Aspire notebooks are designed with personal entertainment in mind, but when your monitor blacks out after only a few minutes, it's somewhat difficult to be entertained. There are several potential causes, as well as a few different ways to fix this problem.
Possible Causes This problem can be caused by your laptop entering sleep mode, overheating, damaged or faulty components, an improperly seated monitor cable, low battery and/or screen resolution set outside the monitor's range. Sleep mode is the most likely culprit, particularly if you're using your laptop on battery power. b>
Prevention/Solution Sleep mode settings are located under "Power Options" in the Control Panel. Damaged components can be replaced by Acer if you send your Aspire in for repair. Routine cleaning of the exhaust ports and upgrading the cooling system can fix overheating. Plug your laptop into a wall outlet via the adapter to see if low battery power is the problem. Boot into Safe Mode to adjust monitor resolution if you can't do so normally. b>
Considerations Acer will typically provide service for damaged laptops under warranty, typically for only the cost of shipping. They can also repair computers which are no longer under warranty, though you'll have to pay the full price for servicing. You can open a ticket with the support department to try and determine what your problem is as well. A recall has been issued for Aspire models AS3410, AS3810T, AS3810TG, AS3810TZ and AS3810TZG made before September 15, 2009, because of a problem with the microphone cord that causes overheating if pressure is applied to the left palm rest.
http://support.acer.com/ acer supOne of the most common ways to update (or "flash") the BIOS on a computer is by using a standard USB flash drive. If a new update is available for your BIOS, you'll need to flash it to update it. Short for "basic input and output system," the BIOS is the main program on your computer and will periodically need to be updated to ensure that your machine stays functioning the way you want it to. Though it is an incredibly important procedure, updating the BIOS from a USB flash drive won't take more than a couple of minutes to complete. Insert the USB flash drive that you want to use to flash your BIOS into your computer. Download the update for your BIOS from the website of your BIOS manufacturer. (The manufacturer of your BIOS will be listed in the instruction manual that came with your computer.) Copy the BIOS update file onto your USB flash drive. At the same time, make a note of the exact name and extension of the update file. Do not remove the USB flash drive from your computer.
Restart your computer. Press the key required by your computer to enter the BIOS. This key will be written down on the screen. Press this key immediately as your computer starts to turn itself on. Highlight "Boot" and then hit "Enter" to select it. Change the piece of hardware listed under "Primary Boot Device" to reflect your attached USB flash drive. This will tell your computer that you want to restart your computer and boot from the flash drive. Select "Save Changes and Exit" to restart your computer. Wait a few seconds for a command prompt to appear on your computer screen. The command prompt is an entirely black screen with a small line of white text that you can type on. Once the command prompt appears, type in the name of the BIOS update file on your USB flash drive. Then hit "Enter." Hit the "Y" keyboard key a single time to tell your computer that you want to update your BIOS. Your existing BIOS version will be upgraded (or "flashed") to the new version via the file on your USB flash drive. Do not remove the USB flash drive from your computer during this process. Remove the USB flash drive from your computer once the BIOS update process is finished. The update program will indicate when the process is finished. Your computer will automatically restart itself and your BIOS will be updated. Bios definition
http://www.butterscotch.com/tutorial/What-Is-A-BIOS
