A 515-54G more fan noise after Bios Update 1.17?

Hey,
I just installed the latest Bios Update 1.17 which is called 'Add Workaround to fix noise issue' and apparently is supposed to reduce noise. Now it seems that my laptop does the exact opposite. After starting windows 10 and waking up from standby the fan is running at full power each time for about 2 minutes. Besides i noticed the fan to run more frequently and longer than it used to with bios 1.16. Can anybody confirm? Is it possible to downgrade the bios?

Just for info: I'm running my system optimized for loudness (max cpu power 99% and cooling set to passive [also on external power supply]) which worked quite well in bios 1.16. The fan almost wasn't running at all whereas at 100% it was a bit too noisy for me. The reason for me to update to 1.17 was that i was hoping to be able to set back performance to 100% (which enables Turbo mode) and having an improved fan control/a quiet system at the same time. So that was a mistake. Hopefully someone can help or someone reads this to fix it in another bios update (though the world has different issues right now i know)

regards and stay healthy!

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brummyfan2

Hi,
Go to BIOS screen, move to Main tab, press F9 button to set to default settings, press F10 button to save and exit, that should fix the problem.

teamow

brummyfan2 said:

Hi,
Go to BIOS screen, move to Main tab, press F9 button to set to default settings, press F10 button to save and exit, that should fix the problem.

Hi, I'm already running the bios in default mode. Yet i have set it to default again but it did not help

brummyfan2

Hi,
Go to Start-up tab in Task manager and check whether any programs running when you start, disable all of them if you find any, try disabling any third party AV programs temporarily and see whether it helps.

teamow

brummyfan2 said:

Hi,
Go to Start-up tab in Task manager and check whether any programs running when you start, disable all of them if you find any, try disabling any third party AV programs temporarily and see whether it helps.

Well not really. Again: it was all fine with bios 1.16. I had it all set up (programs running in background etc) Right after installing 1.17 those fan issues occurred while I didn't change anything. (energy profile has the same values etc etc) So the question would be if there is a way to downgrade the bios?

brummyfan2

Hi,
I wouldn't recommend downgrading BIOS, it might brick your laptop, please contact Acer support in your region or wait for someone else to help you. This happened to me yesterday morning, I have resolved it by the method I have earlier posted(pressing F9 followed by F10).
http://www.acer.com/worldwide/support/

Furbatmg07

I'm too experiencing same issue as i updated it from default bios 1.12 to 1.17. So the only thing that is keeping my system to run at stable condition is by undervolting
method. So do tell me if you find out any solution regarding this matter

[Gelöschter Benutzer]

Hello, I had the same issue and the Acer e-mail support told me to send the notebook to an Acer repair center. So I did this. There they downgraded the BIOS-version to the version 1.03. After I got it back I installed the BIOS-version 1.16 and the issue was solved. I'm now keeping the Version 1.16 and don't update to a newer version.

Furbatmg07

MnAc said:

Hello, I had the same issue and the Acer e-mail support told me to send the notebook to an Acer repair center. So I did this. There they downgraded the BIOS-version to the version 1.03. After I got it back I installed the BIOS-version 1.16 and the issue was solved. I'm now keeping the Version 1.16 and don't update to a newer version.

But when I took it to the service center they just did the opposite I mean they again upgraded the bios version.

[Gelöschter Benutzer]

Furbatmg07 said:

MnAc said:

Hello, I had the same issue and the Acer e-mail support told me to send the notebook to an Acer repair center. So I did this. There they downgraded the BIOS-version to the version 1.03. After I got it back I installed the BIOS-version 1.16 and the issue was solved. I'm now keeping the Version 1.16 and don't update to a newer version.

But when I took it to the service center they just did the opposite I mean they again upgraded the bios version.

Oh ok, over here in Germany it worked for me on this way. But I had to clearly tell them to downgrade the BIOS to at least version 1.16 or lower.

aphanic

What the hell... you don't need to send the laptop in to downgrade your BIOS. What I am about to say is borderline within the ACUA (and if its not, a thousand apologies mods and please delete this whole post), but it just involves changing the specifications for the flashing program to allow flashing a BIOS that is equal or lower than the one you currently have.

For example, the attached file contains the BIOS v1.16 for the A515-54G, allowing you to flash regardless of the build you're running.

I believe I am within ACUA because I am not circumventing any security measure, they're still all in place (battery and percentage check, power adapter, etc.). The way the BIOS section is upgraded involves clearing that section in the ROM chip and re-programming it with the new content. Because the content I'm providing is not modified in any way, i.e. the ROM file is the same, untouched and properly signed, no security implications have been bypassed.

The executable that needs to be run is H2OFFT-Wx64.exe

v1.16.rar

[Gelöschter Benutzer]

Like I said before, the e-mail support from Acer told me, that only the repair center could downgrade/flash the BIOS. I don't know if I could've done it by myself and to be honest I didn't want to take any risk of doing something wrong. So for me it was the safer way to just send in the notebook.

aphanic

Sounds fair enough, I was just pointing out that there's no need to send the laptop in and lose all that time because of it. More even when the A515-54G BIOS doesn't contain any ME code and it is properly signed (so any modification would invalidate its signature).

The actual re-programmer, not the Windows utility to prepare for a BIOS upgrade, the one that appears after the PC reboots, doesn't accept any modification made to the BIOS ROM. It will only flash Acer certified BIOSes, that's why going back is possible without needing to re-program the whole SPI ROM chip in the motherboard.

I hope they don't just send you the laptop with the BIOS updated to the latest version, but if they do, just run what I attached, I even enabled a confirmation dialog they had disabled in which it tells you if you're OK with the upgrade stating that you're going from version A from X date to version B from Y date. Other than that, nothing else was changed or replaced, just the configuration file for the Windows part of the flasher.

Commodore_1995#

Does the same problem occur when restarting the battery?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfhgnxUJoZo&list=FLVBqwtBw09_Z9tXo1Injakw&index=9&t=0s

Also, have you tried to update the bios to version 1.21?

Furbatmg07

MnAc said:

Hello, I had the same issue and the Acer e-mail support told me to send the notebook to an Acer repair center. So I did this. There they downgraded the BIOS-version to the version 1.03. After I got it back I installed the BIOS-version 1.16 and the issue was solved. I'm now keeping the Version 1.16 and don't update to a

can you tell me how the service center actually downgraded your bios version??because in my country I had it checked and told them to downgrade the bios version but they said it's impossible and I'm really confused and worried!!

[Gelöschter Benutzer]

Hi, I'm from Germany and here it worked trouble-free for me. I don't know, I just told them to downgrade the BIOS and they did it.

aphanic

Furbatmg07 said:
[...] I had it checked and told them to downgrade the bios version but they said it's impossible and I'm really confused and worried!! [...]

Like hell it is, sometimes I wonder the kind of training people have to go through to be accepted to work at a servicing center, come on... if it can even be done using oficial software alone without even touching the SPI chip!

Anyway, just like @egydiocoelho said, there has been a new release since all of this talk started, 1.21, and among other things the microcode for the CPUs was updated (not to the latest version, but still). You can try to give that a try and see if the situation improves, or simply use the package I had uploaded before to go back to v1.16.

If it serves for anything, I'm running on 1.21 and everything seems to be working perfectly here. Full disclaimer, I did replace the thermal paste for a higher thermal conductivity one so it runs cooler in any case.

Furbatmg07

yes i did actually upgrade it to 1.21 and is not getting any better and besides this the worst part is now the fan never stops spinning even when laptop remains idle and the temperature too is quite unusual. So i'm gonna take it to same really good repair centre as i don't wanna involve myself in taking any risks but will them to do as you mentioned earlier for downgrading the bios version.

Furbatmg07

Furbatmg07 said:
[...] I had it checked and told them to downgrade the bios version but they said it's impossible and I'm really confused and worried!! [...]

Like hell it is, sometimes I wonder the kind of training people have to go through to be accepted to work at a servicing center, come on... if it can even be done using oficial software alone without even touching the SPI chip!

Anyway, just like @egydiocoelho said, there has been a new release since all of this talk started, 1.21, and among other things the microcode for the CPUs was updated (not to the latest version, but still). You can try to give that a try and see if the situation improves, or simply use the package I had uploaded before to go back to v1.16.

If it serves for anything, I'm running on 1.21 and everything seems to be working perfectly here. Full disclaimer, I did replace the thermal paste for a higher thermal conductivity one so it runs cooler in any case.

yes i did actually upgrade it to 1.21 and is not getting any better and besides this the worst part is now the fan never stops spinning even when laptop remains idle and the temperature too is quite unusual. So i'm gonna take it to same really good repair centre as i don't wanna involve myself in taking any risks but will them to do as you mentioned earlier for downgrading the bios version.

Suvan

@aphanic so how do we actually downgrade?Is there a guide somewhere?

Commodore_1995#

@Suvan and @Furbatmg07 OK! Do it:a) after updating the bios it is recommended to restore the bios and restart the battery;a.1) access the bios and press f9. Then click on save and disconnect;a.2) then restart the battery: