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How do you make a bios flash drive?
omega0684 - 5/5/13 at 12:37 PM

hi guys,

my dad came to me yesterday to complain again that his laptop is broken! He has an Acer Aspire 7720, originally it had Vista on it bit i upgraded to windows seven for him years ago.

he was complaining that when he turns the laptop on the screen remains black and it doesn't boot up! Now he also mentions that he thinks that when my mum was moving the bed the other day she might have squashed the laptop (only a little) between the bed and the chest of draws in their room (unknowningly) and has suggested that this may have damaged the screen. (dont ask me why the laptop was on the floor)

after a lot of googling and forum reading the most probable reason is that the bios may have become corrupted some how and they recommend that a bios update/reboot be done on a usb flash drive.

the only problem is i don't know how to make one? how will the laptop know to look to the usb to fix the bios if i can't tell it to search there on boot up as i can't see anything on the screen. i have tried to connect the laptop to the tv but there is nothing visable on there either.

i have removed the HD and connected it to my desktop to backed up all the important files/photos/music etc

Any other suggestions/recommendations would be a great help

All the best

Alex

britishtrident - 5/5/13 at 12:55 PM

From your description it is almost certainly a display problem possibly the cable between the screen and keyboard quite common on older laptops. To diagnose it try connecting a normal monitor to the VGA connector if it springs to life it confirms the diagnosis.

gremlin1234 - 5/5/13 at 03:13 PM

does the laptop do anything? any lights flash etc?

a common problem on laptops is the backlight fails, see if you can see anything on the screen at all, (a bright torch should help)

the other common problem is the battery is flat/ not charging, do any charge lights come on when plugged in?
if no charge, try it just on the power unit (no battery), try another power unit (or check with a meter)
if still not charging suspect power connection on laptop.

ps you should be able to find acer manuals online

omega0684 - 5/5/13 at 03:22 PM

when i powered up yesterday, you could hear the fan coming on, green light for battery, but nothing on the screen. i'll try the torch suggestion after i put the hard drive back in, its still connected to my desktop

will let you know the results shortly!

thanks again

gremlin1234 - 5/5/13 at 03:30 PM

standard laptop backlights can fail in several different ways,
1) bulb stops working
2) wires damaged/ fall off
3) inverter fails

led backlights are different,

edit, you should not need the drive in to test, it should bring up a splash screen/ or bios/ error

[Edited on 5/5/13 by gremlin1234]

gremlin1234 - 5/5/13 at 04:31 PM

in answer to your first question
bios recovery from usb, is done by pressing fn+esc then +power

Slimy38 - 5/5/13 at 07:01 PM

quote:
Originally posted by gremlin1234
in answer to your first question
bios recovery from usb, is done by pressing fn+esc then +power


And to make the usb bios drive in the first place, all bios's i've installed come with their own exe to create a suitable bootable drive. Download the relevant bios from the manufacturer and you'll see what i mean. You just need a blank flash drive/stick.

Note that if the bios is goosed, generally you'd hear a few beeps on startup. If it only beeps once, then it has passed its own test and the solutions regarding broken displays would be my next port of call. (to be honest, i've only had one bios failure on all the computers i have worked with so i would also look at the display first)

omega0684 - 5/5/13 at 08:50 PM

ok bit of an update,

i have had the laptop apart today, no physical signs of damage to the screen or wiring or internals of laptop.

after rebuilding and powering up the backlight on the screen is coming on but the screen is still black.

any ideas, could it be the bios?

rb968 - 5/5/13 at 08:56 PM

Did you try connecting it to an external monitor?

omega0684 - 6/5/13 at 09:50 AM

yep tried that, no picture on external monitor either

britishtrident - 6/5/13 at 12:23 PM

Sounds like it bricked.

gremlin1234 - 6/5/13 at 02:20 PM

there are 2 more tricks you can try
firstly remove all the memory, and see if it does anything.

the other is remove all batteries / mains power etc, and leave it 4 hours (overnight is better) then try once more

though I suspect britishtrident's analysis may be correct