Power went out while I was flashing the BIOS Gateway NV51B19u Notebook!

I have just spent the last 30 hours of my awake life putting in a new hard drive and re-installing all my software, drivers, and updates on my gateway NV51B91u Notebook. I was just about to do the last thing and flash the BIOS and in the middle of flashing the bios THE POWER WENT OUT! Yes, the power went out! What are the odds! Someone hit a pole from the snowy roads and knocked it out and after the power came back on, I went to turn on the laptop and all that happens is a blank screen and the fan runs. I get no post or BIOS! If anyone can please help me, I will be so greatfull....

 

Sorry to hear, you did not have the battery in? There should be a emergency recovery procedure. Not familiar with this model but hopefully someone else is..............

 

No the battery wasn't in...... I don't keep the battery in my laptop when I'm using the adapter for long periods of time. I keep it charged at 48% stored in the fridge and I think the laptop is fried now that I did that. I can't believe the odds... I just need to find a way to flash my BIOS with the correct instructions. I have Phoenix BIOS and the same motherboard that is in my Gateway NV51B19U is the same exact motherboard an BIOS that's in an ACER ASPIRE 5253. Somewhere on this site I found someone earlier that had tons of ACER laptop BIOS modifications he had listed but I can't find it now that I know I have the same mobo as the Aspire. Man I hope someone on here can help me dude.

 

Again sorry to hear of your issues. I know hind sight is 20/20 but I never flash without AC plugged in and the battery charged to 100%. I did have a similar issue with a cat being chased by a dog in the house pulling my plug, the battery was the life saver. Funny thing is I did not even realize it happend until after the flash and my system was really slow. It took several minutes to figure it out, man did I count my blessings....................

 

So true TAN, I have flashed my vbios/bios so many times I couldn't dream of counting them. I really don't know how people with desktops can feel safe about working on their machine, let alone do a bios flash
Many times the power went out/someone unplugged by mistake/some other random occurence and the battery saved my work.

 

No you were inviting problems to happen when you took out the battery. Keeping it plugged in with battery charged was the safe way to use laptop and what you did was not read the instructions that they give when flashing BIOS they say make sure power is connected and laptop the battery is plugging in to prevent power disconnect of which you did. Only real way to fix is to send to manufacture to fix it unless you can force the BIOS to repair itself of which seems like you won't be able to do now.

 

As far as desktop bios flashes I would only do it with a UPS. I would first test the UPS by pulling the AC connection. This as unlike a laptop the battery condition was not easily accessible. Even then I was always leary as it was a time of nerve testing. I've never fried a bios but have always had that impending fear..................

 

Not sure what O/S your using but in Windows7 I can see the battery status and in BIOS boot screen I can see that battery condition and if it is bad or not taking charge or end of life span the bios does inform to replace the battery because the usefulness of the battery is shorten.

I see...darn missed seeing Desktop.... lol....But having UPS for desktop wouldn't be a bad idea as well but man they do cost some though...for the good one...

 

I am talking my desktop days with an external UPS......................

 

@ jason9922

Did you try the recovery procedure for Phoenix BIOS? See here for details.

Follow the procedure exactly- i.e. if it says the USB disk mustn't be more than 2GB that really means it mustn't be. It's a bit tricky and all parts most be done exactly as described.

 

Like he said follow it exactly. OEM's may change some things in bios but they usually leave the emergency recovery alone unless there is some hardware issue that dictates otherwise...................