Re: Failed Flash BIOS after upgrade


Firstly, Do not trust ACER Engineers - they have created a mess of the
BIOS Flashing process, which doesn't ever work in Windows correctly.

Acer Laptops have good hardware for reasonable cost, but Support is
where they suck.

Do not use the Windows BIOS version to make a BIOS Flash. I did the
same mistake with my "new" Acer 4152 NCLI Laptop purchased in 2006 and
when I asked for help from Acer support I realized I had to pay "phone
consultancy charges" per 30 minutes.

So, Always create a DOS Boot Floppy and then Flash the BIOS, its
simpler and saves you headaches later.

Anyways, this was not the first episode with my ACER Laptop- I had
Windows XP not booting up or "hanging" on boot up, so I decided to move
to Linux - PCLinux 2007 which is a far better O/s. You can read all
about my Acer Adventure and PC Linux 2007 recovery on my blog at
'http://charlesvaz.blogspot.com/2006/09/is-it-knoppix-time.html'
(http://charlesvaz.blogspot.com/2006/09/is-it-knoppix-time.html) .

Ok, here is the step by step instruction since I faced the same problem
and I have fixed it - easily to my surprise.

*Get an External USB Floppy Drive

*Create a DOS Bootable Floppy Disk
(using Win XP from Format Menu, you can also go to any of the disk
recovery sites and get a dos bootable ISO and write that ISO to a CD
and then boot the CD and then make a bootable Floppy)

*Go to the Acer Europe web-site or choose region as Europe from
Acer.com (ftp://ftp1.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/) .

*Download the latest BIOS zip file for your model or the closest model
(Example: If you have an Acer 4152 model laptop, you should choose
travelmate_4150) . From the bios directory, download the latest BIOS
zip file, in which you will find a readme.txt Example for 4150 the
latest BIOS version is 2.50D.

*You have to be lucky to find the following line in your readme.txt
"Using Crisis"

*If you find the above line in your readme.txt, you can proceed with
the recovery, since you have a DOS floppy and you also have a way to
create the 512K ROM file which can be copied along with bfla****.bin on
the Floppy.

*Now when you have downloaded the zip - sometimes there are two
versions as for 4150 model - EDL00_250_WinFlash.zip and edl00_250.zip.

*Do not use the Windows version to make a BIOS Flash. I did the same
mistake. Always create a DOS Boot Floppy and then Flash the BIOS, its
simpler and saves you headaches later.

*Unzip the edl00_250.zip file and then you will see a file that
resembles the name BUILDROM.Bat or BUIDROM.bat (spelling mistakes are
common with ACER)

*Open a DOS command prompt on your Windows machine or other laptop and
then run the batch file

*You would have created 6 ROM files of 512K length each -
43M.ROM,44MV.ROM, UMA.ROM and their corresponding DOCK versions - i.e.
43Mdock.ROM and so on.

*Now you have to copy bfla****.bin and one of the above ROM files onto
the DOS Bootable floppy you have created.

The process is trial and error and there is no harm done at all.

*I tried without the DOCK versions and when I tried by renaming UMA.ROM
to BIOS.ROM as the first readme.txt said, and copying that to the Floppy
it worked like magic.

*Take the floppy and connect the external USB Floppy Drive to the "Dead
screen Acer Laptop", No need of removing any battery or any screws from
the laptop,

*Just press Fn and ESC keys together on the "dead screen laptop" and
press the power button (making sure that the laptop is on AC power -
since if the power in your laptop fails during the BIOS Flash, then you
may need to replace the BIOS Chip - which is a sad process.)

*After you have pressed the power button on your "dead screen laptop",
keep the hold on the Fn and ESC key till you see the green light on
your External Floppy Drive with your DOS Bootable Flash floppy being
read inside.

*This is a good sign and you can now release the Fn and ESC keys and
just watch the laptop slowly reading in the Flash from your Floppy and
"Burning"/writing the new flash software into the Flash EEPROM chip.

*Keep the laptop for 2 minutes as it is and you will see the hard disc
power light go off and the laptop only showing the AC/Battery light -
meaning the laptop has now powered down.

*IF ALL is WELL with the .ROM file you selected then you shall see the
BIOS screen as soon as you press the Power Button on your "new ALIVE
screen Acer Laptop"

All the BEST and keep trying all the 6 files (maybe 6 files are an
example for 4150) - similar process should exist for all the "new" ACER
model laptops.

All about Technology at 'http://charlesvaz.blogspot.com/'
(http://charlesvaz.blogspot.com/)


--
LinuxGuru
.