Acer Iconia Tab A100 Won't Boot Anymore

hengman888 · February 2013

Hi,
I bought a refurbished Acer Iconia Tab A100 from newegg.com in April 2012 and last week, it just mysteriously refused to boot up. There were no recent flashes, or upgrades, etc. Just won't boot up all of a sudden. The blue light in the power button comes on and if you touch the home button, it lights up, but nothing else works, no vibration, nothing. Tried the paper clip reset, didn't help. Tried the factory hard reset that's listed on Acer's support (power button, volume control, with orientation switch in the up position, etc) and it didn't help; no vibration.
Also tried to connect the tablet to a PC to see if i can flash it using an SD card, but the PC won't detect the tablet Smiley Sad . Yes, i have the Windows drivers for the tablet installed on the PC.
I tried to submit a ticket to Acer Support but it kept saying that my tablet is out of warranty, possibly because it's a refurbished unit? I guess refurbished units don't get the full 1 year warranty. .

I've searched on Google and in these forums and it seems like this symptom/issue is quite common but so far i haven't found any solutions. At this point, i'm out of idea. Can someone (esp. someone from ACER who reads this forum) please help?
Thank you very much!
-Jeff

Blayn-Acer · February 2013

I recommend you check the warranty paper work that came with your tablet to see how to obtain service. Not all refurbished products sold at retail are warrantied by Acer.

hengman888 · February 2013

Thanks for the response. Yes, i found out (after multiple and different phone calls to ACER) that since it was refurbished, they won't honor the warranty even if it's under the refurbished warranty. After some questioning, they gave me a number to call to get warranty service for refurbished units. Unfortunately, my unit only had 90 days warranty and so i was out of the warranty period. I asked if i could get a price estimate for the repair but they told me that they will not repair any refurbished units even if i wanted to pay for it. She told me i have to find someone else locally or on the internet to repair it. Of course, being in small town USA, i can't find one locally to repair it, and the ones on line that i found charge at least $40 just to diagnose it, which is understandable, but for a $199 product, $40 is just too much. Smiley Sad .

I was hoping that Acer will do the right thing and repair those A100 units that have this apparently common and frequent failure in booting up, even if it's out of warranty. Some one mentioned that the EMMC chip is the culprit and has a high failure rate judging from the number of posts on the internet about the failures. I saw some posts elsewhere (maybe n UK) that had good luck emailing the corporate office in Taiwan. I have family and friends in Asia that have high regard for Taiwanese products, and i used to feel the same, until now, when i had to deal with ACER support. I have other ACER products that work, and i hope they don't need service. I do have some ASUS products and so far so good. Maybe it's just ACER ! Maybe ACER support in ASIA is better, i don't know. The US Acer support website is terrible. Can't get any where on the support site, if your serial number is deemed to be out of warranty.

Anyone out there with any luck on this boot failure issue? Anyone had any luck with contacting their corporate office in Taiwan to get help? I'm very close to just chucking this and not buy any more ACER products in future. I'm contemplating a Google Nexus 7. Hmm, maybe that's why Google had never used ACER to manufacture their products. They've used Samsung for manufacturing their Galaxy Nexus, LG for their Nexus 4, ASUS for their Nexus 7,etc. So far, none of them include ACER.

-Jeffrey

GamGam721 · February 2013

My Acer A100 will not book either, purchased new 13 months ago, out of warranty. Acer support website no help if unit out of warranty. If you 'reset' the unit will it help it boot after being 'reset'??

Clyde · February 2013

Resetting the tablet resets it to the state it was in when you purchased it. If you do a reset, and it does not resolve your boot issues, you should call Acer for repair.

theidiots · February 2013

I have 2 Acer Iconia A100 tablets and LOVED both.

Tablet2 failed in December sounds like it was the EMMC chip. I never got a straight answer from support but they fixed Tablet2 under warranty. I only had to pay for shipping to get the tablet to them in TX. GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE or so I thought.

Now, Tablet1 failed. Same symptoms. The problem is Tablet1 is a few weeks out of warranty. Tech Support (I had to search the web hard to find the number - it is no where on the Acer site) didn't want to even speak to me because Tablet1 was out of warranty. [I]Lucky[/I] for me Tablet2 is still not a year old so I convinced them to stay on the line. Acer refuses to stand by their product. They told me that I got my year out of it and they could repair it for $199! I could get a NEW Kindle Fire HD, or the Google Nexus7 for the same price.

Tech support refused to give me a customer support number. They claim there is no such number. They might be correct as there is no Customer Support number listed on the web site. It is as if Acer doesn't care about repeat customers or standing by their products.

I understand that Tablet1 is out of warranty but really - two tablets within weeks of each other fail with the same symptoms. I am not the only person this happened to. Come on Acer you built a whole production run of devices with a bad chip. Stand by your product.

chanteprocell · May 2013

Blue light come on and white light, but blackscreen, no vibrate. does not show up on pc when plugged in.

craftsman · May 2013

We are a small computer shop in a suburb of Milwaukee, WI. and currently have a customer's Acer Iconia A100 tablet that has the exact same symptoms you describe. When the customer first brought it in a few days ago, it would begin to boot but get stuck on the white Acer screen. We were able to follow the instructions found elsewhere on this forum to get it to the broken Android robot screen. The next step seemed to be to load the update.exe file (link found elsewhere on this forum) onto the micro SD card, and then see if it would bring the machine back to factory default. However, before we got to this step, the tablet failed to bring up the white Acer screen anymore, to vibrate, or bring up the broken Android robot. We suspect that the mother board needs replacing, so we will get a price for that and find out if the customer wants to pay to have it repaired. We only charge a modest labor fee ($35) for small devices like this, so it might end up being cost effective for the customer. We told the customer that based on customer complaints on this forum, it seems that either a software error that occurs upon update of the Android operating system or failure of defective mother boards seem to be the cause of boot failure in this brand of tablet. Since our customer's A100 tablet is out of warranty, she is content with having us attempt a repair of the unit. We will report how this repair turns out in a few days if getting the replacement mother board proves to be cost effective for this customer.

johnrine · May 2013

I have the same problem with the Acer 100. The memory controller has likely failed on the motherboard. The unit will not boot. Not worth the price to fix it since I bought it reconditioned and there is no warrenty coverage. I also had a problem with the screen flashing with random input until the unit heated up. Many issue with the Acer 100. I would not buy an Acer product again. I am waiting for the release of the Nexus 7 2.

Syed80 · July 2013

Guys, I also need help here.

My Acer a100 died few days back. Its not showing anything nor does it vibrate when you hold the power button.

However the power button goes blue and shows the home light.. That's it, nothing else.

Device is not under warranty. I took it to local shop but they seems to have less idea. I am not in US.

NEED advice, is there any way I can fix it??

roswitap · July 2013

I bought the Acer Iconia Tab A100 refurbished last July. Apparently there is a large group of consumers who have this problem with Acer.

roswitap · July 2013

After extensive research with knowledgable people I was advised that the Acer Iconia Tab A100 Tablet's "AC DC Power Jack Plug Socket Cable Harness needs to be replaced". Apparently the part itself is not expensive but the labor is. Hope this will answer your questions.

roswitap · July 2013

I am in the same situation. In June 2012 I bought a refurbished Acer A100 through Ebay official Acer store also known as

www.secondipity.com.

Without any warning unit stopped charging. I did everything you mentioned.

After extensive research with knowledgeable people I was advised that the Acer Iconia Tab A100 Tablet's "AC DC Power Jack Plug Socket Cable Harness needs to be replaced". Or possible the mother board defect. Apparently the part itself is not expensive but the labor is. I was also told that this is most likely a manufacturer default for which was the cause of the refurbishing. No one wants to take responsibility.

It is so frustrating.

fallen_01 · July 2013

I've had my Acer a100 since right after the initial release. A few months ago, it started the "won't boot" problem. The tablet had a good charge and was working fine previously. No updates had been released. About one hour after using it, the tablet would not come out of sleep. I pressed the start button to bring the screen up. The result: the blue light on the power button does not light up, no vibration, but the home button flashes.

Frustrated, I put the tablet onthe charger thinking maybe the battery had unexpectedly drained somehow (though the flashing light suggested otherwise). After a day of charging, nothing. I left it on the charger for another couple of days just in case (I know, sometimes my ideas make no sense). Still nothing. Obviously, charging was a bust.

Though I have a lot of information on the tablet, I thought that maybe a reset would help. I tried both the soft reset and the hard reset. Confident that the battery was charged, when the resets produced no result (especially the hard reset), I thought it might be something mechanical.

Thinking that the hard drive might be stuck somehow, I thought maybe disconnecting the battery would allow the hard drive to lose power, thuse allowing it to start fresh. (*shrug?*) I took the tablet apart. I unplugged the battery from the motherboard. I left it unplugged for about 30 minutes. Plugging back in still produced no results. I thought maybe the battery had something wrong with it, but wanted to try one more thing.

I put the tablet back together. I let the battery drain (no cherger, just sitting) until the home button no longer flashed when I hit the power button. Then I connected it to the charger again and let it charge for a day. After a day of charging, I tried the power button. The tablet booted up just fine. I have no idea why letting the battery drain completely and then recharging it worked when disconnecting the battery didn't, but that was the difference.

Since that, the cycle can be consistently repeated. If I leave the tablet sitting in sleep mode for very long, it locks up. If I let it sit until the battery drains completely and then rechgarge it, it starts working again. If I turn off the tablet instead of letting it sit in sleep mode, it will start fine. I'm not sure how long the tablet has to sit before it locks up, but it happens reliably. Hopefully, that lets someone with more technical knowhow diagnose this problem. While working on this, I've seen this issue pop up on a lot of forums, so I feel confident that this is a problem that a lot of people have been experiencing. At this point, I have no illusions that Acer will do anything about this, but maybe it will help some others.

hengman888 wrote:
Hi,
I bought a refurbished Acer Iconia Tab A100 from newegg.com in April 2012 and last week, it just mysteriously refused to boot up. There were no recent flashes, or upgrades, etc. Just won't boot up all of a sudden. The blue light in the power button comes on and if you touch the home button, it lights up, but nothing else works, no vibration, nothing. Tried the paper clip reset, didn't help. Tried the factory hard reset that's listed on Acer's support (power button, volume control, with orientation switch in the up position, etc) and it didn't help; no vibration.
Also tried to connect the tablet to a PC to see if i can flash it using an SD card, but the PC won't detect the tablet . Yes, i have the Windows drivers for the tablet installed on the PC.
I tried to submit a ticket to Acer Support but it kept saying that my tablet is out of warranty, possibly because it's a refurbished unit? I guess refurbished units don't get the full 1 year warranty. .
I've searched on Google and in these forums and it seems like this symptom/issue is quite common but so far i haven't found any solutions. At this point, i'm out of idea. Can someone (esp. someone from ACER who reads this forum) please help?
Thank you very much!
-Jeff

After that

ParadigmShift · July 2013

STUCK IN SLEEP MODE “UGH”

Jeff, thank you and people like you who post a problem and along with a possible solution.

I have done everything that Jeff had posted even completely draining the battery but after reading your post Jeff, I will keep trying. It is currently draining the battery.

On button, blue indicator light is on and when pressed the home button lights up.

Will keep you posted.

PieceofSlice · July 2013

Yup,

I have the same problem. I have tried almost everything, I suppose I will let it drain power, then charge it again. If that doesn't work I will most likely sell it...

roswitap · August 2013

Just got confirmation that problem either lies in IC chip or battery. It is definately not the AC jack. Repair shop has seen lots of these issues with the Acer A100 tablet. Possible manufacture defect. Not worth fixing.

ParadigmShift · August 2013

No luck at all.

blacccat · August 2013

Oh thanks, my iconia a100 is four days new to me, but after an update, it is, today that is, not booting up at first. Acer blamed it on no-battery, even after, I 'd told them that it was fully charged! It did boot-up, but only after I connected the charger/USB cord. I emailed them, they emailed back, check battery, if problem persists, contact them to set up a repair. They also suggested a visit(s) to this forum/community. And here we are. Well at least this happened before the warranty expired. Hopefully, it won't happen again, before 12 months, I think. Well, at least, I got the 4.2 update, I guess, yes I'm sure, it says so in the settings app.

billsey · August 2013

If it still will not boot without the charger connected, it probably is a battery issue. Verify that there is actual charging going on.

roswitap · August 2013

I had the Ac Jack replaced. It still doesn't charge the battery. When plugged in it works. I am taking it to a battery place to hook it up to an external battery. Will advise if it works. The only other option for Acer is "Class Action" Maybe that will open their eyes. Not the first one.

Acer Iconia Tab A100 Won't Boot Anymore

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Acer Iconia Tab A100 Won't Boot Anymore

Answers

Categories

Assistance by Acer

Swift Series Intel® Evo™

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Acer Corner

Gaming on Chromebook

Swift Series Intel^® Evo™