BIOS recovery on ACER N19C3 - model #A515-43-R19L (Aspire 5)

psychobunny

OK - I didn't heed the warnings about unnecessarily updating BIOS on my A515-43-R19L (Aspire 5) laptop.  I tried to update from 1.06 to 1.12.  I dutifully followed the instructions and the update appeared to complete successfully.  However, when I turn on the power I just get a blank screen.

I've read that there's a "CRISIS" mode recovery process and I've tried to follow it.  I downloaded a bios from the Product Support site and unzipped the file, then unzipped the application EH5LP111 to obtain its contents.  There's a "abobios.bin" which I take to be the BIOS file but I don't know what to do from there.

Thanks in advance.

[​//Edited the content to add model name]

StevenGen

psychobunny said:

OK - I didn't heed the warnings about unnecessarily updating BIOS on my laptop.  I tried to update from 1.06 to 1.12.  I dutifully followed the instructions and the update appeared to complete successfully.  However, when I turn on the power I just get a blank screen.

I've read that there's a "CRISIS" mode recovery process and I've tried to follow it.  I downloaded a bios from the Product Support site and unzipped the file, then unzipped the application EH5LP111 to obtain its contents.  There's a "abobios.bin" which I take to be the BIOS file but I don't know what to do from there.

Thanks in advance.

Don't know what you did wrong to brick your laptop but it does happen that is why Acer warns you that "Upgrading your system BIOS incorrectly could harm your Acer product. Please proceed with caution" anyway, below are the instructions from the SG for the Nitro AN515-43 laptop how to do a "Crisis Utility SOP", good luck and hope this helps you out. 

When to Use the Crisis S.O.P?

• When the system hangs while updating BIOS.

• When power failure occurs and the system shuts down while updating BIOS.

• When the system cannot boot normally after updating BIOS (i.e. a black screen appears without a POST logo, etc.).

Creating a USB Flash Crisis Disk

1. On a machine with Windows OS, plug in a USB flash disk then format a USB to FAT-32

2. In Windows OS, unzip the compressed Crisis utility package (i.e. in this case, “Crisis_Disk_v1.xx.zip”). Then copy the “EH5LPx64.fd” file to the root directory of the USB flash disk made in the preceding steps.

NOTE: Make sure the size of “EH5LPx64.fd” is about 9.37MB, and that there is no other *.fd file in the root directory of the USB flash disk.

Using the Crisis Utility Disk

1. Turn off the target machine and make sure that AC is plugged in. NOTE: Make sure the Power LED ( ) is off.
2. Plug in the USB flash disk.
3. Press and hold Fn and Esc. DO NOT release Fn and Esc so far, and continue with step 4.
4. As Fn and Esc are pressed, press the Power button to turn on the machine. Wait for 3~5 seconds to make sure the system fan is on full speed, and then you may release Fn and Esc
5. Wait for 3~5 minutes for the system to complete the Crisis operation. The system will automatically shutdown.

NOTE: If the waiting time takes more than 5 minutes, the system recovery might have failed. Check the following:
• BIOS filename (i.e. “EH5LPx64.fd”) is correct and the file is in the root directory of the USB flash Crisis disk.
• Remove the battery to reset the embedded controller status.
• Repeat steps 1~4. 

psychobunny

Thanks but where will I find the “Crisis_Disk_v1.xx.zip”?

psychobunny

Well, after looking at the BIOS files there is no obvious BIOS file until executing the BIOS upgrade utility, having it fail and then looking in the %TEMP% directory and there's one in there. (Isflash.bin and about 9MBs)

Copied it to an old flash drive (FAT32 formatted) and renamed it to EH5LP.64.fd - insert into a USB port, plug in charger, hold down FN+ESC, press power button and the fan comes on full speed.  Holding the FN+ESC for quite a while and there's no activity light blinking on the USB stick - not even once.  Tried it with each of the 3x USB ports and no joy.  Tried multiple times - still no joy and no activity light.

Opened the case, disconnected the battery, disconnected the CMOS battery (and reconnected) - tried the whole sequence again and still no joy.

Is the laptop irretrievably bricked?

I've spent more than $400 worth of time on this without success.

VK79

u .Guys will this work with an external keyboard with an FN key? My internal keyboard's dead.