Please provide unlocked BIOS for Acer Predator Triton 700

Current version of BIOS does not allow the user to switch from RAID mode to standard/ACHI. This makes the SSD drives undetectable to Linux, effectively rendering the €3500 laptop unusable.

"RAID" mode, also described as "Intel landgrab mode" and "too ugly to live" by certain Linux kernel developers, is a method of re-mapping the drive in a way that standard drivers can't bind to it, effectively forcing the user to use Intel's driver. (For discussion, see this LKML thread from 2016, it's worth reading through the entire thread: https://marc.info/?l=linux-ide&m=147709610621480&w=2 ) Apparently Intel gave up trying to fix the situation, so the current recommended workaround is to switch the laptop's bios from "RAID" to AHCI mode.

However, that option is currently locked in the BIOS of Acer Predator Triton 700.

This is not a new issue. This same situation has affected other laptops vendors as well, such as Lenovo: https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/44694.html

Lenovo have actually fixed this issue by providing a BIOS update that unlocks AHCI mode on their laptops: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/fi/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/yoga-series/yoga-900-13isk2/downloads/ds119354

I'm requesting Acer to do the same.

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sri369

@egydiocoelho I was about to say that... you beat me to it!

@garrick
Also, do not worry about reconverting to GPT to install Windows. I have my windows 10 clean installed on G3-572 on a hard disk converted from GPT to MBR.

garrick

@egydiocoelho
@sri369

I just did what you guys suggest, linux still failed to recognize any drive. Entered nvme_load=YES on boot still failed. Could you confirm that your drive is not in AHCI when you said you successfully installed linux? So far i can only see switching to AHCI is the sole solution. Dammnit Acer, please unlock the SATA mode!

adamo000

garrick said:
Hey, could you link the guide how to do that? Much appreciated!

Sorry @garrick, every unlocked BIOS is made by someone on the forum individually. Your mainboard has unique serial number and it BIOS can't be done for everyone at once.

Commodore_1995#

@garrick Leave ssd in mbr and format fat32! Leave the bios in legacy mode and disable the secureboot!

Red-Sand

Like @egydiocoelho said legacy mode & disable secure boot

Red-Sand

And nope not much benefit from unlocking the BIOs.
Acer was even gracious enough to have turbo ratio limits and speedstep enabled to allow adjustment via throttlestop.

Using the tweaks available through software I can maintain 65/68 C for GPU/CPU max on ANY game.

Sounds like a success to me.

Red-Sand

I'd also like to add @garrick you can use a USB pendrive much easier by running from it and all you have to do is set to legacy and disable secure boot for it to work.

garrick

@egydiocoelho
@Red-Sand

i don’t think to format such a big drive using fat32 is possible (I actually tried, and it failed)
the bios can’t enable legacy mode, as shown in attached images.
yep, I could install to pen drive but I don’t want to limit my speed to only 150mb/s as I’m dealing with large files for machine learning. Thus I wonder if this laptop could boot from usb c. I actually made a separate post here and didn’t get a definite answer yet.

Red-Sand

You could partition the drive and format that one maybe?

I haven't tried booting from USB c but I imagine it would be possible since it's just USB 3.1 basically.

Anither thought it partitioning your drive to have a separate unformatted section then when setting up ubuntu using gpart to set the unallocated as your installation point.

sri369

garrick said:

@egydiocoelho
@Red-Sand

i don’t think to format such a big drive using fat32 is possible (I actually tried, and it failed)
the bios can’t enable legacy mode, as shown in attached images.
yep, I could install to pen drive but I don’t want to limit my speed to only 150mb/s as I’m dealing with large files for machine learning. Thus I wonder if this laptop could boot from usb c. I actually made a separate post here and didn’t get a definite answer yet.

You cannot format using FAT32 for such large drives.

Boot up using a live USB. Open the partitioning program in it to remove all partitions on your drive. After all are removed, create a large partition, with disk in MBR mode. And then make a small 100 MB partition. And delete the large one. This way you'll have a disk with MBR and one random tiny partition. Now boot up with Linux and it will take the MBR hard disk. After creating partitions in Linux, you can remove the tiny one you created earlier.

But then... all this only after you update your bios to legacy and secure boot disabled.

To disable secure boot, you need to set up a master password for your laptop bios. Only then it would allow you disable secure boot. And only after disabling secure boot you would be able to change to legacy boot.

Commodore_1995#

@garrickThe fat32 file system does not format hds very large, that is, it only formats up to 32gb! However you can follow this site and try to install linux in gpt-uefi format! http://www.rodsbooks.com/linux-uefi/

SFBGENERAL

@Red-Sand
Can you send me your unlocked Bios, I have the same ACER Predator model!

Red-Sand

SFBGENERAL said:

@Red-Sand
Can you send me your unlocked Bios, I have the same ACER Predator model!

It doesnt work that way.
It needs to be unlocked by physically attaching a programmer to the BIOs chip on your motherboard then the other end via usb connected to another computer where you then "download" the chips firmware then wipe your chips BIOs then modify the firmware and "reupload".

Its specific to your system only and cannot be shared.

If anyone tells you it can be done they are lying to you.

Skree

@HotelHero

Sorry to come out a bit out of the blue. But a question: you get 65/68 in any game in an Helios 300, 500 or a Triton 700?

Because i have never seen a Triton 700 with those temps. Even the recent alienware 15 with i9 and 1080 is superhot.

Keicchan

Skree said:

@HotelHero

Sorry to come out a bit out of the blue. But a question: you get 65/68 in any game in an Helios 300, 500 or a Triton 700?

Because i have never seen a Triton 700 with those temps. Even the recent alienware 15 with i9 and 1080 is superhot.

after repasted (kryonaut) got 68 cpu - 66 gpu on a triton 700 1080 while gaming with 40%-60% loads; at full load, after 30mins was 92 - 87 before repaste, now 87-85 (ambient 25 degree, no ac, no cooling pad, not raised the back of the pc, sitting on a normal desk)..probably mine it's a specific bad scenario, my cpu comes from factory really bad pasted, when repaste it, acer tech show me that was half dry and half clean from paste::

ps. skree nn m ero accorto eri tu ;D ci sentiamo su steam

ciobanucos

I have the same problem. I have Triton 700 and I want to install a linux distro, POP! OS or Ubuntu. But none of them can see the drives during the install. How can I accomplish this?

Commodore_1995#

What version of linux ubuntu do you want to install? 19.04? Have you tried deactivating the nvidia card with the command cmd nouveau.modeset = 0?

ciobanucos

egydiocoelho said:

What version of linux ubuntu do you want to install? 19.04? Have you tried deactivating the nvidia card with the command cmd nouveau.modeset = 0?

What does nvidia have to do with Ubuntu USB not seeing any SSD? Basically when I try to install any ubuntu distros, is says no disks found except the USB

Melvin_Yesudas

The year 2020, Still waiting for the fix. Has anyone succeeded?

xapim

Melvin_Yesudas this thread is dead theres no point in reviving it i suggest if you have any issues to open your own thread with your issues and to reply to this thread unlocked bios will never happen neither from acer neither any other manufacturer so those who mod it do it at your own risk of completely bricking the machines permanently

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