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#1
Corrupted BIOS?
Right, I have a huge technical problem, and desperately need some help. I sincerely hope that you guys are able to help me in some way.
Basically, I have an Acer T180-UB7Z here, and it was working fine, par the bad ram. All was fine, until I tried to update the BIOS. I downloaded the most recent bios update for that specific model, from Acer's website, so I know it wasn't a bad copy. I ran the updating tool within Windows, and tried to update. The update failed with an error saying something along the lines of 'could not erase - the hardware may be write protected'.
Thinking the bios was write protected, I assumed that the updater never changed it in some way, and so didn't think to revert to the backup I made. However, when I restarted the machine, it now fails to boot. The BIOS claims to be a 2007 version, which I downloaded, even though it supposedly never installed (it used to say it was 2006). It hangs at "Verifying DMI pool data". I googled the situation, and discovered that it is a fault with the motherboard, that the onboard bios flasher is faulty, and that everyone who has ever tried to update it has received the same problem, and there is virtually nothing that can be done within the machine to repair it.
The machine can not boot from CD, hard drive, removable devices etc, since Verifying pool data happens before this, and cannot be skipped. The bios settings can be accessed and changed, but I've read that no combination of settings will work in this situation. Basically I need some method of flashing the bios externally, without using the machine in question. I have tried clearing the CMOS, but that did nothing. Acer cannot repair it since it is out of warranty, and I have no idea what to do.
I was hoping that there is a method of flashing the bios without any special hardware, but without booting the machine in question. My dad suspects that the local computer shop would be capable of doing this, but that they would charge me a lot.
I'm really stuck here. The machine is inoperable. I need it up and running again ASAP, for as little money as possible.
Literally any help is appreciated.