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

[.NetRolller 3D]

@raserdk: Which BIOS did you write on your recovery disk?

@ugly_bear: Use the same flashing method as you would use with any other BIOS on your machine. The crisis talk is because I posted a broken BIOS a few days ago (that I took down since then), which bricked some people's laptops. Only the 5920G was affected, however.

[FragZero]

@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.

I'll try later today, the laptop isn't here atm.

[raserdk]

@raserdk: Which BIOS did you write on your recovery disk?

i have tried a couple of originals from acers website, the oldest called
ZD13508

one in the middle called
ZD13808

and the latest from acers website
ZD13813

edit: i did order a new bios, cheap really, so maybe ill be able to do a hotflash when i have solderd the old bios off, IF I CAN SOLDER IT OFF :P
edit2: dont worry i dont blame you and keep up the good work,
edit3: hmm now my laptop does the same as iJo09
doing the crisys thingy again with v1 of your bios the one that worked,
the laptop read the diskette, and then it stops, allso it stops the blinking on the power butten, it kind of froze
i left i like that for 30 min, and i took out the power cable, because it did not respond to pushing the power butten, and now it does as iJo09 no response to anything,
im going to have a lot of fun with this

[u6b36ef]

@ iJo09 and rasredk,

This is all grave news.

- From what I can determine iJo09 has recovered twice from flashes of both .NetRollers 3D's 5920 BIOS's. I think iJo09's said that both attempts were made using WinCris which caused bad SBIOS and boot failure. Recovery was using WinCris and the Acer website SBIOS. Using Wincris, and adding the modded SBIOS however for the third time didn't work, and system power failed.
- Raserdk I think I understand every attempt at a flash has resulted in system not booting and then system power failure. Again using Wincris - floppy flash.

I have not flashed yet as the floppy drive I purchased on eBay has not arrived. I had only intended to use Wincris and make an Acer website version unmodded flash, to recover. (Then move to the modded BIOS as I had done before, when I used the flash in windows and all was good.)

Generally, it seems this is a more than normal very risky proceedure. Maybe I might be better making an SBIOS chip order instead of flashing, as I still have power. (Though iJo09 had made good recoveries, and it makes sense flashing is the obvious route.) No one knows until either of you change the BIOS chip, if it will effect a repair in your cases. From what iJo09 has said the chip change should work.

I've been looking for info from Phoenix about the SBIOS. (Why they do not issue a download of one-step repair is unbelievable.) I found nothing of use so far.

- Elsewhere there are some pages about the BIOS and what it does at boot-up. These may be of some interest or use, without having direct repair info.
This page has a section; Phoenix BIOS Post Procedures:
Phoenix BIOS Post Codes - BIOS Central

Beep codes:
Phoenix BIOS Beep Codes - BIOS Central

Computer hope website:
Computer BIOS help, support, and information.
Additional information and help with BIOS updates

The Phoenix website has nothing of any use (that I can see):
Phoenix Technologies - Home - Phoenix Technologies Ltd

Also Wikipedia on ACPI that you mention iJo09:
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There's a table in there that mentions the S2 S3 states, you quoted. If S2 is down which is mentioned as 'CPU power off' then that may be your power on failure. (CPU would need to be active to wake from a sleep state I guess.) A dead CPU I believes is a symptom like your 5920 now. Nothing starting. Though clearly I am not suggesting your CPU's have gone down; only the assumption that power managment has failed for them.

I am confused though as to where the ACPI is based. IJo09 you mentioned it's in the BIOS, yet it appears Wikipedia is suggesting it has moved to the op system. Again please forgive me if I have misunderstood.

Since iJo09's made recovery I was hoping to find the version of Wincris that was used, that had Phlash16 1.7.0.18 version in it. The only copy of Wincris I have managed to find has Phoenix Phlash Utility Version 1.3 build 47. Already then I'll be using an untested version, if I use it.

I think I'd be less worried using a Wincris disc I constructed my self, rather than use an image. I wonder at which point is best to add the bios.wph file you intend to flash to. Exactly how that is affected if you add a bios.wph file after the image is created, I don't know. Therefor I am going to add it to the WinCris files and then create the floppy.
(Also, I struggled making an image earlier, and worry about it, probably too much.)

@ .NetRolller 3D,

I got the point about the 5520G MXM-less SBIOS before. The point about the card 'designed' for the 9920 is straightforward, and I re-iterated it. Only a card designed for a 9920 works properly in a 9920. All other cards only partly work. I assumed that the MXM-less SBIOS for the 9920, has the same principle for the 5520, and the other card you mentioned.
Your last post mentioned that only the 5920G is affected. Actually no one had reported having tried your 2nd modded SBIOS for the 6/8920G's.

Also you need to add the 8920 is tested ok with 9600M GT to the opening page article. (Maybe a mention that the 5920 has hit performance level issues as yet.)
Thankyou for your help in trying to resolve this, of course. Unfortunately after the initial success this is a tragic set of results.

-------------
This is a link of successful Acer Phoenix flashes. It has the recovery process description and recovery software Phoenix Phlash Utility version 1.6.5.4 on it.
http://aspiregemstone.blogspot.com/2...-recovery.html

[.NetRolller 3D]

@u6b36ef: Only the 5920G is affected, because it seems nobody ever downloaded my 2nd-gen BIOSes for the 6/8920G before I took them down for safekeeping. So, there should be no problems for 2nd-gen users.

Also, a suggestion: have you tried booting with the MXM card removed? If you can hear Windows boot up, then you may be able to blind-flash by removing the HDD (to force CD boot) and creating a DOS boot CD with Phlash16 and your BIOS on it.
(The reason why this may work is that the only changes between v1 and v2 of the 5920G BIOS are in the MXM structure & the MXM interrupt handler, which are bypassed if there is no MXM card installed.)

[mookill]

guys - i did use the V2 8920G bios.

[u6b36ef]

@ .NetRolller 3D,

Yes, removing the MXM card was one of the earlier tactics I tried.
It behaved oddly when I did.

Normally the laptop boots, and the backlight illuminates when the Acer screen would normally be seen. Now all stays black for a while, then there is dimmer partial illumination. Then after more time there is more lighting up.

It might be worth a try with your new suggestion, again having had a rest from it for a day. The tricky part was getting WINCRIS to initiate. It says the removable A: drive is not present, and had to be executed in DOS. (I had been wondering about boot order and proirity. I kind of concluded maybe the recovery process will only take from the FDD.)

[.NetRolller 3D]

@u6b36ef: IIRC the recovery process can only read FAT12 partitions, possibly also FAT16; this is why a floppy is needed. However, an USB floppy is not special to the BIOS like a regular floppy drive would be - it is merely a removable USB mass storage device. It is possible that the HDD (or maybe anything not on USB) is skipped, though.

However, my suggestion is to avoid the (buggy) recovery process altogether, and instead use the regular boot sequence to boot into a DOS boot CD that is configured (via autoexec.bat) to flash back a working BIOS.

As for the HDD issue, I can recommend GetDataBack.
Also, you can still test if the system boots with the MXM card removed, by observing if it responds to pressing Caps Lock if powered on. Or, you may try plugging in the HDD from your 8920G (the 5920G and 8920G are similar enough HW-wise to allow a Windows installation for one machine boot on the other one; though recognition of the sound card may be a problem).

[.NetRolller 3D]

@u6b36ef: The recovery process only uses FAT12 disks (possibly also FAT16, but not FAT32 or NTFS). Also, it probably ignores anything that has a partition table (as opposed to having a single file system begin in sector 0 of the disk). It is not floppy-only, however - an USB floppy is just another removable USB storage device from a BIOS standpoint; only regular (legacy) floppy drives are special (by virtue of being Drive 0, and hardware-wise the easiest-to-access drive on PCs, for IBM-compatibility reasons).

Even without a HDD, you can still test if the laptop POSTs with the HDD removed; by observing if it reacts to Caps Lock. Also, you may try transplanting the HDD from your 8920G - the two are similar enough to allow a transplanted Windows installation to boot.

@mookill: I suspect that somehow my BIOS never actually got programmed into your machine's BIOS flash chip (perhaps due to using the wrong flasher tool), so I haven't counted you for this.
BTW, did you get the extra tweaking menu ("Workaround Control") show up in your BIOS setup after flashing my BIOS? If you didn't, then you are not actually running my BIOS.

EDIT: Apologies, I thought my previous post got lost.

[u6b36ef]

@ .NetRolller 3D,
It's getting the files onto anything but a floppy that is the problem. If I click the WINCRIS icon, it reports please insert a floppy and press start. (It will not see a USB drive assigned to letter A.)

I used the DOS proceedure by clicking CRISDISC from inside the same Wincris folder. The DOS window opens. It asks for an A drive. With the USB drive re-assigned as A drive the proceedure executes. However no flash.

I could I suppose re-assign the DVD drive as A, and make a flash.

Thanks for the GetDataBack recommendation, I hope it's free. I pulled the HDD on USB out when I saw what was happening.

By the way, this autoexecute. thing that keeps being mentioned, I never see that. I think you have to show hidden folders.

A. In answer to your question, there is zero response to 'caps lock'.