We've likely all read someplace that we ought to be careful when flashing the BIOS with an update, or the computer can be rendered useless.....
Two days ago, for a reason that now escapes me, I decided to update the BIOS on one of these two computers. I went to the manufacturer's support website
(Acer Canada) and looked up my particular model, an Acer Aspire X3200 desktop, and selected the latest file under 'BIOS' in their software section.
When I clicked on it to install, the monitor momentarily went blank, and then on came the little pop-up saying "no signal". They ought to have that accompanied by a picture of a monkey face making a face at you.....
Before I did all that, I only forgot one thing - and that's all it takes - I forgot this computer died a smoky death about a month after I first got it new, and it then spent two months at the Acer service center awaiting new parts. When I got it back, it worked OK, and nobody volunteered any information about what had been wrong with it, except that it had a different hard-drive.
After what happened to it on Monday, I'm thinking it must have some other different parts too, because the correct BIOS for this model wasn't right for this one's actual hardware. I'm thinking maybe the main board was changed and perhaps it has different chips for the BIOS in it now. Before I started all that,
I did have the foresight to go into it and note the details of the BIOS on it, and
now that I've got lots of time on my hands to replay all that, and look for the answers, if any, I went back onto the Acer site, and looked at the list of various
models similar to mine, and their BIOS upgrades, and I found another model
with a similar outer appearance to mine, also in the 'X' series, with the exact same BIOS file as the one that got trashed on here by its so-called correct replacement. But so far, I haven't found a way to install that one.
And before someone says "Don't do it!" I have to say that there's not a whole lot left to lose, if it doesn't work. But so far, it hasn't worked, and I'm not sure
why not. I've tried a couple of schemes for booting it up from a USB stick which
is configured as a bootable DOS drive, and that hasn't done it yet.... but maybe
it might yet if I do more homework. I'm going to hate spending money on a new computer just to celebrate my own stupidity. And for that matter, I really don't need two of them anyway, even though I have to admit having a spare can come in very handy sometimes.... like now, for example!
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