Helios 500 - PH517-51 firmware update fail

trkfz
trkfz Member Posts: 6

Tinkerer

edited November 2023 in 2019 Archives
In Device Manager I saw an error message under Firmware "Acer Inc. System Firmware 1.16." 
And the properties showed the message "This device cannot work properly until you restart your computer. (Code 14)
Click Restart Computer to restart your computer."

After restarting I got BSOD (windows 10) saying "Inaccessible boot device". Tryed to restart once more but now everything is stuck. Cannot get even to the repair options. 
I didn't want to update Firmware, it was an automatic update without any warning, and now I'm without laptop. Please, help because I need it for work.

Is there anything that could be done (quickly) and possibly without losing data?

Thanx 


Answers

  • Yes, this driver updates the uefi bios firmware through windows update. This is why some users disable windows update. After restarting the notebook, did you see a green progress bar with the Acer logo? If so, then your uefi bios has been updated. Can you access uefi bios by pressing f2?
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  • Commodore_1995#
    Commodore_1995# ACE Posts: 97,695 Trailblazer
    edited September 2019
    If the tips from fellow xapim and sri369 don't work, enter the bios and then press f9 to restore it and f10 to save on exit. You must restore the bios every time the firmware is updated to fix some bugs.
    Oi! Eu não sou sou a cortana! Mas estou aqui para ajudar! Hi! I'm not the cortana! But I'm here to help!
    Se você gostou da minha resposta, marque como solução clicando em sim! If you liked my answer, mark it as a solution by clicking on yes!
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      egydiocoelho Trailblazer
     
    ProductKey clique aqui para descobrir o serial do windows! click here to discover the windows serial!
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  • trkfz
    trkfz Member Posts: 6

    Tinkerer

    Yes, there was a green progress bar but I'm not sure if the update finished completely. I did manage to access bios and the version is 1.16. Still getting BSOD and is stuck on "Preparing automatic repair"...
  • xapim
    xapim ACE Posts: 7,257 Pathfinder
    trkfz said:
    Yes, there was a green progress bar but I'm not sure if the update finished completely. I did manage to access bios and the version is 1.16. Still getting BSOD and is stuck on "Preparing automatic repair"...
    Try ALT+F10 on boot and repair it keeping your files see if you can get it at least to boot back into windows


    https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11532543

    UserBenchmarks: Game 43%, Desk 61%, Work 40%
    CPU: Intel Core i5-7300HQ - 63.5%
    GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050-Ti (Mobile) - 41.9%
    SSD: WDC WDS200T2B0B-00YS70 2TB - 71.4%
    HDD: WD WD10SPZX-00HKTT0 1TB - 93.7%
    RAM: Kingston HyperX DDR4 2666 C15 2x16GB - 76.8%
    MBD: Acer Predator G3-572

    I'm not an Acer employee. (just here to help in the best way i can)
    If my answer fixed you issue please accept it for any other users who search for it would find it quickly thanks :)
    If you want to learn more about undervolting/optimizing windows join the Predator fb group and youtube channel:

    Owner/Admin (HOTEL HERO/Red-Sand/Opoka Opoka)
    https://www.facebook.com/groups/PredatorHelios300
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNJwGUHxSJ8FKqAhnOqQuAw
    Acer support:
    https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/service-contact
    http://www.acer.com/worldwide/support/  


  • sri369
    sri369 ACE Posts: 2,623 Pathfinder
    trkfz said:
    Yes, there was a green progress bar but I'm not sure if the update finished completely. I did manage to access bios and the version is 1.16. Still getting BSOD and is stuck on "Preparing automatic repair"...
    Prepare a windows 10 bootable USB on another system, and try repairing using that.
    Once you get in, via repair, or a clean install, disable auto updating for drivers and bios via windows update. And defer all kinds of updates to atleast 15 and 60 days.
    Karma...
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  • trkfz
    trkfz Member Posts: 6

    Tinkerer

    Thank you for your suggestions. Today i finally got time to try some of them but still without luck. Only once i managed to boot from usb but then i choose to repair (insted of a clean install). Tryed "start up repair" but it didn' t help (at least there are no disk errors) . There were no restore points or image files (used this laptop only for shrot time) so couldn't use those options. 
    But after restarting i cannot access this options anymore to try at least clean install. 

    So, i guess, it remains to restore BIOS. But what if this also fails and lose the possibility to access even bios?

    And, this automatic bios update, without any warning, is it an option in Windows or some Acer software? I wasn't aware of this default "feature", never happened before. 
  • Take it easy. You can access uefi bios, right? I have also seen a problem similar to yours in the German community. Try disconnecting hdd and ssd m2 and then resetting the battery:
    https://youtu.be/NfhgnxUJoZo
    The problem is that your notebook may be in raid mode and when disconnecting hdd and ssd, the array may be broken.
    Have you also tried the alt + f10 command as your colleague xapim said?
    Oi! Eu não sou sou a cortana! Mas estou aqui para ajudar! Hi! I'm not the cortana! But I'm here to help!
    Se você gostou da minha resposta, marque como solução clicando em sim! If you liked my answer, mark it as a solution by clicking on yes!
    Aceite somente a resposta que ajudou a solucionar o seu problema! Please accept only the response that helped to solve your problem!
    Detection tool click here to find the serial number or partnumber of your model!                                                          

               
      egydiocoelho Trailblazer
     
    ProductKey clique aqui para descobrir o serial do windows! click here to discover the windows serial!
    Para usuários da comunidade inglesa, espanhola, francesa e alemã, usarei o google tradutor! :)
    For users of the English, Spanish, French and German community, I will be using google translator! :) 
  • trkfz
    trkfz Member Posts: 6

    Tinkerer

    Alt + F10 didn' t help, nothing happened, at least nothing visible. 
    Since i was afraid to try something more drastic i simply left the battery drain out because the only time i could get to repair options was after several days of inactivity. And upon powering up, some "magic" happened. In BIOS appeared an option that was not available before - to boot from usb, so i just changed boot order and finally installed Windows. But i lost everything on that partition because upgrade wasn't possible. 
    One thing still bothers me. The drives were previously in RAID but now this changed to AHCI. Not sure why this change. 
  • If you want to choose raid mode, enable safe boot in msconfig and then restart windows and login to uefi bios. Then go to menu and function sata mode select rst with optane ..
    Oi! Eu não sou sou a cortana! Mas estou aqui para ajudar! Hi! I'm not the cortana! But I'm here to help!
    Se você gostou da minha resposta, marque como solução clicando em sim! If you liked my answer, mark it as a solution by clicking on yes!
    Aceite somente a resposta que ajudou a solucionar o seu problema! Please accept only the response that helped to solve your problem!
    Detection tool click here to find the serial number or partnumber of your model!                                                          

               
      egydiocoelho Trailblazer
     
    ProductKey clique aqui para descobrir o serial do windows! click here to discover the windows serial!
    Para usuários da comunidade inglesa, espanhola, francesa e alemã, usarei o google tradutor! :)
    For users of the English, Spanish, French and German community, I will be using google translator! :) 
  • STOPchris
    STOPchris Member Posts: 99 Fixer WiFi Icon
    Windows 10 strikes again! Once you get it up and running go to the search bar on the task bar. Search for "advanced system settings", select the "hardware" tab, click "device installation settings" and select "No". I would uninstall anything that Acer has installed that "updates" driver software and do it manually if you need to. Heck, the first thing that I did with my Helios 500 is clean install Windows 10 Pro and disabled automatic updates for 3rd parties.
  • xapim
    xapim ACE Posts: 7,257 Pathfinder
    edited October 2019
    Bios updates are forced by MS nothing to do with Acer it was microsoft choice to force all updates from all manufacturers via windows update (basically they wanted to create a AIO bundle :p )  which it might brick the laptops when it comes to update bios because windows update has loads of bugs, the bios should only be updated if its to fix anything that its stating in the update itself if and only updated manually via acer support website if theres no issues shouldnt be updated at all this is all MS and their windows 10 fault wanting to take over everything one of the main reasons why i disable all the updates permanently and not moving up from 1809 never had a single issue the only ways to reflash a bricked bios its by crisis recovery mode or if still on warranty sending it back to acer to get it fixed 


    https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11532543

    UserBenchmarks: Game 43%, Desk 61%, Work 40%
    CPU: Intel Core i5-7300HQ - 63.5%
    GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050-Ti (Mobile) - 41.9%
    SSD: WDC WDS200T2B0B-00YS70 2TB - 71.4%
    HDD: WD WD10SPZX-00HKTT0 1TB - 93.7%
    RAM: Kingston HyperX DDR4 2666 C15 2x16GB - 76.8%
    MBD: Acer Predator G3-572

    I'm not an Acer employee. (just here to help in the best way i can)
    If my answer fixed you issue please accept it for any other users who search for it would find it quickly thanks :)
    If you want to learn more about undervolting/optimizing windows join the Predator fb group and youtube channel:

    Owner/Admin (HOTEL HERO/Red-Sand/Opoka Opoka)
    https://www.facebook.com/groups/PredatorHelios300
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNJwGUHxSJ8FKqAhnOqQuAw
    Acer support:
    https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/service-contact
    http://www.acer.com/worldwide/support/  


  • XdxD
    XdxD Member Posts: 1,581 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    Sad but on older models like my G3-572, BIOS update isn't delivered automatically, even through Windows Update. We need to manually choose to update online through Device Manager. Perhaps for newer devices, Microsoft is allowing us to choose which optional updates (Firmware and Drivers) from Windows 10 20H1, but till then, always keep your internet connection as meterred. Nothing gets past this 'meter' check.
    Trying to do my best here - Your happy Predator owner =)!
  • Weasly
    Weasly Member Posts: 7

    Tinkerer

    Man, i did something similar but with intent, i manually got the 1.28 firmware update, and updated it from windows. Updated uefi and all good, but CPU was overheating again.

    Turned out i had to re-apply CPU uv. settings in ThrottleStop, battery etc, just off/on and it went back to cool state.

    i did it with no reason, just curiosity knowing it might mess up the system.
  • You could have bricked your notebook.
    Oi! Eu não sou sou a cortana! Mas estou aqui para ajudar! Hi! I'm not the cortana! But I'm here to help!
    Se você gostou da minha resposta, marque como solução clicando em sim! If you liked my answer, mark it as a solution by clicking on yes!
    Aceite somente a resposta que ajudou a solucionar o seu problema! Please accept only the response that helped to solve your problem!
    Detection tool click here to find the serial number or partnumber of your model!                                                          

               
      egydiocoelho Trailblazer
     
    ProductKey clique aqui para descobrir o serial do windows! click here to discover the windows serial!
    Para usuários da comunidade inglesa, espanhola, francesa e alemã, usarei o google tradutor! :)
    For users of the English, Spanish, French and German community, I will be using google translator! :) 
  • xapim
    xapim ACE Posts: 7,257 Pathfinder
    edited December 2019
    I completely agree with @egydiocoelho here you might had bricked it the only way to get it fixed now its to send it back to acer service center


    https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11532543

    UserBenchmarks: Game 43%, Desk 61%, Work 40%
    CPU: Intel Core i5-7300HQ - 63.5%
    GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050-Ti (Mobile) - 41.9%
    SSD: WDC WDS200T2B0B-00YS70 2TB - 71.4%
    HDD: WD WD10SPZX-00HKTT0 1TB - 93.7%
    RAM: Kingston HyperX DDR4 2666 C15 2x16GB - 76.8%
    MBD: Acer Predator G3-572

    I'm not an Acer employee. (just here to help in the best way i can)
    If my answer fixed you issue please accept it for any other users who search for it would find it quickly thanks :)
    If you want to learn more about undervolting/optimizing windows join the Predator fb group and youtube channel:

    Owner/Admin (HOTEL HERO/Red-Sand/Opoka Opoka)
    https://www.facebook.com/groups/PredatorHelios300
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNJwGUHxSJ8FKqAhnOqQuAw
    Acer support:
    https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/service-contact
    http://www.acer.com/worldwide/support/