Insyde BIOS

Can anyone tell me where i can download these bios files for my Aspire 4750G

I was told i need either JE40x64.fd or JE40122x64.fd

When i download the BIOS from the Acer web site it simply gives me a ROM file.

Really appreciate a link if anyone has it?

 

Just rename the .ROM to .FD.

 

Well i renamed the ROM file and placed in the root of the thumb drive.
Pressed Fn & Esc but no progress.

Do i need to remove the hard disk to ensure the thumb drive is read?

 

Insyde BIOS recovery is a bit tricky. Did you tried renaming to JE40122.FD or JE40.FD? Please list down the steps you're using to recover the BIOS.

 

Well the first thing i need to be sure of is if i actually do have an Insyde BIOS?
I originally thought i had a phoenix but another poster stated i have an Insyde.

Not sure how i can confirm this?
My laptop is an Aspire 4750G

I have a 512Mb thumb drive formatted with FAT (I had tried with a 4GB thumb drive previously)
I insert the thumb drive
Hold down Fn & Esc and hit power

There is a brief flicker of light on the thumb drive but then nothing
The Fan just keeps spinning and LED's flash on the laptop.

I have noticed that sometimes when i try to power on, there will be the red and blue LED that blink at the same time.
Other times they alternate blinking.
Not sure if this means anything?

Cheers

 

It's Insyde BIOS. I has examined the BIOS myself.

Did you keep holding the Fn+Esc buttons until you saw LED indicator on the thumbdrive flickered? After you saw LED indicator on the thumbdrive flickered, did you released the Fn+Esc key?

How long did you wait before turning off your notebook?

 

Thanks for you help. at least i know i have the right file and the right process to follow. From what ive read there is a timing element so i need to practice and be patient.

Ive left the laptop running (with the fan going) for 5 mins. If the laptop does start to read the file from the USB drive surely i would see the light on the thumb drive flickering?

There is no point me waiting to see if the fan shuts off if there has been not activity with the thumb drive?

 

There will be two parts in the process; 1) read BIOS file, 2) BIOS flash. The 1st part, you should see activity on the thumbdrive's LED indicator. The 2nd part, you won't see any activity at all (it will appear it doesn't do anything).

The most important steps you need to follow are:-

1. The notebook in question must in power off state.
2. Plugged in the thumbdrive with BIOS file in it to the notebook in question.
3. Press & hold Fn+Esc key while powering the notebook by pressing the power button. Keep holding the Fn+Esc key.
4. When you see activity on the thumbdrive's LED indicator, released Fn+Esc key. You probably need to look to the thuumbdrive's LED indicator carefully because in some occasion the LED blink too fast & not noticeable.
5. Wait at least 5 to 10 minutes. Don't make a mistake thinking if you don't see any activity, it's means no activity. While flashing BIOS, you won't see any activity. That is a fact. Only interrupt the process if after 10 minutes there's still no response from the notebook in question.

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At step 4, you should see activity on the thumbdrive. If not, use another thumbdrive.

When you see activity on the thumbdrive at step 4 but after 10 minutes there's still no response from the notebook in question, shutdown it manually by pressing the power button. Then power it on again without pressing any key. See if the notebook in question boot normally. If not, check the BIOS filename; JE40122.FD or JE40.FD or JE40122.BIN or JE40.BIN or JE40122.ROM or JE40.ROM.

 

The actualy file i downloaded from the Acer web site is the BIOS ver 1.22 (the latest version).
I have taken the JE41011.ROM and simply renamed it to JE41011.FD

So far ive had no sucess with naming the file JE40122.F or JE40122x64.FD
Should i try renaming it something else or try using another BIOS version?
I have 1.19 available.

Thanks for your answers, it looks like you answered my questions just as i was posting them

I'll keep trying
Im also trying to use CD's as an option.

 

Please try all possible filename I wrote in my previous post.

 

Did you try JE40x64.fd?
The Recovery Name for Insyde Timeline is JM31x64.fd. I just extrapolated from that.

 

No, so far tried:-

JE40122.FD
JE40122.ROM
JE40122x64.FD

I will try all names and let you know how i get on. Thanks again

 

Hey guys, thanks for all your help. After several hours of trying and creation of coasters im still nowhere.
I think the problem is knowing whether the CD or thumb drive is being read?
There are 2 different light sequences that occur when i press the Fn & Esc and not knowing what they mean isnt helping.

Anyway ive decided to take this to the Acer repair center and wait a week fo them to fix it.

Thanks for trying though.

 

Actually Insyde Recovery is more straight forward than Phoenix Systems
Get a FAT Formatted thumbdrive (don't even need Crysis bootdisk or DOS inside)
Throw in the flasher and the firmware file with the correct filename.
Plug it in and Fn + Esc + Power Button until it starts blinking lights.

 

Hi again,

Firstly my laptop is now recovered. The Singapore service center was able to do it for me on the spot, so well happy with that.

From my observations i can tell you the following:-

The Acer engineer used a Black plastic Sandisk thumbdrive (either 2GB or 4GB)
The file name of the firmware was JE40122.FD
He definitely used some Crisis Disk (I did ask him if i could have a copy but he said no).
It appeared that the thumb drive booted into some kind of Menu and he flashed from their.
The engineer had to remove the hard disk first (this was one step i never did).

I asked the engineer if i had simply placed the JE40122.FD file in the thumbdrive and booted without the hard disk in would it have worked. He replied "probably"

He also advised never to use Winflash and also perform BIOS updates from DOS

Hope this is of help to somebody.

Hmmmm now that i have the laptop working in front of me I can see from the BIOS menu its actaully a Phoenix BIOS.

exact words "Phoenix SecureCore Tiano Setup"

I guess we know where i was going wrong now :-(

Still not sure how its possible to know what type of BIOS a laptop has when its dead?

 

Got a picture of the BIOS menu? It's not regular Phoenix BIOS. The SecureCore Tiano is the Phoenix flagship of UEFI BIOS. The BIOS on your notebook before this also the same BIOS. If you open the .ROM file with HEX editor, you can find " Insyde Software Corp." & " Phoenix Technologies, Ltd." in it. The BIOS modules was similar to Insyde BIOS, that's why I said in my previous post it was Insyde BIOS. This the first notebook I found use latest Phoenix BIOS. IIRC, Phoenix released this type of BIOS this year.

You should be able to recover it using USB thumbdrive & JE40122.FD file in it. The reason it won't work before probably because the timing when pressing and/or releasing the Fn+Esc is not precise OR the USB thumbdrive is not "compatible". In many occasions, some thumbdrives doesn't work for BIOS recovery but most thumbdrives should work regardless brand. Did you noticed what key(s) the engineer was holding while powering on your notebook during recovery?

The Phoenix SecureCore Tiano doc said it support Crisis Recovery. Probably need to create CRISIS disk using CRISIS tool, then copy the Pflash.exe from the BIOS package (in DOS folder) & put it in the CRISIS disk.

 

The engineer definitely pressed Fn and Esc.

Also the fact that he had a plastic Sandisk and i tried a Titanium Sandisk, i would have thought my thumb drive was compatible?

But yeah maybe my timing, but after 1 attempt he consulted with another engineer who told him to remove the hard disk as the BIOS boot sequence might be telling it to choose the Hard disk first.

Is there a way to get a screen capture of the BIOS menu or do i need to use my iPhone?

 

You'll need to use your iPhone or any other camera if available.

 

Hello Pommie2000,

Thank you for posting your issue/resolution on this forum. I have the same Acer Aspire 4750G and recently flashed the BIOS only to have the laptop not POST any longer. The power LED still turns on and the CDROM still spins, but there is no display. The laptop turns on when power button is pressesd, but shuts down after a few seconds, then turns on again then turns off. This cycle is repeated until i remove AC and battery.

I've been trying to apply this Esc+Fn procedure but do not appear to have any success. I've tried creating USB flash drives and CD's with the Crisis files and my BIOS file, but the laptop does not appear to execute any of the updates after i do the Esc+Fn turn-on. I can get the laptop to stay on, but nothing happens...display continues to be blank.

Is there something else you suggest that hasnt been discusses in this thread yet? Or do you think I am doing something wrong?

 

Disassembled the 4750G BIOS's PeiCdExpress module (or as it is called in this version, SystemCdExpressPei), and the recovery filename is "BIOS.cap". Even though this is a Phoenix BIOS, it uses the Insyde recovery procedure (though Phoenix SLIC Tool cannot automatically identify the recovery filenames, probably because the CD module is called "SystemCdExpressPei" instead of Insyde's "PeiCdExpress").

So, the recovery procedure is:
1. Download the latest BIOS, and rename it to BIOS.cap
2. Burn BIOS.cap onto a blank CD-R, or copy it to a FAT-formatted USB thumb drive. (The file name is important, and so is the file system. Not sure if FAT32 will work.)
3. Insert the CD or USB drive into the 4750G.
4. Remove the battery and disconnect the charger.
5. Press and hold Fn+Esc. Plug the charger into the machine. Power LED will probably blink once.
6. Still holding Fn+Esc, press the power button. Fan should spin up. There will be no display, and LED indicators will stay dark.
7. Release Fn+Esc.
8. Wait until the computer powers off (fan stops). You are done.

 

Thanks .Netrolller 3D. I'll give it a shot.

But first, the BIOS download from the Acer website shows that there are two files - JE40204.ROM and JE40204.WPH. Which one should i rename with the .cap extension?

 

The ROM version. WPH is used by Win Phlash.

 

No luck, I've tried the BIOS.cap file (renamed from the ROM file) on both a FAT partition USB drive and CD.

When I hold Esc+Fn and plug in AC, the power button blinks once and then the system automatically turns on after a few seconds. I let go of Esc+Fn...Fan spins, CD-ROM spins, USB drive does not blink....then the laptop just sits there with no display and Power LED on. Each time i let it sit for at least 15 minutes with no change.

Any other suggestions? The last thought is a hardware failure, but not quite sure yet.

 

Possibly your boot block (or PEI volume, as it is called in EFI-land) is toast. Or maybe the BIOS has to be repackaged as a "recovery capsule" (Phoenix's documentation uses this term). Maybe try the WPH.

EDIT: Seems like a "recovery capsule" is simply an EFI Firmware Volume, containing the entire DXE (second-stage) part of the EFI BIOS. If it is true, then it should be easy to produce from the full BIOS image.

EDIT 2: Found the "recovery capsule" inside the V1.22 Windows flasher. Will try to find the V2.04 one and post it here.

EDIT 3: Here is the V2.04 "capsule": http://ifile.it/oveg4nx/FvRecovery.fd

And how to get it from any BIOS version:
1. Run the Windows flasher on a mismatching machine (preferably one that does not even use Phoenix SecureCore Tiano).
2. When you get the "Platform check failed" error message, navigate to %TMP%\WinFlash using Explorer.
3. The file "FvRecovery.fd" is your recovery capsule. Rename it to BIOS.cap and burn it to a CD or copy it to a Flash drive.

Note: While you are in the WinFlash directory, take a good look around - there may be other interesting files in there.

 

Does the EFI Firmware Volume is the binary file with file size 2,688MB? I saw some people renaming it to FvRecovery.fd.

 

Yes, that is the file I was thinking about - however, closer checking reveals that it is not really what we are looking for. The real thing is exactly 1720 kibibytes (1761280 bytes) long. It is probably part of the main BIOS image.

EDIT: This file will probably work: http://ifile.it/842gmn6/BIOS.cap

(This is not the original BIOS.cap file that Acer servicemen use, so it will not automatically update/repair the BIOS - instead, it will let you boot into your favorite operating system using a temporary BIOS image, allowing you to flash your real BIOS chip with the usual tools. I'm pretty sure this can also have some interesting applications for safely testing BIOS mods without actually flashing them!)

 

I forgot to mention this before. quid posted Packard Bell service manual @ mydigitallife forum. In the service manual, there is a detailed step-by-step Phoenix UEFI recovery:-

However, I don't know how to obtain BIOS.cap, PFlash.efi & CrisisRecovery.efi files.

@.NetRoller, does the BIOS.cap you shared here can be use with any Phoenix UEFI powered computer? I asked because I found "Insyde" word in it. Anyway, thank you for sharing the file.

 

Quid's process is only one of the options, according to my limited reverse-engineering. It is also possible to load a "transient" firmware volume instead of an EFI capsule. In this case, there will be no auto-flashing to the correct firmware - the BIOS will boot as if the injected firmware volume was in the ROM; the user needs to do the flashing with the usual (non-recovery) tools.

And yes, it has Insyde references insyde, er, inside it - either Phoenix licensed things, or we have just uncovered a massive copyright violation. It would be interesting to search for "Insyde" in the official EFI Development Kit source code.

 

Good day,

I had a bad flash for my Acer Aspire 4750G and I tried what you mention here:

However, it still doesn't work. My laptop turns on for a few seconds then restarts on its own then nothing happen. But I think we almost made it since my laptop responds to the file (like restarts after accessing the file) unlike other methods I tried. I hope you could help me with this one. Thanks

 

What version did you try to flash?

Also, you could be suffering from a HW fault that caused the bad flash in the first place, and is causing shutdowns/reboots when it tries to boot from the capsule file.

 

I'm updating to v2.13 from acer website through windows. The update was completed and requested for reboot but it no longer boot after update. I've tried your file through USB (1gb FAT) and CD but it only reads for a few seconds then nothing happens. I tried it for some times and there are time that after the usb activity or cd reading, it reboots itself. I thought it already worked but after reboot, nothing happens. I hope you could help me.

 

Hello,
Long time ago, I know...
I would like to know if you have fix your BIOS problem for your ACER 4750 because today I have the same bug for the same reason with the same machine !
Can you help me ?
I am french so sorry for my bad english.

 

Can anybody send me the BIOS.cap file please? I also have an Acer Aspire 4750G that is not booting after a BIOS flash. :/

 

I have the same problem, went through the whole tutorial and did as they said, yet no luck can anyone update this ?