Acer Laptops - Repair a FAILED BIOS Update

[Trojan_Hussar]

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.

 

Left the laptop overnight and essentially nothing happened. I checked the CD-R and re-read the instructions and realised I'd missed a vital part. You have to hold down the Fn+Esc *BEFORE* you plug in the power and then press the power button.

 

Tried it properly and the laptop is now sitting here on the bench, fan whirring and periodically accessing the CD-R so fingers crossed I'll leave it until it powers down and see what happens... My only thought is that I only have the v1.45a BIOS I downloaded which caused the problem in the first place, this machine was running v1.06 (very old version). If it doesn't work I'll have to see if I can find a more ancient version of the BIOS to try.

 

Regards,

TH.

[Trojan_Hussar]

Hrmm not looking terribly hopeful. Laptop spins up the CD every minute or so then spins down and repeats. Been doing this for an hour now, I've burned a v1.16 BIOS file to disc and may try that in a while. Anyone know if the 5720 will do a crisis flash from USB stick?

 

Regards,

TH.

[Trojan_Hussar]

Hrmm not looking terribly hopeful. Laptop spins up the CD every minute or so then spins down and repeats. Been doing this for an hour now, I've burned a v1.16 BIOS file to disc and may try that in a while. Anyone know if the 5720 will do a crisis flash from USB stick?

 

Regards,

TH.

 

Got back in this afternoon to find it still spinning up the v1.45A disc every minute or so. Popped the v1.16 BIOS disk in and this time it spun up once and has now gone quiet (but not switched off), the suspense is killing me!

 

Regards,

TH.

[Trojan_Hussar]

Got back in this afternoon to find it still spinning up the v1.45A disc every minute or so. Popped the v1.16 BIOS disk in and this time it spun up once and has now gone quiet (but not switched off), the suspense is killing me!

 

Regards,

TH.

 

No luck unfortunately, I hold down Fn + Esc I get the red flash of the power light as I plug in the power supply. When I press the power button the CD-R spins up and I get a flashing light, then one of two things happen. Either it doesn't spin up again, or it spins up every minute, so I'm not sure which (if any) of these is the correct behaviour. I've tried putting the BIOS image onto a USB stick but there is no sign of any activity from the stick.

 

I've checked the CD-R's are readable in a variety of different machines and they all seem fine. I'm toying with the idea of swapping out the DVD-RW drive and using a different one from another laptop just to see if that makes any difference. In effect I have a laptop which appears to have all the hallmarks of one that is capable of being flashed, but is refusing to comply!

 

Regards,

TH.

[Trojan_Hussar]

Unfortunately despite swapping out a different CD/DVD+RW drive I'm still not able to flash this laptop. Acer refuse to help because I cannot give them the serial number (the sticker has faded away and I can't get into the BIOS to read it). They have denied the existence of a crisis disk and are recommending I send it to their service centre.

 

It's an ICL50 5720 with a T7100 processor, it was running v1.06 but attempting to use the InsydeFlash utility in Windows gave the message "VERIFY ERROR" and locked the laptop up so that the only way to restart it was by pulling the battery. Incidentally I flashed the BIOS because with 4Gb installed the processor throttled back after a suspend/resume and the whole machine was reduced to a crawl.

 

Now it's sitting here, unable to even recover from the BIOS recovery disks I've written. Looks like I owe my friend a new laptop. I've fixed and upgraded dozens of laptops and desktops before and *never* had this problem with a BIOS, all I can say is Acer have most certainly lost a potential customer over this.

 

Regards,

Jason.

[featured_spectre]

Perhaps it may be worthwhile trying to contact an Acer recommended warranty repair specialist, pay for a years warranty and reap the benefits of having that extended warranty...the crisis disk does exist as I have one for my netbooks (mind you that is 1 disk that is copy protected for 90 netbooks, And I had to pretty much BEG for the disk).

[Trojan_Hussar]

Perhaps it may be worthwhile trying to contact an Acer recommended warranty repair specialist, pay for a years warranty and reap the benefits of having that extended warranty...the crisis disk does exist as I have one for my netbooks (mind you that is 1 disk that is copy protected for 90 netbooks, And I had to pretty much BEG for the disk).

 

It's a 2007 laptop, so it's probably been out of warranty for some time. I will give them a call tomorrow and see if they are in a position to help. I've found a place in the US that has a replacement motherboard with warranty for £83 incl. delivery. Which is cheaper than simply buying a second hand 5720.

 

Regards,

Jason.

[featured_spectre]

warranty repair may be cheaper still as a years warranty is about £65

[Oaktech]

Incidentally, I was looking for some drivers for my 2008 5520g the other day and the menu structure drop down on the acer uk site is empty of drivers. you have to go through acer europe to find drivers in a friendly website format. Acer uk has an ftp site that contains the drivers, but it's not in any of the folders you might think it was. Acer is not recomended for anything other than home use!

[TuffGamer]

Hi

I have an Acer Aspire 5740 & my laptop failed during a bios update. Im unable to find the .fd file so would someone be kind enough to send me the file. I would really appreciate it!

 

Thanks

[NetRolller3D]

For 5720G users: Make sure that you rename the FD file to ICL50HW.FD before burning it to a CD.

 

For all other systems with Insyde BIOSes (BIOS file extension = FD), use AndyP's Phoenix Tool to find the correct file name.

 

For Phoenix BIOSes (extension = WPH or ROM), use the WinCris utility to create a crisis disk.

[acernightmare]

I just registered to share my success. I had these problems w/ my Aspire 5135 and tried all the suggestions with no joy. Finally, one year later I thought I'd give it one more go and had success! From a brick to a perfectly working laptop again! I can't post links so try it out:

 

forum.notebookreview.com/acer/284686-aspire-5315-bios-recovery-using-usb-thumbdrive.html

 

Good luck!

[atmanobal]

Hi everyone!

 

:doh:I have an Acer Aspire 4752g & my laptop (Bios V2.15) failed during a bios update(bios update on Windows7 Pro 32 bit ,BIOS v2.10,). I need to create a recovery USB drive to update the Bios on the unit. Now Download & Extract BIOS_Acer_2.17_Windows.zip. How to fix the Acer Aspire 4752g black screen problem.

 

Thanks,

 

**I had downlaoded the 2.17 BIOS for the Aspire 4752g. Insize the ZIP were 2 folder (DOS,Windows).

 

In DOS folder

ACERACDC.?

Efildr16.?

Flash.?

JE40217.ROM

JE40217.WPH

Pflash.?

ReadMe.tx

 

 

I Don't know *.fd to a CD-R.

Can apply USB ?

Edited May 3, 2012 by atmanobal

[kopbem]

i have a acer aspire 5741 g i had follow all turitouals but i cant get it to work my power buttom dont flash ether so i had a big problem i wont read the file i think

[p3ng0]

I'm experiencing the same issue with an Acer aspire 5560-7414. The bios updates only contain :

ACERACDC.EXE 11kb

Efildr16 353kb

FLASH.bat 1kb

JE50109.bin 2048kb

Pflash.exe 11kb

 

I've tried copying the .bin file but that didn't work. Does anyone have any ideas?

[vincentlcox69]

ok i need your help where can i find the fd file for a acer aspire 4730z i been looking please email me at [email protected] cause the one i have has been running for an hour and hasnt cut off yet dvd is still running i can here it is this normal

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

[simoalien]

excellent guide, I have an Acer Aspire 5720 that I was turned off while updating the bios and now will not start. I burned the CD with the file. FD downloaded from the website of Acer and followed the steps, but there is likely to put more than 20/30 minutes? because it is not clear if it is working or not.

[buckweed123]

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

 

Just after following these instructions on an Acer Aspire 5536. Had a dead laptop after carrying out a bios update from 1.08 - 1.11

Tried multiple recovery options but the above worked using the ctrl+esc keys upon bootup. Laptop is back to life. The bios file from the acer site didnt have the file specified in the instructions here, so I used the .BIOS file and gave it a go, worked a treat. Thanks a million

[mengheang]

Hello ,

I have a laptop acer aspire 4755g, it have a problem with Bios so that I updated it. after I updated, I can not turn it on with black screen but power bottom is on , I think it break. Can help me please,

[buckweed123]

Hi Mengheang

 

The most recent comment above that I posted, try that, worked perfectly for me and machine is running fine since - Originally came from psymon, worth a try on your machine too.

 

Kind Regards

[free780]

Acer... enough said.

[Mazatlan]

I made an account just to write this, since I found the thread helpful but lacking info on my exact model. I had two Acer laptops, different models but very similar (5252 and 5742Z), that bricked. They both exhibit the same behaviour exactly, turning them on lights the blue power LED in the top left but the screen remains off. The HDD light never even blinks. The CD/DVD drive will seem to check for a disk but would not load anything, even bootable stuff. External monitor showed no signal. It would remain in this state forever if you let it, sometimes the fan seemed to blow a bit but since nothing was doing anything I suppose there was little heat. Clearing excess charge had no effect.

 

5 minutes later and the 5252 is back and good as ever. Here is what I did, as detailed as possible though I don't know what matters and what doesn't:

 

1. Got a USB stick (16GB Maxell), quick formatted to FAT32 in Windows 8.1.

2. Downloaded "Firmware_bios_Acer_Aspire_5010-5253G.rar", extracted just XEWxx214.FD from the DOS directory of the 5252 BIOS package.

3. Copied that and only that to the USB.

4. Removed battery, all cables including power, and any disc from the DVD drive. Stuck the USB in the right-hand port farthest from the screen.

5. Held down Fn and Esc keys while I put the AC power cord back in. Pressed power, still holding the keys down, then released them a few seconds after that.

 

That was all I did. The fan came on fully, and the light on my USB stick showed activity. Screen stayed dead. After about 10 seconds, it turned off and I said "fuck" and took a drink. Then it came on and did the same thing again, USB flashing again. Then it rebooted and I was staring at the BIOS screen and moments later the bootloader. Seems I have a lot of updates to install.

 

So now I am going to try the same thing (different drivers) with the 5742Z. When it was given to me it was already a brick, they had taken in to a shop and been told first that the screen was dead, and then after buying a new screen (I have that too) they were told the motherboard was dead. If this one is indeed dead, does anyone know what I could do with the screen?

[figlioecantero]

Hi Psy,

i dont understand the burining procedure:

which files you need to burn? only file.fd?

with which burning software?

what options you have to use for burning?

 

 

I tried it with black and option cd-rom udf-iso but it did not work

 

 

thanks

[figlioecantero]

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

 

Hi Psy,

i dont understand the burining procedure:

which files you need to burn? only file.fd?

with which burning software?

what options you have to use for burning?

 

 

 

 

I tried it with black and option cd-rom udf-iso but it did not work

 

 

 

 

thanks

[stormke]

hmmm i made an bios update for battery 3 to 5¨% alert but after that my computer rund dead i did all options but it eve read cd usb sticks or anything else my computers is like he dont know he is a computer cause of the bios update so its bricked its a laptop aspire 5740 i have trying already the wincris crisis disk but if i dont see any activity when i run the files on failed laptop it does nothing then only give offline screen power that shutdown after 1 min goes back on for 5 sec turn back off en then on for ever but the fn + esc ddint work and ctrl + esc either

 

any oher options ?