Acer MXM BIOS Mods and discussion (was: x920G vs. 9600M GT)

[.NetRolller 3D]

@u6b36ef: I think you misunderstood. The WPH in my BIOS image is for the 5920G, not the 5520G.
I used 5520 as an example of a notebook without an MXM structure - I could have said 9920 or 4520 as well. What I meant to say is that if you have a card that is known to work in an 5520G, 4520G, 9920G or any other MXM-structureless notebook, then you will be able to use that card in your 5920G to display the recovery progress.

[iJo09]

Reflect,
I think that the primary function of the BIOS (BASIC Input Output System) is to set up the hardware and load and start an operating system. When the PC starts up, the first job for the BIOS is to initialize and identify system devices such as the RAM, CPU, video display card, keyboard and mouse, hard disk drive, optical disc drive and other hardware.
So, if the BIOS is corrupt, the most important System devices can't work!
In the BIOS there is also the ACPI and so the table for the System Power Management (State S3,S2 etc....)
Also, when a BIOS is reprogramming, the voltages of it are altered.
So, if my laptop before the current was off it was reprogramming the BIOS, the tensions of it have not changed! (mmh....Now that I'm thinking....I have to throw away my Motherboard? Then I think that buying new PC [NOT Acer and NOT a notebook] is better than buying a new Motherboard)
And that's why my 5920G won't turn on anymore!

[FragZero]

Sorry what do you mean? Your explanation is really really confusing!

And i see you are from Italy, i could sell you this 5920g which i have here. Only damaged plastic casing and perfectly working motherboard (with the mxm fix bios). Could sell the display if you want it.

[.NetRolller 3D]

iJo09: Does your machine still fail to power on even if you follow the steps I provided?

(From my own experience, the 5720G also fails to power on at all with a corrupted BIOS; and even the charging lights break after a bad flash. However, holding Fn+Esc while plugging in the AC will bypass most of the BIOS, allowing the fan to spin up and the recovery process to commence.)

[iJo09]

@FragZero: I will probably buy your 5920G if mine, after the BIOS chip replace, don't work

@.NetRoller 3D: yes, my machine still fails to power on even if I follow your steps!
And yeah, also my 5920G doesn't display the battery charge state anymore!

[u6b36ef]

@ .NetRoller 3D,
I see what you mean now. Yes I remember you mentioning how the MXM structure is for the 9920 and others at the beginning of this thread. (Also some info earlier in this thread, and over here, 9920G GPU Options?). However though I don't know if it would be visible because the 9920 8600M GT in the 5920 image is a mess. If you look on the 9920 GPU Options link and go back a page there's a lengthy post of mine. It says how the 5920 and 9920 cards won't interchange. Maybe though they will display at the level you're intending though, i.e. pre-SBIOS: loading SBIOS.

I could pluck the 8600M GT from the 9920, but I think I prefer to leave it. It's tricky to remove and re-fit. The 8920 is the worst though. The MXM III card pops in and then the heatsink fits over the top. The MXM II cards need brackets fitted which the heatsink clamps to. They make fitting very awkward.

@ iJo09,
Yeah you're most likely right. Your catastrophe happened right at the time of flashing. I'd just not read of it before. Your chip should arrive soon. (It kind of looks like I am one step behind you since you did the FDD first.) I hope I don't need to follow with a replacement chip. I'm going to flash to the Acer website standard SBIOS first, for safety. Then I'll move to the modded SBIOS after then; and flashing in windows. That's how it worked for me before. Maybe I should include a screenshot if it all goes OK. (I have the 1st modded SBIOS file saved.)

Ref your 5920: I hoped at most it was just a discharge you needed in the start button. Then no more than maybe a new AC adapter: they can make the green LED on the charger 'light up', but be damaged and deliver a reduced voltage. (I.E. Not enough to power up the laptop with.)

I laid all my ideas out so there was no need to write what things had been tried backwards and forwards. You most likely knew of the things I said though. Anyway my ideas are there for others to follow. I am still de-stressed somewhat by your encouragement that the FDD flash will be OK, and the keystroke info.

[raserdk]

hmm i seem to have produced a bad flash aswell
i do have a crysis disk,
and now it has been running for a couple of hours, but still no restart
it is reading the diskette,
tried several versions of wincris
allso with the vgabios so i can see the process, but it does not show anything, and reads the diskette forever

[.NetRolller 3D]

@raserdk: Did you try using CRISDISK.BAT in DOS? Apparently some BIOSes only accept disks prepared using CRISDISK.BAT, and not with WinCris.
Also, check you disk for sector defects - only a perfect disk can be used for crisis disk purposes (because bootblock cannot skip bad sectors).
And a question for you: exactly what BIOS file did you flash? I want to compare it with FragZero's (working) version.

@u6b36ef: You do not need a card DESIGNED for a 5520G or a 9920G; you only need one that WORKS in either of these (one that is known to work in a 5520G is probably a safer bet, as apparently 9920G has more issues than just the MXM structure). As far as I know the 8600M GT works in a 5520G, so it should also work for recovery on a 5920G.

(The reason why you need a card that works in a 5520G is that such a card is guaranteed to use safe defaults when faced with a lack of an MXM structure. This is important because when VGABIOS.EXE is called, the MXM interrupt handler is not yet loaded. Again, there is no "magic" behind the 5520G; it is merely an example of a machine without an MXM structure. Could have said Asus G60Jx as well.)

@FragZero: Can you upload the 5920G BIOS image that you used for your flash? Somehow we are getting a mysteriously high number of bad 5920G flashes nowadays - I fear the BIOS image on ifile.it somehow got corrupted.

[raserdk]

i used the latest one, i downloaded it before the warning about producing bad flash

the previous bios worked just fine

i never thought about the diskette but i have tested them now,
it has zero bad sectors, tried 2 diskettes one with wincris
and one with crisdisk.bat,
but it just keeps reading,
i let be for about 5 hours and still reading the diskette

[ugly_bear]

Guys, the GPU in my 8920G just died and decided to try replace it with a 9600M (DDR3 512mb, A1 revision - couldn't find a C1). From u6b36ef's post (http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer...ml#post7543809) it seems I can use the modded BIOS to make the card work with the internal display. Could either u6b36ef or someone else please confirm that the BIOS u6b36ef refers to is the one linked in the first post? Thanks

Also I see references to CRISIS and various methods of flashing. For reference I'll be flashing from the standard 1.16 Acer BIOS. If there is a particular set of instructions I should follow, I'd much appreciate if you guys could help me point to the right directions.

I'll make sure to report back on any issues (hopefully none)