"only firm can do" - of course not true, you just need to get the hardware tools for yourself. Luckily, the cheapest programmer supported by flashrom - *** CH341A USB (preferably with a green PCB) - costs just 2 dollars with a free shipping (if to get directly from AliExpress/China), but more expensive if to get locally. Of course, you need to somehow connect this programmer to this chip. Many desktop boards have a BIOS chip in DIP-8 shape inserted inside a socket, from where it's easy to remove it using a *** PLCC clip (to avoid bending/breaking the chip legs during the removal), plug it into a programmer, flash a good BIOS image then put it back. But in your case - if I correctly understood that your friend's PC motherboard model is Acer D1F-AD (is it true?) - at the blurry Internet pictures, a BIOS chip seems to be in a SOIC-8 shape and soldered to a board (not socketed). Can see this chip near a big black heatsink, it's a chip with 8 legs near the "ROM1 SPI_DEBUG1" label if I'm not mistaken. To avoid the soldering, you need a *** SOIC8 test clip with some wires which you plug into a programmer and attach a SOIC8 test clip to that chip (make sure to check the polarity, round pit on a chip is near a 1st leg - CS). The whole process is described at http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Flashing_a_BIOS_chip_with_Bus_Pirate , a bottom image there is for CH341A flashing a SOIC8 chip on a laptop motherboard. It contains more description of tools as well. I also recommend you to get a *** USB extension cable, without it it's much less convenient. And of course you need another computer, either with Linux installed or booted from a LiveUSB of some user-friendly distro like Linux Mint for beginners, so that you could install a flashrom software and control a CH341A programmer. (Linux version of flashrom is much better than a Windows one). As you see, the whole set of tools cost less than 10 dollars, and you can use them for other repairs as well + maybe freelancing ;-) And you could extract a good BIOS image from the files taken from a manufacturer's website, sometimes you may need to play with archiver or Hex editor to extract it and maybe cut some unnecessary header, let me know if you need help there.
Best regards, Mike Banon
On Sun, Sep 13, 2020 at 9:57 AM Jean-Marc Petit web.handler.50600@gmail.com wrote:
A casual story ...
a bios of a friend of mine is stuck .... from a fail update through Os Windows 10 by AMI ( gui mode ).
About the concerned computer : https://www.packardbell.com/pb/fr/FR/content/download SN : 23502301192 Brand : Packard-Bell Model/number : imedia s2110
I pick the bios update from packard-bell url : so the chosen version is : P11-B3.CAP
one the update pass, the computer reboot ... and then 'black screen' - no more display.
the mother-board looks on, and beep when I pull off ram. it avoid bios access...
I realize cmos reset ( with clear position ), then button battery out ...
one thing I note , by some try the fan are high speed ( like in fail safe mode/ or on a new fresh cmos setup ... ) other thing : the Hdd?/cpu? light sometimes is ON until I turn off the computer, but nothing else.. or this light seems to 'works' but 20 seconds and then nothing... I heard Hdd access too, it's a noise I recognize.
The POST don't get over..
To comment about firm answer('s) : its money or nothing ... and not costless ( 150 euros... ) , buying a new computer is not so far .... no relevant ways or accurates answers on acer forum ( packard bell is now acer.. ).. and a crowd of 'solutions', do but don't do that.. keystrokes but the other one, but after 3 reboot.
As I'm IT worker, but not hardware enough, I have to crawl lots of ressources and docs.
So, in front of amibios / afudos / afuwinx64 ... I really don't know which one I need, as I can't confim my USB key is read.
I did a usb boot key ( free dos in ), format fat32. with script afudos, then afuminx64 and a batch with amibios advise... but no more display, no more bios.
I don't know if I need a keys combination to launch the usb reading ...at startup. I call few It friends , I heard often "only firm can do". ( I don't trust that ... )
Updating a bios is a task I do 1 time a year... computers are globally ok. But it's deep learning for me every time ...
I don't know what you can do for me, if you have an answer... I don't know If you need support, or a have pay solutions.
Best regards, Jean-Marc Petit France. ( Normandy ). 01:10 AM - sunday 13/09/2020
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