D150 Bricked?

Hi All,

I tried to update the BIOS on my D150 (to fix a Win7 install problem, which it turns out I could have worked around anyway). Unfortunately I flashed the BIOS for the AOA150 (v3309 instead of v1.09). Naturally enough this has caused some problems.

I have tried the macles recovery process (Fn+ESC+Power button etc), but this doesn't seem to work. When pressing Fn+ESC and pressing the power button nothing at all seems to happen, no LEDs come on, now fans spin up etc. Even the AC power LED doesn't light up when plugged in. The only tiny sign of life is that my USB key which has it's own LED lights up for a second when plugged in, otherwise nothing.

Is there a different recovery process for this version of the One, or is it just too "Bricked" to be recovered at all without going back to Acer?


Thanks,
Steve.

 

It's bricked, since you flashed a Bios from another model on it. Without specialist hardware, you can't put the right bios back on it yourself. I'm sorry to say, you need to send it back to Acer, and this is not covered by warranty.
I'm just wondering how you managed to flash the wrong bios on to it. The windows based D series biosupdater should have said that the biosfile was not compatible with your model. Did you use the bios recovery method to put the 3309 A150 bios on it, or did you use the bootable DOS usbkey method ?

 

The 3309 BIOS I downloaded came with a windows flash utility (InsydeFlash.exe in a winflash folder) which flashed it quite happily, I thought the version numbers looked funny, but reading the release notes text file it was listing version numbers as 3.43 etc so that kind of made sense, plus I was in the middle of about 20 other things .

Thanks for the reply anyway, it's good to know one way or the other what I have to do, I'd hate to send it back and then find out there was some simple way to fix it.

 

Since you only flashed the BIOS, you may have better luck with Acer support than I did. I destroyed the socket for the keyboard ribbon cable, and was quoted $450 + parts and shipping for a $300 computer. Instead, I bought a D150, which is a far better design than the A110.

 

Why can't you just flash the correct BIOS to fix the problem?

 

Most probably because :
A) He can't boot to windows, so he can use the Windows Flash file that is downloadable from Acer.
and
B) The crisis Bios Flash procedure doesn't work, since he flashed the device with a bios for another model, as stated in the threadstarting post.

So unless he has access to a external biosflashing device that clamps directly onto the bios chip, and thereby is able to flash the bios wiith the right bios flash file, he must send it to Acer to get it fixed.

 

i am going to have a go at removing the bios chip and reflashing it
i have a programmer if this works i shall also move the bios chip to a socket
where the 3g module would go so a spare can be carried too
i shall let you all know if it works or not

 

What is the programer?

Jtag and software?

I think a spare is overkill, a socket would be nice. I have had to rewrite a chip many times to finally get a complete write, so a socket would help alot.

 

have you successfully carried out this procedure then
i have ordered a bios chip writer
did u simply flash the acer bios file to the chip ?
the reason for the spare is in case the bios corrupts
and i am not at home

 

I flashed eproms, close to the same.

Please post a link to the "Bios chip writer" you ordered.

With a Jtag you solder six wires to the chip and use software to write a file to the eprom.

The only file you have to write is the current bios, with a jtag you needed to know the starting address in hex. But your "Bios chip writer" must come with instructions.

 

it does come with instructions it does mention an offset
what offset do you use with the jtag ?
sorry a similar one on ebay is
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-SPI-FLASH-BIO ... otohosting

i can read and write the flash chip but do i start to write at 000000 ?

 

I would expect the offset to be in the instructions. The offset can be determined by reading a working Bios chip image with a hex editor. In fact it is simpler to just copy the image of a working chip and write on your chip, that way you don't have use a hex editor.

 

do you know the offset for the aao110
i dont have a working chip to copy
would you have such a file i can use
as i am stuck without my aao

 

No, I have not removed any Bios chips. Just try writing at 0 and then test it. The only other option I can think of is getting you hands on another D150.

 

Psst Jerry, he referred to an AA0 A110, getting hold of an D250 won't help fixing the AAO A110

 

Then why does the thread title read "D150 bricked"? (D250 was a typo).

OH, I just realized that Newfutie is not the orginal poster of this thread.

@ Newfutile, What model do you have?

A couple of resources; http://bios-repair.co.uk/bios/spiflash.html
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Programming_the_SPI_FLASH
http://mondotech.blogspot.com/2009/05/a ... flash.html
http://www.fccps.cz/download/adv/frr/spi/msi_spi.html

Program listing support for W25X80 Winbond chips
http://www.coreboot.org/Flashrom

 

it the aao 110
i have flashed the chip but still no go it seems

 

What is the history of the motherboard?

Does the Macles Bios Recovery work (esc + fn)?

Does the Dos boot USB bios flash work?

AOA110 and AOA150 have the same bios, so you should be able to remove a AOA150 bios chip and use for your AOA110 motherboard.

You should start a new thread, D150 is the wrong title.