Rank: Wiz
Rating: 92%, 39 votes
Absolutely...my email is ulcimd1@gmail.com
after you turn it on and it's up and running, try changing the display with the function keys ( my laptop is Fn F5, yours will probably be different) press both keys then wait several seconds, if nothing happens, do it again and wait, and again and wait, up to five times, heck even ten times. Email me and let me know. I'll label this as a solution, and you can rate it after we get it figured out. I'll keep in touch, not as often in the evenings, but I'll do what I can. I'm here for ya, man.
Comments:
Jan 06, 2009
- Yeah, on your laptop should be a 15 pin VGA port. Just plug the monitor into it and power it on. After the PC is booted and running try the Fn + whichever key used to switch displays. The goal of doing this is to make sure that the computer is functional, and enable you to enter the bios setup area and check the different settings. If you are able to use an external display, you can even boot all the way into windows and flash the bios again. (Perhaps the bios file was corrupted, or I know that it very easy to use the wrong file. You may even be able to download the version that you had previously, or sometimes the flash utility backs up the version being replaced.) Check it out...I've got to go to bed. I'll check in tomorrow and see what's new.
I've got my fingers crossed for you.
Stephen
Jan 06, 2009
- I know that it is possible to put a floppy image onto a cd and make it bootable. I'm not sure what cd burning program you have, but I think Nero is one that can do it. I'll look around for more info...
Jan 06, 2009
- From what I've been reading, everyone says that you have to have a usb floppy drive. I'm going to keep looking. (Just out of curiosity...why did you flash your bios?)
Jan 06, 2009
- Best Buy (evil) sells a dynex usb floppy for about $40. (I hate best buy, Geek Squad is a bunch of con artists...Buy the floppy drive, use it to fix your PC, then return it. Free floppy rental.) :)
Jan 06, 2009
- Here is a site I found that could help..It seems that it should be possible to use a usb stick to emulate a floppy drive. You will need to get the image of the floppy you are trying to make. I'm still looking for the appropriate bios from acer. Talk to you soon.Jan 06, 2009
- http://www.ghacks.net/2006/09/06/copy-and-run-floppy-boot-disks-from-usb/
Sorry, here it is...
Jan 07, 2009
- Did you try acer's canada site : acerpanam.com/canada ? It's bedtime for me, so I'll look later.
Stephen
Jan 07, 2009
- I'm not seeing any bios stuff either, but I'm searching...
Jan 07, 2009
- Wow, Acer's website is really screwed up...both the US and PanAm sites...I would think that they would have better Web Devs than that...Still trying to help here...
(I assume that you have a secondary PC that you can use?)
Jan 09, 2009
- Ok, I am still here with you, I've just been sick. I'm thinking and moving a little slow...I'll work out some step-by-step directions. (I am not positive that using the usb stick will work. Putting the image on it can trick windows into thinking it's a floppy drive, but not necessarily the hardware. We can give it a shot...)
Jan 09, 2009
- Let's take an inventory, and see what you have, and what you still need to get. Do you have the crisis mode disk maker from acer? If you do, can you email it to me so I can see what we are dealing with? (Like, how does the program work...is it an .exe that when run writes an image file to a floppy?) While I am waiting to hear back from you, go ahead and download a program called bootdisk2bootstick, I got it off of softpedia. You will also need a virtual floppy drive program...which I got here:
http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html#download
I'm working on the details, let me know how your prograss is going.
Jan 09, 2009
- I just realized that since my PC has no floppy drive, I assumed that the PC you are working with doesn't have one either. If it does, then that will make this much easier. Let me know if it does.
Jan 09, 2009
- I have successfully turned a 256Mb USB flash drive into a 1.44mb crisis mode recovery disk. (what a grand pain in the rear this was.)
I* have no way to test this because I don't own an acer laptop...but the disk reads as the proper size, with the proper files.) First, since I have no floppy drive, I had to use the virtual floppy drive program that I told you about...(**note: many of these steps MAY require that you are in administrator mode...) This program can run without installation...let me know when you have the virtual floppy program, the bootdisk2bootstick program, and the crisis disk maker, as well as the proper bios (whichever you are going to try.).
I'll be in touch soon...
Jan 10, 2009
- OK...1 step at a time...
Step 1 - Create the floppy image
Open the virtual floppy program
You will see a tab in the lower area that says "open/create", push that
Select a drive letter at the top (A or B, either one)
Push the create button (bottom left side, i think) - you want to make sure that it is creating a 1.44Mb virtual disk
You can label the floppy image if you want in a box towards the top
Use the format button to format the image (use FAT, not FAT32 or NTFS)
Leave this program open, and open the crisis disk maker program
Select the appropriate drive letter, and let 'er rip
After this is finished, open a command shell and navigate to the floppy drive (just type a: or b:, whichever you used.)
type dir to see that the files are now on the virtual floppy...there should be a few different files listed: phlash16.exe, bios.wph, etc...
copy YOUR bios file to the floppy, overwriting the existing bios.wph, if your file has a different name, then rename it to bios.wph.
Go back to the virtual floppy program and save the image file where you can find it...use a .bin extension. (i guess this part isn't that important, but saving is a good idea.)
Insert your victim usb drive (make sure that you close any windows that open related to the usb device...explorer, etc)
Open the bootdisk2bootstick program
You will need to tell it where the bootdisk is located, point it to your newly saved .bin image file or you could point it to your virtual floppy drive. You also have to tell it the drive letter of the usb device that you are making into a boot floppy. Press the button that makes it go, (I can't remeber which one it is or what it says)
After it completes, navigate to your usb device and look at the contents and properties. Make sure that it has the same files as your floppy, and that it says that the size is about 1.44MB (mine said 1.38MB because of the system files)
And voila! You should be done done. I wrote all of this from memory since I'm not sitting in front of the PC with the apps, if I was unclear about something, let me know. I may have included unnecessary steps...I think you get the ideas, though.
Any questions, comments, or concerns, let me know. Any progress, let me know. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Jan 10, 2009
- Did you disconnect the a/c and battery...hold the Fn+Esc key, then plug it in, then press the power button when it blinks, etc, etc, while the usb device is plugged in? Tell me the steps you took, if you don't mind.
Jan 11, 2009
- I think I would try using an external floppy drive first. Like I said before, buy one, use, return it. Any best buy should accept returned hardware, usually just not software, cds, dvds, games, etc...
Jan 11, 2009
- Same method...instead of using the vfd, use the regular floppy. Use the crisis disk maker, select the real floppy drive, overwrite the bios. That should be it.
Expert
