Aspire A515 Failed Firmware Update - Won't Reboot

TJM123
TJM123 Member Posts: 14

Tinkerer
in Aspire Laptops
I was having issues with a third party program crashing so I checked my Windows update tool to see if there were any new additions since the big Windows 11 update.  The Windows update tool did have one minor update but also noted an optional update of a firmware item (which I unfortunately did not write down the exact name).  Having had success in the past with optional updates, I selected the firmware update and the reset to install.  The system restarted and (if memory serves) it showed a SMART bios v.----- on the system and a v.----- that it was being updated to.  There was a green progress bar which quickly reached 28%.  There was also a red banner saying essentially Do not remove from A/C power.

After about five minutes the progress bar still read 28% so I assumed this may take more time than I thought and left for about an hour.  Upon return nothing had changed, the progress bar still read 28% and nothing (i.e. "esc", Crtl + Alt + Delete, etc...) that I tried would have any affect.  At which point I did a hard reset by pressing the power button for 10 sec.  The system shutdown, appeared to come back up by lighting up the keyboard and kicking on the fan but then quickly powered both down.  It would then repeat that cycle over and over.  The only way to break the cycle is using the battery reset with a pin/paperclip.

Upon attempts to restart after the battery pin reset, the same cycle of: keyboard lights - fan - shutdown would start all over again.  No matter any key strokes (F8, F2, Alt + F10) after the battery pin reset, the same cycle starts.  At no time do I get anything on the screen.  

In concluding I now have a brick, I attempted to engage Acer support utilizing the out of warranty process of submitting a ticket and waiting to hear back.  Yet, every time I go through the process of creating a ticket by entering the S/N, validating the caption process, entering my info, typing in the the problem, selecting the required "I have read the instructions" check box....upon pressing Next - a red "required" appears next to the box I checked regarding having the read the instruction and will not move me to the next stage of the ticket process.

Open to input on how I might attempt to resolve this problem myself as well as engaging Acer support to ascertain if they believe they can resolve the problem.

Thanks.
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Answers

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,868 Trailblazer
    Was the pinhole reset held for at least a minute without the charger plugged in?

    Jack E/NJ

  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder
    Might check This out. Just found have not tried.
  • TJM123
    TJM123 Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    It was not.  Upon your mention I did that, yet the same result: keyboard lights up, fan kicks on, both then power down - cycle repeats.
  • StevenGen
    StevenGen ACE Posts: 12,064 Trailblazer
    TJM123 said:
    It was not.  Upon your mention I did that, yet the same result: keyboard lights up, fan kicks on, both then power down - cycle repeats.

    If your laptop has bricked itself then you need to do a BIOS Recovery like padgett is suggesting, that is your only solution otherwise you will have to get an experienced tech with the right tools to diagnose your whole laptop and why this happened and if it’s the BIOS chip then he will replace the BIOS chip with a new and latest BIOS version flashed chip, which is done all the time.


  • TJM123
    TJM123 Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    StevenGen said:
    TJM123 said:
    It was not.  Upon your mention I did that, yet the same result: keyboard lights up, fan kicks on, both then power down - cycle repeats.

    If your laptop has bricked itself then you need to do a BIOS Recovery like padgett is suggesting, that is your only solution otherwise you will have to get an experienced tech with the right tools to diagnose your whole laptop and why this happened and if it’s the BIOS chip then he will replace the BIOS chip with a new and latest BIOS version flashed chip, which is done all the time.



    Thanks StevenGen, appreciate the input.  A bit out of my league here in troubleshooting this.

    A big concern I have is that all the data related to the specialty software I had this PC for may be lost.  Any thoughts on whether the programs and data would be functional if a BIOS chip replacement were done?  My guess is I'd have to rebuild what was on the computer.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,868 Trailblazer
    Data shouldn't be lost. We can always pull the boot drive out, connect it up to another machine's USB port with an inexpensive USB-2-boot drive adapter and get the personal stuff off.

    Try this before giving up. Press and hold the power button til the machine shuts off. Then turn it back on and IMMEDIATELY start tapping the F2 key. What happens?

    Jack E/NJ

  • TJM123
    TJM123 Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    padgett said:
    Might check This out. Just found have not tried.
    Thanks Padgett, I'll give this a try as soon as I can find a pc to create the USB crisis key.  Unfortunately the Acer was my only PC, mainly had it because the third party specialty software r I mostly have Macs.  The third party 
  • TJM123
    TJM123 Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    JackE said:
    Data shouldn't be lost. We can always pull the boot drive out, connect it up to another machine's USB port with an inexpensive USB-2-boot drive adapter and get the personal stuff off.

    Try this before giving up. Press and hold the power button til the machine shuts off. Then turn it back on and IMMEDIATELY start tapping the F2 key. What happens?
    Roger that, good to know. Just tried the power off - power on, F2 tactic but same ole squalid tale.

    I'm more the Galaxy quest, Never Say Die - Never Surrender! type ;) so, I'll find a PC to make that crisis key and loop back.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,868 Trailblazer
    Try this. Press and hold the power button again till the machine shuts off.  Then palm and hold a bunch of random keys. While still palming the keys, turn the machine on.  Do you even hear any BIOS keyboard error beeps?

    Jack E/NJ

  • TJM123
    TJM123 Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    padgett said:
    Might check This out. Just found have not tried.
    Ok, thanks Padgett; much appreciated. I'll look into giving this a try.  

    Unfortunately this happened on my only PC, creating the USB crisis key requires using another system using Windows OS.  I'll loop back as soon as I'm able to make the USB key and let you know how it goes.
  • TJM123
    TJM123 Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    padgett said:
    Might check This out. Just found have not tried.
    Ok, thanks Padgett; much appreciated. I'll look into giving this a try.  

    Unfortunately this happened on my only PC, creating the USB crisis key requires using another system using Windows OS.  Once I 
  • TJM123
    TJM123 Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    padgett said:
    Might check This out. Just found have not tried.
    Thanks Padgett, I'll give this a try as soon as I can find a pc to create the USB crisis key.  Unfortunately the Acer was my only PC, mainly had it because the third party specialty software runs better on PCs than Macs.  As soon as I can get that USB key made, I'll give it a try and loop back.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,868 Trailblazer
    Try this. Press and hold the power button again till the machine shuts off.  Then palm and hold a bunch of random keys. While still palming the keys, turn the machine on.  Do you even hear any BIOS keyboard error beeps?

    Jack E/NJ

  • TJM123
    TJM123 Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    padgett said:
    Might check This out. Just found have not tried.
    Hey padgett, I'm running into a OS problem with trying to generate a usb crisis key.  The files in the link you provided are dated 2008-2009 and the directions note Windows XP.  When I try to run the wincris files (note, it's not listed as a .exe file as the directions state), I get an error. 

    Do you or anyone else on the forum have a recommendation on finding a similar BIOS crisis tool compatible with Windows 11?
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,868 Trailblazer
    edited December 2021
    Try this. Press and hold the power button again till the machine shuts off.  Then palm and hold a bunch of random keys. While still palming the keys, turn the machine on.  Do you even hear any BIOS keyboard error beeps? Also what is your full model number? For example, A515-54G?

    Jack E/NJ

  • TJM123
    TJM123 Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    JackE said:
    Try this. Press and hold the power button again till the machine shuts off.  Then palm and hold a bunch of random keys. While still palming the keys, turn the machine on.  Do you even hear any BIOS keyboard error beeps? Also what is your full model number? For example, A515-54G?
    Hey JackE, no keyboard error beeps and there really is no capability to hold the power button to shut off the machine and do the same to turn the machine off.  Thought I did attempt the palming you recommended to no success.

    After doing the battery pin reset, the best I get is:  
    Hold the power button...
    Keyboard lights up (2secs)
    Fan kicks on (2 secs)
    Lights and fan kick off - like a shutdown
    Cycle repeats indefinitely until I do another battery pin reset

    It does seem like the system needs a crisis disk (usb since there's no CD/DVD drive) to instruct the BIOS.  The problem I'm running into is twofold:
    a) Crisis disk compatible with an Acer Aspire A515-54-51DJ
    b) Crisis disk compatible with Windows 11

    Appreciate any input folks can provide.  I'm open to recommendations as well on a tech service to utilize in regards to resolving this matter.  Again, as I first posted, I attempted to utilize the Acer tech service ticket portal to no avail; specifically:
    "...I attempted to engage Acer support utilizing the out of warranty process of submitting a ticket and waiting to hear back.  Yet, every time I go through the process of creating a ticket by entering the S/N, validating the caption process, entering my info, typing in the the problem, selecting the required "I have read the instructions" check box....upon pressing Next - a red "required" appears next to the box I checked regarding having the read the instruction and will not move me to the next stage of the ticket process..."
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,868 Trailblazer
    >>>Cycle repeats indefinitely until I do another battery pin reset>>>
    >>> there really is no capability to hold the power button to shut off the machine>>>>

    (1) Do you mean once the cycling repeats, pressing and holding the power button for about 10 seconds will not shut the machine off?

    (2) The crisis disk for newer Insyde bios chips is actually an empty FAT32 formatted stick. In its root directory is a single binary file that must be extracted from the Windows firmware version executable on a different Windows machine which is becoming increasingly difficult to do. Here is a link to what's involved for your model. https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/635072/bios-corrupted-aspire-5-a515-54
    Unfortunately, the user didn't report back. You might try sending him a PM to see if his situation was resolved.


    Jack E/NJ

  • TJM123
    TJM123 Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    JackE said:
    >>>Cycle repeats indefinitely until I do another battery pin reset>>>
    >>> there really is no capability to hold the power button to shut off the machine>>>>

    (1) Do you mean once the cycling repeats, pressing and holding the power button for about 10 seconds will not shut the machine off?

    (2) The crisis disk for newer Insyde bios chips is actually an empty FAT32 formatted stick. In its root directory is a single binary file that must be extracted from the Windows firmware version executable on a different Windows machine which is becoming increasingly difficult to do. Here is a link to what's involved for your model. https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/635072/bios-corrupted-aspire-5-a515-54
    Unfortunately, the user didn't report back. You might try sending him a PM to see if his situation was resolved.

    Much appreciated JackE, I will look into this.

    To your question: Yes.  Once the cycle starts, the power button is useless; the only way to break the cycle is a battery pin reset.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,868 Trailblazer
    With the machine off, what happens when you press and hold the F2 key, then press the power button to turn it back on and not let go of the F2 key?

    Jack E/NJ

  • TJM123
    TJM123 Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    JackE said:
    With the machine off, what happens when you press and hold the F2 key, then press the power button to turn it back on and not let go of the F2 key?
    Same cycle - it's like it doesn't recognize the F2 key

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