Acer 5532 5517 Blank Screen Assistance Needed Bios Flash

Hello,

I have the infamous blank/black screen on a 5532 laptop. Yes I know its old, but I have reasons for wanting to keep this machine working.

Already ran through all of the troubleshooting of trying to hook up to an external monitor, the machine definitely is not booting and there is nothing happening after it is turned on.
Also tried removing and changing out all ram, wifi card, the hard drive, no changes to boot, its just a blank screen.

I've been trying to load the bios files (in THIS EXACT SEQUENCE) onto a less than 2gb FAT formatted usb drive, plug in the drive, hold down fn + esc, plug the power source in, attempt to power on. It sounds different, the fan is spinning much faster, but the computer doesn't seem to want to read/load the bios files that I have on the drive.

I've seen for other Acer devices renaming the .fd file is sometimes necessary, however, I couldn't find any additional information on whether that step is necessary for the 5532 or 5517 boards.

Looking for some experience and some good advice on this one.

Thank you.

Accepted answers

JackE

Try to make a bootable DOS usb stick using Rufus https://www.howtogeek.com/136987/how-to-create-a-bootable-dos-usb-drive/.

(1) Then put the 3 BIOS files in the root directory of the bootable DOS stick.

(2) Remove the charger AND battery from the machine.

(3) Insert the bootable DOS stick with the 3 files

(4) Press and hold the FN+ESC keys.

(5) While still holding FN+ESC, insert only the charger, no battery. The power LED should flash once.

(6) While still holding FN+ESC, press the power button to turn the machine on.

(7) Cross your fingers. If the flash is successful, the machine will automatically shut down or re-start.

Jack E/NJ

All comments

JackE

Did the black screen happen suddenly for no apparent reason? Or did it sometimes happen intermittently before? Jack E/NJ

aferraro21

Just happened out of nowhere.

I want to clarify I tried removing everything (my ssd, WiFi Carr, cd drive, even swapped ram from a working machine, and it is just the black screen, power light is on, fan is running. No matter what combination of devices (or all of them) removed. I even swapped the CPU from a TL66 to a known working TL58. Still nothing.

I am almost certain I have this narrowed down to the bios (maybe the onboard graphics too) being the issue.

FN+ESC, plug the computer in, power it on does put this machine into a different startup state. The fan is much louder, and it seems like it wants to read the BIOS setup files I downloaded from the Acer website, but it won’t recognize the files, or isn’t reading them for whatever reason, this is where I am stuck.

But I’ve also seen on other Acer machines, for USB startup reflash, the file name of the .FD file needs to be changed, not sure if that’s relevant to 5517/5532 machines.

JackE

Did you try to turn on the screen and external monitor with the FN+F5 and FN+F6 toggle key combos? BTW, your machine has an older Phoenix BIOS that is supposed to read wph extension binaries using the FN+ESC cold boot method. And they often require loading the binaries as BIOS.WPH using a flash EXE executable in an dos-like autoexec.bat batch file. Jack E/NJ

aferraro21

Yes should have mentioned I did try connecting to an external monitor, but just out of curiosity, tried it again and tried to toggle but nothing on this machine appears to be working aside from the power led and the CPU fan.

I am not sure I follow your comment on BIOS.WPH, the files on the Acer site contain no files with any such extension. Instead in the DOS extracted file folder, I have 3 files, NCWxx111.bat, NCWxx111.FD, and FLASHIT.exe. Do you feel like any of those would need to be renamed in order for the FN+ESC procedure to work correctly?

JackE

Yes. Use notepad to open the BAT file to see how it's structured. That would be the equivalent of an autoexec.bat file that the BIOS reads. It is just a text file with multiple lines. Please post what it looks like. Jack E/NJ

aferraro21

The contents of the .bat file read...

flashit NCWxx111.FD /b /fe

...that’s all

JackE

Try to make a bootable DOS usb stick using Rufus https://www.howtogeek.com/136987/how-to-create-a-bootable-dos-usb-drive/.

(1) Then put the 3 BIOS files in the root directory of the bootable DOS stick.

(2) Remove the charger AND battery from the machine.

(3) Insert the bootable DOS stick with the 3 files

(4) Press and hold the FN+ESC keys.

(5) While still holding FN+ESC, insert only the charger, no battery. The power LED should flash once.

(6) While still holding FN+ESC, press the power button to turn the machine on.

(7) Cross your fingers. If the flash is successful, the machine will automatically shut down or re-start.

Jack E/NJ

aferraro21

Thank you, you’ve given me hope, I will attempt this first thing tomorrow and report back.

aferraro21

Hi Jack, I want to first off say thank you for all of the help, even after creating a DOS boot via the method you suggested, I could not get my machine to initiate a boot to BIOS flash via the FN+ESC method.

I even took the route of formatting the USB from FAT32 to FAT. The drive size is only 512mb. Even tried different combos of storing the files in the root directory, then also tried the files in the DOS locale directory. Attempted all of those different ways just to be sure.

No matter how I approached it, still no luck.

I almost feel like their is either a much larger issue with the BIOS on my machine. Forgot to mention before I also spent $10 and soldered on a new CMOS battery. So it definitely rules that out too. But I think at this point I am about ready to throw in the towel. I have family members who are still using older laptops and I think I will end up scrapping the parts as upgrades for their machines. Pushed the limits of my 5532 Acer for too long I guess.

TL66 CPU
8gb ram
512gb Samsung ssd
intel WiFi card
custom fitted my monitor with the camera (did a write up on the Acer community site awhile back on how it’s done)

Thanks again for your time Jack, maybe this solution will work for someone else down the road who’s laptop is more salvageable than mine. It was a good run!

JackE

Don't give up yet.

Edit the FD file to NCWxx111.wph. And the bat file to flashit NCWxx111.wph /b /fe.

If that doesn't work, then edit the wph file to BIOS.wph and bat file to flashit BIOS.wph /b /fe.

There are other possible name combinations involving NCWx64111 if you had Win7-64 and NCWx32111 if you had Win7-32 installed.

Jack E/NJ

aferraro21

HI Jack E,

Tried renaming the files as well as the "call" within the .BAT file to all of the combinations you've listed. I even went back and tried combinations with my drive formatted to FAT32 instead of FAT. My device doesn't seem to want to read or push a reflash under any case.

The USB led light is turning on during the FN+ESC process, but I have no way of telling whether or not the laptop is actually trying to read/write from the drive. I've also tried different drives just to be sure the drive wasn't the issue.

Thanks again.

billsey

Yeah, if the BIOS is truly toast or there's something else wrong with the MB then none of that will work. You have to have enough of the BIOS executing to mount the drive and read the files... I expect that it's something else on the MB that keeps the processor from initializing in order to start reading the BIOS, so it's failing before it can get to the first step in POST. The power LED and the fan both don't have any smarts, they light and run as soon as power is applied, regardless of the state of the rest of the system.

aferraro21

It has been running on a power hungry TL66 for a couple of years. A pretty far stretch from its original single core Athlon processor. Even though I was running quality thermal paste, I’m sure the extra heat and power consumption were the causes.

I hate scrapping it for parts, this was such a cool machine to learn on over the years. But I cannot justify spending more time or money on it at this point.

Thank you both for the feedback and responding.

Tony

StevenGen

You have one other option and that is to get a new programed BIOS chip, have a look at this "BIOS chip for Acer Aspire 5532, AS5532-5535, New chip for MB: LA-5481P" at: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BIOS-chip-for-Acer-Aspire-5532-AS5532-5535-New-chip-for-MB-LA-5481P/114136616343?hash=item1a93128d97:g:cDUAAOSwahlaj99H its about US $15.40 + postage to your region, this is what the description is for this chip. Btw, do this at your own risk as this is a specialist job and only experienced technicians and/or people should do this swap, its your choice!

The BIOS chips specs are: Bios Version: 1.11_A_A change this chip- restores and/or updates crashed BIOS's, fixes all BIOS bugs & unlocks your lost BIOS log-in password! This Bios chip is compatible with and for: Acer Aspire 5532, AS5532-5535 for motherboard: COMPAL LA-5481P (NCWG0, NCWH0) AMD. The BIOS chip is verified after programming and before shipping. Fast dispatch! On same day or next workday after payment.

I've done this many times with changing BIOS chips and/or and also changed an SSD from a 5750 to a V3-571G and it PnP and worked 100% and its not a big job to do and very doable! Otherwise its your graphics or other components that are failing and/or have failed in the 5532 motherboard, as the 5532 is getting old. With the SSD swap and if you have Win-10, you wont lose any data from your SSD as it will be PnP. Try all these alternatives, good luck.

Bios Version: 1.11_A_A Acer Aspire 5532

JackE

I dreamt up another thing to try last night.

Put the original 3 unzipped DOS files (the FD, BAT & EXE) back onto the FAT32 DOS bootable stick. Re-name the BAT file to AUTOEXEC.BAT. Then disconnect the HDD. Then insert insert the stick. Then turn the machine. Maybe there's enough life left in the BIOS to let it boot DOS from the stick and automatically run autoexec.bat to flash the BIOS just like in the olden days. Jack E/NJ

aferraro21

So here's something that is strange, when I don't make the drive a DOS bootable stick, and only place the 3 files and rename the BAT file to AUTOEXEC.BAT, it still doesn't work. BUT, when I take the drive and put it back into the computer I loaded the files, the AUTOEXEC.BAT file is missing, so it seems like the machine is trying to read and is corrupting or deleting the file.

I'm going to try your actual recommendation in a moment once I'm able to get on my other machine that has Rufus so that I can build a bootable disk.

aferraro21

StevenGen said:

You have one other option and that is to get a new programed BIOS chip, have a look at this "BIOS chip for Acer Aspire 5532, AS5532-5535, New chip for MB: LA-5481P" at: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BIOS-chip-for-Acer-Aspire-5532-AS5532-5535-New-chip-for-MB-LA-5481P/114136616343?hash=item1a93128d97:g:cDUAAOSwahlaj99H its about US $15.40 + postage to your region, this is what the description is for this chip. Btw, do this at your own risk as this is a specialist job and only experienced technicians and/or people should do this swap, its your choice!
The BIOS chips specs are: Bios Version: 1.11_A_A change this chip- restores and/or updates crashed BIOS's, fixes all BIOS bugs & unlocks your lost BIOS log-in password! This Bios chip is compatible with and for: Acer Aspire 5532, AS5532-5535 for motherboard: COMPAL LA-5481P (NCWG0, NCWH0) AMD. The BIOS chip is verified after programming and before shipping. Fast dispatch! On same day or next workday after payment.
I've done this many times with changing BIOS chips and/or and also changed an SSD from a 5750 to a V3-571G and it PnP and worked 100% and its not a big job to do and very doable! Otherwise its your graphics or other components that are failing and/or have failed in the 5532 motherboard, as the 5532 is getting old. With the SSD swap and if you have Win-10, you wont lose any data from your SSD as it will be PnP. Try all these alternatives, good luck.

Bios Version: 1.11_A_A Acer Aspire 5532

Thanks for the suggestion. I managed to resolder a new CMOS battery onto this mainboard without any problems, and it came out ok. Flux and the right solder is always key, but being honest, might be a stretch for my soldering skills.

I'll consider this route, its a good suggestion. Thank you.

aferraro21

JackE said:

I dreamt up another thing to try last night.

Put the original 3 unzipped DOS files (the FD, BAT & EXE) back onto the FAT32 DOS bootable stick. Re-name the BAT file to AUTOEXEC.BAT. Then disconnect the HDD. Then insert insert the stick. Then turn the machine. Maybe there's enough life left in the BIOS to let it boot DOS from the stick and automatically run autoexec.bat to flash the BIOS just like in the olden days. Jack E/NJ

So I think I know where you were going with this and what you were trying to do in the event that the BIOS may have been posting, but just not recognizing. I tried both iterations of copying the files to a DOS bootable usb drive, as well as a clean USB drive, even tried formatting both FAT and FAT32 partitions to see if that made a difference.

And made sure the SSD was removed on all instances.

It still wouldn't flash the BIOS. What I did notice that was odd, was whenever I put the drive back onto a different computer, AUTOEXEC.BAT that I renamed on the drive was always missing, hidden, or something may have happened where the file was corrupted. So it seemed like the laptop wanted to do something with that file, it just couldn't.

I've seen some busted emachine variations of this laptop posted on ebay for not much more than a BIOS chip. I think I'm going to give that a run and salvage what I can to avoid throwing this thing in a landfill or scrapping it for parts.

Thank you everyone for all of this input, this is really great stuff, and hopefully can help people less savy like myself to fix their own issues down the road. You guys are awesome.

JackE

>>>AUTOEXEC.BAT that I renamed on the drive was always missing, hidden, or something>>>

Try copying instead of renaming the FD file to AUTOEXEC.BAT so you'd have four files on the stick. The original BAT plus the AUTOEXEC.BAT plus the FD plus the EXE.