ASPIRE 5315 BIOS RECOVERY using a USB THUMBDRIVE

Thanks to everyone who helped me especially big O I finally got my bios to work. I would like to say this though, this is the second time my Bios flash crashed. The first time the computer turned on with a cursor on the screen and I was able to recover using the usb strategy (didn't try the CD strategy). The second time the computer wouldn't even turn on so I tried the USB strategy again and it didn't work so I had to used the CD strategy (used nero express to burn) which did work. Hope this helps anyone else who is having troubles. Once Again Thanks to everyone I appreciate it more then you know.

 

Congrats On The Recovery

 

I realize this may be off topic but I am attempting to do an auto bios recovery using the USB Fn+esc method on an Acer 4330. I have the latest bios version on a FAT16 formatted thumb drive and am able to get the computer to read the USB drive but I don't think I have the right file name for the new bios file as the computer reads the USB drive and then shuts off. The computer definitely goes into autoflash mode when I boot holding Fn and esc as the fan spins up and the USB lights up both of which don't happen when I try to power up normally. Acer technical support was not able to help me after 1 escalation and the information is not published on their site. Anyone have any ideas or know where to find a list of file names that pertain to specific Acer models that support this function?

Thanks

 

Welcome to NBR

What BIOS does the Acer 4330 has?

 

Crysis 1.16 I downloaded it off of their european site because the US site only had a windows based flasher package that did not unzip with a stand alone bios file.

Also, I have contacted Acer technical support and had my call escalated to an American who said that as far as Acer knew, the computer had to have the mobo replaced ($450 and the warranty would not cover it). Now this may be the standard practice but I believe that this computer's bios has a boot block recovery sector that can be initialized with the appropriately named bios file on a USB thumb drive or USB floppy disk drive. There is another poster on this forum with the same computer that is attempting to do just this and has made some attempts to find out the name of the file that the boot block recovery sector will recognize. His name is f4e~... I don't remember the whole name but he too is looking for this information. I will provide more details as to the exact bios version. The mobo is made by Acer and is a JAL90.

 

Ok but this doesn't answer my question. The guide in this thread is for INSYDE BIOS for Aspire 5315,5715 and a few others but I'm pretty sure 4330 is NOT in the list. Therefore there is a very good chance that the BIOS filename might be different in your case.
What is your laptop's BIOS? Insyde? Phoenix? Other?

 

Right, I assume that the bios name is different. However, the primary function--this auto recovery from the boot block sector via "auto flash"--will work the same as with the 5315 just with a different file with a different name on the USB drive. The bios is made by Insyde, not Crysis, just confused the names. I'm not sure if I should have made a new thread but it would be helpful to have the names of these bios files that correspond to different notebooks all in one place. Similar threads that contain information about autoflashing an Insyde bios on various notebooks:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=304332
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=283514
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4385553

And a guide where Acer talks about the process but just with one model notebook (not mine):

http://www.acerpanam.com/synapse/fo...90&website=acerpanam.com&siteid=7117&areaid=2

There is quite a bit of information out there and it would be nice to know the pattern by which Acer assigns these names rather than just finding the name that corresponds to each model. At this point, I'll take either. Thanks ATG.

 

My above issue has been solved. I used the USB flash drive method (formatted FAT16) with the latest bios file renamed to "JAL90x64.fd". There doesn't seem to be a pattern but Wims Bios forum references this file name pertaining to a bios decompression. I believe that the x64 refers to the 64KB of the .fd file that the boot block loads during autoflash. This method should work with all JAL90 boards.

 

These symptoms reported or at least VERY SIMILAR and also using the same RECOVERY methods are occurring on the ACER ONE NETBOOKS too.

Funny, I have been seeing more and more reports of this as of late... and I have been keeping my BIOS up to date and making sure I have all ACER latest drivers and such. I didn't see this RECOVER method UNTIL about 1.5 - 2 months ago appear in ACER's List of files for the NETBOOK.

I think something is either targeting ACER SYSTEMS or Windows Updates MAY have done something or be incompatible with system drivers or code. Because as soon as I had this issue, I went to the ACER site and all of a sudden the IMPORTANT FILE *.wfd was available with exact details on the method to use as described by bigO.

Just an observation.... could this be a sabotage? I have 2 HP systems both the same age as my ACER NETBOOK ONE and they have not had THIS problem... BUT MANT ACERS ARE HAVING THE PROBLEM AND NO EXPLANATIONS are available... HOW WEIRD!

 

This is a very strange phenomenon indeed. Acer contracts Insyde for bios source code and then modifies it to meet their needs. In many cases it seems that the Bios supports boot block recovery but Acer isn't offering any information to end users regarding how to do it except in the case of the Acer Aspire One which is the last link of my above post. All I know is that Acer support wanted to do a motherboard replacement (not covered under warranty on a notebook bought retail in Dec. of 2008) and quoted my client $450. It seems that money is the motivation in this instance.

 

hello
please help!
dont know where to start. i updated my travelmate 6493 with wrong bios and now it wont power up. i rolled back to xp from vista and couldnt find a driver for an unknown device. so, i jumped on to the acer site(Aus) and downloaded a newer bios(ver 1.02). windows hung after that.panic...panic..searched the forums then found a newer bios (ver 1.03) from eurosite...downloaded that and flashed and now laptop really dead.
can anybody point me to the right direction? i called acer and was told this is not covered by warranty.
wife doesnt know yet....im in deep $h%*

 

hey guys, will this procedure work on a Acer Aspire 3000? I tried reverting to an older bios and now the laptops bricked. The power light is always on but no screen, fans or any other activity.

 

What's your laptop's BIOS? I doubt the Aspire 3000 uses Insyde BIOS, it will probably use Phoenix....Check the index sticky for a Phoenix BIOS recovery thread.

 

awesome.. thanks i'll check it out and let everyone know if it worked for me..

 

hi
i am looking for help with a dead aspire 5315.it worked okay one day, the next it was dead.it powers on fans spins power light on,but after 10 secs power light flashes once and switches off.i have tried to flash using the methods mentioned,using a floppy hdd and also a flash drive but to no avail.
i would be gratefull for any help

 

Tried to flash bios...froze with an error using winflash...wouldnt turn off...so I decided to take out the battery and AC...now its dead.

Whatever you do dont take out power (battery and AC) if you get locked up. I believe the Motherboard is fried. I havent any LEDs beeps or any sign of life at all. Have tried all things mentioned in this thread. To make things worse I now have 2 gigs of crucial memory and a t8100 waiting to be installed...this sucks! Gonna try to get a replacement on ebay and swap the harddrive. Hopefully I wont have to reformat if its the same model.

 

Hey, just wondering when you try these methods does the fan spin at all or not at all?

 

thanks for the reply.
but no the fans do not spin. Not even an led, nothing at all.

 

I have ran into exactly the same thing you have. I tried updating the bios because I was having problems with them finding my dvd rom drive. And when I went to update them the laptop just locked up. After letting the thing just sit there for several minutes, I decided to take the battery out and unplug it. Now I got no power lights no fan no nothing. I have also tried everything on here to fix my problem to no avail. If anyone has any more advice for me feel free to email me. [email protected]

I was wondering if hotrippr ever had any luck with repairing his laptop or not? It is a shame that acer has to put this crappy bios upgrades up. Because of them I will never purchase another acer product.

 

No I sold it "as is" on ebay and bought a brand new toshiba, never again Acer.
I tried everything.

 

Thanks Bigo you saved my laptop. i am seeing a few problems tho it keeps freezing up for a couple mins and then its fine for a little while and it will freeze up again and so on... i was thinking if i updated to the latest bios it might be ok but flashing the bios is how i got in this mess in the first place i didn't know what i was doing, could somebody walk me through flashing the bios. and do you have to use a floppy disk or can i use a thumb drive?

 

I've killed my laptop twice now trying to update the bios i must be doing something wrong can somebody help me?

 

How exactly do you flash? Flashing the BIOS should be done on stable system ONLY using the RIGHT BIOS for your laptop's model. All other applications you might have running on the background should be closed especially virus scanners, defrag software etc.

Also, what OS are you using?

 

I have the acer aspire 5315 vista. At the start I tried to flash the bios(got the bios from the acer website for the right model)

from v1.19 to v1.43 and I got the "verify error" and the system locked up. I had to use the crisis recovery on this thread to get

it back but it kept locking up for a couple minutes and then its grand for a while then it'll do it again and again. So i thought

because the recovery puts the bios back to v1.11 if i updated them it could sort it out so i tried again closed every program that

was running and got the "verify error" again. I recovered it again and i still have the same problems. Does anyone know what

causes the "verify error"?

 

First time I hear about such problem but it seems that the BIOS your laptop originally came with is NOT configured properly or there is a problem with the..chip where it's located. I guess when you try to flash, the updater encounter a mismatch in the middle of the updating process hence the "verify error". It's probably at a point where there is no programmed "coming back" and because of that it continues and finishes the update process but with errors, causing the problems described.

I strongly suggest you contact Acer about this issue. I don't see how you can fix this by yourself unless you know how to modify a BIOS, know exactly which part is wrong and know exactly what are the correct "values" for the affected part.....

 

Yeah I'm going to have to contact acer. Thanks for the info anyway

 

would this method of flashing bios work with acer extensa 4630z?
i think i flashed my extensa 4630z with 4630 bios.

it boots up well until it gets to the part where xp says loading and then it shows bsod. please help me.

 

Maybe it's an AHCI problem. Why don't you just flash the right BIOS then? If it boots, it can be flashed I suppose.

 

you mean from usb?

i will do this
1)make a bootable usb disk with HP utility
2)put in "JALA0124.fd" "FLASH.BAT" and "flash**.EXE" inside it.
3)boot from the usb and then call out flash.bat which has following lines inside it
"fla JALA0124.fd /FE /B /DC" (got it from acers website.)
4)cross my fingers and wait

would it work? Any steps i might include/exclude/change for good?

**haha too funny "flash it" is not something vulgar not here at least.

 

If it is listed on Acer's website like this for your model and it's the right BIOS for your notebook, it should work.

 

Your 4630z is part of the Extensa 4630 series, the BIOS is the same so you've used the right one. After the flash your BIOS might have entered in "factory default mode" so you might need to to switch to IDE or AHCI mode. What's the BSOD looks like? Whats the error code? 0x000000....?

 

well i will be able to get the error number here after few hours. meanwhile how do you switch to IDE or AHCI mode? I have xp installed. I thought it was a software issue and tried to get the repair thing going from xp cd but at the point where the cd tries to access the hard disk i get the bsod again.
Any bios options i might change? I already tired "load optimum default" or some thing like that. It did not work.

 

Look for "HDD mode" option. It will be set at AHCI or IDE(most likely AHCI). Switch to IDE mode then save and reboot.

 

thanks a bunch it just worked.

 

Hi,

I'm going crazy

I've got a Timeline 4810TG and i would like to find the correct sequence for making a BIOS RECOVERY using a USB THUMBDRIVE.

I've tried the sequence of the first post in this topic but the problem is to find the correct name that the bios file must have.

BIOS_ACER_1.26_Windows_AS4810_AS4410
JM4151126.exe
GPC_V126.bin
FLA.EXE

It is all the stuff i've got in the bios rar from Acer


Could you help me ?

Thank you,

 

Same problem (with another model, the 8741 travelmate) here. If somebody could tell me how to recovery-boot, i would be willing to send ham and beer to the poster!

 

Do you think if I installed xp on the notebook I would be able to flash the bios in dos mode?

 

To be able to flash in DOS mode you don't need XP..you just need a bootable DOS usb stick or CD.

I don't think your problem is OS related. Though....I guess it is worth a shot flashing under DOS..

 

how do i make a bootable DOS usb stick?

I tried to flash the BIOS again but this time i tried to flash it back to the version it came with.
this time i got the SMI WRITE VERIFY ERROR can anyone explain whats wrong.
I had to recover the notebook for the third time.

 

Google it. I think if done it once and I google the solution.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=dos+bootable+usb+stick

j/k

 

i think i'm better off just sending off to acer.
any idea how much it will cost to fix?

 

Nope, I've never used Acer support...Besides, I suppose it vary by countries so..

 

Hi,
I found this board last night cuz I messed up my wifes Acer 5315 BIOS. I was updating her bios because her laptop was turning itself off after being out of sleep mode about 20 mins and she found out that updating the bios would solve that issue. When I went to flash the bios using the WINFLASH, I did not close the internet browser I had open, after it updated the bios it just popped the laptop off without any warning. Upon reboot I kept getting the BSOD, and when I installed the XP cd I had and had it boot up that, the install section stated no HDD could be found. I believe that the winflash screwed up the bios and I tried the CD trick to no avail. The fan spins and every few minutes the cd starts to spin for about a min, then just stays in that loop. What am I doing wrong? I burned the image using the CDBurnerXP.

Thanks
C

 

@clwest
Go into BIOS and set HDD access mode to IDE instead of AHCI and it should work.

 

Just enter into the BIOS and switch "HDD Mode" from AHCI to IDE. That should do it.

I think your flash worked fine, the thing is, it sets back all BIOS settings to factory default which means IDE Mode=AHCI. Windows XP doesn't like AHCI..

Edit: der_mali beat me to it. In the last 10 days or so we have like 3-4 cases like this. I wonder if ACER did something to the latest BIOS update to set all the settings to factory default...or it's just a coincidence.

 

Hahaha. Ok. I didnt even think of that. Nor did my friend who is computer savvy. I completely forgot that it needs to be in IDE setup. Ill try that when I get home.

 

I just wanted to thank BigO and sinyanga for their helpful posts here, my bios screwed up and thanks to their posts I was able to recover my laptop.

 

Does this guide also for an Aspire 8930G? Unfortunately, I have flashed my BIOS wrong and now is doing nothing more. When I connect the power cord only runs the fan. I can not turn the notebook. The screen remains black and there is no beep to hear.
Can someone help me with this problem?
Regards
Elmar

 

Hi there
I flashed the Bios (from Acer webpage vers. 1.10 to vers 1.13) on my notebook Acer Aspire 8930G - 864G64Bn. No I have a really big problem.
I can switch on my notebook and it shows the Acer empowering people screen, but stay there. Nothing happens. The only thing I can do is press F2 (is the only thing which is offered on the screen) But also there it just says please wait.... and nothing happens. At the first time reboot after flashing I was able to enter the Bios, but since than I can´t.

So I read a lot of using a usb thumb drive or an external floppy drive.
Will this work for my notebook and should I copy just the .FD file on it?

Please help me! Willing to pay also after solving my problem some money via paypal if it´s helpful.

Thanks in advance!!!

 

Hey all,

I have just tried to recover my 7720g to the latest BIOS version (v1.45, renamed to ICL50HW.fd) using both the USB (post #1) and CD (post #30) methods and neither were successful.

The powering with FN + ESC technique does work... but it didn't recognise the USB (kept looking in the CD-drive every 7 seconds)...

With the CD method it did do something and switch itself off after (as if it was updating it)... but it still doesn't boot up and is stuck on the black/blank screen...

Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated!