Acer Aspire 8930G boot up (Bios) frozen

my laptop freezes on startup at Insyde H2O "press F2 to access bios".
Happens on either battery or power supply startup
Tried rearranging RAM, swapped Hard Drive.No funny smells or noises.
Fan OK.Bios has loaded partly.....CineDash is lit and semiactive, BlueTooth
is lit and will not switch off.
CD/DVD spins but does not boot. USB pen drive LED shows active
Laptop has been well looked after,not overclocked Bios has NOT been flashed
does anyone have any ideas?
Considering gently taking it to bits and checking for anything obviously faulty
checking connections on plugs and sockets like you would do with a benchtop
Where can you get info about opening up the beast without damaging it.
Can the Bios go bad? Any point in disconnecting the bios battery for 30 mins
to "reset" the bios.
I have seen some references to starting the Bios from bios code on a USB stick in threads on this site....could this be a solution?

Any advice please

 

Hi chippy86, I've just been given a 8930g as a new project, to try getting it to work. The info that came with it was that the m/board was dead.
I see that you have the exact same laptop, and the exact same problem as me.
Maybe we could compare notes as we go along and hopefully succeed with our repairs.
I see you were looking for info on how to open the "Beast", it's fairly simple so if you haven't got that far I can help.
Do you know what happened exactly to cause the problem? I don't have that info with mine.
You talked about the bios recovery, that's exactly where I'm at....I remember reading a while ago about the Fn + Esc method, but wouldn't be sure if it can be applied to this model.
If someone here knows if this works or not on the 8930g, I'd be pleased to know, and the method stages.
I'm sorry for hi-jacking your thread, but I haven't been here before and don't know the rules.
Hoping to hear from you soon, and thank you in advance, ne1mad.

 

I have fixed numerous computers with the exact same problem.

1. Replace the RTC/CMOS battery with a brand new one. You can buy it at pretty much any store that sells batteries.
2. Reset the CMOS via jumper or by shorting a hardware gap.

Find a service/repair manual for your model to find disassembly instructions, location of CMOS battery and CMOS reset/clear jumper. All this info is easily found in Acer repair manuals that you can find online for free.

If this doesn't help, strip laptop to the bare minumum (disconnect everything that is not essecial for the computer to POST (get into BIOS)). I usually leave just the motherboard + RAM (known good working RAM) and power button board. I also prefer external monitor, but sometimes that is not an option. If all works well then keep adding components until it stops booting. In the last laptop I fixed, the problem was with the touchpad. If it was connected, computer would not post and without it would work fine.

Cheers!

 

Thanks for your reply....see also reply from Prikolchic who also suspects the
bios battery.I will keep you posted about progress.
Would greatly appreciate any hints about accessing the beasts guts,those
little plastic clips often used are easily broken...dont want to get to the.....
"wish I hadnt done that!"Laptop worked perfectly until just freezing on bootup

Thanks for your encouraging remarks,I was thinking along the same lines
surprising how many "electricals" can be fixed with a bit of switchcleaner
and TLC.Will see if I can find the manual on line.Keep you posted

 

Thanks for the reply chippy86, I found a free d/load of the service manual, it's very good. Can supply you with the details if needed.....
If you remove the battery first, you will see two very small screws underneath, these have to be removed....
Also u/neath remove the screws along the "pipe" where the sound comes from, and there is one in each end of the pipe, that's eight in all, the two ends will slide off....then one more at each end adjacent to the ends that have slid off......should be twelve in all...
Turn the beast up again and very carefully using something very small, i use a needle or a very sharp Stanley knife, ease one side of the power switch panel up, if one side is tight then try the other side, once it moves it'll come up no trouble, but be veeerrry careful....
Next is the keyboard which just slips out, be careful there'll be some zif's under it, you'll have to release two of them to allow the k/board and the panel to be free.
After that it's easy enough as you can see where everything is.
Best of luck, ne1mad.

 

Hi prikolchik, thank you for your guidance. In my case I think it is a mobo problem, hopefully not. I stripped it down taking the zifs out as well, leaving just the mobo, cpu, h/s and fan, and one memory strip. Still nothing, so I'm investigating to find where the cmos battery is, it's not mentioned in the manual, I'll have another wee look.
Should it post without the graphics card?
Thank you again, and regards, ne1mad.

 

Thanks...I will pluck up courage when the garden does not take so much time
would appreciate a copy of the workshop manual if you can point me at a
source

 

Hi, would have to send it direct to you and not through the forums, probably against their rules.....if you can send me your email address through a private message I'll sort it out....

Just thinking, it's been d/loaded legally, so here's the url
[REMOVED]
good luck..

 

Nope, it will only post if you also have an integrated graphics card and I don't think you do. I don't think it will even get into the BIOS

Yeah, I took a look at the manual and I could not find it either. They did a poor job. I then simply googled for motherboard photos and found the battery location. Here it is:

It is located to the right of touchpad area on the bottom side of the motherboard. You might be able to access it simply by removing the bottom plate.


I am afraid you will have to order the battery on ebay, you can't buy this one in a regular store. The battery is pretty generic, just make sure the size and connector plug is the same. Just search for "acer cmos battery" on ebay. Something like this should work. Shouldn't cost you more than $10.

 

Thanks..... chippy

 

Thanks, printing now!
have always made a habit of reading Haynes etc BEFORE attacking M/Cs,cars
washing machines,watches and electronics.looks very informative.Chippy

 

@ prikolchik

Thank you from me....ne1mad

Update;
Got mine sorted, stripped it down and had the motherboard out, checked cmos battery, found a detached wire in the power area, soldered it and bingo....what a machine, really something, good luck with yours, ne1mad.

 

Great Stuff,well done keep your fingers crossed for me....still on gardening
duty

 

still struggles with the beast! I used to mend watches (successfully) as a hobby.If you take a 8930 to bits you will need small and tiny phillips, tweezers,magifying glass or loupe,note book and digital camera.plastic trays
to place the screws ....a good light and time and patience.
have to strip out the MoBo to get at the Cmos battery tested at 2.85 v,new
CR2032s tested similar so replaced.blew everything out with air,switch cleaner.reassembled carefully...exactly the same symptoms as before.
Feel a bit discouraged.Gave the MoBo a MK1 eyeball (magnified) inspection
nothing wrong.
Seen some reference to a "crisis recovery" file set that can be loaded from
USB stick following battery removal insertion of USB with correct files **HELP** here please Press Fn+ Esc plug in power lead press power switch and release all buttons..should read and load "crisis disc"

Am I on the right tracks?

Where do I find the "crisis disc " files

Does the Insyde Bios do "beep codes"?.........Thanks folks

 

The "crisis disk" files are for Phoenix BIOSes, yours is InsydeH2O, not Phoenix. Crisis recovery on InsydeH2O simply involves burning a BIOS image to CD (or on some machines, copying to an USB flash drive) with a special file name. AFAIK this special file name is "KM2X64.FD" for the 8930G.
Then, remove the battery from the notebook, disconnect the charger, press and hold Fn+Esc on your keyboard, connect the charger (while still holding both keys), press the Power button, release Fn+Esc, and insert the CD or USB drive containing KM2X64.FD.

After a few minutes, the machine shall power off. Disconnect from charger, put back the battery, and you should be good to go.

 

Thanks ....very grateful for your quick response.will try this out this
evening after my gardening duties.Is any Bios file recommended specially?
My early tests showed brief access to a USB stick during the failed bootup
Chippy86

 

No special BIOS file, any *.fd that can be flashed with InsydeFlash or Flash<!-- fsck you, word filter!-->It can be used for recovery.

 

Gardening allows more time,my time on the computer/s is mainly wintertime.
Trying to make bootable USB stick to run Fla and Acer Bios.
Appear to need boot files from a floppy.
I have a USB floppy drive (car Boot) but PC wont find drivers.
the drive is HP 254304-001 made by Samsung SFD-321U/HP,neither
HP or Samsung website have anyhelp.
Does any one have any suggestions

 

No floppy or boot files needed for an InsydeH2O-based laptop - you should use a CD with a BIOS image renamed to KM2X64.FD (and nothing else) burned onto it. That is enough to recover a bad flash. (I actually use this method for regular flashing as well - using a rewritable CD.)

(Floppies and boot files are only needed on PhoenixBIOS - Insyde is totally different.)

 

Thanks,sorry to be a pest.Will try tonight...........Thanks again

 

I had a similar issue as I rebooted I coulod hit f2 but it paused and took 5 to 10 minutes to boot. I brought the laptop to work and it booted fast. I then took it back home and dissconnect all external drives. I also set in BIO to turn quiet off. What turning quiet off did was is showed an devices were being checked. So when quiet Of i rebooted and it showed information about processor and the machine and then paused. After the pause of 5 or 10 minutes i saw on the screen it was checking the drives and the next thing the Windows loading screen came up. I had disconnected all external drive so that wasn't the problem. The only thing that it could be was my wireless printer. I turned the printer off and the system booted with no pause. I turned the printer on and tried again and it paused.

 

Still having problems.Downloaded Bios 1.20 from Acer site.renamed as
KM2X64.FD.burnt to a formatted CD. Followed Fn +Esc startup.CD ran....
screen remained blank(ie lost "press F2 to access Insyde Bios).Thought
SUCESS..But no change on rebooting.
What am I doing wrong?Any other suggestions?

 

Did the machine shut down by itself after the Fn+Esc boot?

 

no....I left it for 1 hour...then restarted which put me back to the

"F2 Insyde Bios".......Tried a couple more times.

Should ! try a different version of the Bios?

Is the fact that the Bluetooth LED is lit significant? should I try to disable

the Bluetooth?

Thanks for you continuing interest in my problem, it is very much

appreciated!.......Chippy

 

WHOOPEE!! the beast is now working.
Bios flash did the trick! For me USB stick with LED formatted FAT (not NTFS)
bios file xxxxxxx.fd from bios ver1.1 renamed KM2X64.FD. Fn + Esc on
power up and all OK.

A very big thanks to everyone for their advice and encouragement.
I think the Bios battery was a red herring..seems to only run the clock?

 

I am glad you got it to work!

No. It also makes sure your BIOS settings are saved (the chip where they are stored is energy-dependant). You would be surprised what kind of computer problems you can have with a bad BIOS battery. Anything from failure to boot to occasional freezes and screen going blank. I have been called "The Computer Magician" multiple times for fixing computers simply by resetting the BIOS settings and replacing the CMOS battery

 

This laptop is kicking my butt...
I checked the CMOS battery and level is at 3.27V which should be fine.
Followed the well detailed steps above but i notice the following...

- The screen still goes to "F2 for Setup" screen it does not go black at any point
- The light on the USB drive does not light up
- When i tried with a CD it spins but doesn't make the screen go black
- My caps lock light works so the keyboard is registering...

Is there anything i could be doing wrong to have the USB not register? the steps seem very simple to follow... I tried releasing the Fn+Esc keys for longer and releasing them right after hitting the power button does not seem to make a difference...

Any suggestions are much appreciated.
Ken

 

HA WOW got it! I had to do the following...
1.Plug in charger
2.press Fn+Esc
3.Press Power
4.release Fn+Esc
5.plug in USB
6.black screen reboots
7.VICTORY!!!

Thanks for the great website and posts

 

Does this method works with a usb keyboard with FN key, too?

The main keyboard is broken, (fpc connector) and i need the usb keyboard.

... the specified FN method does not work anyway

Requires the FN method, the internal keyboard?

 

hello i have a acer 8930g yesterday i try to flash the bios with wrong edition and my laptop is crashes and dont open any more...any suggestion how i can fix this? removing cmos battery will help? is this damage can be permanent?

 

hello..i have a acer 8930g..i just flash the bios but with a wrong edition and i cannot turn on my laptop..i tryed everyting Fn+Esc, USB etc but not working..only big blue light is on when im connecting charger..hope some1 can help me!!

 

Hello! I have Acer Aspire 8930. When I try to power it up all I can see is "Press F2 to enter setup". But nothing happens when F2 is pressed. When another HDD is connected everything works just fine. I tried to put acer's HDD in another laptop and everything works just fine! But when HDD is put back in acer nothing happens. Can someone please help me? Sorry for my bad english

 

I just tried this on my 8930G but with only some success, now the Power button works to shut down when I get stuck with the press-F2-screen. Before the bios flash nothing worked and I had to remove the power chord to shut down.
Anyone got any idea on what happened and why the computer still doesn't start?

What I've done:
- downloaded 1.20 BIOS from acer web-page, unzipped it, rename the folder to KM2X64.FD
- KM2X64.FD-folder copied to an USB-stick formatted as exFAT (only option available besides NTFS and FAT32)
- Fn+Esc then POWER, releasing Fn+Esc
- USB-stick inserted, LED is flashing, something is happening
- computer shuts down

 

The 8930G did it again!!!!......This time changing the battery. Dead screen Start button "on" some of LH control panel lit fan runs..Is it DEAD?

NO...it was the b*^***dy Bios again....I nearly puuled it to pieces thinking something had broken

 

BUMP

My Aspire 8930G - 844G32Bn
Did stop to post. "Screen did lit up and mark upper left"

Before i tested i did remove cmos Cable mem bla bla bla. A good Clean no input.

Did test bla bla bla.


Download Bios 1.20 from Acer site.renamed as
KM2X64.FD.Place it on a fat32 formated usb drive. Clean one

I did have the usb connected from start.





kronks
HA WOW got it! I had to do the following...
1.Plug in charger
2.press Fn+Esc
3.Press Power
4.release Fn+Esc
5.plug in USB
6.black screen reboots
7.VICTORY!!!

Thanks for the great website and posts


did work using my sencond usb memory


Its now up and running. Bdw if you take the bios file from the windows folder you dont have to rename it, and the sub memory that worked whas an old 256mb that have a dos bot partiotn for flashing bioses. and i did use the ports to the left. dont remeber if it whas the normal usb or the esata/usb.

Sry for bad eng.

---
Fick igång den natten till 2013-08-10 +1

 

I'll go ahead and bump this page for everyone that's going to experience the same problems I did in the future.

At boot I was stuck at "Press F2 to enter setup", and resetting the CMOS memory did nothing. I tried several times to flash BIOS but after a few seconds my computer turned itself off and nothing changed. I saw someone before me experienced the same issues. The problem seems to be if you put the BIOS flash files from the folder "DOS" on the USB. I tried putting all the files from the "Windows" folder, did it all again and now my PC works.

Here's the instructions:
1. Download the BIOS software from Acer (I downloaded 1.20).
2. Unzip.
3. Format your USB stick to FAT32.
4. Put all the files from the folder "Windows" that you've just unzipped. Put them on the USB stick.
5. Fn+Esc -> Start -> Hold Fn+Esc for about 5 seconds then release
6. Wait til PC turns itself off or restarts.
7. Win!

Christmas greetings from Sweden!