hdd via usb port and ours works fine too.

Any work arounds ? Well it's a long shot but here it goes !

Our laptop's hdd is basically a Seagate Thin Laptop hdd(yes that's it's name).It have 4 jumper pins on it's right side(when placed in a way that the segate branding faces upwards). Short the first two pins using a jumper pin connector or anything metallic, this will put the hdd in a reduce power spinup mode which basically means it will only draw less power than usual (may or may not reduce the hdd performance).

Wait! Why is it a long shot?

Well in most of the places where people specifies about this ,they are referring a western digital hard drive and ours is a seagate. But lets hope it's the same and don't worry it won't fry your hard disk. I'll try this tomorrow and sees if it works, right now I don't have a good connector to test this.

PS: The duct tape thingy is not effective at all it's just not the contacts that makes the issue and even if it was duct tapes won't help .You're better off with a thermal glue or something. Also if this idea doesn't work I'll most probably write an application that opens a file and writes something in a fixed interval just enough make the hdd stay awake and its spindle spinning.

Paranoid

Okay so I tested the jumper pin fix and it didn't work. So the only solution is to make a program that writes to a file(remember it should be writing something to the file and not reading from the file). This will keep the spindle ON but it will drain your battery like crazy.

pilou

Thanks for the test. Very interesting.

Now that you have been able to open your machine, do you think it would be possible to replace the HD by a digital one ? Would you have any idea of which model would fit inside ?