acer aspire 5542g Bios update. How?? Its impossible it seems

Hello,

I was forced to make a account here because the info on acers site about updating the bios is to cry about. I just want to update my bios, no the machine is running fine i just want to update it. The batch file included in the download does not work. However the readme file states, run bios.bat to flash bios in pure dos or Windows x86/x64 os environment. Well it doesn't. Why does acer make this such a insanely mental proces??? There is only non working documentation about this with mismatched file types. So i fugured.. make a flash usb stick with wincrisis.. so i can flash at startup. As stated in the device manual. Even that utility to make a crisis recovery disk does not work. Its made for xp and vista. This laptop was sold with win 7????. I mean seriously ????. Who can tell me how to perform this magic trick? And no running it in compatibility mode does also not work.

Greetings mellowbug.

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IronFly

How can i understand which version i need to download?

Laptop versions:
1.xx can only be updated using 1.xx versions
2.xx can only be updated using 2.xx versions (normally 2.xx version are labeled "not for upgrades")

Desktop versions:
P01.xx can only be updated using P01.xx versions
P11.xx can only be updated using P11.xx versions (normally P11.xx version are labeled "*not for upgrades")

"L" BIOS versions are Linux OS dedicated (example P01.xxL)

* what does it mean "not for upgrades"?
During the windows 7 to 8 transition, some PC models had different BIOS versions from factory, related to the installed OS.
Windows 8 PC got an UEFI BIOS
Windows 7 PC got a "Legacy" BIOS

So PC with Windows 7 installed from factory can't use the "not for upgrades" BIOS version, even if they were upgraded to Windows 8 or 10, since the factory BIOS was a different version compared to PC with Windows 8 from factory.

mellowbug

Ironfly, could you please simplify your reply. I don't understand any of it. I downloaded the bios specific provided by acer for the 5542g from their support page for the 5542g. So it should be the correct bios files. My current bios is 1.05 and i downloaded 1.09.
Greetings mellowbug.

IronFly

have you tried the 1.08 version first?

which kind of error do you have?

mellowbug

Hello ironfly.
No i didn't try 1.08 yet. Ill try that one when im home. However the user manual states its important to create a crisis recovery disk. But.. for some reason i cant get wincrisis to work. Im running it in xp service pack 3 compatibility mode as mentioned, and it starts up fone but the first field stays grayed out.. Its where u select the bios path. Therefore im unable to create the crisis recovery disk. And it feels uncomfortable to start flashing without that as a fail safe.

Second could you clarify this for me?

1 Rename the BIOS file as "XXXXXXX.FD"
2. Copy the "XXXXXXX.FD" file to a bootable USB device containing the Crisis Disk.

Does this mean i rename the .fd file exactly to xxxxxxx? followed by the extension. In this case .fd or change the wph extension to fd?

Edit. I geus im a complete fool. ????
I should change the extension not the name itself. Correct?