corrupted bios Acer Aspire A515-51G Corrupted BIOS - Urgent

[Leandro Fernandes]

Hello everyone, I need help fixing my corrupted bios.

 

My  laptop was having serious thermal shutdown problems where it would shutdown around 60º everytime, I figured it should be a software problem, as the laptop has barely 3 years of life and during those years it was cleaned thoroughly and the thermal paste swapped, but even with a clean install of windows and the manufactor's drivers the problem didn't seem to go away. I decided to downgrade my bios to an early version hoping that would fix the issue, unfortunatly, downgrading the bios completly bricked my laptop. I ask for anyone that has any knowledge on corrupted bios to help me. Unfortunatly, the repair shops here (rural Portugal) are not "qualified" enough for such a repair and all tell me to replace the motherboard, which would cost around 200 euros. I know my way around computers enough to know this is fixable (but clearly not enough to avoid this issue), and I can try to fix it with some help. For some context, the bios was flashed, the laptop automaticaly restarted, it installed the new bios to 100%, restarted again and nothing else happened after that. The computer right now turns on, the fan ramps up but nothing else happens, just black screen.

I already tried: reseating ram, removing cmos battery, laptop battery and power and leaving it out for some time, and putting the bios files in a usb stick while pressing FN+ESC.

 

I will be posting this topic on multiple tech websites for the best chances at fixing the issue.

 

Here are the specifications of the device and the bios files:

 

Acer Aspire 5 - A515-51G-56UG
CPU- i5-8250u
RAM- 8GB DDR4 
SSD- 256GB M.2
GPU- Geforce Mx130

Motherboard- C5V01 LA-E892P

 

Acer Drivers/BIOS support:
https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7244?b=1

 

Installed BIOS before downgrade:
2.02
https://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/BIOS/BIOS/BIOS_Acer_2.02_A_A.zip?acerid=636872639637878065&Step1=NOTEBOOK&Step2=ASPIRE&Step3=ASPIRE A515-51G&OS=ALL&LC=en&BC=ACER&SC=PA_6

 

Downgraded BIOS:
1.09
https://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/BIOS/BIOS/BIOS_Acer_1.09_A_A.zip?acerid=636419909262548145&Step1=NOTEBOOK&Step2=ASPIRE&Step3=ASPIRE A515-51G&OS=ALL&LC=en&BC=ACER&SC=PA_6

 

[Dimondminer11]

As far as I'm aware you are screwed. You really can't downgrade a BIOS without bricking the device under any circumstances. The only thing you could do is locate the BIOS chip on the logic board, desolder it, solder in a new one, and see what happens.

[Anghammarad]

such a thing with the software for it could do the trick: 

 

 

with that Clamp you connecto to the Bios Chip and can read out or write to it directly using the usb dongle and the software usually provided with it.

 

[Leandro Fernandes]

4 minutes ago, Dimondminer11 said:

As far as I'm aware you are screwed. You really can't downgrade a BIOS without bricking the device under any circumstances. The only thing you could do is locate the BIOS chip on the logic board, desolder it, solder in a new one, and see what happens.

I've been searching for a couple of hours and seen some people with Acer laptops being able to fix them without any hardware changes, with that USB bios fix, but I can't seem to figure out how that works. But perhaps I might be really screwed.

[Dimondminer11]

Just now, Leandro Fernandes said:

I've been searching for a couple of hours and seen some people with Acer laptops being able to fix them without any hardware changes, with that USB bios fix, but I can't seem to figure out how that works. But perhaps I might be really screwed.

If the machine displays nothing on the screen you are screwed

[Leandro Fernandes]

3 minutes ago, Anghammarad said:

such a thing with the software for it could do the trick: 

 

 

with that Clamp you connecto to the Bios Chip and can read out or write to it directly using the usb dongle and the software usually provided with it.

 

You also being European, know were can I find one that won't take more than 2 months to arrive? As I said, I need the laptop for my high-school programming course's final project.

[Leandro Fernandes]

5 minutes ago, Dimondminer11 said:

If the machine displays nothing on the screen you are screwed

I've read threads about it, but the only video I saw about it was this one: 

 In it he seems to have the same issue, just on an older laptop.

Sorry if I seem insistent, I was really hoping to not do any soldering as I have very small expirience on it.

[Anghammarad]

with the thing I posted you don't solder on your machine... to conect to the bios chip you use the clamp.

 

[Anghammarad]

5 minutes ago, Leandro Fernandes said:

I've read threads about it, but the only video I saw about it was this one: 

 In it he seems to have the same issue, just on an older laptop.

Sorry if I seem insistent, I was really hoping to not do any soldering as I have very small expirience on it.

And for that, I don't know if the consumer series Aspire support that feature due to Travelmate being the business editions...

 

Like Lenovo Thinkpad = Enterprise, Ideapad = Consumer... 

[Leandro Fernandes]

1 minute ago, Anghammarad said:

with the thing I posted you don't solder on your machine... to conect to the bios chip you use the clamp.

 

I know, I've seen it done, I was asking if you know where I could get one relativaly fast?

[Anghammarad]

1 minute ago, Leandro Fernandes said:

I know, I've seen it done, I was asking if you know where I could get one relativaly fast?

at Amazon? 

 

here in germany around 12 € on Amazon

[Anghammarad]

this one is with software for around 15€ amazon germany though... you gotta look on your local amazon river ^^

 

https://www.amazon.de/TECNOIOT-CH341A-EEPROM-Programmer-Software/dp/B07RKXSMKH

[Leandro Fernandes]

1 minute ago, Anghammarad said:

this one is with software for around 15€ amazon germany though... you gotta look on your local amazon river ^^

 

https://www.amazon.de/TECNOIOT-CH341A-EEPROM-Programmer-Software/dp/B07RKXSMKH

Thank you very much, I think I can order directly from Amazon.de. With it, do you know here I could get he files to rewrite my bios, or how to do it? If you have any free time, could you help me through the process on discord/skype or any other way you see, after I buy it and it arrives, as I said I am willing to pay for the help!

[Anghammarad]

you already got the bios files. from the website. 

 

before flashing the latest verion, wipe the bios with the software, then write the latest bios file. 

 

it should be the *.bin files

[Anghammarad]

btw... I forgot, you need a working computer to use that USB flash device... eg a friends one or another machine at home. doesn't need to be powerfull

[Mr.Nelf]

On 5/31/2021 at 6:39 AM, Dimondminer11 said:

...You really can't downgrade a BIOS without bricking the device under any circumstances...

Sure u can, given it's designed well enough.  I've just recently upgraded(?) (to Acer's A515-51G-515J) from the Dell Latitude E6530, which allowed me to go back and forth between 3 different BIOS firmware versions several times back when I was TS'ing reasons for WinImageBackups not showing up on their storage mediums.  These 'new' laptops, with all their proprietary weirdness, tho, I dunno man.  I've been increasingly disappointed with BIOS options in Laptops vs PCs with proper MoBos.

[Jashandeep Singh]

On 5/31/2021 at 7:45 PM, Leandro Fernandes said:

Thank you very much, I think I can order directly from Amazon.de. With it, do you know here I could get he files to rewrite my bios, or how to do it? If you have any free time, could you help me through the process on discord/skype or any other way you see, after I buy it and it arrives, as I said I am willing to pay for the help!

Did it get fixed cause I got the same problem now. 

[Leandro Fernandes]

On 2/22/2023 at 12:51 PM, Jashandeep Singh said:

Did it get fixed cause I got the same problem now. 

I ended up buying a new bios chip with the correct bios preinstalled and soldered it to the motherboard. Unfortunately, that device I bought through Amazon came broken in the mail and then lost by the delivery guy so I didn't even get a replacement because amazon never got it back. But I believe it would work fine if mine wasn't defective. The soldering option is guaranteed to work.