Aspire 5740G - Bios recovery help needed.

Hi guys,

I'm calling for help for my first time in my ICT history (20+, becoming old?) as I'm completely stuck with an issue and I really need your help.

A little bit of background. I have an Acer Aspire 5740G laptop (full specs here: https://www.acer.com/datasheets/2010/4876/5740/LX.PMF02.138.html). As it began to be slower and slower I decided to update the HDD to SDD and by the way upgraded to Win 10.

It worked as a charm but recently had some unattended failures like BSOD, lost Keyboard, freeze or so. I decided to correct this and began to search for errors and corrections on the web.

It appears that one possible issue was an older BIOS version (possibly not supporting SSD). Indeed after some research it appears the OEM version was v1.09 and last one was 1.28 (released back in 2011 so presumed 100% stable). I decided to flash the BIOS as first resolution attempt so I donwloaded the files from ACER website and followed the mentionned procedure.

Unfortunately while flashing the laptop failed with an unexpected BSOD... I only needed 2-3 min without failure.... Really unlucky here...

And now I'm stuck with a Laptop with an incomplete BIOS which do not start at all (BIOS is not shown at startup, screen remains blank)....

I already tried some solution found on the web:

Phoenix Crisis Disk (as the BIOS is/was a Phoenix one), as found on https://www.bios-mods.com/bios-recovery/phoenix-bios-recovery/

I downloaded the Phoenix Crisis Disk (not the one mentionned because it wasn't working for whatever reason so I used the one from here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/acer-laptop-with-phoenix-bios-bios-mod-request.480992/page-210)
Used a 2GB USB flashdrive with a LED and followed the utility process
Moved the 3 files and BIOS.whp (the one from BIOS v1.28 downloaded on ACER website and renamed for that purpose) to the USB flashdrive.
Removed AC and batteries
Plugged in the USB flashdrive
Hold Fn + Esc keys then turned AC on
Wait to see if the USB flashdrive LED would blink... nothing...

Retried this with Fn+B and Win+B without a better success...

And on two different USB ports without better success...

Of course I'm assuming a USB flashdrive can't be read without the LED flashing, I'm pretty sure about it.

I'm 100% sure I didn't break any hardware, the only "piece" that may be broken is the software part of the BIOS. And I'm pretty sure something do exist in order to solve such issue (like the "blind flashing" solution uncessfully tried).

What do I do wrong following you ? Would you have any other suggestion to recover my BIOS ?

Thanks a lot for your help.

Oh, by the way I also contacted Acer support who kindly replied that spare parts were not available any more for that model. I guess they didn't read my request very carefully as I didn't break any hardware...

Your help would be highly appreciated.

(and sorry for my English mistakes if any)

Accepted answers

All comments

JackE

Assuming that the boot section of your BIOS chip can still read a bootable USB drive, I suggest that you remove both the battery and the charger. Then press and hold the power button for a minute or so. Replace the battery and charger and cold boot while immediately tapping F2 even with a black screen. If still nothing happens, then re-try the Pheonix Crisis Disk method with the 1.28 version with a FAT(FAT16) formatted, not FAT32, USB stick. Report back Jack E/NJ

rama7

Hi JackE,

First of all thanks a lot for your reply.

I should have mentionned that I'm doing all trials without battery (every time unplugging AC then replugging and retrying). I have assumed this could solve a possible temporary state remaining due to battery on.

I did the process you explained about pressing and holding power button then F2 with the USB drive plugged but nothing happend. To be honest I don't understand this request. I've always assumed nothing could ever happen without any current which is the case without AC and battery while I'm pressing power button for one minute. But I might have misunderstood of course.

I retried with the "original" CRISIS Disk" and all combination key but without a better success.

Thinking of a possible formatting process within the WINCRIS utiliy I took the action to retry with a manually FAT16 formatted USB disk on which I put the 3 needed files: BIOS.WHP (1.28), MINIDOS.SYS and PHLASH16.EXE (flashing utility I guess). I retried with all 3 comination keys (Fn+Esc, Fn+B, Win+B) without a better success (difference was manual format and not a bootable disk).

I've also red some posts about the possibility to flash boot the BIOS directly (another method) as read on https://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/13095-Undocumented-INSYDE-BIOS-recovery-method-Use-andy-s-tool-to-obtain-possible-names, but I can't find any .fd files in the downloaded files from Acer, so stuck on that side too...

To be honest what I find strange is that I don't even see the USB drive led blinking in any way. Even if my method is wrong (wrong name, wrong partition, wrong formatting, ...) I would have expected at least a first read (and associated led blink) even in the case of an uncessfull process. But I dont' see it happening.... But once again maybe I'm wrong. It might also be that it's blinking only while writing and not wile reading... It's true that I'm completely relying on the "led blink" feature of my USB drive in order to say "nothing happens"...

Any other suggestion to try following you (or same solution with a different process maybe) ?

Thanks againg for your help.

Rama7

rama7

I just gave a try to the USB flashdrive LED issue...

It seems on this particular device it was blinking only when writing on it (and not wile reading). Awesome!

My whole tests is then just void and I need to retry all of them...

I've found a very old 256Mb USB flashdrive blinking while reading (just tested on another laptop) and will redo all tests with that one... Let's hope ;-)

I'll keep you posted.

Kr

Rama7

JackE

OK, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you! 8^) Jack E/NJ

rama7

Hi JackE,

I'm afraid it doesn't smell so good...

I tried all 4 USB ports (in case of) on the bricked laptop with a Phoenix Crisis Disk on a FAT16 USB flashdrive confirmed to be blinking while laptop is reading something.

I tried all 3 comination keys on all 4 ports... The led never blinked unfortunately...

My conclusions at this stage are:

- Maybe I'm not doing the righ process in order to activate this pre-bios boot (no batteries, unplug AC, plug USB, plug AC, wait 2 sec, press combination keys, power on while holding, release 20 sec and see if anything blink during this process) ?

- Maybe the USB is not recognised on this legacy laptop and I should use another media ?

- Maybe this prebios boot is also lost during the failure then not allowing me any direct flashing method ? (very bad situation)

What option do you see for my situation ?

Kr

Rama7

JackE

Let's try all the usual BIOS file extensions, WPH, FD, ROM, BIN to see if you can force the BIOS to recognize one of them. Jack E/NJ

rama7

Hi JackE,

Thanks for your help.

I'm only getting .WPH and .ROM from Acer download. I also have a .bin but it doesn't seem to be the good size (128 KB while the 2 others are around 4 MB which seems better).

By "let's try" you mean on a USB flashdrive in FAT16, right ? Does it need to be bootable following you ?

In other word do I just copy 2 files (.WPH and PLASH16.exe because I assume it needs the flashing utility) on a blank non bootable FAT16 USB flashdrive ? Or do I use the Crisis Disk (FAT16 bootable, with an additional MINIDOS.sys) as basis to copy files onto?

Thanks again for your great help and quick answer.

Kr

Rama7

JackE

Sorry. I meant try renaming the BIOS.wph file extensions as described in the Phoenix BIOS recovery instructions to BIOS.rom, BIOS.fd, BIOS.bin, etc. Same procedure just trying different BIOS extensions. Jack E/NJ

rama7

Hi Jack,

Thanks once again for your help.

Unfortunately this didn't gave better results.

I used Phoenix Crisis Disk (so FAT16 bootable USB flashdrive) and tried all 3 combination keys with the same process but renamed BIOS.whp into BIOS.bin then BIOS.fd then BIOS.rom .