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    Advice flashing Aspire BIOS

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by leeroy, Mar 13, 2006.

  1. leeroy

    leeroy Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi,

    Looking for some advice regarding flashing the BIOS on my Aspire 5504. Its currently running v2.10 and the latest version from the Acer Europe site is v2.50.

    I'v never done this before so I was wondering if anyone could run me through the procedure/the do's & don'ts as I understand it can fry your laptop if it goes wrong?

    System specs are:
    M760 2.0ghz sonoma
    1gig RAM
    100gig HDD
    X700 64MB with (64MB hypermemory)

    Any help would be much appreciated.

    Thanks
     
    leeroy, Mar 13, 2006
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  2. miner

    miner Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Well, usually being safe is the best thing when trying to flash a BIOS and dont do a flash unless it is necessary to fix anything or if there are any other improvements. Usually following these steps is good, but still is not a gurantee that the BIOS flash will go through.

    1. Close any unecessary programs especially antivirus, firewall and disconnect from the net is also a good idea.

    2. Remove any external USB, firewire connections. These are also known to interfere with the process. Make sure there are no CD's in the drive as well.

    3. Never try to restart in the middle of the process of flashing the BIOS. If the laptop restarts before completely flashing the BIOS, it is a given that the BIOS flash went wrong and the laptop might be unusable.

    4.You can also backup your most important files, so in the even of a failure you wont be left hanging.

    5. Keep your fingers crossed.

    The actual upgrade process is pretty easy and the Winphlash utility is pretty straight forward to use.
     
    miner, Mar 13, 2006
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  3. leeroy

    leeroy Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks for taking the time to reply miner

    The readme that comes with the BIOS update advises to copy the files to a thumb drive (USB drive?) or the harddrive. As you recommend removing all external USB stuff would flashing from the harddrive be the best option?
     
    leeroy, Mar 14, 2006
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  4. miner

    miner Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    I would think that using th HDD would be more safer. Although using a USB drive should be OK, but the chances of failing are higher in that case. Also the readme file states that you have to be under Windows mode, so it really shouldnt matter what you use. But I tthink flashing it from the hard drive might be better.
     
    miner, Mar 14, 2006
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  5. leeroy

    leeroy Notebook Enthusiast

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    think i'm going to give it a go

    thanks again for your help
     
    leeroy, Mar 15, 2006
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