ASPIRE 5315 BIOS RECOVERY using a USB THUMBDRIVE

THIS IS INTENDED FOR USE WITH ASPIRE 5315, 5720, and 7720 models based on the ICL50 motherboard which uses the INSYDE type BIOS.

HISTORY::

EXCUSE THE LACK OF FORMATTING...
i cut and pasted this from a PM i sent to a member who had a corrupt BIOS.
i accidentially corrupted my BIOS while creating this walk-thru for him, but atleast my effort to help him ended up helping me recover my own BIOS even though it didn't work for him...


INSTRUCTIONS::


FORMAT A USB THUMB DRIVE use FAT, or FAT16 as the file structure when you format it!
use a small capacity thumbdrive if possible,, large thumb drives may require FAT32 to format properly(and no floppy ever required FAT32 so that might cause the recovery to fail)

then put the FILE (linked below) ON THE BLANK THUMB DRIVE

ICL50HW.fd (important FILE from the actual CRYSIS FLOPPY DISK IMAGE)


download and copy it to the formatted thumb DRIVE

go to the 5315,,

(1.) REMOVE CD or DVD if possible (you may have to press the power button the quickly press the CD EJECT button)

(2.) REMOVE ALL USB DEVICES, NETWORK CABLES, (anything hooked to the laptop)

(3.) PRESS AND HOLD the POWER BUTTON DOWN FOR 5 secs to shutdown the laptop

(4.) REMOVE BATTERY

(5.) REMOVE AC CORD

(6.) PUT the USB THUMB DRIVE IN USB SLOT ON RIGHT SIDE OF LAPTOP (the one i used anyway)

(7.) PRESS AND HOLD the POWER BUTTON down for 10 secs... release

(8.) while holding FN + ESC plug in AC POWER CABLE, (KEEP HOLDING FN+ESC the whole time)

(9.) NOW PRESS POWER BUTTON & HOLD IT DOWN... THE FAN SHOULD SPIN UP (keep holding FN+ESC) ONCE FAN SPINS UP, RELEASE POWER BUTTON

(10.) eventually the fan will shut off.... (seemed like 30 seconds,, but could have been 5 minutes... i was freaking out)

when fan shuts off i unplugged my AC CORD... REMOVED THE USB DRIVE,,,, and then plugged the AC power back in,,,

then pressed power and my the miracle of technology and my preserverance... i got a green power light followed by an ACER POST SCREEN!!!

(BIOS VERSION IS GOING TO BE OLD AND TIME IS WAY OFF)... but atleast it should boot..

time to winflash back to 1.43

BTW when using WINFLASH... exit all programs,,, kill all tasks in taskbar... (i never do,,, but it's a good habit to be in)


GOOD LUCK,

bigO

 

Finally....!!

And it is best to flash in Dos, since you can't really trust Windows , when playing with firmware.

(I'll have to spread some luv before repping you..!!)

 

hip hooray BigO did it

 

should i put the exe on the usb? should i do anything with it? try to run it or anything like that?

 

if you have a floppy drive in the PC you are using now you can copy that exe file to this PC and exicute it... it tries to create a bootable floppy image

and that floppy when created should contain ONLY the file "ICL50HW.fd"

then copy that file or all files on that floppy onto a freshly formatted USB DRIVE

then remove batt and AC in the dead laptop... and resume the walk-thru at the point where it says to plug in the USB DRIVE

 

!!!!!!!!

it worked.
the steps followed through, almost to the letter.

on the Aspire 5720Z model:
you DO NOT need to hold the power button down the whole time... in fact, it wont even start until you release the power button.

also, i removed the USB drive before turning the power on, also went into safe mode to make sure everything was good, but it worked.

thank you bigO and everyone else.

 

you are welcome... that will be $20 sent to my pay-person account j/k

congrats on being the second to use the BIG-O BIOS RECOVERY METHOD with success!

glad to have been of help
maybe some day you can return the favor

later,
bigO

BTW how do you like the TIME and DATE settings... it's Y2K!!

 

actually, mine are correct.. dont know why...
anyways i dont mean to hijack this thread, but i figure it might become a common issue for anyone else who needs to use this to recover their bios.

for some reason, my touchpad doesnt work when i boot windows normally. it works when im in safe mode though.. thats the weird thing.
should i try to flash my bios (to v.1.42) from safe mode? or should i try to boot flash it?

 

Boot Flash, or uninstall - then reinstall drivers.

 

ok, i could certainly use some help with boot flashing...

 

I am not sure if it is the same on all Acer models, since the BIOS utilities are different.
1. Prepare a bootable diskette.
2. Copy the flash utilities to the bootable diskette.
3. Then boot the system from the bootable diskette. The flash utility has auto-execution function. (at least for my notebook - Phoenix BIOS)

or check out the readme.txt - DOS flash: Please kindly unzip the <ICL50142A.zip> under windows mode and do system reboot to boot to pure Dos mode. Then, click "IF50.bat" batch file to update bios under pure Dos mode.
(And keep a Crisis Disk Handy..!!)

 

lol yeah, i have my crisis usb.. thats going to be my life saver...
im not sure how to make a bootable cd though.. thats the problem

 

I am not sure if it'll work with a bootable CD, you'll need a bootable flash drive or a USB FDD..

 

actually the USB DEVICE DOESN'T need to be bootable with this MOTHERBOARD...
BUT YOU CANNOT USE A CD TO DO RECOVERY USING THIS METHOD so ANDY is right again

by holding the FN+ESC with battery and ac removed,, and then applying power while still holding buttons down,, the MB goes into a special FLASHMODE which simply copies an IMAGE.FD file from the USB PORT into the INSYDE BIOS... (a relatively new BIOS type and new recovery method).

but if you check the INSTRUCTIONS on the RECOVERY METHOD you never need to use any boot files... just format the thumb drive and copy the image to the thumb drive... next you insert the thumb drive, then hold down FN+ESC and add power.... and wait

 

This is a brilliant discovery, though I hope to never need it .

and well done to the tech guys who built this little bit of absolute meltdown resilience into the platform .

 

This is an ingenious recovery method. I'm going to save myself some time with this trick.

Thanks a bunch!

 

after a bit more research and testing i think the file on the THUMBDRIVE is simply the IMAGE FILE from the DOS flash dowload... so you could substitute the IC50142.FD from the current DOS FLASH download,, place that FILE on a BLANK usb thumbdrive... and then follow instructions above to flash the BIOS to the CURRENT VERSION instead of the old 1.11 version...

i'm waiting on someone w/ a corrupt BIOS on an aspire 5315, 5720, 7720, or any system with an ICL50 motherboard

PM me if you have a dead ASPIRE w/ the ICL50 mobo and i'll help you thru the process just to see if my theory is correct!

later,
bigO

 

Congrats on your great tuto Bigo!!!

P.S: AFAIK, you can replace the old ".fd" crysis file for any newer DOS bios file

 

does that IMPLY you might have done this??

thanks,, and thanks for the heads up on the new stuff... even when i check daily, you still get there first!!! (i must sleep too much)

 

This doesn't work for me i follow your steps but my 5315 doesn't boot at all???
I try-ed the fn+esc key everything but my lap-top stays dead???
Could you please help me out??

Thanks

 

1.) are you holding the FN+ESC keys down the entire time
2.) you did FORMAT your thumb drive in FAT or FAT16?
3.) now transfer the bios file to the thumb driive. some have suggested renaming it bios.fd
4.) now you should have a thumb drive with only one file on it. INSERT IT BEFORE holding the keys.
then insert the AC plug, and if nothing happens then press and hold the pwoer button.
now if nothing happens (fan spinning) then release only the power button while holding the other 2.
5.) does it eventually cut off after a few minutes??
6.) if not, how long until the power cuts out, and the system shuts off?

 

I got the battery out of the lap hold down the fn+esc key plug in the ac and pushed the power button
But the system stays dead nothing happens at all.
And i did got the tumbdrive in with the file but the system doesn't even spin up the fan.

 

it sounds to me like you have more than just a dead BIOS CHIP... my pc will light up and spin the fan even without a CPU present.....

i tend to lean towards a bad motherboard... since there is no seperate charging board.. it must be the motherboard or the AC POWER ADAPTER.


just for fun, put the battery back iinto the machine,,,,,

does the battery LED light up?? orange or green??
look at the AC ADAPTER, is it's little light green??

i'm going to ask this just incase, but i assume you've tried a different wall plug?

what happens when you try to power-up normally (w/ battery and AC present)?

 

Nothing happens with or without battery, no led turns on.
I even got the adapter from on other lap-top and that also didn't work.
I think your right and i now totaly wrecked my lap-top, now i can try to track down a motherboard and see how that will work.

Thanks for the quick reply's.

 

that laptop should be under warranty!!!

let acer pay to fix it instead of paying yourself....
just besure to remove any upgraded parts and replace with original parts before sending it in for repairs

do you have your PRIVATE MESSAGING DISABLED??

i was going to send you a message asking how it died?? what was happening when it died? if you were doing a BIOS FLASH, did you have to terminate it due to a lock-up of the WINFLASH program?

i'm trying to increase my knowlede about this model since its the model i own, and i have so many people asking for help and advice... any info i can find is a good thing!

 

I think i'm not allowed to send pm's on this board read something about a problem with a member.

The problem is if i send it back to acer and they will find out that i made a mess of the bios no matter what is wront with the lap-top they will blame on that.
Because i switched the hard drive for a faster one and formated the old one it will not contain windows for the lap-top, also a big problem.
And on their site it says you do it on your own risk, so i have to pay 125 euro for the examination of my lap-top and after that the parts + the hours to fix the problem.
It will cost me more then a new one, now i have a friend that tryes to track down a motherboard for me so we can switch it our self and save the money.

And yes i used winflash but this was new for me and i found this board a little bit to late.
I had everything running at the time, virus control, msn you name it i had it running.

And if you want to stay up to date about what is going to happen about the problem and how we fix it, maybe some pictures i don't know.
That should not be a big problem, a staff member is able to find my email adres.
And he could give it to you i have no problem with that i just wont post it here for obvious reasons.

 

i totally understand that...

i'll compose a better reply later tonight....

 

Hi Bigo, and excuse my delay (explained it by pm )

Yes, I have tried that procedure with my factory Bios file (v1.19), and it went ok, so I guess it can be done with any ".fd" file, despite the acer crisis disk cames with much older version.

As always, kind regards.

 

thanks for the info... that's very good to know... i love my motherboard...

all i can say is "SWEET"

 

for first, thanx bigO for ESC+Fn+power tip

and there is my experience with Acer 5315 - Verify Error in WinFlash and dead ntb

recovery with USB drive doesn't help (tried 128MB and 1GB keys) - fan was still on - i wait cca 10 minutes
so

1, i download newest dos bios, rename it to "ICL50HW.fd"
2, burn it to CD-RW - no boot disc, just only file - ISO, closed disc
3, insert disc to ntb dvd drive, battery out, ac power off
4, Fn+ESC hold, insert AC power, press Power button (no need hold - but still hold Fn+ESC) - fan is working
5, after about 2 minutes notebook shut down
6, remove AC, then plugin back - Power button - voilá - 5315 is back

so, it seem CD is still usable

enjoy and thanx
s.

 

thanks very much for taking the time to detail your experience... as a result i have changed the first post and a few others to correct info about the CD and the steps taken to get the recovery started...

glad i was able to help even a little bit,,, and i'm glad you took the time to give back to the ACER community here @ NBR..... with ACERs you get a great PC for the price,, but i find it best to start troubleshooting problems here or at your favorite TECH SITE... if you have any other ACER SITEs to share with us, or other knowledge about the 5315 or acer in general,, we are always happy to check things out..... and my 5315 upgrade thread is constantly growing and being updated with more and new info as i gather it!!!

 

elbubi, did you rename the image to ICL50HW.fd
or did you just copy the file retaining the name assigned by acer when they created the ZIP file?

just curious,, i'm trying to streamline this process and remove any doubts as to the requirments to successfully recover the BIOS..

thanks for your help

 

i have a aspire 5315 and ruined the bios,downloded the latest version tried to install but gave me a error "Internal server error" or something like that and my laptop got stuck!!took out the battery and nothing,even on ac even on battery only the network cable led is lighted but tried all the solution and the Fn+esc plus power doesent start my cd rom so that the cd could boot,im stuck can someone help?
sorry for my english
ps my fan is out all the time

 

using another PC copy the file ICL50FW.fd to a BLANK CD or BLANK THUMB DRIVE..

insert the CD or thumb drive... then remove all power from laptop (ac and battery).... next HOLD FN+ESC WHILE INSERTING THE AC PLUG THEN PRESS THE POWER BUTTON until the fan spinsup then release the power button

until you get the BIOS RECOVERED,, no CD is going to boot the PC... you must use this ICL50HW.fd file on a BLANK CD or a freshly formatted THUMB DRIVE... and holding the FN+ESC while inserting power and then turning pc on calls up a special BIOS RECOVERY procedure...

you will know that the BIOS RECOVERY is working when you hear the FAN running at full speed.... (i've never heared my fan spin so fast before or since)

i'm not sure,, but i believe you can release the FN+ESC keys after the power LED is lit and the fan starts up... (but i thought i held those keys the entire time that the BIOS was being recovered,,, yet others have reported that they could not get the BIOS to recovery until releasing the FN+ESC keys)

just try and see if it works for you either way...

if you don't have any luck with this method,, you may have to send it back to acer so they can cover it under warranty.

 

So using a cd-r a cd-rw with nero tried anything but my fan still doesent start, but the when i insert the LAN cable the led next to cable light and the funny thing is that when the battery is inserted the Lan led lights only when i press the power button, so that confuses me because then the motherboard is ok and just wondering why it doesent spin the fan or the cd

 

So i heard of reseting the bios with the CMOS battery but i didnt find the battery maibe u can help me to find where is it so that i can take it out so that tha bios is reseted and to get my acer working

 

In the case of the Aspire, does it matter if the file is called something other than ICL50HW.FD ?

I'm having a similar problem with my Compaq see here

Sorted

 

when i try to make a factory default disc i keep geting an error reply after disc 1 has burned and the disc won't work and when i try to restore to facyory default it ask's me for the empowering tachnology password which i do not have one please help.....

 

i need to download to the latest version of bios for aspire 5315

 

Hi!
I'm trying to to apply the described procedure to a dead :-( Acer Aspire 5514 with no success; it seems that the usb pen drive is not loaded when I hold Fn+Esc.
How can I make it work?
Thank you in advance

Mark

 

hi, thank you for the thread!
i guess i can find my answer in here , here's my laptop model: ACER
aspire 5720 - 1A2G12
i've done all the procedure and all commands seem ok but the problem is that the laptop is not turning off (and believe me it does not... i waited even 40 minutes...) i think its not reading the cd/usbstick at all (tried wiw both).
can u please tell me what i can do or at least any other file that i might try (i've already tried many .fd files from acer website), is there any other way i can revive my laptop? thank a lot im really gettin crazy after 3 days wiw no solution.
thank you
voeller

 

hi, thank you for the thread!
i guess i can find my answer in here , here's my laptop model: ACER
aspire 5720 - 1A2G12
i've done all the procedure and all commands seem ok but the problem is that the laptop is not turning off (and believe me it does not... i waited even 40 minutes...) i think its not reading the cd/usbstick at all (tried wiw both).
can u please tell me what i can do or at least any other file that i might try (i've already tried many .fd files from acer website), is there any other way i can revive my laptop? thank a lot im really gettin crazy after 3 days wiw no solution.
thank you
voeller

 

erm... sry for the double message :|

 

Hi i was Searching the Net because i wanted to delete the bios pass and found this forum.

I did like you discribed but now my notebook dont even get the lights on.

Can you help me?
i have the aspire 5315

 

Hey I tried the fn thing and my fan spins but thats it, it never does anything else does this mean my motherboard is messed up?

 

i'd say the MB is OK

have you tried to burn the FD file to a CD and then boot w/ CD in??

 

OK. I know you have been sick and all, but really, try visit here more often.

Please.

We all miss your contrubutions here.

The Acer Forum is not the same without you and Hoggie

Cheers and strength mate

Theo

 

i'll try to contribute more regularly TJ....

it's good to see you and hoggie here.

thanks for the support!

 

First of all thanks for the response but, I was wondering do I just burn the file onto the cd or do I have to make an iso. Also does it matter if I burn it on a dvd or cd-rw, does it really make a difference?

 

nobody answered my question but i think its because iam new?

anyway

maybe somone could help me.

here some more infos.
i have a usb stick (128mb formated to fat16) + a cd with only the firmware in.

when i press fn+esc + all the other things nothing happend. no fan spin no led`s

the only leds which are blinking are the leds when i put my network cable in.

do you think my motherboard ist fu***ed up?
Please help me since the notebook is not mine....