Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

[mockingbird]

I tried flashing the BIOS on this thing, I am absolutely positive I had the correct one, but I got a "Verify Error" message and the keyboard and mouse both froze.

I held down the power button for a while but nothing happened, so I pulled out the battery.

But now the lights don't turn on anymore and the thing is completely dead!

Pulling out the battery while it was on must have damaged something. This is a first. What shoddy engineering.

Any ideas?

[yyonline]

Re: Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

When you update a BIOS it usually checks the file, flashes it, and then verifies that it was written correctly. If it failed to verify my guess is that it was written incorrectly. So, a bad flash, therefore no boot. If its the wrong model, I usually get an error of some sort but not a verify error. I would guess you're out of luck unless it has some sort of BIOS recovery functionality. Even then flashes don't usually fail unless the BIOS chip is bad. In that case, find a new one and solder it on.

[mockingbird]

Re: Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

BIOs recovery isn't the problem.

The laptop won't even start, no power light.

[Badcappy]

Re: Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

Most laptops use a separate embedded controller to power on the system. The EC is powered on whenever the battery is in or the power cord is connected. My guess is the flashing process also flashes the firmware on that, and it somehow got corrupted.

[boppzoli]

Re: Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

Hi mockingbird!
I know this is an old topic, but I have the same problem as you.
Please tell me what was the solution for that laptop.
I made exactly the same things like you! Exactly!
I had the same error, nothing happens, and finally I pulled out the battery.
Now I am unable to start the laptop. No led lights no reaction to power button, nothing nothing ...
Please help me if you can!
Thank you in advance!

[gabik111]

Re: Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

Sometimes flashing BIOS without removing BIOS eprom out of mobo takes no effect. So if you can try remove BIOS chip and program it in programmer this will make you 100% sure about BIOS batch inside the eprom because programmer can verify this batch after programming.

[boppzoli]

Re: Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

Hi!
It is possible that after a bad bios-update the LEDs do not shine/blink etc ...?
I never had this type of issue with laptops/PCs ...
I am not an electrician, just an informatician ...
So the problem is exactly what mockingbird described. No LED light, no fan, no cooler spin no reaction to power button so nothing ... even if I plug in the charger, no led lights are glowing ...
Please help me if you know what can be the problem ...
Thank you again and sorry for my english ...

[Per Hansson]

Re: Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

I think this is a UEFI BIOS? (Correct me if I'm wrong)

I have a dead laptop here besides me, I know it is dead because of a failed flash.
Nothing happens to it when the power button is pressed...
Now the thing is it has two flash chips, one 4mbit and one 32mbit
I think the small one contains the BIOS passwords...

If your laptop features a SPI header somewhere for flashing the BIOS you can use that with an external programmer, but you also need the correct binary file to program.
And it gets more complex if like mine there are two chips...

[boppzoli]

Re: Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

So,
I don't think it is a UEFI ...
It's a 5 years old notebook ...
Scroll the video to 0:14 and you will see the BIOS... it is an 8 pin chip ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNESt8Pi0CQ
So, again ... : it is possible that the BIOS is taking care of when leds are lighing and when not and if the BIOS is corrupted even the charging indicator LED is not lights up?
I hope you understand what I mean ...

[gabik111]

Re: Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

Actually BIOS working at startup. It runs POST and turns on all components. Later , when system loads to RAM it does not work. That is why OS needs drivers to control and run all computer components. And also that is why you can flash BIOS from OS level.

[gabik111]

Re: Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

And it gets more complex if like mine there are two chips...

You have BIOS called "DualBIOS" . Second chip contains "mirror" of original BIOS and can be copied to basic chip if update or virus will damage BIOS in first , original chip.

[boppzoli]

Re: Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

OK,
So the BIOS is active only after I press the power button?
I repeat: the power led don't lights up when I plug in the AC adapter ... Can the BIOS cause this?

[Per Hansson]

Re: Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

You have BIOS called "DualBIOS" . Second chip contains "mirror" of original BIOS and can be copied to basic chip if update or virus will damage BIOS in first , original chip.

I don't want to derail this topic but no, that is not the case with my laptop. (Should be pretty clear when I said one BIOS is 4mbit and the other 32mbit)

OK,
So the BIOS is active only after I press the power button?
I repeat: the power led don't lights up when I plug in the AC adapter ... Can the BIOS cause this?

Maybe, I thought it only applied to UEFI based BIOS but going by what has been said in this thread before I guess even a normal BIOS might be initiated when the system is soft-off.
There has to be some logic controlling things like battery charging, wake on USB, wake on LAN etc etc etc...

[boppzoli]

Re: Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

Hi,
I have desolderd the battery from the MoBo. I will leave it all the night and I will give it a try tomorrow morning ...
I hope that mockingbird will reply, too ...
Maybe he was able to repair his notebook ... at the time ...
Thanks for the replies, guys ... see you tomorrow!

[mockingbird]

Re: Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

boppzoli -

I got your PM.

What I eneded up doing was replacing the entire motherboard... I think I still have the old board. It cost me around $100 IIRC...

I tried all the InsydeH2O recovery options - they will not work... Other than actually replacing the entire board, you have to desolder the BIOS chip and send it in to get re-programmed. I remember finding a site that did this kind of thing, if you want I can look it up. Just to reiterate - it's NOT a hardware problem, but a BIOS problem.

This should be considered as nothing less than sabotage by Acer... Not too long ago someone brought me in a different, newer Acer laptop with an inherent design defect - the hard drive had no retention mechanism. It was held in place against gravity by the SATA connector and some double sided sticky foam. You really have to be careful with some of Acer's stuff.

[spidey]

Re: Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

Actually BIOS working at startup. It runs POST and turns on all components. Later , when system loads to RAM it does not work. That is why OS needs drivers to control and run all computer components. And also that is why you can flash BIOS from OS level.

Bios does not starts to work at startup, it starts right after the dc adapter connected to the laptop or bttery installed, it starts to check everyting is ok. communictes with power ic, bridges etc... desolder the bios chip (usually its spi serial eeprom 8 sop package) easy to work with. programme it using an eprom programmer. hope it helps.

[spidey]

Re: Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

you can also find really simple circuits like this one to progrmme spi flashs.

[gabik111]

Re: Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

Bios does not starts to work at startup, it starts right after the dc adapter connected to the laptop or bttery installed, it starts to check everyting is ok. communictes with power ic, bridges etc... desolder the bios chip (usually its spi serial eeprom 8 sop package) easy to work with. programme it using an eprom programmer. hope it helps.

So BIOS works when laptop is turned off. Something new for me , I think I missed something in school. But I'm still learning and this lesson provides me some new informations...
Did you ever tried to charge laptop's battery installed in the system without proper BIOS chip?

[mockingbird]

Re: Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

gabik111 -

I know it doesn't sound plausible, but this was the case with this laptop. If the BIOS is corrupt, the laptop will not power on at all.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Acer Aspire 5315 - Dead

Yes, it should be evident by mockingbird's and my first post in this thread.
Both our laptops where completely dead after the BIOS update.

In my case the laptop that is dead has two BIOS chips, so I don't want to try flashing it manually with my programmer, since I think the chips are paired (I read something like that on a Russian forum)
Of course my laptop is a special case...

For your laptops I think you should actually be able to program them in circuit, of course it requires a proper programmer to do it, and the correct BIOS binary file to program the chip with...
If it does not comply you will need to desloder the BIOS chip and program it that way, might be enough to lift a leg or two aswell if you know what you are doing...