What's wrong with this BIOS

I have 5672 with 3224 BIOS. I have never seen such a skimpy BIOS. I have exactly ONE option under Advanced. Something about the PIR being enabled/disabled. Why aren't there more user-adjustable settings? Like memory timings, video and system shadowing, CPU clock settings. Under boot devices, the enabling by [Shift+1] is not functional. I have a bootable USB flash drive inserted and the POST picks it up but it doesnt show up under the Boot devices. Neither as USB Key, nor USB HDD. I can change the boot order but that is about it. System will not boot to USB flash drive. There are no PWs set and I have administrator status. This BIOS is absolutely pathetic. Unless there's something wrong with my flash to this new BIOS. BTW, I believe it was like this also before I flashed it. Does Acer just not trust us to make changes ourselves? Any thoughts?

 

Not just Acer, non of the major brands have advanced settings in their BIOS. Some allow USB boot some dont. Thats just the way it is with any pre built system.

 

So I have to live with this crap? Do you know of any utility that supercedes this "lock out"? Any kind of BIOS control app? This is just not acceptable. Thanks for info, miner.

 

Well, unfortunately I dont think such a thing is possible without hacking/modding the BIOS. Although Acer probably has a ways to enable these features in the BIOS, but they tend not reveal these things to the general public.

 

What major oem mfg BIOS does come with those options is the question? Gateway, Dell, ect don't come with these options. I take it this is your first laptop?

 

Yup, I've had notebooks from Compaq, NEC, eMachines and Gateway. Not one of them had any real options to speak of in the BIOS.

 

my 5672 boots from some USB devices. hwoever, it doesn't like the $10 USB 2.5" enclosure. it has no problems with my $15 USB-IDE adapter. I installed OS X to a 2.5" drive via the USB adapter and it booted just fine from that.

 

Yep Sucka, first laptop. Now, k310, you say you've had a successful boot from a UFD? I have a USB 2.0 Corsair 1GB Flash Voyager UFD. Why in the hell won't the BIOS show it as present as it does for the Matsushita DVD drive and the Seagate HDD? When I disable Quiet Boot, I can see that the Corsair is picked up in POST and being listed as a drive, but the damned BIOS Boot Order screen does not say so. Furthermore, I can't seem to use ANY of the options in that screen. For instance, I should be able to disable any device by pressing [Shift + 1]. Well, all I get are beeps. Something is wrong with this BIOS. I wonder if re-phlashing would help?

 

I think the manufacturer's philosophy extends the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school of thought to "If they can't mess with it, they can't break it" !!