How to update BIOS without Windows on V3-372

I purchased an ACER V3-372-57CW and the computer refuses to boot (the green ACER splash screen at EFI boot won't even show) when my (otherwise fully functional) WACOM Intuos 4 tablet is plugged in into any USB port. Acer customer care refused to acknoledge nor register the issue so my last hope is that a BIOS update will solve the problem.

I'm used to manufacturers providing DOS executable flash utilities for running under FreeDOS etc. but for the Acer V3-372, I can only find a Windows 10 Executable. Obviously, uninstalling the whole system just for updating the BIOS is not a viable option.

Is it possible to obtain either a DOS executable for the BIOS update or something which could be used from within Linux (with EFI)?

Thank you

Accepted answers

JordanB

ManDay,

At the present moment, I only have Windows installed on my computer. If someone were to tell me that I needed to install a different Operating System to update the BIOS, I wouldn't think it was any big deal. I would....

1. Create a system image backup with the Windows utility

2. Wipe the drive with "diskpart clean"

3. Install whatever OS they told me I needed to install.

4. Update the BIOS

5. After the BIOS update, I would simply wipe the drive again with diskpart clean, and restore my Windows system image.

6. It would take me less than 45 minutes to accomplish steps 1-5. Probably about 30 minutes to be honest.

Use my logic. Except I'm not a Linux expert and don't know how to accomplish what I just told you with Linux. Just google. I see some people are using clonezilla, but I'm sure there's a command to do the same.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DriveImaging

http://askubuntu.com/questions/106943/back-up-the-whole-ubuntu-system-or-system-image-creation

http://askubuntu.com/questions/19901/how-to-make-a-disk-image-and-restore-from-it-later

Check with the Ubuntu forum and tell them what you need to do and I'm sure it's possible.

Important Note: Diskpart clean is invaluable if you're switching back-n-forth between legacy mode and UEFI mode....or deleting partitions.....or clean installing an OS. However, make sure you don't accidentally wipe the wrong drive (disk). Be careful. There's no do-overs.

Tip: You can get vanilla Windows iso free from the links below.....if you forgot to create a USB factory default recovery drive of your Acer OEM Windows.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/

And create installation media with rufus.

https://rufus.akeo.ie/

Tip2: The link below has some tips and tricks for clean installing Windows 8.1 or Windows 10.

https://community.acer.com/t5/V-and-VN-Series-Laptops/Acer-Aspire-V3-772-Windows-8-1-clean-install/td-p/449512

Tip3: Always backup your important personal files before attempting anything above.

All comments

Mary-Acer

The BIOS updates provided are Windows-based only. We do not offer a DOS executable file for these updates. Perhaps other Community users here can provide suggestions on a work-around for you.

ManDay

Thank you for the response. If I may say so, I find that inappropriate. ACER certainly does have the ressources to provide a DOS executable to flash the BIOS. I'd reckon it's a 12 man-hours job. Is this one of those "no (significant) profit - no service" decisions that the big Tech-companies take? When I chose ACER for the laptop I did so in the good hope that there would be minimal support for non-Windows users, having not had such problems with my previous ACER from ca. 2013. I will certainly think twice before buying ACER again. This is line with customer care stating they wouldn't register the issue with the WACOM unless I put Windows back on the computer.

ManDay

FWIW, in light of the above, the drop-down "Choose your operating system" in the download area

http://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/drivers

is close to pretentious. The only option is "Windows 10 64bit" and from the sounds of it, ACER has no intention on extending it, whatsoever.

JordanB

ManDay,

At the present moment, I only have Windows installed on my computer. If someone were to tell me that I needed to install a different Operating System to update the BIOS, I wouldn't think it was any big deal. I would....

1. Create a system image backup with the Windows utility

2. Wipe the drive with "diskpart clean"

3. Install whatever OS they told me I needed to install.

4. Update the BIOS

5. After the BIOS update, I would simply wipe the drive again with diskpart clean, and restore my Windows system image.

6. It would take me less than 45 minutes to accomplish steps 1-5. Probably about 30 minutes to be honest.

Use my logic. Except I'm not a Linux expert and don't know how to accomplish what I just told you with Linux. Just google. I see some people are using clonezilla, but I'm sure there's a command to do the same.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DriveImaging

http://askubuntu.com/questions/106943/back-up-the-whole-ubuntu-system-or-system-image-creation

http://askubuntu.com/questions/19901/how-to-make-a-disk-image-and-restore-from-it-later

Check with the Ubuntu forum and tell them what you need to do and I'm sure it's possible.

Important Note: Diskpart clean is invaluable if you're switching back-n-forth between legacy mode and UEFI mode....or deleting partitions.....or clean installing an OS. However, make sure you don't accidentally wipe the wrong drive (disk). Be careful. There's no do-overs.

Tip: You can get vanilla Windows iso free from the links below.....if you forgot to create a USB factory default recovery drive of your Acer OEM Windows.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/

And create installation media with rufus.

https://rufus.akeo.ie/

Tip2: The link below has some tips and tricks for clean installing Windows 8.1 or Windows 10.

https://community.acer.com/t5/V-and-VN-Series-Laptops/Acer-Aspire-V3-772-Windows-8-1-clean-install/td-p/449512

Tip3: Always backup your important personal files before attempting anything above.

ManDay

Well thank you for the suggestion. It is what I will have to do, it seems. Though I will rather buy another cheap HDD on eBay and use that before throwing off my current system. I think by 30 minutes you may have meant the time that you'd actually work on the computer. I reckon the whole process takes about half a day at least. The last time I installed Windows, the installation alone would take an hour. I guess the topic "How to update BIOS without Windows" can be closed by saying that it's not possible and your response is probably the best solution there is.

JordanB

You're welcome.

Using a different HDD is a good idea you have, but I hate opening a laptop unless I have to.

It is going to take you longer that 45 minutes. You're right. But the computer is doing most of the work and doesn't require much user interaction.

Everything should go much faster if you have solid state drive.

Since you have installed Linux in UEFI mode (secure boot enabled), would you mind helping someone in the link below as he is getting blackscreen when he tries to install Ubuntu?

http://community.acer.com/t5/S-and-R-Series-Laptops/Ubuntu-on-Swift-3-SF314-51-74FW-black-screen-after-menu-on-Live/m-p/464681#M5962

JordanB

I decided to try a drive image backup with dd.

Here's my steps with Ubuntu 16.04

1. Installed Ubuntu 16.04

2. Inserted an external USB HDD.

3. Formatted the external USB HDD as FAT32 and I named it linimg

4. Used this guide and booted Ubuntu Live USB and issued command from terminal:

sudo dd if=/dev/sda | bzip2 > /media/ubuntu/linimg/image.bz2

5. After the image was created/saved to the external USB HDD, I inserted a Windows 10 USB media and wiped my laptop's SSD with diskpart clean.

6. Restored a Windows image to laptop (I already had a Windows image so I didn't have to clean install Windows). Tested Windows to make sure it worked ok.

7. I already had the latest BIOS, so nothing to do here.

8. Wiped my laptop's SSD with diskpart clean.

9. Booted Ubuntu Live USB and issued command from terminal to restore image to laptop:

bzcat /media/ubuntu/linimg/image.bz2 | sudo dd of=/dev/sda

10. That's it. Very simple. After the image was restored, I restarted the computer. Tested Ubuntu and it works fine.

JordanB

In hindsight, I wish I would have added about 20 GB of files so I could test the split. But I didn't and it's too late now.

http://serverfault.com/questions/205621/creating-a-80gb-image-with-dd-on-a-fat32-drive

http://michi-bs.blogspot.com/2008/06/hdd-or-partition-backup-with-dd.html

jgtown

I'm a little late to the party but I just checked the executable for the BIOS update on my V17 and, as I expected, it's a self-extracting archive. I extracted the contents with WinRAR (Linux has plenty of equivalents, I'm sure) and it extracted the BIOS (isflash.bin) and a few executables. One of them is FWUpdLcl.exe which is the DOS program for flashing the BIOS. If you run that without any arguments, it shows the basic usage info.

Copy those to a bootable DOS flash drive, boot it, run the flash program, and that should do it. Assuming the V3 BIOS updates are done the same way, of course. And I don't know how or if EFI would figure into the process.

Advice is given as-is, no warranty or guarantee, use at your own risk, etc. Smiley Happy

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