Acer Swift 1 - SF114-32 - Bricked after BIOS update

Title summarises it. Was upgrading it and bring it to windows 11 and updated the bios from 1.11 to 1.15. Update was 'successful', showed Acer logo then showed black screen with no backlight. Sat like this for 20 minutes then restarted using the battery disconnect. Still doesen't boot to anything, BIOS or otherwise.

Tried using insyde revovery tools and some methods (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4-0cALAg64 and https://www.bios-mods.com/bios-recovery/insyde-bios-recovery/. both of which call for ripping a bios image (.fd or .bin) and an .exe, loading it onto a blank usb and holding FN+Esc) but no luck.

Really don't want to have to ship it off for recovery, since it is long out of warrenty and wouldn't be worth the money.

Thanks in advance for the help, Mando.

Accepted answers

All comments

Commodore_1995#

Did the logo appear after the update? Can you access the bios? Can the image be displayed using an external monitor?

Mando_ayyy

Nope. Keyboard backlight turns on but the screen never turns on. The only other sign of life is that it beaps when I plug it in to the wall. I'll give the external monitor a go asap

StevenGen

Mando_ayyy said:

Nope. Keyboard backlight turns on but the screen never turns on. The only other sign of life is that it beaps when I plug it in to the wall. I'll give the external monitor a go asap

Mando_ayyy said:

Title summarises it. Was upgrading it and bring it to windows 11 and updated the bios from 1.11 to 1.15. Update was 'successful', showed Acer logo then showed black screen with no backlight. Sat like this for 20 minutes then restarted using the battery disconnect. Still doesen't boot to anything, BIOS or otherwise.

Tried using insyde revovery tools and some methods (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4-0cALAg64 and https://www.bios-mods.com/bios-recovery/insyde-bios-recovery/. both of which call for ripping a bios image (.fd or .bin) and an .exe, loading it onto a blank usb and holding FN+Esc) but no luck.

Really don't want to have to ship it off for recovery, since it is long out of warrenty and wouldn't be worth the money.

Thanks in advance for the help, Mando.

Try to disconnect the RTC battery (which is the bios battery) see No3 in the diagram below as this is the mobo diagram for your SF114-32:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/4c/4ub2p7xr5ngt.jpg

If not do the "BIOS Recovery for your SF114-32" but be very careful as not knowing how to apply and do these steps will do damage that I can't take any responsibility for! If this doesn't work then get an experienced tech that has the proper micro soldering equipment to change your bios chip to a new reflashes to the last bios v1.15 bios if you can get one?

Mando_ayyy

StevenGen said:

Mando_ayyy said:

Nope. Keyboard backlight turns on but the screen never turns on. The only other sign of life is that it beaps when I plug it in to the wall. I'll give the external monitor a go asap

Mando_ayyy said:

Title summarises it. Was upgrading it and bring it to windows 11 and updated the bios from 1.11 to 1.15. Update was 'successful', showed Acer logo then showed black screen with no backlight. Sat like this for 20 minutes then restarted using the battery disconnect. Still doesen't boot to anything, BIOS or otherwise.

Tried using insyde revovery tools and some methods (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4-0cALAg64 and https://www.bios-mods.com/bios-recovery/insyde-bios-recovery/. both of which call for ripping a bios image (.fd or .bin) and an .exe, loading it onto a blank usb and holding FN+Esc) but no luck.

Really don't want to have to ship it off for recovery, since it is long out of warrenty and wouldn't be worth the money.

Thanks in advance for the help, Mando.

Try to disconnect the RTC battery (which is the bios battery) see No3 in the diagram below as this is the mobo diagram for your SF114-32:

If not do the "BIOS Recovery for your SF114-32" but be very careful as not knowing how to apply and do these steps will do damage that I can't take any responsibility for! If this doesn't work then get an experienced tech that has the proper micro soldering equipment to change your bios chip to a new reflashes to the last bios v1.15 bios if you can get one?

I tried both the external display and the the battery disconnect, no luck on both. I've been trying to follow your steps here on creating a crisis disk, but I'm having trouble tracking down a .fd file to use on it. I extracted the contents of the v1.15 update exe, but the closest I could find was a .bin, but trying that doesn't seem to do anything.

Do you know where I could track one down or convert some other file (like that .bin) into a .fd?

Commodore_1995#

This link may help you: https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/573594/sf114-32-no-uefi-menu

billsey

Try renaming the .bin file as .fd.

Mando_ayyy

billsey said:

Try renaming the .bin file as .fd.

Tried this, no dice too. Is there something I should rename the file itself to? This manual here (https://www.manualslib.com/manual/440295/Acer-Aspire-E1-531.html?page=67#manual) mentions renaming the file to Q5WV1X64.FD, though I'd assume that this name was machine specific. Any clue what it'd need to be named?

StevenGen

Mando_ayyy said:

StevenGen said:

Mando_ayyy said:

Nope. Keyboard backlight turns on but the screen never turns on. The only other sign of life is that it beaps when I plug it in to the wall. I'll give the external monitor a go asap

Mando_ayyy said:

Title summarises it. Was upgrading it and bring it to windows 11 and updated the bios from 1.11 to 1.15. Update was 'successful', showed Acer logo then showed black screen with no backlight. Sat like this for 20 minutes then restarted using the battery disconnect. Still doesen't boot to anything, BIOS or otherwise.

Tried using insyde revovery tools and some methods (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4-0cALAg64 and https://www.bios-mods.com/bios-recovery/insyde-bios-recovery/. both of which call for ripping a bios image (.fd or .bin) and an .exe, loading it onto a blank usb and holding FN+Esc) but no luck.

Really don't want to have to ship it off for recovery, since it is long out of warrenty and wouldn't be worth the money.

Thanks in advance for the help, Mando.

Try to disconnect the RTC battery (which is the bios battery) see No3 in the diagram below as this is the mobo diagram for your SF114-32:

If not do the "BIOS Recovery for your SF114-32" but be very careful as not knowing how to apply and do these steps will do damage that I can't take any responsibility for! If this doesn't work then get an experienced tech that has the proper micro soldering equipment to change your bios chip to a new reflashes to the last bios v1.15 bios if you can get one?

I tried both the external display and the the battery disconnect, no luck on both. I've been trying to follow your steps here on creating a crisis disk, but I'm having trouble tracking down a .fd file to use on it. I extracted the contents of the v1.15 update exe, but the closest I could find was a .bin, but trying that doesn't seem to do anything.

Do you know where I could track one down or convert some other file (like that .bin) into a .fd?

See this guide "How to Extract bios fd file from acer bios download from site” or look at all the other guides here "how to extract the .fd file from an Acer bios .exe file" as this is all that you need and then follow the exact steps of the "Acer BIOS Recovery" steps above but and as I've said you need experience to do this and if you don't have then do it at your risk as I must warn you about that.

Mando_ayyy

StevenGen said:

Mando_ayyy said:

StevenGen said:

Mando_ayyy said:

Nope. Keyboard backlight turns on but the screen never turns on. The only other sign of life is that it beaps when I plug it in to the wall. I'll give the external monitor a go asap

Mando_ayyy said:

Title summarises it. Was upgrading it and bring it to windows 11 and updated the bios from 1.11 to 1.15. Update was 'successful', showed Acer logo then showed black screen with no backlight. Sat like this for 20 minutes then restarted using the battery disconnect. Still doesen't boot to anything, BIOS or otherwise.

Tried using insyde revovery tools and some methods (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4-0cALAg64 and https://www.bios-mods.com/bios-recovery/insyde-bios-recovery/. both of which call for ripping a bios image (.fd or .bin) and an .exe, loading it onto a blank usb and holding FN+Esc) but no luck.

Really don't want to have to ship it off for recovery, since it is long out of warrenty and wouldn't be worth the money.

Thanks in advance for the help, Mando.

Try to disconnect the RTC battery (which is the bios battery) see No3 in the diagram below as this is the mobo diagram for your SF114-32:

If not do the "BIOS Recovery for your SF114-32" but be very careful as not knowing how to apply and do these steps will do damage that I can't take any responsibility for! If this doesn't work then get an experienced tech that has the proper micro soldering equipment to change your bios chip to a new reflashes to the last bios v1.15 bios if you can get one?

I tried both the external display and the the battery disconnect, no luck on both. I've been trying to follow your steps here on creating a crisis disk, but I'm having trouble tracking down a .fd file to use on it. I extracted the contents of the v1.15 update exe, but the closest I could find was a .bin, but trying that doesn't seem to do anything.

Do you know where I could track one down or convert some other file (like that .bin) into a .fd?

See this guide "How to Extract bios fd file from acer bios download from site” or look at all the other guides here "how to extract the .fd file from an Acer bios .exe file" as this is all that you need and then follow the exact steps of the "Acer BIOS Recovery" steps above but and as I've said you need experience to do this and if you don't have then do it at your risk as I must warn you about that.

So I did the youtube one and found that the filename should be... BIOS.fd or

00007007,9.fd. Very underwhelming and annoying at the same time. Going to give it a go soon, will keep you updated.

The BIOS.fd name comes from the 1.01v BIOS, here. If you look at the FD#01 line, the second last item is BIOS.fd

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/cs/tmd0idmcn1ei.png

The v1.15 release however says that the name should be 00007007,9.fd.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/an/bptrlho1hkem.png

Commodore_1995#

This link may help you: https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/573594/sf114-32-no-uefi-menu

Mando_ayyy

Just tried the .fd files with both names, nothing with either

Thank you guys for the help, but I think it really is bricked. I know I said I didn't want to bother with sending it in to acer, but I'll see how much it is and go from there. Thank you all so much for the help