Updating Acer Veriton L670G bios

[Bolooser55]

Good day,
I am having a hard time updating that bios and have not succeeded yet.
I made a USB stick boot device (formated it in fat32) and got to the dos
commande C: which in fact is the usb stick with a flash1M.bat and a
PO1-A2.1M rom file on it and then spent some time trying to get the
thing to flash the bios.
I surely would like some help on that.
Thanks

[Grinder]

That batch file probably refers to an executable program that will
actually do the flash. Are you getting complaints about an unrecognized
command?

Stepping back for a moment, though, I would like to suggest that you
might not need to even do the flash. Does the new BIOS have a fix for a
problem you are experiencing? If not, then you are taking an
unnecessary risk.

[Paul]

I like the quality of description as to what it fixes. There is none.
There are instructions (if you want to call it that), as to how
to flash. But it doesn't say what it fixes. Or even, why there is
a version labeled "Linux" for that matter. (Would that be for
Windows 8 Secure Boot ??? Certificates ???) If it wasn't for
Secure Boot, I don't see why the BIOS would have a notion
of the OS stored within it.

http://support.acer.com/product/default.aspx?modelId=414

I would clean up the setup a little bit.
Place all the files flat on the storage device.

readme.doc
P01-A2.1M
AFUDOS.exe
DOS4GW.exe
flash1M.bat

Rename the BIOS file. Change P01-A2.1M to P01-A2.ROM

Then, don't use the flash1M.bat file. It contains a single
line. With all the files flat (including whatever files are
needed for your MSDOS bootup), do

afudos.exe P01-A2.ROM /p /b /c

The options stand for:

http://www.ami.com/support/downloads/txt/AFU_README.TXT

/P - Program main BIOS image
/B - Program Boot Block
/C - Destroy CMOS checksum

There is also an option

/O - Save current BIOS into file

Like maybe

afudos.exe /O ARCHIVE.ROM

Perhaps you could test that it reads out a 1 megabyte
file first. I like to archive them if I can, just in
case. You run the command with the "O" first, so you
have a copy of the previous BIOS to work with. (Back
in the floppy days, the files are big enough, you
might need two floppies to hold both of them.)

Then, if the first flash fails (and there's room to
store both ROMs), you could see if

afudos.exe ARCHIVE.ROM /p /b /c

restores it.

But without release notes (maybe elsewhere on the support
site), I wouldn't reach for that BIOS just yet.

You can see some other notes here. I don't know what
AMI had in mind, with the "ucore" files. I would have
thought the reading of the USB flash stick was coming
from INT 0x13 support by the BIOS.

http://www.ecs.com.tw/extra/flashutl/afuusb.pdf

There are many ways to get MSDOS files. If you use
an older version of MSDOS, it might not support FAT32.
In which case, you might be better off with a small
flash stick (1GB or smaller). That's one reason I
have a 1GB stick here, for cases where I might need
to prepare a FAT16 stick. But the MSDOS equivalents
I've used here recently (last few years), I think
they could all do FAT32. Some of the flash stick
formatters, come with a copy of FreeDOS. In case
you can't use the "sys" command on your Win98 machine :-)

The DOS4GW could be a DOS extender, something I've never
used before.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS/4G

Paul

[Bolooser55]

Le 26/12/2012 20:55, Paul a �crit :

Thanks a lot Paul, I am going to look into
it again with the info you sent eventhough I would like to see what this
bios is about.

[VanguardLH]

"Bolooser55" wrote:

> I am having a hard time ...

That gives absolutely NO DETAILS as to what "hard time, not succeeded"
constitutes in the events that you actually experience. If there is an
error message, mention it. If you can't figure out how to use the boot
media then mention that. You never do mention what is the problem.

> ... updating that bios and have not succeeded yet. ...

So what hardware is not functioning under the existing firmware version
for the BIOS? What new features are provided in the new BIOS version
that were not available in the old BIOS version? How do you know the
new version won't introduce with its new/changed code more problems than
you had before (but you never said that you did have BIOS-related
problems)? Why are you trying to update the BIOS on what apparently is
a working system?

> ... I made a USB stick boot device (formated it in fat32) and got to

> the dos commande C: which in fact is the usb stick with a flash1M.bat

> ...

That's a batch file and describes nothing about the commands contained
within it, like which *program* (the flash updater) that the batch file
will run. Did you included that flasher program on the boot device so
the .bat file can find it? Is that the "hard time" you encountered?

> ... and a PO1-A2.1M rom file on it ...

How do you know it's not the A0 or A1 file that you need?

http://support.acer.com/product/default.aspx?tab=5&modelId=414

That lists the same datestamp for all BIOS downloads (so you cannot
differentiate them on date to figure out which one was later). Also,
they may have different versions not because of some release schedule
but due to differences in detected hardware even within the same model.
Pre-built makers sell on specs, not by specific components within.

> ... and then spent some time trying to

> get the thing to flash the bios.

If you have the wrong firmware update file, what is your escape plan to
replace the BIOS EEPROMS with new ones encoded with a working BIOS,
like your old version of BIOS? Assuming you got the correct firmware
update file, do you have the computer and monitor attached to a UPS and
have you tested that UPS to ensure you can get at least 5 minutes of
uptime from it in a power outage? If not, what is your EEPROM escape
plan if there's a power outage during the firmware update?

Also, to be frank, it sounds likek you don't know what you are doing.
Unless you have specific problems or deficiencies with the current
version of BIOS, leave it alone. It's working now. Is it worth the
risk of simply having nebulous satisfaction with a new version but
possibly end up with a clumsy doorstop that was once a working computer?