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Please Help Acer 4152 Dead after bios update

Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2006 4:42 pm
by vnet313
I downloaded the new bios v2.5 from the acer europe site and updated my v2.3 it was upgraded successfully and told me to restart, after the restart no screen nothing only the power light and the hdd light was on. I tried all the crisis stuff but they don seem to work, please give me any links of the files needed and stuff please.. thanks in advance

Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 7:23 pm
by pinguin_killer
The same problem :(

Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 8:41 pm
by edwin
I'll have a look into this. Funny we missed the first request though.

Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 2:22 pm
by pinguin_killer
I googled that this notebooks can do crisis recovery. But I need a usb floppy drive for this. I tried to use a usb stick, but it didn't help.
Now I'm looking for a usb floppy.

For education :) - can usb stick be recognized as a flopy drive? I read that one can make them bootable with working OS.

Done

Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 11:47 pm
by pinguin_killer
It's done. USB floppy drive helps.

Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 1:32 pm
by arsinoe
Same problem here......
After updating BIOS to my ACER TM4152 LMI, got black screen, and the lights from power and the hdd...nothing else.

Can u please, describe ***IN DETAIL*** the procedure to restore BIOS.
pls start from zero....



thanks in advance
arsinoe.

P.S I have a USB floppy drive.

Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 6:09 pm
by ciscoblue
I have the same problem too.
Please help and give details on this crisis recovery steps.

I too have a USB floppy drive but how do we proceed in solving this problem without getting back to Acer on it?
Warranty is over and they will confirm charge me for the repair.

Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 2:03 pm
by NickS

Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 11:53 am
by arsinoe
The trick that works for the Aspire Series doesn't work for Travelmate 4150...

so if anyone has fixed the problem on a Travelmate 4150, pls pls inform us on the procedure.....

thanks

Solution to Acer Laptop Bios Issues is very simple

Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 11:51 am
by LinuxGuru
Firstly, Do not trust ACER Engineers - they have created a mess of the BIOS Flashing process, which doesn't ever work in Windows correctly.

Acer Laptops have good hardware for reasonable cost, but Support is where they suck.

Do not use the Windows BIOS version to make a BIOS Flash. I did the same mistake with my "new" Acer 4152 NCLI Laptop purchased in 2006 and when I asked for help from Acer support I realized I had to pay "phone consultancy charges" per 30 minutes.

So, Always create a DOS Boot Floppy and then Flash the BIOS, its simpler and saves you headaches later.

Anyways, this was not the first episode with my ACER Laptop- I had Windows XP not booting up or "hanging" on boot up, so I decided to move to Linux - PCLinux 2007 which is a far better O/s. You can read all about my Acer Adventure and PC Linux 2007 recovery on my blog at http://charlesvaz.blogspot.com/2006/09/ ... -time.html .

Ok, here is the step by step instruction since I faced the same problem and I have fixed it - easily to my surprise.

*Get an External USB Floppy Drive

*Create a DOS Bootable Floppy Disk
(using Win XP from Format Menu, you can also go to any of the disk recovery sites and get a dos bootable ISO and write that ISO to a CD and then boot the CD and then make a bootable Floppy)

*Go to the Acer Europe web-site or choose region as Europe from Acer.com (ftp://ftp1.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/) .

*Download the latest BIOS zip file for your model or the closest model (Example: If you have an Acer 4152 model laptop, you should choose travelmate_4150) . From the bios directory, download the latest BIOS zip file, in which you will find a readme.txt Example for 4150 the latest BIOS version is 2.50D.

*You have to be lucky to find the following line in your readme.txt
"Using Crisis"

*If you find the above line in your readme.txt, you can proceed with the recovery, since you have a DOS floppy and you also have a way to create the 512K ROM file which can be copied along with bflashit.bin on the Floppy.

*Now when you have downloaded the zip - sometimes there are two versions as for 4150 model - EDL00_250_WinFlash.zip and edl00_250.zip.

*Do not use the Windows version to make a BIOS Flash. I did the same mistake. Always create a DOS Boot Floppy and then Flash the BIOS, its simpler and saves you headaches later.

*Unzip the edl00_250.zip file and then you will see a file that resembles the name BUILDROM.Bat or BUIDROM.bat (spelling mistakes are common with ACER)

*Open a DOS command prompt on your Windows machine or other laptop and then run the batch file

*You would have created 6 ROM files of 512K length each - 43M.ROM,44MV.ROM, UMA.ROM and their corresponding DOCK versions - i.e. 43Mdock.ROM and so on.

*Now you have to copy bflashit.bin and one of the above ROM files onto the DOS Bootable floppy you have created.

The process is trial and error and there is no harm done at all.

*I tried without the DOCK versions and when I tried by renaming UMA.ROM to BIOS.ROM as the first readme.txt said, and copying that to the Floppy it worked like magic.

*Take the floppy and connect the external USB Floppy Drive to the "Dead screen Acer Laptop", No need of removing any battery or any screws from the laptop,

*Just press Fn and ESC keys together on the "dead screen laptop" and press the power button (making sure that the laptop is on AC power - since if the power in your laptop fails during the BIOS Flash, then you may need to replace the BIOS Chip - which is a sad process.)

*After you have pressed the power button on your "dead screen laptop", keep the hold on the Fn and ESC key till you see the green light on your External Floppy Drive with your DOS Bootable Flash floppy being read inside.

*This is a good sign and you can now release the Fn and ESC keys and just watch the laptop slowly reading in the Flash from your Floppy and "Burning"/writing the new flash software into the Flash EEPROM chip.

*Keep the laptop for 2 minutes as it is and you will see the hard disc power light go off and the laptop only showing the AC/Battery light - meaning the laptop has now powered down.

*IF ALL is WELL with the .ROM file you selected then you shall see the BIOS screen as soon as you press the Power Button on your "new ALIVE screen Acer Laptop"

All the BEST and keep trying all the 6 files (maybe 6 files are an example for 4150) - similar process should exist for all the "new" ACER model laptops.

All about Technology at http://charlesvaz.blogspot.com/

Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 3:51 am
by starciao
hi LinuxGuru,

your method is not working on me......any different using

USB floppy drive and USB portable floppy drive but when i press fn +esc no sign show on my keyboard

not working for me...

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 12:09 pm
by deimosaffair
Hello,

i got the same problem, travelmate 4150 with fried bios. now, i don't have a USB floppy drive, so i made a bootable USB pen from a floppy image. the pen boots fine on other PCs, but on the 4150 nothing happens. i don't even see the pen LED flashing to be read.

so, anybody knows if the diference from USB floppy to USB pen is important? also, any USB port is good, or a specific one needs to b used?

thanks for any idea

Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 5:54 am
by maxim
This guy can take out the bios chip and reflash it. biosxp dot net

Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 6:31 pm
by user8012
To deimosaffair...
You can't use a USB floppy in current status.
USB floppy can work only when 4152 can boot.
You have to repair BIOS after you take out BIOS flashrom from M/B.
And you need a flashrom progrmmer that support your flashrom.
Some programmer is very cheap($20, include postage).
Do google with "nano bios programmer".