Has anyone flashed a BIOS on an Acer Aspire Laptop?

[TVeblen]

This one is a 5820T. I downloaded the zip file for this model from the Acer website and after extracting I find two executables, one for DOS, one for Windows. Nothing else. (ZQ1_125.exe for both - not .bat - not .rom). There is no "Flash-it" file, no.FD file.

I have always flashed a BIOS on boot from floppy or USB. And I have always advised to never flash a BIOS from inside Windows. So the thought of this being the only way is making me ill.

If there is a way to do it USB I could use a walk-thru. Thanks.

 

[xxxdannyxxx]

I have an aspire 5935g and did update the bios successfully within windows but must admit that was long before signing up here and reading endless people saying not to do it that way, however it worked out fine in my case. I think the consensus is to only flash the bios if it provides a fix you need.

Just looked through the download I used and the DOS version does contain a flash it file. Here is what I had.

DOS


Windows


I know thats probably not any help but thats just my experience

Good Luck

 

[TVeblen]

Hey Danny - that (your screenshots) is exactly what I thought I would find. But all I get when I extract the zip file is a DOS folder with ZQ1_125.exe inside.

Do you recall: if you run the exe does it then create the 3 files you show? Or did you get those 3 files in your zipped download?

 

[xxxdannyxxx]

Hey Danny - that (your screenshots) is exactly what I thought I would find. But all I get when I extract the zip file is a DOS folder with ZQ1_125.exe inside.

Do you recall: if you run the exe does it then create the 3 files you show? Or did you get those 3 files in your zipped download?

No I just downloaded the zip file again to check for you as I was sure I had the flash it file in the dos folder and I do. Here is what is in the extracted folder from the zip, then the above is what's in each folder before doing anything.



And the readme

DOS: Run "BIOS.BAT" batch file to flash BIOS in pure DOS environment.
Windows: Run "KAQB0208.exe" to flash BIOS in Windows Win7 Home Premium x64.

 

[TVeblen]

I get this:


Expanding that gets me this:


Inside that is this:


And inside both DOS and Windows is this:


And the readme says this:


So now I have to wonder if this is a bad BIOS update download at Acer.

 

[xxxdannyxxx]

Have you had a look at some of the previous BIOS updates for your machine to see if they follow the same lack of files in the folders.

 

[TVeblen]

No! Duh. Good idea.
'Scuse me while I do the dummy dance!

 

[TVeblen]

No joy. All the same.

But at least the other downloads the readme says:

 

[alphanumeric]

I have a 5920 my BIOS_3813.zip extracted to this and I flashed it from Windows.


The ZD13813.wph is tha actual BIOS file.

 

[TVeblen]

Yikes! A 3rd way. Just what I needed to ease my mind!

I don't visit this guy until this weekend. We'll see how it goes (if at all).

While I've got you Acer owners here...

The actual issue I am attempting to solve is a Windows desktop freeze at startup.
The laptop starts, makes it all the way to the desktop, then freezes for about 60 seconds, as in, he can't move the mouse.

After much diagnostics and checking and tweaking by me, the owner later stumbled upon the cause: if the power supply is plugged into the laptop when it starts up the freeze occurs. But if he disconnects the power supply and starts up on battery only then there is no freeze.

I had him play with all the Windows power settings - no change.

I looked at the BIOS updates and saw that there were 2 that dealt with S3 power. That is where I got the idea that a BIOS upgrade might be beneficial.

But if you've seen this before, or have any other ideas.....

 

[alphanumeric]

Thats a new one for me? Isn't S3 to do with sleep mode or hibernate? I think I would try reseting the BIOS to defaults before committing to flashing it. On the plus side if the battery is in good shape flashing the BIOS on a laptop is a less risky than on a desktop. A power failure or power bump during the flash shouldn't be a worry.

 

[TVeblen]

Yeah, S3 is one of the suspend modes. But all states have to do with the ACPI system, and ACPI may explain a weird power problem.
That's what I'm thinking anyway.

 

[alphanumeric]

Sounds plausible to me. I don't know enough about that part of things to say for sure one way or the other. Even if I did I'd probably flash the BIOS anyway if nothing else was working. My two ASUS motherboards have the BIOS flash function built into the BIOS menu. All you have to do is put the BIOS update file somewhere where it can find it. No messing around with DOS boot disks etc. Dual BIOS too, so even if the flash fails it auto recovers on the next bootup. I do believe the Acer uses a Phoenix BIOS so this might be worth a look see.
in case you kill your phoenix bios: bios recovery methods

 

[TVeblen]

Thanks. The minute I saw what I was in for I went looking and found that. I've got the instructions printed out and the .fd on a thumb drive!

I always expect the worst and accept the best with a smile!

 

[alphanumeric]

We think the same way. I like to be prepared in case something goes wrong, especially if its someone else's PC.