Acer 1640Z BIOS upgrade failure AND repair

[jagu]

Dear all,

I also posted this one under "Notebook Bios Problems" which might not be the correct place. Anyway here it is for you to see and maybe you can learn from my experience.

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Have done a VISTA upgrade with Acers upgrade DVD.
It recommended to upgrade the BIOS - after doing this notebook is dead.
(1 long and 2 short beeps).
If I want to flash a new BIOS with Crisis method which BIOS should I use i.e. how do I know if I need the AT or UMA version - how to verify this on the notebook (my version is 1642 ZWLMI)?

I would very much appreciate some help on this - thank you

LATEST NEW - it WORKS AGAIN:
I was a little bit worried when I started but later I was all smiles

So a BIG thanks to everyone who posted possible solutions here in this forum:

1: I bought a NEC model UF0002 USB floppy Disk Drive Unit.
2: Downloaded the zip file from the ACER homepage with the BIOS
(chose the one that should be the correct version for VISTA:
It contains 2 WHP files: ZL9A3A24.WPH and ZL9I3A24.WPH as I
learned from NoClaim's post I chose the ZL9I3A24.WPH.
3: Downloaded the zip files with the Crisis recovery zip-file (See d0gi's
post: http://www.rechner.org/b1800.html ).
4: un-zipped the files
5: copies the file ZL9I3A24.WPH into the crisis directory - deleted the
BIOS.WHP that was allready there. And renamed ZL9I3A24.WPH
to BIOS.WHP.
6: ran the WINCRIS.EXE program (did an unbootable format of the floppy)
7: I now had a recovery floppy.
8: all steps above obviously done on my desktop PC.
9: removed battery from my ACER 1640Z laptop
10: unplugged powercable.
11: inserted the USB floppy in one of the USB ports on the laptop
12: pressed the <fn> and <esc> keys
13: plugged the powercord
14: Turned on the laptop
15: waited a bit - lights came on on the laptop (no beeps)
16: waited a little longer and the light on the floppy came on
17: waited still a bit longer until I could hear the floppy was working
and then I let go of the keys <fn> and <esc>
18: after a while there was no activity on the floppy any more and
shortly after the laptop shot down.
19: the laptop started up again on its own and IT WORKED
20: THE LAPTOP IS BACK AND THANKS TO ALL OF YOU I SAVED A LOT
OF MONEY

BEST REGARDS
JAGU

[coox]

Ok, not a member here before today but I've just joined simply to say thanks to Jagu for taking the time to post his findings.

I've just used the exact same method on a 1640z and... worked first time. This after I'd called Acer who said they'd want £50 just to collect and evaluate.

Points that I thought wouldn't matter but did:

* It only works from a floppy - I burned several CDs but no dice
* You MUST remove the battery for this to work
* I bought a cheapie USB floppy drive from eBuyer (own-brand) and that worked fine

So a big THANKS to Jagu and all those who helped him!!!

p.s. So how is it that a third party can fix and Acer machine in five minutes but Acer themselves can't?

[edwin]

they can but they charge you 50 quid...

[Osterberg]

First i would Thank Jagu for all the help THX!!

This is How i Recovered my BIOS on a Acer Aspire 1690wlmi DDR2

1: you need a USB floppy
2:Use the B1800_crisis_recovery_disk util found below
3:format the floppy
4:I created a minidos crisidisk (nothing else)
i did not change any files , no other bios files on the floppy other then the ones created by crisis
5:connect the floppy to the damaged Laptop
6:Hold the Fn+Esc for a few sec then release
7:i got out of the room and when i got back it was fixed ;D
8:i got my Lap top with windows XP to boot again
now both me and my daughter is very happy .