Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG/5820TG Modded BIOS (Insyde)

There is a modded BIOS available for Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820/5820 (T/TZ/TG/TGZ). The mod was done by mask89 over at Russian forum forum.ixbt.com. Here is the original post (in Russian).

Both 4820/5820 share the SAME BIOS

BIOS IMAGE WAS NOT TESTED. IT MIGHT BRICK YOUR COMPUTER. TRY IT AT YOUR OWN RISK!
That being said, if BIOS flash is bad it should still be possible to recover.

Acer Aspire 4820/5820 original BIOS v1.23 (for recovery)
- this image can be used to recover notebook if it does not boot after flashing to the modded BIOS.
Download: ZQ1X64.fd.zip / mirror1 / mirror2

Acer Aspire 4820/5820 modded BIOS v1.25: by mask89
- Added Integrated graphics option to Switchable graphics: (Integrated/Discrete/Switchable)
- Unlocked hidden menus Advanced and Power BIOS Setup
- Unlocked AHCI Option ROM Support and USB RMH Mode
- Added UEFI boot support. Now you can boot via EFI Shell.
- Fixed problem with entering BIOS and Acer logo
- From Main removed Quiet Boot and Network Boot, now you can find them in Boot tab.
Download: Acer_Aspire_4745_4820_5820_v125_UEFI_more_options.rar


Acer Aspire 4820/5820 modded BIOS v1.23: by mask89
- Added Integrated graphics option: (Integrated/Discrete/Switchable)
- Unlocked hidden menus Advanced and Power
- Added UEFI boot support. Now you can boot via EFI Shell.
Download: ZQ1x64EC_mod_v2_UEFI_BOOT.rar / mirror1 / mirror2 / mirror3

So far, this BIOS was tested on 4820TG by Licht at forum.ixbt.com ( here). He reported that it works great, except the BIOS setup sometimes freezes and computer has to be manually restarted.

Please leave a comment on whether this works for you or not. It would also be of great benefit to the community if you posted photos of the unlocked menus.

How to flash the BIOS: (for Insyde BIOS only)
You need to have some kind of storage media with BIOS recovery file on it. You can use USB flash drive, SD memory card (via built-in card reader) or CD to store BIOS recovery image. For Acer 4820/5820 BIOS recovery file name must be ZQ1X64.fd. This is very important, because if file name is different then it WILL NOT WORK.. Just copy the BIOS file to an >> empty<< USB drive or SD card (FAT16/FAT32 formatted) and you have created recovery media.

Then do the following:

1. The notebook must be turned off.
2. Plug in the thumbdrive into USB port or insert SD card into the card reader. They must have BIOS on them.
3. Press & hold Fn+Esc key while powering the notebook by pressing the power button. Keep holding the Fn+Esc key.
4. When you see laptop's LEDs flashing or notice activity on the thumbdrive's LED indicator, release Fn+Esc key.
5. The BIOS file will be read from USB drive into notebook's memory and flashing will begin. You will NOT see any activity. Screen will remain blank. This is completely normal.
6. Flashing process takes about 2-3minutes. Once BIOS flashing is complete, your notebook should automatically restart. Wait at least 5 to 10 minutes. Only interrupt the process if there is no response from the notebook for more than 10 minutes. If that is the case, then shutdown the notebook manually by pressing the power button. Power it on and see if the BIOS flash succeeded. If not, try the flashing process again with another USB stick and make sure you did all the steps correctly.

​

If flashing did not work, then try another USB stick, make sure BIOS filename is correct and make sure all the steps are done in correct order.

If your computer does not boot with modded BIOS
Do not panic. It is possible to bring it back to life. Simply follow the above procedure, except this time you flash to the unmodified original BIOS image that you can download at the beginning of this post.

Cheers!

 

cool, i don't have this laptop. Can he fix the throttle issues some people experiencing?

 

No, that's a hardware issue with the i3. A repaste is probably your best bet.

Very, very cool, by the way. I'll test this when I get the laptop later this week. Is the BIOS in English, or translated to Russian?

 

UPDATED: Okay, after flashing with the modded BIOS in this thread a 2nd time. I got it to install correctly. I have all the graphic settings (Integrated, Discrete, Switchable), advance options, power options, etc.

I had to reinstall the Intel GMA HD graphic drivers when I switched to "Integrated" in BIOS. Choosing "Integrated" in BIOS stays with the Intel GMA HD graphics and doesn't automatically switch graphics in Windows 7.

Switching back to "Switchable" in BIOS works perfectly fine too.

The only bug I have found so far is that sometimes pressing F2 to enter "setup" will freeze the computer. Powering off the computer with the power button and restarting the computer fixes the problem. Not a major problem since nobody really messes with the BIOS that often unless a setting needs to be changed.

THIS WAS A RISKY EXPERIMENT FOR ME. TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK! YOU COULD BRICK YOUR COMPUTER!

 

Here are the photos if anyone is interested.

 

Hey aylafan,
Have you discovered any cool performance-tweaking functions in the unlocked menus? i.e. voltage control or things of that sort.

 

I didn't see any voltage control settings, but there were thermal settings on how to control the fan speed by temperature in increments of 5C like 65C 70C 75C, etc. There were numerous settings like turning on/off HT, enabling multiple cores, turning on max battery mode or performance mode, etc. in the Advanced CPU Control.

There are too many settings in the modded BIOS for me to understand at the moment. It seems like each category has a sub-category and each sub-category could expand with more settings.

I'll have to play with this modded BIOS tomorrow. I'm going to sleep because I have early work tomorrow.

 

Just wanted to mention that many of those settings do not work. Like fan, for example. It is controlled by the Embedded COntroller and not the BIOS. So changing those fan speed values will have no effect. You can try it of course. Who knows

Thanks a lot for posting feedback and photos.

 

With this modded BIOS, could we upgrade the lcd screens to a higher res? I thought I read on here that going to a higher res screen wasn't a simple swap, but dealt with modding the BIOS.

 

Here are some more photos. I just took them at work.

 

I truly don't know. I didn't see any settings related to the display of the laptop.

I'm also positive that some of the advance or power settings don't work. I'm still messing around with the modded BIOS to see what settings are unhidden.

 

Wasn't the display problem the cable output, not the BIOS? Check over that thread again.

 

thing is a real pain in the to get into bios after the update...... like 1 in 50 shot so far.....

 

What is the problem?

 

Really? I get 3 out of 5 tries. Best way is to restart the laptop from Windows 7 and not use the power button for a hard power reboot. Even though that shouldn't make a difference, but it works for me.

Also, I had to flash a 2nd time for the modded BIOS to actually work during boot.

 

Weird... Can you try this BIOS? It is all the same, except there is no UEFI boot.

 

I did try the no UEFI boot BIOS from the Russian forum and it would always black screen on me.

The UEFI boot BIOS works fine for me. I can get into BIOS most of the time without it black screening on me. I'm going to stick with this modded BIOS over the original BIOS.

 

No uefi works great. Problem is I am dual booting osx and windows and UEFI makes like a lot easier..... i tried after a windows reboot and it makes it a little more often but its the damnedest thing.

 

I'm new in this Forum,

!**Hello Notebook Review**!
__________________________________________________________

At first I have to say " I crashed my Notebook(Aspire 5820TG)".
I downloaded the modded Bios file and renamed it to 'ZQ1X64.bin'.
Put it on a USB Stick (2GB) and startet the Notebook as you said.

FN+ESC ---> Power on ---> wait --> But after 10 minutes nothing happend.
The Fan was running all the time.

I restartet but after that,
-black screen -Power Button lights -CDDrive is running

I thought, "just take the Orginal Bios 'ZQ1X64.fd' " and flash with it.
But thats also not working :&/

Ihope, that i will find a solution with your help
Best Greetings
R_L

 

I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be named "ZQ1X64.fd" and not "ZQ1X64.bin" for the modded BIOS. That's how I did my flash.

Hope you will find a fix. I've been able to recover with the original BIOS on several occasions already.

Just follow the steps from the first post of this thread.

 

I've tested nearly all possible Bios flash methods.
And of course, the Orginal Bios flash described in this threat.

I would really be happy if someone would have a Tip ;/

Best greetings
R_L

 

If you put a .bin instead of .fd, then I am 99.9% sure it did not even flash. Maybe the problem is with something else?

Try another flash drive. Format it FAT/FAT32. No files other than the original BIOS file with proper filename ZQ1X64.fd (has to be that EXACT name, or it will NOT work).

Try removing the hard drive and then flash.

Same steps as on front page... It is really straightforward.

Could you describe what exactly you are doing? Maybe you miss an essential step or press wrong key combination?

If that doesn't work, I guess you will have to call Acer and send your laptop for repair (so that they can do BIOS recovery).

Just something that helped me before:
1. DO NOT flash, simply turn on computer and leave it for 5 minutes. Then close the lid and wait until it goes into Standby. Open lid and press power button. If it doesn't want to go into Standby, this method won't work =p

2. Try reseating the RAM, booting with just one stick.

 

*ALSO try the different USB slots*... for some reason the one furthest away didn't work for me, but the one nearest did... strange, but it obviously made a difference in my situation.

Question: Is there any way in these new bios to change standby to S3? or is that the default?

 

i have a question for you guys, when you have a corrupted bios on the laptop, Does the power indicator led on at all when you have the ac plugged in? reason why i asked is because i have a friend who installed a new battery and when he turned it on it just flash and never come back. The power led indicator doesn't turn on even though it is plugged in. I tried holding the power button for a couple of minutes without any power in the laptop still doesn't turn on.

 

Nope, that does not sound like a BIOS problem. That is hardware. Either power adapter is busted or something in motherboard is fried. No BIOS update is going to fix that!

 

Does this BIOS allow tweaking of clocks? For example, tweaking the FSB speed of the system thus allowing possible overclock the traditional way?

I know Core i Arrandales don't use "FSB" but they still have a reference clock and a clock generator. If you're able to tweak that, overclocking should be possible.

I will be all over this BIOS if it tweaks clocks.

 

I don't see any FSB speed tweaking. The "only" worthy tweaks in the BIOS is controlling the thermal settings on the CPU throttling, the fan speed by temperature, and having the option to choose the "Intel" for the graphics. Besides that, there isn't much in the modded BIOS to mess around with.

 

So,
I have tested all kind of Bios flash methods and of course the standart one too, but it doesn't work !
If i power on and do nothing; the fan is running for 5 sec. and the CDDrive is searching for a disc !!

I have talked with the acer Support and they told me that a Bios update is out of gurantee (also if u run the Acer Bios updater). Perhaps they change the Mainboard, because they have no tools to fix the Bios .
So all in all, i have to pay if they repair the Notebook.

Thats's not funny at all.

 

Retry, the FN+Esc flashing method again. It works fine for me. I just tested it with an original Acer 1.25 BIOS yesterday to make sure it wasn't luck doing it the first time.

Try a different flash drive or USB port.

 

i took the orginal bios from this thread. And i put it on a usb stick (fat 32...)
put it in a hole in the notebook and booted with the FN+ESC method .
Power button was blinking and nothing happend.

I think i did nothing wrong. Because, how should i have killed my bios, if i was doing this wrong ? :/

 

That is not true. When my computer wouldn't boot from a bad flash, after talking to Acer they said that it is totally covered under warranty and will be fixed with no charge. I fixed it myself via BIOS recovery method though.
They DO have special tools for flashing the BIOS. They will probably just do the recovery procedure via Fn+Esc.

That means it entered the flash recovery method. Have you tried a different flash drive? Less than 2GB? Did you make sure there are no other files on the drive?
Please take off the bottom plate and remove the harddrive. Remove the CD drive. Try flashing with just one RAM stick installed.
I have seen people mentioning that recovery sometimes doesn't work when harddrive is installed, or doesn't work with certain flash drive or USB slot.
Also try formatting the flash drive.

 

Here is what I did to get it flashed back to the original 1.23 BIOS.

I extract ZQ1X64.fd from the zip file and put it in the USB flash drive.
I plug in the USB flash drive to a USB port while the laptop is turned off.
I hold down keys "Fn+Esc" and then press the power button (the screen will black throughout the whole flash process).
I wait for my USB flash drive to blink its lights and then I release keys "Fn+Esc".
The fan starts spinning very loud (probably at 100%) and after 2-3 minutes; the laptop restarts itself with the updated BIOS.

Did you follow these steps exactly?

P.S. Don't pay attention to the power button lights; only the USB flash drive lights. If you don't have lights on the USB flash drive then wait 15 seconds or longer before releashing keys "Fn+Esc". You could be releasing the keys too early and the laptop didn't have the chance to read the USB flash drive.

 

@prikolchik --> The Acer Support told my that. So i will wait how many Dollars i have to pay. (And of course i had removed DVD and HD Drive)

@aylafan --> the first time a flashed (killed) the Bios, the USB Stick lights up.
After that the USB Drive just does nothing anymore.

Important: I can't wait 5 minutes till something happens (USB Stick blinking), because the Fan goes out after 5 sec. ! And without cooling at full speed the CPU would be killed for sure.

So long,
I have to see how many bucks i have to pay.

 

Good luck getting the laptop fixed. By the way, my fan didn't spin at 100% the entire time. It only did it for around 10-15 seconds during the beginning and then it went back to low/normal speed (not really audible) throughout the BIOS update process. I hope you are not ending the BIOS update process too soon.

So, the light on the USB flash drive doesn't stay lit up during the BIOS update process? Mine just blinks a few times when the laptop first reads the USB flash drive and then it just stays lit up.

P.S. I don't think the CPU is running at full speed during the BIOS update and your CPU will most likely not die with the fan on low speed or if it is completely off. The CPU has a built-in protection mechanism and will throttle down or shutdown when it gets too hot.

 

what about modded the new bios with 1.25ver ?

 

It's a modded BIOS from a Russian site; not from this forum. You can ask them for a newer version.

 

download the file, extract the file, rename, shutdown, plugin, fn and esc and power on. Not working, what am i doing wrong.

worked on the 5 attempts.

------------------------------

okay, so i have a real problem. the Switch graphic doesn't show up in bios under main(in the modded bios). It should be the last item. I can't get it to work in windows either even before the modded bios installed. I just installed a clean windows 7 and installed drivers from acer, the graphic driver that includes ati and intel, and Manageability Engine Code driver.

 

So Acer told me that the Mainboard is destroyed (Bios )
looks like they can't flash the Bios.

So, i have to pay - 100€ for 1 hour work and - 125 € for the new mainboard
with transportation costs (13 €
all in all 238€ !

damn........

 

BIOS chip can be re-flashed manually by someone who is good with electronics. You need to unsolder the BIOS chip, flash using special equipment, then solder it back.

I would suggest you talk with a manager (level 2 agent) and explain to them that your computer stopped working after a BIOS upgrade and that it should be covered under warranty. It is covered in North America, so I don't see how it is not covered in your country.

-------------------
Apparently, there is a way to overclock/overvolt (or underclock/undervolt) both 6550m and 5650m video cards on 4820TG/5820TG. Here is an excellent guide in Chinese (use google translator if you need): Modify 6550m 5650m vBIOS (Chinese) OR Google translate (English)

 

@prikolchik, any idea why my ATI graphic doesn't work? it doesn't show up in the modded bios environment either.

 

@ prikolchik ---> i life in Germany and i have already talked with a service agent. He told me that Bios problems are not covered by the gurantee. .....
But i will ask them a second time.
thx

 

Are you sure you have 4820TG and not 4820T? Try resetting BIOS settings to defaults. I don't know what else to suggest, sorry.

Does Windows see the card?

 

Yes, i see it at the bottom : 4820TG. Like I said it worked before. I reset to defaults with no luck. Does windows see the card ? you mean using programs such as cpuz or hardware monitor ? no. Only intel.

 

watch out, watch out, this is hot ! LOL

Mod BIOS v1.25 for Acer Aspire 4745 and 4820 / 5820
item added to Integrated into option Switchable graphics : (Integrated / Discrete / Switchable)
unlocked hidden tab Advanced and Power BIOS Setup
unlocked items AHCI Option ROM Support and USB RMH Mode

BIOS íîóòáóêà. Íàñòðîéêà, ïðîøèâêà, âîññòàíîâëåíèå, îñîáåííîñòè... [11] - Êîíôåðåíöèÿ iXBT.com

 

Can you share how you unlocked UEFI Boot? I've been struggling with doing so on the Aspire 5720G for ages.

 

Today i got my Notebook from Acer.
They also installed a new Front Cover and TFT Frame.
#So the notebook looks like a brand new one.

Costs 238€
And it took some time.....

so long R_L

 

I flashed the bios okay, but after fiddling around with the settings and saving it it won't power on properly. It comes on for about three seconds or so then powers itself off and repeats infinitely. I am quite positive that I screwed up some of the settings but I don't remember exactly what settings I messed with.
I've tried removing the CMOS battery and pressing FN+ESC while booting up with no effect.
Any help?
Thanks in advance

 

Rofl. I tried the new BIOS as soon as I spotted it here. I was mainly interested in ALPM control, but what the heck ... after a while I noticed that Windows 7 would hang, while Funtoo worked great. So I changed some of the settings and BoooOOOOMMmmmm - the machine does not start at all.

It seems like the POST is never even executed. The power light is lit for a sec, then the machine restarts... and it does this over and over again... I will try to replace the CPU this weekend - and try to reset the CMOS again - but otherwise this looks like a case for motherboard replacement. Aw, great.

Sometimes I wish I could be a computer user, but my fingers just won't stay away, even if the darn' thing needs no fix. GroooooOOOOOWWWwwwwll !

//

 

So, the consensus here is that we should not try the modded BIOS because it is unstable, right?

 

Yes, I've been telling people in this forum to avoid using the modded BIOS because several people have issues with it and some have even bricked their laptops.

I've successfully installed it 3 times, but I was lucky that it worked. It started to get really annoying when I had to hard power on/off the laptop several times for it to get into BIOS without freezing and that is why I'm on stock BIOS now. I haven't tried the newest modded BIOS and I probably never will.