Upgrading BIOS on AO 522

I have had my 522 only a few days and it came with v1.04 and after learning that there are some problems fixed in both 1.05 and 1.07, I decided that I should find out how to upgrade it.

After searching the internet looking for anything that could confirm whether the BIOS upgrade process is the same on the 522 as on other models of the AAO and not actually finding anything. I wanted to finally put something out there to say which method out of the dozens that are out there for the different models is the correct and safe one so you don't end up bricking your new netbook.

It looks like the method described here: http://www.netbooktech.com/2008/10/01/i ... -one-bios/
Works just fine for the 522. Just substitute the 3304 for 1.07 which is the latest version of the BIOS for the 522.

When you boot into FreeDOS and choose the LiveCD option disregard the warning about the missing cdrom at the prompt. After you change to C: and type in dir, you will see the contents of the drive and you should see Bios.bat instead of 3304.bat that is mentioned. Just type bios and press enter and the process should start immediately. I did not put the contents of the package I got from Acer in a separate folder on the USB drive I just put it in the root with the files from FreeDOS.

Theres also a howto on the forum that sticks pretty close to how your supposed to do it: viewtopic.php?f=39&t=1264

 

Personally I've never had a problem with just downloading the BIOS installer from the Acer site and running the Windows version of the update software. Just make sure that you have the AC lead plugged in, and definately don't do the Windows version of the update unless you're 100% certain that your Windows environment is 100% stable.

 

Well I have never been one to trust flashing the BIOS from within Windows using a Windows executable on any laptop I have had. So I always just disregard the Windows installer. My previous netbook was a MSI Wind U100 and it had no trouble flashing the BIOS in the DOS prompt on Windows. But with the 522, if you try to do the same it will balk at you about not having enough memory.

I really just wanted to have something concrete saying this is what works on this model. Since every other source out there is talking about the 521 or D250 or 110 or some other much older model of the AO. Nothing mentions the 522 specifically, so this is what that is.