Crisis Recovery CD, Acer AS5520 Failed BIOS upgrade

So, I have an ACER Aspire 5520, (model ICW50) with AMD Turion TK55. I tried to upgrade it with the BIOS available under the model's specified page in ACER site, version 1.33 (IC50133.WPH).

Unfortunately I was naive enough to try flash32.exe, which is the windows base version of the flashing program; now I have a dead BIOS. Windows froze completely, I had to unplug and disconnect battery to have it down, and it never came up.

Then I did a lot of research and I found and browsed hundreds of pages about Crisis Recovery Mode (CRM). From all I read there are some misconceptions I want to get past:

1 - Deal with different CRM versions, which get accessed by Fn+B, or Winkey+B; on my case I have found that CRM gets accessed with Fn+Esc.
I know it, because instead of powering up and then dying in 3 or 4 seconds on an eternal loop, when I press and hold Fn+Esc and then I connect the power adapter (with battery disconnected), I get a quick orange flash under the power button. So, when I press the power button the computer keeps running, fan is running, and it is checking HD and CD-ROM drives.

2 - There is a lot of myth about the way one has to press and hold Fn+Esc. You just have to press it before you connect the power cable. As long as you get the quick orange flash under the power button, you know the PC is in CRM. I have done all the fancy combinations of holding those keys down, but it all ends up in the same. By the way, even if you connect the battery, instead of the power adapter, once you are holding Fn+Esc it gives the same result: orange flash, you are in CRM. Of course you do not want to flash it using the battery, that's why the emphasis on connecting the power adaptor instead.

3 - Most of the info I found about this matter then turns to building the Crisis Recovery Disk (a floppy) or a CR pendrive. It does not solve my problem because when in CRM, the computer completely ignores the USB ports, the 4 of them, I tried one by one, be it with 2 different kinds of USB floppy drives, or pendrives duly formatted in FAT. There is no blinking of light on either. There is no attempt at all to access any of the USB ports.

The conclusion is I have to find out how to make a CRISIS RECOVERY CD!

Or I would have to know of any fancy key combination or jumper setting that would force the computer to look at USB ports when in CRM.

The problem is I have tried more than 20 different settings of CDs:
- bootable or not bootable,
- with all files from the BIOS downloaded from ACER,
- with images of the Crisis Recovery Disk containing phlash16.exe, BIOS.WPH (IC50133.WPH renamed) and MINIDOS.SYS;
- CDs formatted ISO9660, or with UDF,
- CD-Rs and RWs,
- with and without AUTOEXEC.BAT,
- Emulating or not floppy disks.

In all cases: I get to CRM, the system reads a little bit of the CD, some times longer than the others, maximum some 10 seconds, but mostly only some 5 seconds or less, and then there is silence in the CD-ROM drive. The power light (and sometimes the Wireless LED) keeps on, and the fan keeps running. I wait for ever but nothing happens.

Interesting also is the fact that if I connect the battery when in CRM, it does get charged; I guess the electric circuitry of charging the battery has nothing to do with BIOS control.

I feel I am quite close to unbricking my computer but I don't know what I am doing wrong on burning the CD's I have tried.

By the way, I have tried ACER support, but so far it has been a shame (as everybody else who tries it can say). It must be a machine answering me, cause nobody offering computer support could be so stupid to twice tell me to check some info in the BIOS setup, if I tell them it is dead on the first place...

Thanks.

 

I think you are looking for this.
All you need besides the link is a USB Floppy Drive with a disk.

 

Weinter,

Thanks for the input, but it seems you missed in my text the part where I mention that NO USB PORTS ARE ACCESSED in CRM mode (at least in my case with the AS5520), not if I connect a USB floppy drive, which I have got, or if I connect whatever pendrive to any of the USB 4 ports. There are no lights, the ports are not searched/scanned/accessed. The floppy drive never lights, so the flash (pen) drives. They simply are out of the equation.

My only hope would be with a CD (whose drive does light), or if some trick would change the status above concerning the USB ports.

Thanks anyway

 

In CRM Mode power lights should be flashing continuously.
AFAIK there is no crisis CD the crisis package in there is the official crisis disk creator from one Acer Laptop Model.
It is hold Fn+Esc, plug in AC, Press and hold power button release when it starts to read USB Drive.

 

Weinter,

As I said, when I get to CRM, the power light stays ON (green), sometimes also the WLAN LED keeps ON (orange), the fan stays ON. As it boots, it flashes the green LED for the HD, then it flashes the orange LED to access the CD-ROM. If it finds a CD inside it attempts to read it for few seconds. Even if I remove the CD after it became silent, when I reinsert it, it tries to read it again.

BUT

There is never a light on the USB floppy drive, in any of the 4 ports, nor there is any light on any USB pen drive I might connect.

By the way, the USB floppy drive in question works perfectly anywhere else I connect it.

I understand there is no Crisis CD, but there are lots of people who come out with different ways of transfering the Crisis Recovery files or the Bios files to CDs, with different results. I have had only bad luck with more than 20 different combinations of custom CDs.

 

I think you are not in CRM Mode.
In my laptop CRM Mode all the lights flash orange continuously could be different model though.

 

Weinter,

Again, if you read my first post, if you read it carefully and attentively, we would be able to move forward.

When I am NOT in CRM, the computer does not stay ON. It powers up, I get the green light on the power button, the amber light of the CD-ROM ligths up and goes off, and then after some 2 or 3 seconds it shuts down, and then it powers up again by itself, that going on on an eternal loop. Computer stays up for not more than 3 seconds.

Also, if I am not in CRM mode, when I connect the power cable, I get no quick amber flash under the power button.

However,

If I press Fn+Esc (and hold it) as I connect the power adapter, then I get a quick amber flash under the power button (a fraction of second). Other than that it seems to show no difference. I have not yet pressed the power button. I do not even have to keep pressing Fn+Esc now. I can just let it go, or I can keep pressing it. It is the same now.
When I press the power button now (holding or not Fn+Esc - but having held it as I connected the power adapter), the computer has a completely different behavior: It stays ON forever; the green light under the power button stays ON; The fan stays running at full speed; It accesses the CD-ROM and if it finds a CD it attempts to read it for a while. If I eject the CD, and insert another, it will try to read it again; The battery, if then connected, will charge normally. The WLAN LED will sometimes light and stay lighted, sometimes not.
And if I leave the power adapter there, it will keep ON forever.

Therefore, a drastically different behavior from that of when I am NOT in CRM.

Now, we must understand one thing here. If things happenned as they should, or as they normally do, there would not be a reason for these forums anyway.
My BIOS update was not supposed to have got stuck, just as my floppy drive was expected to be accessed on CRM mode.
BUT IT IS NOT!
If it were, or if any pen drive would be accessed, I would not be writing here. Because it requires not rocket science to create the CR disk, put it inside the USB floppy drive, connect it and boot in CRM.
That I did already. The diskette, I know, is done properly, because if I boot from it in another computer - OF COURSE without hitting FN+Esc - I get a message: "Crisis Recovery Disk, please disconnect" (or something like it, I don't recall the exact phrasing).

If you browse the forums about this matter you will find that there are many others who get stuck exactly where I am, with the CD-ROM drive as their only option.

Now, if we get stuck at not accepting that the USB ports are not working even if I am in CRM, will be bouncing messages here forever and never advance.

The USB floppy drive should be accessed in CRM,

BUT,

IT IS NOT!

and

YES, I AM IN CRISIS RECOVERY MODE.

I would appreciate if we could start from this presumption, or otherwise just let others to contribute.

Thank you.

 

For 1 you are just being plain rude.
Another thing is this is a forum meaning if other could have contributed they would have or it will simply disappear down a list of unreplied post.
And the reason I did not completely understand you is
1)You wrote a very long post short and concise is advocated nobody wants to spend 2 min reading 1 post.
2)You used a lot if words describing how irritated you are which we don't need to know instead of just describing what you have tried and what works and what not.

BIOS flashing has always been advocated to be done in DOS Mode by the way.

However there are still things you can try
1)Reset the EC press hold power button for 30 sec with no power.

2)Remove the CD-ROM and maybe just maybe it will attempt to read USB.

3)Using different version of Phlash16 maybe the one Acer Package with your BIOS Download if a DOS one exist.

4)Trying all sorts of name of the BIOS as well as checking the Autobat file

5)Replace the CD-Drive with a disk drive formatted using CrisisDisk.

I don't think Crisis will work with plain copy as the bootblock is special you have to find a way to apply the crisisdisk special blocks into the CD
From the bat file I have seen it has the parameters /bbl so your bootblock could have been damaged in the process.
It is always not recommended to use /bbl

 

Weinter,

- For 1 you are just being plain rude.
I apologize if it sounded rude. From my side it was just frustration. If I write a long post it is in an attempt to give the whole picture so that we can get to the point starting from the correct assumptions. I don't see how I could go through all the attempts I've done on a shorter post. I have read a lot of forums on this problem and I particularly had no problem with long, thorough ones.

But I do appreciate the fact that, in spite of being aggravated, you took time to offer some insight on the matter.

BIOS flashing has always been advocated to be done in DOS Mode by the way.

I have done some BIOS flashing on desktops and notebooks from within Windows without a glitch. If the manufacturer is offering a Windows based version of the BIOS flashing program it should be supposed to work.
Of course now, "once bitten, twice shy", I shall stay clear of such procedure. But then again, not even flashing from DOS is crash proof...

You used a lot if words describing how irritated you are which we don't need to know instead of just describing what you have tried and what works and what not.
Now this is paradoxal. Your previous assertion was that I wrote too long a post. Here you are telling me to do exactly what I did on the 1st post.

1)Reset the EC press hold power button for 30 sec with no power.
That I did. I also tried holding it for 45 seconds as some other forum suggested.

2)Remove the CD-ROM and maybe just maybe it will attempt to read USB.
That I did too. I removed HD, memory boards (of course I reinserted these befroe attempting), CD-ROM. I went all the way as trying to get the CMOS battery out, but it is soldered to the board. No chance. There is no access to USB ports.
There is electricity flowing there though. If I connect an external hard disk the power light (red) lights up, but never the blue one, which is disk access.

3)Using different version of Phlash16 maybe the one Acer Package with your BIOS Download if a DOS one exist.

From the Crisis packages I downloaded, I tried a number of Phlash16 versions. The problem is I have to build a CD for every one of them, since the floppy drive never even blinks its light. I ended up using CD-RWs, because I ran out of CDs. I am offshore, on board of a drilling vessel, so I cannot go to the next store I get some more blank CDs. Some people say a CD-RW won't work, that it should be a CD-R, but I am really geting discouraged and thinking it all ends up the same.

4)Trying all sorts of name of the BIOS as well as
checking the Autobat file

Also Done. Built different versions of Autoexec.bat's, used different boot images, miniDOS'es, etc. Tried Bootable CD's and, as some other forums sugges,t just plain Data CD's with only the BIOS files: just ".WPH", just ".ROM", both, IC50133.WPH, BIOS.WPH, etc. No luck.

5)Replace the CD-Drive with a disk drive formatted us
ing CrisisDisk.

This I wish I had. A common bay floppy drive from old fashioned laptops that could fit in the CD-ROM bay. But this I don't have and, as I said before, being offshore, I got no means to lay my hands on one.

your bootblock could have been damaged in the process.
That is indeed what I am getting driven to believe in! That the failed BIOS flash damaged the Bootblock. So I am more and more convinced that I will have to end up taking the comatose PC to a workshop to change either the BIOS chip or even the motherboard, or maybe I can find somebody who has one of those programmable boards.

It is always not recommended to use /bbl
That parameter I have used in my batch files.

*****

See, another very long post, but I see no way I can give you proper, thorough feedback on a short one.

Thanks again, I appreciate your time and attention.

 

GerryHVC!

I'm in the same boat today that you were back in December and I had the same reaction you did when I read the first reply to your initial Post. Any way you have an AS5220 which seems to be a current model still offered by Acer so that means you can actually purchase a C. R. Disk from Acer.

Right now to my right is a bricked AS9300 and I'm typing on a brand new AS7535 for which I just purchased online a C. R. Disk. Unfortunately they no longer offer such a disk for this model {AS9300}. I'm hoping I can somehow copy this disk and make it work with my AS9300.

Don't know what country your in but I went to Acer US home page | Service and Support | Support Website | eRecovery CD Purchase | and entered my SNID number {this is your serial number if SNID is not recognized}.

 

I've got an Acer Aspire 5520 with exactly the same problem (BIOS Failure) as detailed in this thread. USB ports do not work in crisis recovery mode on this model. The CD is the only method - will actually try and read a CD in crisis recovery mode. I've found the following post that appears to fix the same sort of problem on an Acer Aspire 5720:

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/hardware/23287-acer-laptops-repair-failed-bios-update.html

Looks like all that is required is a 'FD' file on the CD. Now all I need to find out is where I can get the 'FD' BIOS file and how to name it. Any suggestions? There is also a post here that talks about Acer BIOS file naming conventions:

http://www.fixya.com/support/t3663874-corrupt_bios_acer_aspire_5535

 

You have to extract flash32.exe file to get .FD file, you could try the solution in the thread below.
There is a solution in this thread and it may help you:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=194434

EDIT: The OP has used Winrar to get the .FD file here: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/hardware/23287-acer-laptops-repair-failed-bios-update.html

 

To recover your bios U need to use Crisis Recovery Disk (diskette, usb key or CD, that U can made from Crisis Diskette with Nero Burning Rom or other program)

Your notebook platform is ICW50, so U can try to use as5520x or as5220x bios.
Original bios U can download from acer ftp
ftp://ftp.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_5220/bios/
the bios file ic50133.wph must be renamed to bios.wph

without charging press and hold fn+b. when plug ac-power, turn on your notebook => leds must be blinking => unhold fn+b
U can see access to your usb-floppy or other media for 20-30 sec
if the flashing is successful, notebook will beeps and reboots

 

I have some problem too
Have I enable boot block when recover bios?
Acer 5520G