Aspire One Error Message about BIOS Bug

Sky50

My Acer AO532h-2588 notebook PC boots fine as far as the BIOS screen, but no longer boots my Windows10 OS from the internal hard drive.  After the BIOS screen, the display goes black, or black with a white cursor in the upper left-hand corner.

 

Here is a possible clue to the problem: When I attempt to boot my PC from a USB drive with Linux Lite on it, I get the expected Linux Lite menu screen, but when I click "Start Linux Lite", after a few seconds I get the following error message:

 

[0.239053] ACPI BIOS error (bug): \_SB.PCIO._OSC: Excess arguments – ASL declared 5, ACPI requires 4 (20190816/nsarguments-160)

[5.303711] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] No Caching mode page found

[5.303720] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through

 

Then the screen freezes.

 

Of particular interest is the term “BIOS error (bug)”.  As I mentioned, the BIOS screens look fine, but that error message seems to indicate that my BIOS software somehow has become corrupted.

 

A quick web search indicates that my problem is common on this particular Acer model, though some of the black-screen Acer PCs don't even display the BIOS screens when booting from the internal drive.  The fix appears to be a re-flash of the BIOS with fresh software downloaded from the Acer website.  There apparently is a way to do that without having a functioning operating system by using the downloaded Acer DOS BIOS files, rather than the downloaded Acer Windows BIOS files.

 

Any Linux experts or BIOS experts out there?  If so, does this appear to be a BIOS problem?  And if so, can you suggest the best way to repair my BIOS?

JackE

I know you're desperately trying to revive this netbook without digging deeper into the hardware. However, it is likely that the 10+yo CMOS button cell has dropped  below 3.1v and may be acting almost like a BIOS chip charge drain or reset. This might be causing the issue. These cells only have an unusued shelf life of less than 10 years. So it's even older than the netbook's assembly. I suggest that you try to replace the cell before you go too much further with trying to mess with reflashing the BIOS via the guru's FN+ESC method..

As a last resort, you can also purchase brand new replacement netbook mainboards for less than $30. Aliexpress often warehouses this stuff stateside in KY so deliveries can be less than 2 weeks. Rarely more than 4 weeks if shipped on a slow boat.