Customer support? I THINK NOT (V. long post)

Please, only read on if you can be bothered

I know there are BIOS update programs etc. but i thought i would go with the one included with the new BIOS from the Acer website, as it's supposed to be specifically for my machine. Well it didn't work. I kept getting 'Open Flash.sys fail'. I am ok when it comes to hardware but software is mostly beyond me, so i sent away to Acer support...

"Response (Shiva Jyothi) 02/01/2010 04:25 AM
Thank you for contacting Acer UK. I apologize for the inconvenience that you have experienced.
Regarding your enquiry,
We would not recommend flashing your BIOS due to the inherent risk of rendering your machine inoperable. We are able to repair your machine if the BIOS has been flashed. Unfortunately this problem is not covered by the warranty and would be classed as a chargeable repair. an initial charge of £54 would need to be taken. This will cover the collection of your computer by our courier, shipping to our repair centre, and time for a technician to assess the problem. We will then send out a quotation containing full details of the cost of the repair. If you accept this, the engineer will complete the work as quickly as possible and will deliver your machine back to you once the issue has been resolved."

so i send back saying i haven't actually flashed it yet.

"Response (Bhasker Reddy) 02/11/2010 12:19 AM
Thank you for contacting Acer UK. I apologize for the inconvenience that you have experienced and try to assist.
With regards to your query, as mentioned, its about BIOS flash.
The error 'Launch CLB-135.exe' states that the file is either not downloaded properly or its corrupted.
Hence please download the same and try.
However, We would not recommend flashing your BIOS due to the inherent risk of rendering....." and exactly the same as before.

So i send back again saying i redownloaded several times and it still won't work, could you send a link to a non-corrupted file then please to which i get the reply

"Response (Bhasker Reddy) 02/11/2010 09:07 AM
The error 'Launch CLB-135.exe' states that the file is either not downloaded properly or its corrupted.
Hence please download the same and try.
However, We would not recommend flashing your BIOS due to the inherent risk.............."
Copy and pasted........?!?!?!?! Come on....
The guy who answers also closes the thread and marks it as solved.

So i start a new one with this exact statement...

"100130-000243
this is the reference to the previous question asked. please note that this was not solved, even though it was changed to solved. the answer, which was not of help, was merely copy pasted. I mentioned that the software provided by Acer is not working. I know that flashing the bios is not recommended. I know how much you have quoted to repair if it goes wrong. I just want BIOS flashing software that will work. Please."

and the reply i get is

"Response (UdayBhaskar Adiraju) 02/24/2010 09:15 AM
Thank you for contacting Acer UK. I apologize for the inconvenience that you have experienced.
Regarding your enquiry,
We would not recommend flashing your BIOS due to the inherent risk of rendering your machine inoperable. We are able to repair your machine if the BIOS has been flashed. Unfortunately this problem is not covered by the warranty and would be classed as a chargeable repair. an initial charge of £54.00 would need to be taken. This will cover the collection of your computer by our courier, shipping to our repair centre, and time for a technician to assess the problem. We will then send out a quotation containing full details of the cost of the repair. If you accept this, the engineer will complete the work as quickly as possible and will deliver your machine back to you once the issue has been resolved."

I feel like banging my head against a wall, although i continue to ask because i want to wrangle a damn answer or corrected link from then.
Is it me or this crap!?!?!?!?

 

I will give you the answer to your problem:
Right Click Run as Administrator
Reason:
Windows Vista/7 has protected low level system calls, loading of BIOS flashing Driver requires higher level privileges to load.

Agree with you Acer Service is crap that is why we need forums...

 

I flashed the BIOS of my Acer netbook on the advice of the tech support people (less than 6 months old and the battery would not charge) and the flash went fine, but Windows refused to load. It was running fine before the BIOS flash, but afterwards it would BSOD as soon as it reached the desktop. They did, however, repair my computer for free.

 

i'm not trying to sound rude but i'm not THAT stupid
right click 'run as admin' was the first thing i tried....

 

Did you extract the file nicely into a proper destination or you just ran from temporary location?

 

it was extracted properly....

 

Did you download the right BIOS version? If so, have you tried re-downloading to make sure it wasn't corrupted?