Acer 5560 Bios Corrupt After Windows 10 Upgrade
Last week my brother upgraded his Acer 5560 laptop drivers on request of Windows 10. After that the laptop no longer worked although Windows was the one that had assured him that the proposed driver upgrade was for his laptop! The laptop was fine before but the laptop never switched completely off. Because Fan and the blue power on Led stayed active. Only a long 5 second press on the Power push button switched the computer completely off. And on Youtube videos they showed that a driver upgrade should fix this problem.
But instead now his laptop never completed its boot sequence anymore and kept resetting just before the Setup and Boot select options showed. And both his Windows 10 SSD and HDD (copy) drives no longer booted.
And although a lot of good videos explained how to fix a bad Bios chip by creating a crisis boot memory stick like the following 2 links, the laptop now also simply refused to boot from this usb stick that had the correct Bios driver bin file.
https://www.biosflash.com/e/Bios-Chips-Programming-your-old-Chips-2.htm
So there was no other option than to remove the 25L1606E (above photo) Bios chip from the mainboard and flash it manually by using the trusted TL866 programmer. First making sure that the online given Bios (JE50) 2048 byte file didn’t verify the same as the data in the removed Bios chip.
And also saving that original read Bios file in case the online found file didn’t work. His laptop was also made faster with a installed Samsung SSD hdd drive. And with the Samsung software the laptop was also easily upgraded to AHCI which made it also about 30% faster. But this now probably caused that no USB stick booted in order to reflash the badly corrupted Bios chip.
Below the bottom Bios and coolerplate side of this Acer 5560 mainboard. With the now also renewed cooling paste on the AMD A6 3400M series processor.
So as said the in above photo shown Bios chip marked by a yellow-red arrow was removed, reflashed, and soldered back onto its mainboard position. Next screen copy shows the successfully programmed and verified MX25L1606E Bios chip done with the TL866 universal programmer.
After the Bios was flashed with the TL866 programmer and the right Bios file, the laptop was fixed and next screen shows the Windows 10 Pro configuration that was back as it was before the bad driver upgrade corrupted the Acer laptop. And I advised my brother to run the small 600kB “Universal BIOS Backup ToolKit 2.0” program tool to make an easy backup copy of his current now working Bios chip. And to do that also in all other cases before he upgrades any laptop or computer.
Next screen copy shows that handy Bios copier tool. It not always works but it most of the time recognizes the Bios and it saves the user having to open his laptop and having to remove that chip to backup and check its content.
The fact that the Bios USB flash bootstick didn’t boot was probably caused by the fact that the Samsung SSD software had changed the Laptop boot setup to AHCI, and Legacy or standard USB Boot no longer was used.
And many people with corrupted Bios Laptops/computers claim they tried anything to make and prepare this USB Bios bootstick but it never worked. Which could be caused by the wrong boot setup before the Bios crashed. So did we until we finally started to remove the Bios chip, flashed it externally, put it back, and found it completely fixed this way. We previously only noticed that the Led on our prepared USB Bios boot stick flashed about 6 times but nothing else happened.
This Acer 5560 Laptop didn’t have any sleep activating button but my brother noticed that when he closed the laptop screen it automatically went into sleep mode after which the most left orange front Led started to blink. Which at the same time prevented the blue Power On Led and the Fan from staying on when Windows 10 was closed down. And the same sleep mode was also activated by selecting the Windows sleep power mode. And it was switched back on within about a second from sleep mode. The Laptop as mentioned was only completely powered down after the Power button was pushed in for about 5 seconds. (Which normally only should be done by letting the Windows system switch off on its own to prevent any resulting powering down errors in the system on the harddisk later on).
According to my brother the Bios trouble all started after Windows 10 install kept on rebooting and it ended in the laptop being paused seemingly for hours when nothing was happening. Including a black screen that left only one option to reset and reboot the Windows 10 system again. Until it also completely failed to boot after it corrupted the Bios chip. One reason was that installing the Netframe 3.5 failed and had caused Windows to crash. But after the Bios chip was flashed with the right MX25L1606E Acer 5560 image my brother finally was able to install Windows 10 with Netframe 3.5 and its version 4.8 update. And the Acer 5560 Laptop no longer caused any Windows 10 problems. And next Base System driver problem was finally also fixed.
This driver problem previously couldn’t be fixed and the driver update that Windows 10 proposed made the Laptop’s Bios crash by corrupting its content:
failure (2x) in devices :
Base System-device
PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_16BF&SUBSYS_06051025&REV_10
PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_16BF&SUBSYS_06051025
PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_16BF&CC_088000
PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_16BF&CC_0880
PCI-slot 4 (PCI-bus 1, device 0, functie 3
Device PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_16BF&SUBSYS_06051025&REV_10\4&211965bf&0&0320 requires further installation.
So be warned to better make a copy of your Bios chip and/or Windows OS if you can, before any faulty Windows upgrade corrupts your computer’s Boot sequence and also your Bios chip!
Albert van Bemmelen, Weert, The Netherlands.
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Note: You can read his previous repair article in the below link:
https://jestineyong.com/acer-la-3581p-icw50-laptop-repair/
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chris
October 24, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Wel gedaan!
===============
Well done!
Albert van Bemmelen
October 25, 2020 at 3:20 am
Thanks Chris! Fixing the corrupt sop8 Bios chip by re-flashing it was easy. Sadly on this model Acer laptop this chip was hidden under the metal cooler plate. So removing it took some extra time to disassemble the cooler plate first. On other older Acer laptop models the Bios is more easily accessible right under the keyboard on top of the motherboard. Here the complete mainboard needed to be removed to get access to the bottom mainboard location were the Bios is placed.
Parasuraman S
October 24, 2020 at 4:53 pm
Well done, the computer expert! Many thanks for your valuable tips!
Lynn Blakely
October 25, 2020 at 2:57 am
Sir Albert: Your report is excellent. We appreciate all the detail in how to save the bios, and use the method you described, as how to do that. We do try as a retired consumer electronics technician to help people to save them from having to purchase a new computer. We have installed an SSD in a laptop, and a desktop, that had a hard drive. failure. I had never taken apart a laptop to do this however the Lord helped us to have a happy customer, and a faster than new one at that.
Albert van Bemmelen
October 25, 2020 at 2:10 pm
Indeed Lynn, the satisfaction in fixing any dead or bad working device into a good and problem free working device is what makes us tick! And if it is helping others it is a time well spend!
Albert van Bemmelen
October 25, 2020 at 3:06 am
My brother is glad this used Acer 5560 is finally fixed and ready. He only needed to order a new battery pack since the old second hand laptop battery had too little capacity left. Both his daughters needed good portable laptops for their school activities. And Chrome Books, Apple computers nor Tablets are allowed. And in classrooms only Windows 10 computers are allowed.
Humberto
October 25, 2020 at 11:16 am
Hi Albert, good repair in this article. I´m thinking of buying a Chip Programmer.
Albert van Bemmelen
October 25, 2020 at 2:17 pm
Hi Humberto I've just send you an email about the TL866 you asked me about. The original TL866C was many times cloned and hacked into the more expensive TL866A also ICSP supporting universal programmer model. Why it no longer was supported by the maker/designer of this device and now new supported model TL866-II is sold. And any TL866 is serialnumber registered to the Miniprog Windows computer program after any version upgrade! (v6.85 was last old model TL866A supporting version).
Albert van Bemmelen
October 25, 2020 at 9:28 pm
More info on the brandnew TL866-II (and old) model TL866 programmer, with software download links can be found at: http://www.xgecu.com/EN/index.html
Mark
October 25, 2020 at 12:31 pm
Hey Albert,
Thanks for the detailed description of your process. I'll keep this in mind for next time I have these symptoms.
Albert van Bemmelen
October 25, 2020 at 2:44 pm
Let's hope you never need to fix a crippled Bios Mark. Although we can easily prevent these sop8 Bios chips from getting overwritten by simply making it read only, it probably will cause many upgrade issues if it cannot change any modification to its internal Bios chip memory anymore.
This once happened with my brother's quad-core desktop mainboard computer that had a bad Bios chip what made his Lan driver fail to work. Only after we replaced the old sop8 Bios chip with a brandnew good chip his Lan connection finally worked. But before we knew this it looked as if one of his Lan system drivers were the cause. Which wasn't the case, because the fault was in the bad working Bios chip!
Paris Azis
October 26, 2020 at 1:52 am
Good job Albert. You are right about having a copy file of the bios contents before the disaster comes...
Albert van Bemmelen
October 26, 2020 at 1:40 pm
Indeed Paris. It doesn't need to be any virus anymore to cripple any Windows 10 computer because it is the OS itself that does it in seconds. After soft- and hardware are unable to fix the crash without the intervention of any good trained engineer with soldering skills. When even crisisdisks no longer work! Recently the Exploit safety check tool that the Windows 10 upgrade added to the Defender, did even accuse the CCleaner tool being dangerous! And it was automatically put in quarantaine and couldn't be undone other than by allowing it by the user. Which even surprised the people who made the CCleaner tool!
Lynn Blakely
October 27, 2020 at 12:24 am
To those that install ssd's on computers, it is handy to know that the Acronis cloning software instructions, are available to use to clone an hard drive. If you purchase the upgrade kit the transfer cable is in the box. we have installed PNY and Western Digital ssd's. If the old hard drive
is not able to be cloned, then use a usable hard drive. You may have to use the old key that is sometimes affixed to the side of the cover panel on a desktop. Best Wishes to all.
Albert van Bemmelen
October 27, 2020 at 12:25 pm
Thanks Lynn but be warned that I recently couldn't even use Acronis True Image anymore to explore or restore its own made .Tib Full backup image! Just because it said that it was not the last full backup file made! And I read that a lot of people who even owned several Acronis versions also no longer were able to restore their previous made images. So I strongly advise you to no longer use Acronis True Image because that's how I lost access to my full made Windows 7 system image. I still kept the complete Tib file but no other program - not even Acronis itself - is able to read or restore that backup file now! Therefore better use other free good trusted programs because I lost trust in Acronis completely! And neither use the Windows 10 backup program because my brother made a backup with it on several discs but afterwards only made useless media!
Yogesh Panchal
October 27, 2020 at 9:00 pm
Albert,
Good fault finding,have any idea about RT809F Programmer???.....
It is not advisable to use any cloning software if you are using SSD in place of normal HDD. some time it make system unstable.
it only works if you have same Model/family hard drive for using on the same system.
Albert van Bemmelen
October 29, 2020 at 8:34 pm
I do not have any RT809F programmer but I'm sure it can copy a new Bios chip too! My RT809H sure can too but I just used my TL866A programmer here because it is small and easier to hook-up than my RT809H. About using an SSD I do not know about any unstable issues. But I know that if I copy my Windows 10 hdd to another identical type of drive (with the same capacity) with my stand alone hdd Copier Base, the copy will start complaining it is not registered. Although my brother did not experience that same issue on his hdd copy.
Lukasz
January 15, 2021 at 11:48 pm
I dont find names .fd, .rom., .wph or .bin in bios file for aspire 5560g using hxd editor. What this mean?