Acer Laptop with Phoenix BIOS: BIOS MOD Request

Hmm it detects the disc - and with Fn+ESC pressed, it also reads a little. Had it sitting for 10 minutes afterwards, then pulled power, but still no boot.

 

Successfully flashed another 6930g with winphlash in xp32 sp3, installing osx now to see if the pci bridge (wifi/LAN/expresscard) works, will report. RMA'd other laptop, no signs of life still.

EDIT: PCI Bridge still not addressing, and it seems GraphicsEnabler doesn't work with the 9600m after flashing to this bios.. The pci bridge is the biggest dealbreaker with these laptops (I have a few), been trying for the past year to get it fixed (it also affects Fbsd). Tried at least 8 bioses (and even dumped one that never made it to their website ) Will do anything I can to help, maybe the pci bridge can be fixed via dsdt, but I doubt it.

 

Yea sry didn't read

Anyway I looked at the guide and with the rightmark program, I dont see the options to select (their grayed out) which I gues means my CPU is unsupported?

 

Also I have another idea/request.

The fan speeds are not adjustable by theirselves, but would it be possible to maybe fake the temperature of the laptop sensors?

I was thinking maybe of faking the temp to be like 70 degrees Celsius or higher to kick the fans up more, and maybe faking it to 30 to turn the fans on low/off.

 

PCI bridging? On InsanelyMac, I was able to use Eureka's PCMCIAFamily.kext on Leopard 10.5.6+ and Snow Leopard and I would get proper PCI bridging, and enable my ethernet and card bus. Have you tried that yet?

http://www.mediafire.com/?txgfj23weji

 

Idk if this would be helpful, but my laptop is a 2480 and I made this disc in linux (comfirmed working). It's a crysis recovery disk that auto flashes when booted from.

bootcd.iso - acer, bios, crysis, recovery, phoenix

I assume you could either do the special key combo to flash, or just remove the HDD and any other boot device you have except the optic drive, and boot that way.

 

Thank you very much - I will replace the bios with an older one suited for mine in the image - then we'll see...

 

Can I assume none of my suggestions works?

 

I am afraid so... I have tried everything now, I think. It remains with no sound or screen. Only thing making me curious is when I press Fn+ESC and try cd recover, it actually reads, then stops, then reads, then stops... etc...

EDIT: I was thinking I need an USB floppy drive? Using google, it seeems that some phoenix bios's requires it? Or can I have the USB pendrive emulate a floppy? Or does it already do that, when formatted with the crisis tool?

I'm trying to think of what I'm doing wrong - any additional help would be appriciated, Kizwan. Oh and from everybody else, if you have a suggestion for recovering Acer Extensa 5630G, please drop a line.

 

I think we should just continue our conversation here than PM. The thing is your BIOS image can't fit on a floppy drive. For sure you need USB flash drive or CD. My Dell Studio also require USB flash drive because of the BIOS image size.

I already PMed you this:-

I'll let you know what I found.

 

Oh I'm sorry Kizwan, I never saw that PM! I'll be on it right away!

 

Well:

Manufacturing date is 080829

I believe I already was on bios 1.36 - but not sure.

I dont know if its TrustedCore or SecureCore? How can I find that?

 

Yours is SecureCore. This doesn't matter because I have modded Phoenix SecureCore BIOS before (e.g. Aspire 5738G) & confirmed BIOS flash success by user. So it is not the cause of the BIOS flash problem.

Still searching other methods.

 

I know this is a long shot but try put the modified BIOS image to CRISIS disk & try again. Make sure to rename it to BIOS.WPH. Also make sure use latest phlash16.exe. Also make sure battery & power cord is plugged in. Let it run for 20 minutes just to be sure. After that unplug power cord & battery. After one minute or less plug power cord & see if it boot normally or not.

EDIT: I just want to know, when you tried the CRISIS disk before, did you plugged in both battery & power cord? I just think about this because on normal BIOS flash process, the process will abort if power cord is not plugged in. I think it also check battery in this case. Wouldn't hurt to try right?

EDIT: BTW, on a side note, DO NOT try "phlash16 /BBL" because it will overwrite boot block & we don't want that.

 

Re: pci Bridge, I have tried all of the iopcifamily/pcmciafamily combinations (including the newly reversed one for 10.6.x), but they all flush stability down the toilet (seems to conflict w sata, will never boot to desktop). Also, I've noticed others have no problems with these, but the 6930g just can't handle it. Also, with this bios and some editing, I can confirm that qe/ci, native speedstep, and sleep all work, now to hit the magic pcie setting

 

I don't think your graphic card doesn't work earlier because of pci bridge issue. I'm confident it will work with DSDT injection or GraphicsEnabler=Yes boot flag.

Well, it doesn't matter now because you able to get QE/CI to work. I hope you share your setup/finding at insanelymac. It will help a lot of people.

 

Kizwan: I am already sharing it on projectosx, but will make a post on insanely in a bit QE/CI has been working since the EVGA nvidia drivers came out (10.5.7, I believe), and I've had it working since roughly last summer. I'm _stuck_ trying to get the pci bridge to work, been trying all of the combinations of ASPM under the ICH settings of your 6930g bios, no luck yet...
Here's the post on projectosx, I've worked with slice, netkas, nawcom, prasys and a few others, and we're all pretty stumped (although a few others have gotten the 59xx series to work). Thanks for the BIOS kizwan, you've certainly gotten the farthest out of all of the bios modders/Acer when it comes to this issue (I have been in contact with Acer since last June regarding this issue, and they don't care, even though I spent over $2500 on these hunks of plastic to run FreeBSD (they even broke Linux pci bridge support in the BIOS a couple revisions back) and have _no_ desire to run Windows _ever_ again (15+ years clean ).

 

Good job! I feels that you need to know that BIOS mod for 6930g was done by Darkening & lloco73. I'm appreciated what you said.

 

I wish I could be 100% Windows Free... but it's the games that get me :/

If I had better Hardware that had better support for Linux, then I would on board for Ubuntu

 

Also when it was mentioned that the DSDT could be used to change voltage, does that mean you know how to do such?

 

No. If I know, I already do it. But I have read success report about this.

 

This is the user who successfully undervolt the CPU just by editing the DSDT. I'm also just found out how to control FAN threshold in DSDT & how to load the modified DSDT to windows registry. I will need to try it myself first before making it available in this thread.

 

ok, yes please do.

Also I knew of a way to upload custom dsdt to registry, you could use a program called Microsoft ASL compiler 4.0 (or 3.0 for compatibility) to do it for you.

I saw this on some guide to fix DSDT on a acer gemstone or something.

 

Hi!

I'm requesting a BIOS mod for an Acer 5672 AWLMi (ZB1)

My current BIOS version is 1.3234, but I was planning to update to the latest one, which is version 1.3239. So, if possible, just mod the 3239.

I have been struggling for months to get AHCI mode working(SSD upgrade near future), using GRUBS and trying some workarounds, with no success. So a modified BIOS with ACHI mode unhidden will be GREATLY appreciated. I am aware that older BIOS previous to 3218 had the AHCI menu unhidden, so it should be feasible.

Also, any other unhidden menu is a plus, specially the VT-x option, as I updated my CPU to a T7600 with VT support.

I don't worry about SLIC, as all my software is genuine...MSDN Academic Alliance FTW

Thank you in advance.

E. Von Hausern.

 

I will try

I tried, first with power cord only, then both battery and power cord. I'll give this some more trial.

Quite agreed. I wouldnt want the boot block gone

 

I'll working on it as soon as possible. Because of recent event, we will change our approach on BIOS flashing process. This time we will be using CRISIS disk to flash BIOS chip. This way we will know immediately if the target notebook/computer have BIOS recovery capability or not.

EDIT: Unfortunately, AHCI is not available in Aspire 5670 BIOS (BIOS ver 3239). No wonder you can't get it to works. However, I will continue the modification to unlock Vritualization menu.

 

I read somewhere that some OEM's actually disable the recovery feature in Phoenix BIOS's (for w/e reason). But it could be re-enabled via a BIOS modification.

I read that somewhere when I was trying to recover my BIOS.

 

Are you referring to "MultiBoot III" & "Boot Fail Recovery"? My Aspire 9420 BIOS also have "Boot Fail Recovery" unselected by default & I'm able to use CRISIS disk to recover it. I'm confident this will only enable the ability to boot from certain drive (floppy, usb flash drive, etc) which originally unsupported by default. For sure, I don't want to do this modification because I don't know how the computer will behave after that. Unless somebody want to volunteer to do the test.

The best way to know/discover how to recover from corrupted BIOS is by trying it while your computer alive. I test the CRISIS disk on my Aspire 9420 before actually flashing my first modified BIOS. You will be more confident once you know how to recover it.

 

Thank you very much for your time. The work you guys are doing here is amazing!

On the other hand, it's sad to read that the 5672 don't have a BIOS AHCI mode.
That would make things lots easier. I will keep researching this issue, lots of people out there own this nice laptop(with some CPU and RAM upgrades it's very capable nowadays) and deserve some native NCQ.

 

Ok I tried to let the Extensa sit overnight reading the drive. 7 hours later, when I got up, it was still reading a little with 30 sec pauses. I turned it off, waited some minutes, tried to turn it on - nothing.

This was with newest phlash16 from bob, your modified bios, Kizwan and your autoxec, and of course the minidos.sys on a burned CD.

I am running out of hope, but it seems that recovery mode IS in fact enabled by Fn+ESC... If only I knew what to call the file or make it pick it up.

BTW: I'm also almost out of warranty (nearly 2 years old), and I'm afraid Acer wont touch it with Arctic silver 5 on the heatsink, SSD drive etc.

 

I'm sorry, I don't have any more idea too. The only solutions are using warranty or you can get it repaired at computer repair/service shop. I doubt such upgrade - thermal paste & SSD drive - will void the warranty.

 

Hi,

I have a request. Is this possible to have a modified for ACER Aspire 7735G that enable VT ?

Thanks in advance.

 

It should already be enabled

 

So with DSDT, you could change the device ID of the graphics card? So in theroy, lets say I have a 950GMA in my laptop. Now in most tests I've did/seen (and note I'm a pretty active person in 9xxssf), drivers belonging to the 965GM work way better then the drivers for the 950GMA (in other words, you manually install 965GM drivers on you 950GMA hardware for better performance).

There is a whole list of reasons why the 965 drivers are better on the 950GMA, but the most notable is the emulation of TnL which isn't present on the 950GMA.

But if a DSDT change could change the device ID so that the 965gm drivers installed by default, then this could be a nice breakthrough for the 9xxssf group.

(btw we at the 9xxssf group work hard to make games playable on intel graphics hardware, most notable with our modified drivers)

 

Nope... No option in bios and I can't install OS X in VMWARE as it asks me to enable VT, so if you can help me ...

Thanks.

 

Yes the option will not be available but should be enabled by default. What processor do you have?

 

My Apologies. I was sure that my CPU, a P7350, has this option but it doesn't...

Thanks anyway.

 

:cry: :cry: :cry:

 

If your talking about the warranty of Acer, I had to turn my laptop in like a few years ago because the power pin on the adapter broke.

I opened my laptop up, took out the L shaped board (it has the power, USB, and modem on it), and explained to acer on the phone what the part looked like and that I opened my computer (note I did not know that opening my laptop would void the warranty to start with).

I shipped it in, they returned it fixed, no questions asked

 

Well... I guess it would be worth a try

 

Hey! Finally some success of some kind:

I formatted my USB stick with the "Acer Aspire 9420 BIOS Recovery disk", replaced with the 1.34 original bios file for the extensa, disconnected harddrive and dvd drive. Finally it seems to read of the stick, but nothing after a 10 minute wait. Now I added an AUTOEXEC.BAT containing "phlash16 /x /s /c /mode=3 BIOS.WPH".

Lets see...

EDIT: Nope, nothing yet...

 

BTW looking at the folder name, it says "TM5730G 5730 5725G 5330 EX5630G 5630 5630Z 5630EZ 5230E 5230" so I guess this bios covers all these models:

Travelmate 5330?
Travelmate 5725G
Travelmate 5730
Travelmate 5730G
Extensa 5230
Extensa 5230E
Extensa 5630
Extensa 5630G
Extensa 5630Z
Extensa 5630EZ

Now please, cmon boot Extensa!

 

Hello,
i bought the acer 5740 laptop recently and could not enable virtualization.

i have updated the bios to 1.10 from the original 1.09 which i got from acer.

I want to enable virtualization and need some help.
Has anyone enabled virtualization on acer 5740.?
i want to request a mod for its bios.

the latest bios is phoenix 1.22.
this link to this bios is here

have uploaded the .rw file ie report file


Thanks in advance

 

Are you sure virtualization is not enabled? What are the steps you have taken to concluded that virtualization is not enabled? I found post in this thread mentioning it does support virtualization (I haven't read the entire thread yet). What is the type/model of the processor?

EDIT: The thread is for G model but from what I found is that all Aspire 5740 variant are come with virtualization enabled (in the point of original BIOS support).

BTW, rw report is just for SLIC MOD.

 

thanks for the reply.
and sorry i am a newbie out here so could not get the funda of rw file.

the specs are
core i3 330m
3gg ram
320gb hdd
intel HD

I used securable to check for VT-x
I have attached the screenshot of securable analysis.
It does support virtualization but the menu is locked under the bios. ie i can't see it.

I tried opening the bios with pheonix bios editor.

The acer support provides me 3 versions of bios 1.10, 1.16, 1.22.

the link to 1.10

the link to 1.16

 

I'm confident that virtualization is enabled by default even though the menu is not visible in BIOS. Try install 64-bit OS using VMware Workstation. If virtualization is not enabled, it will not be able to boot the installation disk.

BTW, securable says "Locked ON" for virtualization. This means virtualization does enabled.

 

Hello!

I also have an Acer 5740G wit Corei5 and ATI 5650, isnt there ANY way to enable switchable Graphics?

Cant the BIOS od the 5820 series wich has switchable Graphics enabled be modded so it can be uses on the 5740?

Or is there any other way!?

Many thanks!

 

I don't get the concept of graphics switching? I thought a driver controlled the switching of graphics? or is it only via a hardware switch?

 

Automatic switchable graphics are new and just came out this year. Before, laptops were using power saving modes to reduce power on the discrete GPU or on the integrated GPU, but now laptops can automatically switch between the integrated GPU and discrete GPU depending on the graphics usage.

It depends on 3 things for the 5740G laptop to have switchable graphics.
1. ATI mobility drivers for switchable graphics (not out yet for the public, but out for manufactures).
2. If the internal hardware are connected to the HD 5650 & the Intel GMA HD to enable switchable graphics (nobody knows for sure).
3. BIOS support for switchable graphics like the newer Acer laptops.

The chances for switchable graphics on the 5740G are slim to none. Don't have your hopes up.

 

thanks kizwan.
i ll surely try it on and let you know.
and then i can do an windows xp mode if this is the case.