BIOS flash file for bricked Aspire ES1-111

rabtrfld

I know how to re-flash the bios.  I just don't know what file to use.  All the instructions refer to files with ".fd" suffix.  But the bios files on the Acer site are ".exe" files.  They are supposed to be run on Windows.  But the computer is bricked, so I have to use the USB-Fn-Esc-Power method.

The computer is an Aspire ES1-111.

The bios files from Acer are ZHK116.exe (version 1.16), ZHK_108.exe (version 1.08) etc. depending on the version number.  Some have an underscore, some do not.  All the posts that I have seen, where the result was successful, refer to "ABC_123.fd" files, with three letters, an underscore, 3 digits, and an FD suffix.  I doubt that an EXE file would work.  What should I do?

BTW, this one was bricked by an automatic BIOS update.  It was stuck on "Please wait while we install a system update".  There are plenty of posts about this, but you need the correct file.

rabtrfld

PS. I took Acer's flash update file Version 1.08 for Aspire ES1-111 (staying away from the later versions for now because it was one of them that bricked it).  The file is called "ZHK_108.exe"

1. Unzip the download.  The resulting .exe file is a self-extracting archive.  Mine is called ZHK_108.exe
2. Run that .exe file (on a good computer! Hoping it doesn't try to burn the wrong computer)!
3. Error message pops up - leave it open (thank goodness it didn't burn my computer).
4. A new folder appears in Users/****/AppData/Local/Temp/ with time stamp = now
5. Copy that folder to the desktop - it has the bios binary
6. Now you can close the error box, and the temp folder goes away, but you have a copy!
7. The resulting folder has a flash utility with a bunch of .dll's
8. the only binary (non-Windows filetype) is "isflash.bin", that must be the flash payload

From that point on I fail.  I renamed the file "ZHK_108.fd" and did the USB-Fn-Esc-Power manouver.  The power light and USB stick lights are flashing as expected, but never finishes.  The only step I'm not sure about, is the file name.  Everything else seems to make sense.  Several threads say the name should be SKI2Luffy.fd and many other names (depending on the model?) but ZHK_108 is all I have to go by.  That came from Acer from my serial number.

rabtrfld

Holding F2 or F12 while powering up does enter a setup or boot option screen, respectively, but it still hangs on "installing an update."

The setup screen is version 1.03, showing that it did not burn any of the other versions that were attempted by USB.