Heads-up: DON'T update BIOS on Acer V3-371

john_smith
john_smith Member Posts: 4 New User
edited March 2023 in 2015 Archives

I have Acer V3-371. It has two issues common to this series (touchpad and wifi). Touchpad was fixed at service (they soldered a ground wire between touchpad ground plane and the chassis), I was trying to fix wifi.

 

So, there was a BIOS update on the support site (v1.27). I have downloaded and installed it, everything looked fine (there was Insyde update screen) until reboot. The notebook was just stuck at Acer logo, coolers spinning, but didn't react to keypresses and it was impossible to enter EFI setup. 

 

I thought it was a bug in the new bios version and decided to take out the BIOS chip and reflash an older version using a programmer. Image files were extracted from the update executable. I desoldered the chip and put it into a programmer, and before flashing the old version, I tried to verify the contents to check if it was flashed correctly. Surprisingly, there were errors! It looked similar to 1.27 image, but some bytes were different. 

 

There could be a number of reasons causing this: bad data written by the update utility, broken chip and improper update process. I tried to erase the chip completely (this type of memory has to be erased before new data are written) and flashing the same image again and it worked! So my guess is that the update utility doesn't erase the chip before updating. Or something else is broken, it's hard to say for sure. I put the chip back in (initially with wires and a detachable socket to test different versions, then soldered on the board), and the notebook successfully booted.

 

Ah, and wifi still works [poorly] [word filter avoidance]

I'm still trying to find a solution, it has something to do with the back cover.

 

Some technical info:

New BIOS version: 1.27

Old version: 1.15

Model: V3-371-59W7

 

I have attached a screenshot of the flashing program which shows validation errors and a photo of the board with BIOS chip desoldered.

 

2015-10-29 20-19-22 FlyPRO V2.94(2013-08-23).png

IMG_20151029_201205.jpg

Answers

  • ig-88
    ig-88 Member Posts: 7 New User

    I have the same issue with version 1.29. Is there any possibility for recovery? or do i have to send the laptop to acer?

  • ig-88
    ig-88 Member Posts: 7 New User

    i flashed using the normal acer bios update file

     

  • davidean120
    davidean120 Member Posts: 3 New User

    hello, i have the same problem, the strange thing is that i have 2 v3-371 and one correctly upgrade to bios 1.29, the second freeze at acer boot screen Smiley Surprised

     

    now i can also try to buy a new bios chip and solder to the mobo, but first i discover that i can access to the bios recovery by pressing fn+esc at startup, you just need to extract the .fn bios file from the exe with 7z and rename va30x64.fn into a fat32 usb key

     

    the problem is that after some seconds the recovery turn off and no bios upgrade... do you know how to solve?

  • ig-88
    ig-88 Member Posts: 7 New User

    I tried the recovery, it didn't work for me either. Maybe it needs a higher version number than the one installed. Since we have three cases now, it seems that acer [screwed] up badly. I will try to get a warranty fix for this.

     

    [inappropriate content removed and replaced]

  • davidean120
    davidean120 Member Posts: 3 New User

    ok at the end i have buy a new bios chip pre-programmed, desolderer the old one and replaced with the new one. upgraded to 1.29 and all work... still have touchpad problems, this notebook is full of problem Smiley Frustrated

  • john_smith
    john_smith Member Posts: 4 New User

    davidean120, if you're good at soldering you can fix the touchpad too. This was done in service, they said it was recommended by manufacturer. My touchpad has been working for half an year as of now.

     

    1. Remove the back cover
    2. Remove the battery
    3. You should see the back side of the touchpad
    4. Now, solder a wire and connect these three points:
      1. The ground plane on a touchpad's PCB
      2. The metal frame that covers the touchpad PCB and holds the touchpad in place
      3. Any point on the metal frame of the notebook itself

    None of the methods found on the internet helped me, but this did.

     

  • davidean120
    davidean120 Member Posts: 3 New User

    thank you

     

    at the end i think to have solved the touchpad... now is some day that work flawlessy

     

    the curious thing is that is work only after i completely removed any ground connections between touchpad and chassis

     

    very strange...

  • ig-88
    ig-88 Member Posts: 7 New User

    Hey,

     

     i had mine fixed under warranty. No questions asked. Seems to be a known issue.

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