BIOS Malfunction: No display output

zabriel
zabriel Member Posts: 14

Tinkerer
edited October 2023 in 2020 Archives
Changed some BIOS settings on my Acer E5 572g 525v which resulted in no display output signal

I've already tried:
―Connecting to 2 different external displays(HDMI and DVI)
― Resetting BIOS by taking the battery out and holding down the power button for 30 secs
― Disconnecting the Hard disk and RAMs and then trying to start the pc on direct AC
― Flashing the factory BIOS by holding fn+Esc keys and then powering on the laptop (the first time around fans started spinning really fast as they do when you flash BIOS and I was almost sure this will work but it didn't and on the following tries the fans stopped spinning when I tries flashing again so now I think BIOS aren't even being flashed anymore).

The only thing I can think of now is restting the CMOS physically but it is soldered and I don't have a soldering iron. We're currently in an ever-extending lockdown so I can't take it to a professional.

I couldn't find a jumper and so I can only think of shorting the corrent pins now but I don't know which ones they are, so I'd be really thankful if someone could locate them for me and guide me with what I should do next.


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Answers

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,195 Trailblazer
    What BIOS settings did you initially change? This usually doesn't result in a black screen unless you accidentally toggled the screen off with the FN+F6 combination. Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • zabriel
    zabriel Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    JackE said:
    What BIOS settings did you initially change? This usually doesn't result in a black screen unless you accidentally toggled the screen off with the FN+F6 combination. Jack E/NJ
    I do remember changing a setting which set the display output adapter to "auto" instead of the default one. I also changed aroung a bunch of other power saving settings.
    Also, I somehow got the BIOS flashing shortcut working but I dont think the pc is reading the drives(the led on the pd isn't blinking and I've tried it with 2 different drives).
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,195 Trailblazer
    Are you able to access the RAM modules without taking it all apart? Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • zabriel
    zabriel Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    edited April 2020
    JackE said:
    Are you able to access the RAM modules without taking it all apart? Jack E/NJ
    No, they are on the bottom side of the board
    https://ibb.co/W0Gk92h
    I also just tried formatting the PDs into exfat and NTFS but they are still not being read.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,195 Trailblazer
    >>>No, they are on the bottom side of the board>>>

    Unfortunately the BIOS reset jumper is located under the 2nd RAM module. That means you'll have to directly short out the RTC coin cell by jumpering its side positive(+) terminal to its top terminal to try to reset the BIOS. Just a second or two shortcircuited. This shouldn't drain much charge from the coin cell due to its high internal resistance but should quickly discharge the chip. Hopefully it'll reset it back to the integrated GPU since, as you and others have discovered, it can be finicky in bootstrapping discrete GPUs. Jack E/NJ    

    Jack E/NJ

  • zabriel
    zabriel Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    JackE said:
    >>>No, they are on the bottom side of the board>>>

    Unfortunately the BIOS reset jumper is located under the 2nd RAM module. That means you'll have to directly short out the RTC coin cell by jumpering its side positive(+) terminal to its top terminal to try to reset the BIOS. Just a second or two shortcircuited. This shouldn't drain much charge from the coin cell due to its high internal resistance but should quickly discharge the chip. Hopefully it'll reset it back to the integrated GPU since, as you and others have discovered, it can be finicky in bootstrapping discrete GPUs. Jack E/NJ    
    Could you please circle out the points I need to bridge on the images I've uploaded?
    I'm afraid I might end up doing something like this: https://youtu.be/5DdAZrTZjEM?t=58:

  • zabriel
    zabriel Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    zabriel said:
    JackE said:
    >>>No, they are on the bottom side of the board>>>

    Unfortunately the BIOS reset jumper is located under the 2nd RAM module. That means you'll have to directly short out the RTC coin cell by jumpering its side positive(+) terminal to its top terminal to try to reset the BIOS. Just a second or two shortcircuited. This shouldn't drain much charge from the coin cell due to its high internal resistance but should quickly discharge the chip. Hopefully it'll reset it back to the integrated GPU since, as you and others have discovered, it can be finicky in bootstrapping discrete GPUs. Jack E/NJ    
    Could you please circle out the points I need to bridge on the images I've uploaded?
    I'm afraid I might end up doing something like this: https://youtu.be/5DdAZrTZjEM?t=58:

    Do you mean I just connect the bottom of the battery with it's top?
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,195 Trailblazer
    Make sure the charger and batter pack are disconnected!!!!!! Then Short the two terminals at the end of the arrows for a second or two. You might get a tiny spark. Jack E/NJ


    Jack E/NJ

  • zabriel
    zabriel Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    JackE said:
    Make sure the charger and batter pack are disconnected!!!!!! Then Short the two terminals at the end of the arrows for a second or two. You might get a tiny spark. Jack E/NJ


    Just tried it, didn't get a spark or anything but it also didn't work.
    I didn't have the hard disk plugged in and maybe I didn't short it properly, so gonna try it again. Fingers crossed.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,195 Trailblazer
    OK. Also, if you have a multimeter, you might want to check the coin cells voltage between the terminals after shorting them. Should be at least 3.1v. Anything below 3v suggests the cell needs to be replaced. Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • zabriel
    zabriel Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    JackE said:
    OK. Also, if you have a multimeter, you might want to check the coin cells voltage between the terminals after shorting them. Should be at least 3.1v. Anything below 3v suggests the cell needs to be replaced. Jack E/NJ
    Tried again, no luck. Guess I'll just have to wait till the lockdown here is lifted.
    I don't have a multimeter but I'm having a hard time believing any hardware needs replacement since I'm pretty sure it was the display adapter setting that lead to this.
    Also, any idea why the pendrives aren't being read?
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,195 Trailblazer
    Some mainboards for your model still also have vga ports. You might want to try that one too if you have it. I notice that it has slightly different output resolutions than the HDMI port. Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • zabriel
    zabriel Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    JackE said:
    Some mainboards for your model still also have vga ports. You might want to try that one too if you have it. I notice that it has slightly different output resolutions than the HDMI port. Jack E/NJ
    Yeah it does have the VGA but I've already tried it. Mistakenly wrote DVI in the og post.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,195 Trailblazer
    Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try to flash the BIOS using the cold boot FN+ESC tecnique from a USB stick. Download and unzip the latest firmware from the ACER driver site. You might have to run the EXE executable on another computer to see if it yields a ROM, WPH, BIN or FD extension  file which would then be copied to a FAT32 USB stick. Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • zabriel
    zabriel Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    JackE said:
    Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try to flash the BIOS using the cold boot FN+ESC tecnique from a USB stick. Download and unzip the latest firmware from the ACER driver site. You might have to run the EXE executable on another computer to see if it yields a ROM, WPH, BIN or FD extension  file which would then be copied to a FAT32 USB stick. Jack E/NJ
    Uh...yeah, I've already tried that too, like I wrote in the original question. Tried flashing both the factory and the custom BIOS but I dont think the pendrive is being read since the LED indicator on it doesn't blink when I switch on the laptop.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,195 Trailblazer
    >>>Tried flashing both the factory and the custom BIOS>>>

    Three things.
    (1) What was your exact sequence of steps used for the FN+ESC flash?
    (2) What binary filename did you use on the stick?
    (3) What do you mean by 'custom'?

    Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • zabriel
    zabriel Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    edited April 2020
    JackE said:
    >>>Tried flashing both the factory and the custom BIOS>>>

    Three things.
    (1) What was your exact sequence of steps used for the FN+ESC flash?
    (2) What binary filename did you use on the stick?
    (3) What do you mean by 'custom'?

    Jack E/NJ
    1) Switched off the PC
    Disconnected the charger
    Took out the battery
    Pressed and held power button for about a minute to discharge any remaining current.Then let go of it.
    Pressed and held fn+esc keys
    Plugged in the pendrive
    Connected the latop charger(without the battery)
    Pressed the power button(while still holding fn+esc)
    Fans start spinning really fast but the LED on the pd doesn't blink.
    Let go of the keys

    2. The filename was "Z5WAWX64.FD".

    3. By "custom" I meant modded BIOS (https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-OFFER-Acer-Aspire-E5-572G-Modded-Bios). I was running those for over a year without any issues but my laptop had been heating up a lot recently and so I stupidly decided to change some things around. Worst decision ever.



  • zabriel
    zabriel Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    edited April 2020
    So I did some more research and found out about  "Insyde BIOS recovery" which seems to be the closest I've gotten to a solution to my problem.
    I still haven't been able to fix it though. In all the other cases I've come across, none of the people seem to have a problem with their USB keys not being read, so to make sure the USB ports on my laptop were still functioning, I plugged in an LED mouse to see if the lights on it come on and they did, for a split second but then immediately turned off (on all three ports). Does it mean there's something wrong with the ports?
    Anyway, the USB reading problem is where I'm currently stuck at.
    Also, I noticed if I just try to switch on the pc normally, the power LED on it blinks every 30 seconds. What does that mean?

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,195 Trailblazer
    You process looks good. Did you use a USB3-rated stick in the USB3 port?

    Blinking orange power LED suggests only RAM is on. A 30 second cycle seems too long.

    Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • zabriel
    zabriel Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    JackE said:
    You process looks good. Did you use a USB3-rated stick in the USB3 port?

    Blinking orange power LED suggests only RAM is on. A 30 second cycle seems too long.

    Jack E/NJ
    Yes, I've tried it with both, USB 3 and 2 rated sticks in all the available slots. I've even tried using a SD card but it just won't read any of them
    Also, the blinking LED is blue and not orange and it's exactly 30 seconds each time, I've clocked it.

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