Pretty sure the bios on this computer I bought was flashed, and I can't find the stock bios online.

izicmirza
izicmirza Member Posts: 2 New User
edited November 2023 in 2020 Archives

Ok I really need some help. I just purchased an Acer Predator PH315-51 because the guy was selling it for $400 on craigslist. 144hz refresh, 256nvme m2 drive plus 1gb ssd data drive internal, 6gb vid ram (1060 gtx), not 100% sure on rest of specs. i7-8750 hexacore...etc.

Cliffs of the situation:
-I have reformated MANY computers, so this is not new to me.
-I have win10 as a bootable flash-drive.
-Upon entering bios, the ONLY boot option is Ubuntu Mint. The DEVICE is named Ubuntu Mint. No USB, no HDD, SSD, NVME, No disc, anything. Literally 0 other
devices.

I have made all possible settings changes in bios to allow me access to boot from this drive but it seems like he flashed the bios.

This is particularly frustrating because its easy to flash some random bios firmware you find online on a laptop, but finding the original firmware is almost impossible.

This is the driver page:
https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/conten...oduct/7603?b=1

They only have updates for the bios. But not the original bios so I can flash it to fix this issue.

Any suggestions? Will take you out for a drink if you come through NC (post covid).

Answers

  • jimgpayne
    jimgpayne Member Posts: 6

    Tinkerer

    BIOS flash files generally do not patch an existing BIOS. They completely replace the existing BIOS. So you should be able to use the latest one. The problem is that they have to be run from within an OS. I am assuming that the OS on the laptop is currently Linux (from the name). Does it boot into Linux so that you can get access to the internet or a flash drive?
  • jimgpayne
    jimgpayne Member Posts: 6

    Tinkerer

    Ignore my post above.

    It doesn't sound he flashed the BIOS. What he did was reformat the nvme drive to Linux Mint instead of windows. He completely over wrote the MBR on the drive, which is why the boot device is now named UBUNTU Mint.

    Put the m.2 drive on another computer (or in an external enclosure) and reformat the drive as a windows drive from within windows.

    Alternatively, you could remove the m.2 drive and see if you can then see the internal hard drive as a boot device to install windows on to.
  • izicmirza
    izicmirza Member Posts: 2 New User
    I guess I just learned something lol. Didn't even consider that the way the drive is formatted would control what boot options the bios was displaying. I have the NVME that has mint on it, but I also have a brand new sata ssd plugged in and bios displayed neither. But I will try this out and report back. Thank you so much for your help. 
  • There are some reports from other users that Linux interfered with the bios. Can you try to convert the original ssd to gpt and install windows on another computer? Then, you would install ssd again on your notebook.
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