ASPIRE V5-171: Can't Access the BIOS. Can't Boot to Flash the BIOS. Under Legacy by Accident.

My Aspire V5-171 of two years began to restart on its own every now and then. Then it became a quite frequent reboot loop.

After trying everything to restore its original factory settings (except the restore disks, which I don't have) and the same reboot loop would continue happening, I went into the BIOS and accidentally changed from UEFI to legacy.

Now I can't access the BIOS to correct that nor can I boot from a self-bootable USB drive.

I have been trying to boot from the USB by pressing F2+Esc+Power Button, and although the fan turns full speed and the 2GB bootable USB drive [for flashing the BIOS 2.21] sometimes blinks sporadically as if being accessed, the screen remains black and there is no boot. The same happens with the Windows 7 recovery USB bootable drive.

I haven't been able to create a Windows 8.1 recovery bootable drive as I don't have my Windows Key, which is hidden somewhere within the machine that I can't access. Still, it doesn't seem it will boot from the USB no matter what.

Dear experts, anything else I can try?

Thank you in advance!

Accepted answers

All comments

IronFly

To restore your OS to default you can also use ALT+F10 at boot to start Acer erecovery.

it's strange that under legacy, you are not able to boot from an USB pen.

if you press F12 at boot, do you have the bootable devices list?

virabahu

I'm new on the forum. Quite impressed by the prompt response! Thanks.

««To restore your OS to default you can also use ALT+F10 at boot to start Acer erecovery.»»

««if you press F12 at boot, do you have the bootable devices list?»»

I am just getting a black screen when turning on the Aspire. The only combination that has shown any sign of life is Fn+Esc. Sometimes the USB drive's light has stayed on all the while the fan has been full speed, but there is no sign of the BIOS .fd file within being read.

F2, F12, ALT+F10 don't bring up anything. If I turn on the machine normally, the power button stays on for a minute and then turns off.

Only disconnecting the power cord and pressing Fn+Esc sometimes lights the USB intermittently, and in that position reconnecting the cord and pressing the power button turns the fan full speed for a while and also sometimes--as said above--keeps the USB light on without any sign of the BIOS being accessed. I believe do need to flash the BIOS.

By the way, my present BIOS has a password, but I don't get the screen to show anything on startup.

IronFly

Ok.

Another option is to open the back of your V5, disconnect the HDD and try to boot BIOS.

About flashing BIOS from USB is not really easy, you need to match the exact name.fd

virabahu

««Another option is to open the back of your V5, disconnect the HDD and try to boot BIOS.»»

I did that and nothing changed.

««About flashing BIOS from USB is not really easy, you need to match the exact name.fd»»

Supposedly I have the exact name. Time ago I had updated to the most recent version on the site [VAGV221.fd]; that's the one I placed on the USB. Am I missing something regarding the name?

What about the exe to flash it from DOS? I'm using the ones on the extracted folder of this BIOS version [InsydeFlash.exe; FWUpdLcl.exe; FlsHook.exe]. But there are a few dll's so I'm wondering whether these exe are for DOS & FAT or FAT32 [I've tried both]. Is there another exe I should be using?

IronFly

I think you did all the possible solutions......

apart resettings CMOS, disconnecting the internal battery, if you already did it and still got this issue, i have no more ideas to suggest, sorry.

virabahu

««I think you did all the possible solutions......»»

It seems I have not been using a DOS utility to flash the BIOS from the USB drive. I read in the manual about a fla**bleep**.exe, which I will try to locate. So far I have been using what was in the Acer BIOS folder, which seems to be just the windows utility

««apart resettings CMOS, disconnecting the internal battery,»»

I'd like to do this, which I believe will resolve it, but...I don't see the CMOS battery at first sight. Is the battery connector easy to reach and disconnect [and reconnect]? Any link to a picture where I can see the location?

Thank you for following up and trying to help.

IronFly

There's a label "CMOS" to shorten to clear it, (disconnect AC charger, battery and short this 2 points)

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Acer-Aspire-V5-171-53314G50ass-Subnotebook.82262.0.html

virabahu

Your reply and link were most helpful in finding the R74 points of the CMOS. Quite tiny points! I did my best in trying to short them, but didn't seem to clear. I guess there is no easy way to disconnect the CMOS battery altogether. Maybe it's time to give up!