Help: Blind flash on Acer

delude · Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 10:14 am Post subject: Help: Blind flash on Acer

Acer 1690 here, wrong bios was flashed and now screen is black.

I made a floppy emulation cd with the bios file and phlash16 on it and managed to boot from the cd but i can't get the commands right i think. Phlash16 Bios.wph /mode=3 doesnt seem to work. Maybe It asks for a confirmation. It's hard to guess with no screen. Does anyone know exactly how phlash16 works so I can make a successful blind update?

Tolik746 · Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 4:37 pm Post subject: same problem

I have same problem on my ACER Aspire 1640z.
YEsterday after updating BIOS my laptop has die. I have found some intresting on HP forum http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=974719&admit=-682735245+1157802904703+28353475

Tolik746

I all!

After 5 days of researching the internet forums and others, I have found the solution for my laptop ACER Aspire 1640z.

1. Make USB flash boot disk
2. add to the usb disk the original bios file and copyes of the bios with diferent ex. like bios.bak, bios.wph, bios.rom and executable files autoexec.bat and fix.bat with string "PHLASH16 /mode=3 /x bios.WPH" and the patcher phlash16
3. unplug the battery
4. unplug the ac/dc cable
5. plug the USB disk
6. hold keys [Fn]+[Esc] (or [Crtl]+[Esc] opt.)
7. during holding the keys plug the ac/dc cable
8. press the power button on laptop
9. release the keys [Fn]+[Esc] (or [Crtl]+[Esc] opt.)
after short time press one more time [Fn]+[Esc] (or [Crtl]+[Esc] opt.)

I have sucseed after 5 try.

NickS

d0gi · Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:52 pm Post subject:

I'm having trouble with my Travelmate 4101WLMi (which by the way takes Aspire 1690 bios normally) after accidentally flashing it with a Aspire 1650 bios. I even took it apart just to see the bios chip is soldered on the motherboard Sad

Then I found this thread and tried the fn + esc trick without the USB floppy drive just to see if it would do anything. And it does. If I turn it on without those keys pressed, I get blank screen, cpu fan starts and stops after a moment, lock key leds flash once, hdd led flashes a few times and then nothing. With the keys pressed, same happens except that all the leds (except power button) stay off and then I start getting one long, two short beeps, seems they keep repeating until I switch the power off. From phoenix.com I found out the beeps mean checksum error, so nothing too serious? I ordered an USB floppy drive now, but I'm wondering if those beeps cause the blind flash to fail?

edit: I did some more research (googling) and found a page saying those beeps in this case mean "The BIOS file can't be read; it is defective." which is no wonder because I don't have the floppy drive yet. However, I think "No diskette, or cannot locate the BIOS file. Try to use a new formatted diskette and copy the BIOS file again." would fit this situation better. Well, I'll just have wait for the disk drive to arrive.

edwin · Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 7:11 pm Post subject:

Indeed. But those messages always seem to be confusing and slightly wrong. Keep us posted with the results of a real-world floppy disk drive...
_________________
edwin/evasive

Do not assume anything

System error, strike any user to continue...

d0gi · Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 2:53 pm Post subject:

Yes! It worked! Very Happy

I had to get the Crisis Recovery Disk from http://www.rechner.org/b1800.html then copied bios version 3A28 to the crisis recovery disk directory with the name bios.wph and ran wincrisis.exe creating minidos crisis disk. Then I just followed Tolik746's instructions about pressing fn+esc on power on (didn't have to make an autoexec.bat or hassle with the power cord though) and the laptop started beeping. After a while, it powered off and when I turned it back on, it's alive again!
Thanks a million!

kospalio · Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 7:23 pm Post subject:

HI, BOYS AND GIRLS. IAM A NEW MEMBER AND I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM ON MY ACER ASPIRE 1692. ....1 LONG, 2 SORTS BEEP AFTER Fn+Esc. I TRIED THE "TOLIK746 way" WITH MY FLASH USB 1GB MEMORY STICK BUT I HAD NO RESULT. I DONT KNOW ... MAYBE I DID SOMETHING WRONG. PLEASE HELP. Sad

kospalio · Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 10:17 pm Post subject:

O.K BOYS. I DID IT TOO Smile

, AS DOGI DID IT. THANK YOU A LOT. IT'S WONDERFUL TO HAVE MY LAPTOP ALIVE AGAIN. Laughing

NoClaim · Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:47 pm Post subject:

Help.......It seems not to work for me.

I have the same problem, but I can't manage to it right. I tried for a few times no, with different files, but no go and i'm not sure wat the orginal bios version is. My notebook is also a Aspire 1640z and bought in july of 2006. According to the specs the laptop has Intel VGA (for the correct bios version)

So help me doing it right.

Step by step guidness please.....

Help...... Embarassed

edwin · Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 12:15 am Post subject:

http://www.rechner.org/b1800.html

is pretty clear on what to do. What is the exact problem? Are you using the wrong bios file perhaps? Where did you download it?
_________________
edwin/evasive

Do not assume anything

System error, strike any user to continue...

NoClaim · Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 6:32 pm Post subject:

At first, I prepared a bootable USB key as a floppy disk and created it with the utillity from Phoenix. Copied the bios file downloaded from the following location:
ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_1640z/bios/3a19.zip

Used file: ZL9I3A19.WPH (because of the Intel graphical card) and renamed it to bios.wph.

Now all preparations should be done.

Removed battery from notebook, no powercord connected to the laptop, inserted USB-key (tested on a PC and it boots oke) and hold down [FN]+[Esc] while connecting powercord and poweron notebook.

Now I am not sure what to to: When I hold down these keys untill powerled in on, nothing happens (left notebook for more than 15 minutes on: nogo). When I hold down these keys and release them after pressing powerbutton, beepcodes returned and when I press again [FN] +[Esc] nothing seems to happen.

Notebook is booting to Windows, but is not booting of the floppy drive on my USB stick (Pen drive 128MB, with seperate floppy emulation). Also remove hdd: still nogo.

I can't see where I do go wrong Confused

murchin · Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 9:50 am Post subject: Acer 4150!!!!!

Hello all,

I have the same problem with a acer 4150, no boot just black screen, I bought it this way taking a chance.... Pressing Fn and esc at power on enable the bios direct write mode. The thing that puzzles me is, I can only find the bios from acer web site and it comes as a winflash exe with 2 bios XXXXXX.BIN files and the crisis disk info i have founs always says to rename it bios.wph but they already are xxxxxxx.wph files.

Where am i going wrong in sourcing the bios, or am i just beingstupid and rename the .BIN files.

Many thanks

Andy.

NoClaim · Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:31 pm Post subject:

I MANAGED IT

Today I bought a external USB floppy drive, created a normal bootable floppy (from Vista) and placed the correct bios file and PHLASH16.exe on the floppy.
Entered "PHLASH16 /mode=3 /X xxx.WPH" to Autoexec.bat and tried Tolik746 solution. No luck, and notebook seems to boot into Windows, no matter how I tried with every possible combination.

At last I removed the hdd and tried again:
USB floppy connected to notebook, pressed [Fn]+[Esc], pressed power button and released buttons. After a few seconds the beepcodes returned and then pressed same buttons again (don't no if it was needed, but I pressed them). Now the notebook started to boot from the floppy. It was beeping for a few minutes, after a while it rebooted itself and tadaaaa.....there was the light.

Without the suggestions here i would still have a dead notebook....thanks all for the tips and the solutions Very Happy

murchin · Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 12:31 am Post subject: Death of notebook!!!

Hello,

As I have said my ACER 4150 would not boot,blank screen.... so I got the bios file and tried the usb crisis floppy disk trick. Well after it not working the first time, i tried again......but this time it would not power off after the load, so i left it, and left it,and left it. in the end pulled the power out.

And low and behold, it will not even power on now the machine is as dead as they come....ruined.

best of luck to you all

Andy....EX ACER OWNER.