Acer Laptops - Repair a FAILED BIOS Update

[Psymon]

Hi,

 

Well my GF's Acer Aspire 5720 doesn’t always connect to the router at home, so I guessed it was the wireless drivers, as my iPhone and sisters laptop always connect fine.

 

After an update, which didn’t solve the problem, I thought I would try a BIOS update, V1.17 to V1.42 - quite an upgrade.

 

Well the winFlash file opened, erased the bios, then failed on "VALIDATE FAILED" error AFTER ERASING THE BIOS FFS!

 

Press the power button, hard drive cycles continuously, screen doesn’t turn on, it was a brick.

 

After some reading I found something quite fantastic, if your laptop has a PHOENIX BIOS, you can do the following to revive it from being a brick.

 

1. Download the BIOS from the manufacturer’s site, preferably the version that worked originally.

2. Burn ONLY the .FD file to the CD.

3. Remove the Battery and Power Cable from the laptop.

4. Open the CD Drive with a Pin (Push a pin into the hole on the drive to force an eject)

5. Put the CD with the original .FD BIOS file into the drive.

6. Hold the FN and ESCAPE keys down.

7. Plug the MAINS LEAD ONLY into the laptop.

8. Press the power button whilst still holding the keys.

a. This will FORCE the computer to load the .FN file from the CD and write it to the BIOS of the machine.

9. The laptop will power up, you can release the keys; leave the laptop for 20-30 minutes if needed.

10. The computer will turn itself off once complete.

11. Re-insert the battery, power on the laptop.

12. It works

a. In my case – Happy GF.

 

I tried the version that failed the update on my laptop first, and it did not install, I downloaded the 1.19 version (closest I could find for my BIOS to 1.17 [original]) and it worked.

 

Hope this works for anyone that experiences this problem, thought it was a pretty awesome fix, and worth people knowing.

 

Read also that you can do this with desktop PC’s if you hold CTRL and Escape when pressing the power button, but don’t want to create the problem just to fix it.

 

Regards,

Psy

[leco]

Thanks I have some of these machines so it may very well come in handy - another tool in the knowledge box:)

[zepmsn]

Hi

 

I try that method above in my Acer Aspire 5920 but it's seen didn't work...

 

anyone who have original BIOS driver for Acer Aspire 5920 please help...I need that for last tries...

[SYNACK]

Don't trust floppy drives, they are just as likely to ruin your day by corrupting the BIOS file before you get to write it. I use bootable USB for prefference and bootable CD if it does not support USB booting. Much more reliable.

[wmaa69]

Hi,

 

Well my GF's Acer Aspire 5720 doesn’t always connect to the router at home, so I guessed it was the wireless drivers, as my iPhone and sisters laptop always connect fine.

 

After an update, which didn’t solve the problem, I thought I would try a BIOS update, V1.17 to V1.42 - quite an upgrade.

 

Well the winFlash file opened, erased the bios, then failed on "VALIDATE FAILED" error AFTER ERASING THE BIOS FFS!

 

Press the power button, hard drive cycles continuously, screen doesn’t turn on, it was a brick.

 

After some reading I found something quite fantastic, if your laptop has a PHOENIX BIOS, you can do the following to revive it from being a brick.

 

1. Download the BIOS from the manufacturer’s site, preferably the version that worked originally.

2. Burn ONLY the .FD file to the CD.

3. Remove the Battery and Power Cable from the laptop.

4. Open the CD Drive with a Pin (Push a pin into the hole on the drive to force an eject)

5. Put the CD with the original .FD BIOS file into the drive.

6. Hold the FN and ESCAPE keys down.

7. Plug the MAINS LEAD ONLY into the laptop.

8. Press the power button whilst still holding the keys.

a. This will FORCE the computer to load the .FN file from the CD and write it to the BIOS of the machine.

9. The laptop will power up, you can release the keys; leave the laptop for 20-30 minutes if needed.

10. The computer will turn itself off once complete.

11. Re-insert the battery, power on the laptop.

12. It works

a. In my case – Happy GF.

 

I tried the version that failed the update on my laptop first, and it did not install, I downloaded the 1.19 version (closest I could find for my BIOS to 1.17 [original]) and it worked.

 

Hope this works for anyone that experiences this problem, thought it was a pretty awesome fix, and worth people knowing.

 

Read also that you can do this with desktop PC’s if you hold CTRL and Escape when pressing the power button, but don’t want to create the problem just to fix it.

 

Regards,

Psy

 

Hello

 

where i can get the .FD bios file .. Acer site gives two options windows install or through dos

 

booth does not contain file with extention .DF

please help

[Psymon]

Acer have recently changed their downloads site so it may have been removed or changed.

 

I did this quite a while ago (as dated), i just went to the Acer website, which as above mentioned it has been redesigned. And just downlaoded the bios from the drop down menus on the site.

 

Si

[Psymon]

Hello

 

where i can get the .FD bios file .. Acer site gives two options windows install or through dos

 

booth does not contain file with extention .DF

please help

 

Just had a go, downlaoded the 1.45 BIOS for the Aspire 5720. Insize the ZIP were 2 files.

 

BIOS_v1.45.exe

Readme.txt

 

Using WinRAR i unzipped the BIOS_v1.45.exe and inside it was the following.

 

CL50145A.fd (File you are after)

InsydeFlash.exe

iscflash.dll

iscflash.sys

iscflashx64.sys

platform.ini

 

Using my solution above you should just have to burn ONLY the CL50145A.fd to a CD-R.

 

If you are struggling to get the FD file still just PM me your email address and the laptop model, ill get the FD file over to you in a ZIP.

 

Si

[pe3ti]

I man i have the sem problem can anyone help me pleass i have a acer travelmate 4650 end i have flash the bios te upgrad now me leptop don't turn on only a black scren end the AC light pleas help me to flash the bios end send me the bios.zip end instruction pleasss end tell me how to flash it with CD ore USB i don't have i USB Floppy ok pleass

[Shatter]

Hi

I have an Acer Travelmate 4000 with some strange boot behavior (not mine, belongs to a friend).

The screen will lit up, POST normally, can enter BIOS, and then when it has to boot, black screen, nothing happens. Tried to remove the HDD, CD, and same result, not even an error.

I activated the F12 (boot menu) key in BIOS, but when i press it, same result, black screen.

Was thinking to do a BIOS update, hoping that this will also reset the BIOS, but on the Acer webpage I can only download a Windows app that will flash the BIOS from Windows (WinPhlash). In the install directory of this program there is a file ZL1I3A10.WPH (514Kb), but I'm not sure if I can use it safely, since I suspect it has been written specially for this program and I'm afraid not to damage the laptop more then it is already (even though, atm, for all purposes, it is a brick).

Any ideas?

All help will be appreciated

[Shatter]

-bump-

[SYNACK]

The Bios updates on this page Acer Europe - Service & Support, Drivers & Utilities, Downloads, Notebook, Acer TravelMate 4000 Series appear to have a dos folder in them too with the same wph file as the windows one. Also given the size of 512kb (size of a flash rom chip) I suspect that they are both just standard bin images and should work in the same way if supported by your laptop (may need to rename it to a .fd). At own risk of corse

 

Have you tried booting with an external moniter to check if it is a dodgy video link at higher resolutions to the LCD?

Edited January 14, 2010 by SYNACK

[tommej]

That's cool! I'm always terrified of updating bios. Especially on gigabyte boards, the english on their site and windows based bios programs is terrible!

[Shatter]

I have already tried an external monitor with the same results (tried it before posting but I forgot to mention it). The laptop just won't boot from any device.

I also got an USB floppy drive, made a bootable disk from Windows (format + check "create MS-DOS start-up disk") and copied the 3 files from the DOS folder from the .zip file linked above. Started with the Fn+Esc keys pressed, the laptop will start without displaying anything, beep a few times, lit up the floppy for a few sec (just like on normal boot), and in the end do nothing. Also tried to change the extension of the .WPH file to .FD and nothing.

 

Running out of ideas...

[wajahatnajam]

Hello everyone,

I was Just updating bios of my Acer ASPIRE one ZG5 (AOA 110-Aw) Intel Atom with 8GB SSD

because it won't charge battery so I do format my regular flash drive from FAT32 to FAT system and its going perfect to update. Suddenly there is a power breakdown and bios update is hanged and my Laptop is total dead, don't even power on or reply anything. when I put charger plug in then its just blink battery LED and Power LED and then dead,

 

I try many ways to reboot but its not going to power on

its SSD, RAM, VGA even every thing is ok and fine so PLEASE HELP ME WHAT CAN I DO TO MAKE IT ALIVE.... PLEASE HELP ME

 

WAJAHAT NAJAM:(

[benzman81]

Hi,

I now have the same problem on my acer aspire 5720g. Trying the suggested steps does not work. It seems that the notebook is reading the USB thumb as it start blinking a little while, but the notebook never powers down (now waited about 10 hours as I went to sleep and left it powered on). Also tried it with CD. Same result.

If I power it off manually, then it is a brick like before.

Any hints? It's my parents notebook, so it is pretty urgent :-(

Thanks,

Markus

[cyberfangs]

Just had a go, downlaoded the 1.45 BIOS for the Aspire 5720. Insize the ZIP were 2 files.

 

BIOS_v1.45.exe

Readme.txt

 

Using WinRAR i unzipped the BIOS_v1.45.exe and inside it was the following.

 

CL50145A.fd (File you are after)

InsydeFlash.exe

iscflash.dll

iscflash.sys

iscflashx64.sys

platform.ini

 

Using my solution above you should just have to burn ONLY the CL50145A.fd to a CD-R.

 

If you are struggling to get the FD file still just PM me your email address and the laptop model, ill get the FD file over to you in a ZIP.

 

Si

 

i got an acer aspire 5570, it has the same problem (flashing bios failed). i have downloaded the .zip file for the bios update but i don't see any .fd extension file name, just the .wph file extension= well i thought this file is something it's the largest along the bios.bak. i need your help , my email address is cyberfangs_demon (yahoo)..

[Bion]

Hi,

 

i had the same issue with bricking my Acer 5741G (x64 arch.). Something went wrong during installation from Windows 7, thus i had terrible experience looking for a solution. Non of posts in this forum helped, but after spending ~4 hours investigating and searching for a solution i found a reply in some another forum (somewhere in mydigitallife.info forums) about Acer 5741G and BIOS problem.

 

The solution was such:

1. Download latest (of earlier if latest BIOS version doesn't work) BIOS version for your laptop from ACER support portal (i've used worldwide portal)

2. Find file *.fd in DOS directory

3. Rename file name to NEW70X64.fd and copy it to USB or CD/DVD (only one file should be in the media)

4. Remove battery and power cord from laptop, press and hold FN+ESC, plug in power cord and press power button still holdin FN+ESC keys (for a few seconds).

 

The trick i missed everywhere else was to rename file name to NEW70X64.fd. It worked for me as after few minutes bricked BIOS was replaced with NEW70X64.fd and i had BIOS unbricked and working perfectly.

 

NB Use this tip for your own risk, it might work only for x64 architecture as file name has "X64" string in it.

[lah49jac]

Hi everyone!

 

I hope you help me. I have a laptop Acer 5720 z, and I tried flash bios ('cause the laptop have a problem with ventilators and I'd supposed it was for old version bios) I've used the method to copy .fd file in USB flash stick, plug this in laptop, hold Fn+Esc keys down, connect power cable and press power button... However USB flash and CD-lector only blink.

 

I'll try others methods, but if someone have the same problem (with this laptop model) I'd be grateful his response.

[dowksey]

Dear Members,

 

I have recently revived an old but functional Acer Aspire 5652WMLi and stupidly used the winflash option to update the BIOS to the latest version. Needless to say it failed part way through and I now have a bricked Acer!

 

Hopefully all is not lost, as the laptop does start up and accesses the CDROM drive but I cannot use any of the methods described on this site due to not having the .FD file. It seems that Acer no longer support or provide the old DOS version of BIOS updates as the oldest version I can find on their website is V2.20 which only contains the winflash and .WPH files.

 

I would be very grateful if any member of this forum is able to help

 

 

Regards

 

 

Dowksey

[jimsnb]

Dear members

 

I'm sorry to trouble you, and i wonder if you can help me. Yesterday i opened my laptop ( acer aspire 5920g, windows 7 ) and when i pressed the On/Off button , the screen was black but the laptop was working. I made some search on the internet , and i found out that maybe it is a Bios Problem. So I wanted to updated the bios, so in order to do it i tried to find the .fd file from the acer site.

But there werent any.

 

To boot from a flash driver , does it have to be fat or fat 32.

 

(If you can give me more tips about the process , it would be appreciated.)

 

Thanks in advance.

 

My email is [email protected]

[uncle_joe]

Hi,

 

Well my GF's Acer Aspire 5720 doesn’t always connect to the router at home, so I guessed it was the wireless drivers, as my iPhone and sisters laptop always connect fine.

 

After an update, which didn’t solve the problem, I thought I would try a BIOS update, V1.17 to V1.42 - quite an upgrade.

 

Well the winFlash file opened, erased the bios, then failed on "VALIDATE FAILED" error AFTER ERASING THE BIOS FFS!

 

Press the power button, hard drive cycles continuously, screen doesn’t turn on, it was a brick.

 

After some reading I found something quite fantastic, if your laptop has a PHOENIX BIOS, you can do the following to revive it from being a brick.

 

1. Download the BIOS from the manufacturer’s site, preferably the version that worked originally.

2. Burn ONLY the .FD file to the CD.

3. Remove the Battery and Power Cable from the laptop.

4. Open the CD Drive with a Pin (Push a pin into the hole on the drive to force an eject)

5. Put the CD with the original .FD BIOS file into the drive.

6. Hold the FN and ESCAPE keys down.

7. Plug the MAINS LEAD ONLY into the laptop.

8. Press the power button whilst still holding the keys.

a. This will FORCE the computer to load the .FN file from the CD and write it to the BIOS of the machine.

9. The laptop will power up, you can release the keys; leave the laptop for 20-30 minutes if needed.

10. The computer will turn itself off once complete.

11. Re-insert the battery, power on the laptop.

12. It works

a. In my case – Happy GF.

 

Psy, should the name for .FD file be matter? Or you just copied the .FD file from zip-file without any name changes?

 

I have the same notebook and the same problem , i.e., failed bios update. I found that I can power up the notebook using the recipe you so nicely described. Yes, it tries to access media. However, nothing happens. Some people on other forums say that the name of the rom-file might be important, i.e., there might be some convention on under what name this file must be present on media. Some say this name is depends on the model of the notebook. Could you answer what name did you use when burn the rom-file (*.FD) on CD and what is your model no. engraved on bottom of the notebook under "Aspire 5720 Series"? Mine no. is ICL50.

 

I tried to contact the ACER Support, but could not get any useful information from them in this regard. They response was to read README files inside zip-files. However, none of zip-files, at least for this model, has any information on how update bios using crisis recovery procedure described here. Tho only information those README file inside zip-files contain is on how to update BIOS under normal conditions using DOS or Windows.

 

Does somebody reading this discussion get such an information from ACER? Maybe owners of different models were lucky to get an instruction of this sort inside zip-files with bios updates for their models? Please, respond if you lucky to get such an instruction.

 

Regards,

uncle_joe

Edited June 23, 2011 by uncle_joe

[Trojan_Hussar]

Psy, should the name for .FD file be matter? Or you just copied the .FD file from zip-file without any name changes?

 

I have the same notebook and the same problem , i.e., failed bios update. I found that I can power up the notebook using the recipe you so nicely described. Yes, it tries to access media. However, nothing happens. Some people on other forums say that the name of the rom-file might be important, i.e., there might be some convention on under what name this file must be present on media. Some say this name is depends on the model of the notebook. Could you answer what name did you use when burn the rom-file (*.FD) on CD and what is your model no. engraved on bottom of the notebook under "Aspire 5720 Series"? Mine no. is ICL50.

 

I tried to contact the ACER Support, but could not get any useful information from them in this regard. They response was to read README files inside zip-files. However, none of zip-files, at least for this model, has any information on how update bios using crisis recovery procedure described here. Tho only information those README file inside zip-files contain is on how to update BIOS under normal conditions using DOS or Windows.

 

Does somebody reading this discussion get such an information from ACER? Maybe owners of different models were lucky to get an instruction of this sort inside zip-files with bios updates for their models? Please, respond if you lucky to get such an instruction.

 

Regards,

uncle_joe

 

I have a bricked Acer Aspire 5720 (also ICL50) which I am trying to flash as we speak, the BIOS file I got from the Acer site is v1.45. Having unzipped the BIOS_v1.45.zip file, you can then unzip the executable file to get the .FD in this case it is CL50145A.FD.

 

I'm hoping this is going to work, otherwise I have bricked a friends laptop trying to upgrade the BIOS using the crappy InsydeFlash Windows utility (this machine was still running BIOS v1.06). It's been sitting here flashing the hard drive light for 25 minutes now and no signs of life so far :-(

 

Regards,

TH.

[featured_spectre]

Failed BIOS is repairable exactly as psymon described. If it doesn't work, ring acer for the appropriate media to reflash the ROM from boot up. Mast cost about £10 but it will flash it back to what it shipped with, then you can shi the flashing again.

[Psymon]

Hi guys,

 

When I performed this I used the 1.42 version (and i have also tested the 1.45). If there is no .FD file then i am afraid i cannot help you.

 

I left the laptop for about 20 minutes (Optical drive flashing away) and eventually it restarted itself and booted up.

 

Other than my experience of doing this twice I cannot offer any more info, sorry

 

I havent had to do any recently, and havent downloaded and BIOS updates to hunt for .FD files.

 

To answer a couple of questions

 

Psy, should the name for .FD file be matter? Or you just copied the .FD file from zip-file without any name changes?

 

I did not rename the file, the only thing I did was finalise the disc to ensure it was readable by most makes of drive.

 

There are a couple of suggestions about names of the files, looking at the posts earlier the ICL50 = CL50145a.FD suggesting CL50 model, 1.45A BIOS etc... There is no harm renaming the files if the laptop is bricked, if the laptop does not like the .FD it

 

Simon

[uncle_joe]

Hi guys,

 

When I performed this I used the 1.42 version (and i have also tested the 1.45). If there is no .FD file then i am afraid i cannot help you.

I left the laptop for about 20 minutes (Optical drive flashing away) and eventually it restarted itself and booted up.

Other than my experience of doing this twice I cannot offer any more info, sorry

I havent had to do any recently, and havent downloaded and BIOS updates to hunt for .FD files.

To answer a couple of questions

I did not rename the file, the only thing I did was finalise the disc to ensure it was readable by most makes of drive.

 

Simon

 

It looks as my bios is fubar, as I tried all possible file names people suggested on various forums, including the orginial names, and many *.fd versions (from 1.16 to 1.45).

 

I can power up the laptop using Fn-Esc trick, I see that some media initialisation going on with the media LED blinking and CD or floppy spinning. According to floppy sounds it looks as the laptop tries to get something (short creaks) but do not make any serious file reading, which would be easily identifiable by specific long creaking sound.

 

As last resort, I have ordered a new bios chip on eBay (cost 18AUD with shipping). Some guy from the UK sell them for pretty much all ACER notebook models. Surely the microchip replacement is going to be a tricky thing to do, as the bios microchip is so tiny. Fortunately, I have a friend in Phys Lab with all equipment necessary for microchip soldering and unsoldering. I would not recommend anybody to try this in home conditions, unless soldering of microchip-boards is your hobby, and your name, if not Tony Stark, than Ivan Vanko.

 

Thank you for response anyway!

Edited July 4, 2011 by uncle_joe