How can I unlock the Advanced Bios on INSYDEH2O 2.28 REV 3.7 2013 for Aspire V3 771G VA70

jmn706
jmn706 Member Posts: 4 New User
edited March 4 in Aspire Laptops

Ive been researching for the past 5 days about how to unlock the Bios of insydH2o v2.8 rev 3.7, and it all ended with nothing.
The hidden bios keys fn+tab, the ctrl+s and others that chatgpt told me about, even disabled secure boot.
i tried FPT to dump my bios but got the following:



architecture =

A: 54BEF772513C

A: A4DB303D963B

A: 0A0027000012

A: A4DB303D6927

A: 16DB303D6927

Intel (R) Flash Programming Tool. Version: 8.1.51.1476
Copyright (c) 2007 - 2013, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

Platform: Intel(R) HM77 Express Chipset
Reading HSFSTS register... Flash Descriptor: Valid

--- Flash Devices Found ---
MX25L1605A ID:0xC22015 Size: 2048KB (16384Kb)
W25Q32BV ID:0xEF4016 Size: 4096KB (32768Kb)

--- Flash Image Information --
Signature: VALID
Number of Flash Components: 2
Component 1 - 2048KB (16384Kb)
Component 2 - 4096KB (32768Kb)
Regions:
Descriptor - Base: 0x000000, Limit: 0x000FFF
BIOS - Base: 0x200000, Limit: 0x5FFFFF
ME - Base: 0x001000, Limit: 0x1FFFFF
GbE - Not present
PDR - Not present
Master Region Access:
CPU/BIOS - ID: 0x0000, Read: 0x0B, Write: 0x0A
ME - ID: 0x0000, Read: 0x0D, Write: 0x0C
GbE - ID: 0x0118, Read: 0x08, Write: 0x08

Total Accessable SPI Memory: 6144KB, Total Installed SPI Memory : 6144KB

FPT Operation Passed

Intel (R) Flash Programming Tool. Version: 9.1.2.1000
Copyright (c) 2007 - 2014, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

Error 201: [FPTw.exe] cannot be run on the current platform.
Please contact your vendor.

Intel (R) Flash Programming Tool. Version: 9.5.14.1724
Copyright (c) 2007 - 2013, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

Error 201: [FPTw.exe] cannot be run on the current platform.
Please contact your vendor.

Intel (R) Flash Programming Tool. Version: 9.6.0.1038
Copyright (c) 2007 - 2013, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

Error 201: [FPTw.exe] cannot be run on the current platform.
Please contact your vendor.

Intel (R) Flash Programming Tool. Version: 1.0.4.1089
Copyright (c) 2007 - 2013, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

Error 201: [FPTw.exe] cannot be run on the current platform.
Please contact your vendor.

Intel (R) Flash Programming Tool. Version: 1.1.1.1120
Copyright (c) 2007 - 2014, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

Error 201: [FPTw.exe] cannot be run on the current platform.
Please contact your vendor.

Intel (R) Flash Programming Tool. Version: 2.0.0.2056
Copyright (c) 2007 - 2015, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

Error 201: [FPTw.exe] cannot be run on the current platform.
Please contact your vendor.

Intel (R) Flash Programming Tool. Version: 10.0.30.1054
Copyright (c) 2007 - 2014, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

Error 201: [FPTw.exe] cannot be run on the current platform.
Please contact your vendor.

I need the advanced Bios to deal with the new cpu upgrade i did to my laptop:
i7 3740qm
16gb ram
gt 740m
ACER ASPIRE V3 771G (BaseBoard Product: VA70_HC)

so as a conclusion, i need to unlock bios but nothing works, even the required bios dump i cant access do to security

Hope someone got the answer

Answers

  • StevenGen
    StevenGen ACE Posts: 13,780 Trailblazer

    What is your Acer PC model number, as usually you can't unlock any advanced bios as there is no such option, there are only certain laptops that have this unlock option in bios and they were the older laptops. be careful, as messing with the bios program will brick the bios chip of your Acer product.

    If this answers your question and solved your query please "Click on Yes" or "Click on Like" if you find my answer useful👍

  • jmn706
    jmn706 Member Posts: 4 New User
  • StevenGen
    StevenGen ACE Posts: 13,780 Trailblazer

    I don't know if you can unlock the bios in the V3-771G laptop but try this step - Pressing "A" while entering BIOS setting - after pressing your key to enter the BIOS either F2 or F12 afterwards immediately press A once. Look around your menus and see if something is unlocked. If you have a laptop with an "Fn" function key toggle try pressing Fn+Tab three times also. Good luck but be careful with bios as Acer does not recommend unlocking anything in bios.

    If this answers your question and solved your query please "Click on Yes" or "Click on Like" if you find my answer useful👍

  • jmn706
    jmn706 Member Posts: 4 New User

    thank you for your reply, unfortunately the options u listed did not work for me.
    i want the advanced option as i believe it should exist for me due to me able to upgrade my cpu and other components. i have added an i7 3740qm instead of i5 3230m, and ive beenm facing this issue where my laptop would shutdown asif power went off. for me to solve this issue i thought that i needed a bigger power adapter which i bought but didnt solve the issue. the only way to solve it is by the advanced option in bios that allows me to undervolt my cpu and control fan speed as i cant do them on windows itself.

  • StevenGen
    StevenGen ACE Posts: 13,780 Trailblazer
    edited March 5

    No, you don’t need to undervot anything, the i7-3740QM has a TPD of 45W and it’s the max cpu listed Intel cpu in the 3rd Gen lineup for this laptop, Acer don’t fit this cpu to the V3-771G but they do fit the oem next lower spec cpu the i7-3720QM that also has a TPD of 45W, so power is not an issue with your laptop.

    I've included the last bios version for your V3-771G laptop below, as you must not have the last bios version 2.28 installed on the V3-771G, at HelpDrivers V3-771G they have 88 drivers for Win-7 and Win-8 for the V3-771G laptop, that might be helpful also, as if you install the 2.28 bios update, the laptop should work 100% with the i7-3740QM cpu that you have upgraded to., if not then get the i7-3720QM as that could be the limit of your V3-771G mainboard chipset.

    Good luck and hope all this helps you out. Btw, I've got the Aspire V3-571G (bought it new in 2012) and on my V3 I've updated it to the i7-3720QM (with the last bios) that Acer also used as this models top spec cpu and I've also updated the HDD to the 2.5" SATA III 1TB Samsung 850 EVO SSD drive with 8GB DDR3-1866MT/s ram and it works perfectly, I don't know that you can still buy DDR3-1866MT/s ram but in the old days you could and it will work just fine on your V3-771G laptop, so consider that update too.

    V3-771G bios version 2.28

    If this answers your question and solved your query please "Click on Yes" or "Click on Like" if you find my answer useful👍

  • jmn706
    jmn706 Member Posts: 4 New User

    Thank you for your replies my Steven. I had to revert to the old cpu for now, as my system seems stable. I do have all drivers updated, including the bios at latest version (InsydH20 Rev 3.7 version 2.28) and i still believe that there exist an advanced option to deal with such issues im facing (Turns out the i5 3230m uses 23watts on my system as maybe it was undervolted by the system as it shd use 35watts, so maybe thats the issue with the i7 3740qm using 47watts at max causing random shutdowns). If any solutions still exist out there id be happy to hear them out as im interested in learning, even if the system is 12 years old.



    Id like to note that Acer uses to SPI for my BIOS and it seems impossible to modify, here are some data:

    Intel(R) ME code versions:

    BIOS Version: V2.28
    MEBx Version: Not available
    Gbe Version: Unknown
    VendorID: 8086
    PCH Version: 4
    FW Version: 8.1.0.1248
    UNS Version: Not Available
    LMS Version: Not Available
    MEI Driver Version: 11.0.5.1189
    Wireless Hardware Version: Not Available
    Wireless Driver Version: Not Available

    FW Capabilities: 0x01101C60

    Intel(R) Anti-Theft Technology - PRESENT/ENABLED
    Intel(R) Capability Licensing Service - PRESENT/ENABLED
    Protect Audio Video Path - PRESENT/ENABLED
    Intel(R) Dynamic Application Loader - PRESENT/ENABLED

    Level III Manageability Upgrade State: Upgrade Capable
    CPU Upgrade State: Not Upgradable
    Cryptography Support: Disabled
    Last ME reset reason: Power up
    Local FWUpdate: Enabled
    BIOS Config Lock: Enabled
    Host Read Access to ME: Disabled
    Host Write Access to ME: Disabled
    SPI Flash ID #1: C22015
    SPI Flash ID VSCC #1: 20052005
    SPI Flash ID #2: EF4016
    SPI Flash ID VSCC #2: 20052005
    SPI Flash BIOS VSCC: 20052005
    BIOS boot State: Post Boot
    OEM Id: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
    Capability Licensing Service: Enabled
    Capability Licensing Service Status: Permit info not available
    OEM Tag: 0x00000000
    Localized Language: Unknown
    Independent Firmware Recovery: Disabled

  • StevenGen
    StevenGen ACE Posts: 13,780 Trailblazer

    Btw, my 2012 Aspire V3-571G was sold with the old versions bios which was the MBR/legacy bios for Win-7 and Win-8/8.1 OSs and I had to mod the bios to convert the laptop bios to the newer UEFI GUID (GPT) bios format, as the V3-571G has two different bios versions which are versions 1.xx that are for the legacy bios only and the versions 2.xx that are for the UEFI bios format only, just to let you know.

    But I've never looked to unlock the bios advanced features, as I've been using this Aspire V3-571G since 2012 and I still have the laptop today running Win-10 Pro and this laptop still functions 100% and has the last Win-10 Feb 2025 OS build working just fine and adequately, I won't say that it compares with my current Predator PHN16-71-50JG model that has an i5-13500HX/RTX4060/upgraded to 64GB ram at 2x 32GB DDR5-4800MT/s CL40 type ram and a 1TB Samsung 990 NVMe + Heatsink SSD but it performs adequately for what it is😁.

    If this answers your question and solved your query please "Click on Yes" or "Click on Like" if you find my answer useful👍