Acer Aspire 3 A315-42 BIOS 1.11 power on, no screen activity, shuts down 5 seconds.

Ok, tried to contact customer service live chat, looks like I'm no longer eligible for that.
Here's what I did before the crash and what I did after the crash.
Before : boosted the RAM from 8 to 16gb and added a 2tb hdd to my existing 256gb nvme drive.
I played a bit with ryzen adj but finally got it all back to square one because of the thermal limit and the fact the APU can't give much more than that in games.

After the crash I :
-Tried the no battery no AC 1 minute power to get rid of any static problems
-Tried to boot with the fn+esc (no change apart from the fan at full blast)
-Tried reseating the ram
-Tried without the hdd plugged
-Tried to power up with no RAM (to see if I could even see a post)
-Extracted the abobios.bin file and edited the garbage lead in and lead out and had the exact match of the SPI dump bios file, then flashed the fresh garbage-less bios through spi flashrom.
at this point I'm about to just toss the thing to the garbage apart from the ram and drives...

I did everything with the battery disconnected.

I can't seem to figure out how to boot to a force bios flash through USB, but at this point I don't think this matters much.

All help would be much appreciated, thanx!

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JackE

>>>Before : boosted the RAM from 8 to 16gb and added a 2tb hdd to my existing 256gb nvme drive.>>>

First, try pressing the FN+F6 to turn the lid screen on. If no joy, then suggest putting all the hardware back to the way it was. Meaning the original 8GB and again temporarily disconnecting the 2.5" HDD. Try it again. If still no joy, then HDMI out to a TV screen and press FN+F5 to turn the TV screen on. Jack E/NJ

Fred4321

Fn+f6 didnt work, I'll try it next time I get my hands on the original RAM.

For reference, here's a link to a video in my dropbox showing the laptop behavior

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mof1jsevtrci7ui/20210207_185351.mp4?dl=0

Thanks a lot!

JackE

>>> I'll try it next time I get my hands on the original RAM.>>>

What does this mean? Did you sell it? Misplace it? Try to HDMI out to a TV screen now. Jack E/NJ

Teksal

Fred4321 said:
For reference, here's a link to a video in my dropbox showing the laptop behavior

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mof1jsevtrci7ui/20210207_185351.mp4?dl=0

Where does that click sound come from?

Fred4321

Teksal : "Where does that click sound come from?" ---> HDD shutting down when laptop shuts down.

JackE : "Try to HDMI out to a TV screen now." ---> not much than anything else I've tried so far.

As for the RAM it was working perfectly and the behavior is the same if I put 1 stick on on channel A or B tried both stick AND with no RAM to see if I could get it to post... nothing... it powers on, 5 seconds later, shuts down.
If I press the power button after it shuts down, the laptop turns on but the fan doesn't...
I may have to try the exorcism route

Fred4321

Update here : original RAM is in the laptop, nothing has changed, still the same issue

JackE

Did you also disconnect the 2TB HDD when trying the old RAM? Jack E/NJ

Fred4321

Yes, tried it back as it was when I received it, it has been a brick for a week now...

JackE

>>>BIOS 1.11>>>-Extracted the abobios.bin file and edited the garbage lead in and lead out and had the exact match of the SPI dump bios file, then flashed the fresh garbage-less bios through spi flashrom.>>>

Did 20H2 successfully install and work OK before 1.11 was applied? Perhaps you better explain precisely what you mean by "Extracted the abobios.bin file and edited the garbage lead in and lead out and had the exact match of the SPI dump bios file, then flashed the fresh garbage-less bios through spi flashrom." This doesn't seem to even remotely resemble any documentation I can find for flashing corrupted Insyde BIOS firmware on a bricked machine.

Jack E/NJ

Fred4321

The problem was there before, I thought maybe the bios got corrupted so I took the bios file from the 1.11 acer official installer (abobios.bin).
It was not the same size as the bios chip, so I dumped the bios from the chip with the spi programmer with my raspberry pi. Then I edited the official Acer bios to match the size (took out the garbage before and after the dumped file of my chip).
I have a copy of my original bios dumped on my drive, I have flashed the edited official bios with flashrom using spi programmer 341a
I can't upload the .bin files otherwise I would've uploaded the files as examples.

JackE

>>>I thought maybe the bios got corrupted>>>

Why did you think this? Jack E/NJ

Fred4321

Well going down that road I may be inclined to say "because I'm an ****" but this won't solve the problem I had from the start...
Nothing I've done so far has had any impact on the behavior of my laptop.
All it does is powers on, nothing happens then after 5s it shuts down.

At first I thought corrupted bios.... but now I'm leaning more towards fried board.

Fred4321

looks like id|ot is on the naughty list, I'm sorry about that

Fred4321

Sent you a dropbox link to my bios (bump, edited and original). I'm at a lost and about to toss it in the trash

JackE

OK. Try this. If you recall the BIOS version number before the shtf, download & extract the BIN, ROM, WPH or FD extension file from that version number from this link The binary file size should be about 9.4MB. Then rename the binary to EH5LPx64.fd. Then copy it to an empty FAT32 formatted stick preferrably with an activity LED. No other files can be on the stick. Insert the stick into the machine with the charger plugged in. Then press & hold the FN+ESC keys. While still holding the keys, press the power button to turn the machine on. When you see stick LED activity you can release the keys. If the flash is successful, the machine should automatically shut off in less than 5 mins. If not, try the procedure at least 3 more times because a stubborn BIOS chip may initially refuse to read the firmware on the stick. Jack E/NJ

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/8050?b=1

Fred4321

I really thank you for your time, you've been really patient and gave me good advice, but unfortunately it seems that anything I throw at the laptop, it just won't get out of that 5seconds powers on then shut down.

Only thing different is when I press fn+esc the fan is going at 150%.

I bought that thing last july so, I'll try to figure out a way to return / warranty it, if it is still eligible, best buy might do an exchange.

Thanks again for all the trouble!

JackE

>>>-Tried without the hdd plugged>>>Tried to power up with no RAM (to see if I could even see a post)>>>

What happens when HDD, nvme, & ram are disconnected, the F2 key pressed and held, & then the laptop turned on? Jack E/NJ

Fred4321

I tried with everything unplugged, but did not try to press F2 before booting.
I tried F2 before booting with everything plugged in and it did nothing at all... the video I linked earlier (me powering on the laptop) is the only state that it is behaving.---> Power on, 1,2,3,4,5 shuts down, no boot loop or restarting, shuts down dead...

JackE

>>>I tried with everything unplugged, >>>

I only recall these comments that you made earlier >>>-Tried without the hdd plugged-Tried to power up with no RAM (to see if I could even see a post)>>>

Can you confirm the HDD, RAM, & m.2 card were all disconnected at the same time? The reason I ask is that some component(s) seem to be acting like they're tripping circuit protection. Jack E/NJ