Update: here is a ZIP of the files I placed on the flash drive, since it seems to be hard to find.
For some stupid reason (shame on me, really), I decided to Flash the BIOS of my wife’s Gateway id49c07u using Gateway’s Windows-based utility. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the tool crapped out about halfway through the update, and to my horror, the laptop wouldn’t POST after a reboot. I just sat there, with the power button glowing, hard drive button blinking randomly … but doing absolutely nothing.
I thought I was screwed. A useless chat session with Gateway’s support didn’t change that feeling. There isn’t any documentation from Gateway (that I could find) about this process, and their “support” claims there is no way to recover the BIOS. Heck, maybe they don’t even know about it. Or care about it. One of the two.
After a while, I calmed down and did what all geeks do – Googled it. After seeing what other people were trying, I attempted a few things. It took me a couple hours to figure out a solution that worked for this particular laptop. Here’s what did the trick for me…obviously this varies from computer to computer (for the curious, it turns out this Gateway has an InsydeH2O UEFI BIOS)
Anyway, the steps to take to fix the Gateway:
- Grab a USB flash drive and make sure it’s formatted with FAT32 (I think FAT16 works too).
- Download the latest BIOS from the manufacturer’s website. Typical BIOS files have a .ROM, .FD, or .BIN extension. In my case the key files were “kE3a104a.ROM” and “NELA0x64.FD.”
- Copy all needed files to the USB flash drive.
- If it’s not already, turn off the laptop.
- Unplug it.
- Remove the battery.
- Insert the flash drive into one of the USB ports.
- Hold down Fn and Esc (an often-cited key combination is also Window Key + B, but in my case Fn + Esc was “the one”).
- Plug it back in
- Power on the laptop (continue holding Fn + Esc).
- After 2-3 seconds, release the Fn & Esc keys
- The computer should start accessing the flash drive after a bit. Then it will sit there and appear to be doing nothing – just leave it alone. It took about five+ minutes for me.
- When it’s done, it should reboot itself and be back to working order. At this point shut it down, put the battery back in, power it back on and…done.
I was in business at that point, and I just saved a couple hundred dollars because a technician didn’t have to install a new BIOS chip in my laptop – or worse, it could have been a $600 paperweight. Another bonus is: I was saved from certain death at the hands of my wife. It was her laptop I was messing with, after all, which makes my crime all the more heinous.
So if you’ve got a bricked laptop due to a botched BIOS upgrade, this is definitely worth a shot! With a fragged BIOS update, there isn’t much to lose except a little time … and perhaps a piece of your sanity.
Some other resources on this topic:
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/7033-Insyde-bios-mod-requests.
No related posts.
Worked perfectly. Suggest that folks stay away from that windows flash utility…
Yeah – flashing BIOS from Windows is bad news…and the worst part is I knew better!
May others learn from my mistakes….
Thank you thank you thank you, you are awesome! I was about to give up hope on my laptop, I have the same model as the one you described. I even sent it into Gateway’s repair center because it is still under warranty. They said that it was a hardware problem (which I knew it wasn’t), and that they would have to charge me $200 to fix it because my boyfriend had spilled a little bit of liquid into it. I tried everything I could find online to fix it, but nothing worked. I came across your solution and figured it was worth a shot. I was in shock when it came on and started working, it hasn’t done anything in over a month. Just a black screen and a fan and lights. Again, thank you so much, I appreciate it so much.
Rachel,
I am relieved for you! It is such a terrible feeling to think that you just bricked your laptop. I am glad it worked for you…
Ok…. you have my vote for best blog ever so far. How many people have trashed their notebooks in vain due to other people’s bad advice? I was beginning to think there was no way for this to end well, and am still crossing my fingers as theg laptop still sits there doing nothing but making me anxious. I have tried the CD route, am on the USB route and if this doesn’t work will be doing the e-bay parting out route. As a tech guy it was not my experience and training that got me in this mess… it was a battery charger that was tripped over while updating leading to my current gape mouthed stare of disbelief. This is my personal laptop, not a customers, but in either case I am reaching out to every corner of the Googleverse to get this resolved tonight. Thank you for bringing your experience to us, and helping yet another user back into BIOS.
God Bless and keep it up!
@simpletech chris,
Hey every once in a great while, the Internet comes through for us. :-p No seriously, like I said to Rachel above, I almost crapped my pants when I thought I ruined my wife’s laptop. SO glad this method did the trick. Thanks for reading and sharing! Take care.
i Cant begin to tell you , how great this post is, i have the same model laptop, did bios upgrade and then it never boot again, just blank screen, i follow your instructions and it worked like a charm, you are awsome
Alessandro – one less person with a bricked laptop! Music to my ears.
Thank you for this information. Excellent post. I was worried that I had to replace the bios chip but thanks to you I am safe. Thanks alot
when i do this, the computer just beeps a few time and then restarts and nothing happens.
WOW! This is by far the best blog of the year. Thank you so much for saving my laptop. WARNING: Do not use Windows flash utility from Gateway, it bricked my laptop. Fortunately, after 5 minutes of heavy sweating I decided to search Bing for “ID49 and Bricked” and found your article! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
What are the files in particular that I should have on the USB drive? I have tried the process but it has not been successful. I do not know that I have the correct combination of files on the drive. I do know that the computer reads from the flash drive however.
Maurice,
I used kE3a104a.ROM and NELA0x64.FD
Patrick,
All I can say is, it’s a tricky process. Everything must be done exactly as described – the order of operations and timing are both critical. Have you tried again?
I have been trying to get this to work and I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. I copied the bios programs (9930.bin and 9930. wph) onto a cd disc. Then I took out my battery, unplugged it, incerted the disc, and tried the Fn+Esc, Windows+B, and Fn+B keys to no avail. The laptop I’m trying to fix is a gateway md78, and I have upgraded it to Windows 7. I am trying to use the Bios programs that originally came with my computer. I’m not sure what else to do. Please help
Casey, I’ve added a download of the files I used to recover my BIOS. The zip file contains a few files, but the only ones I needed were kE3a104a.rom and NELA0x64.fd. Also, I didn’t use a CD — I used a USB flash drive. I would suggest using the flash drive, since I’m not sure if this procedure works with the CD.
How would I know if it is working? When I turn it on, the fan goes off but i don’t see anything else happening :/
John, this procedure requires a little bit of faith a lot of guess work. There isn’t a clear sign that the computer is doing anything throughout much of this process. Did you get it working?
This worked great for me after botched BIOS update, glad most manufacturers have an emergency way to recover the BIOS these days.
Thanks Rob Z. It took some investigative journalism to find that info, but I am glad too. Like I said, my wife would have had my head had I ruined her laptop for no good reason.
WHERE CAN I SEND YOU A GIFT!!!!!! I OWE YOU ONE!
Holy crap. Flashing a bios was not my first impulse to recover 2 monthworths of work, but I’m glad I tried it first. My ID49C wouldn’t get past the BIOS splash after the last time it overheated (:\). This was somehow my first time flashing a bios, and I’m relieved it was so straightforward, and that the process was compatible with Linux. This took over 10 minutes for some reason, but I would have waited 200.
I wonder how many computers have this booty flashy trick.
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WordPress doesn’t like certain characters?
Gateway should really get better at making computers if they want to sell any first my batteries die and then a flashing problem they really have to collaborate with acer and start thinking.
My flash drive seems to be blinking, but nothing has happened in over 10 minutes. I am going to let it sit over night and hopefully tomorrow it will be recovered. Thanks for posting this.