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  1. BIOS update failed on Gateway id49c07u – how to recover from a “bricked” laptop

    January 22, 2011 by Andrew Block

    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:

    1. Grab a USB flash drive and make sure it’s formatted with FAT32 (I think FAT16 works too).
    2. 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.”
    3. Copy all needed files to the USB flash drive.
    4. If it’s not already, turn off the laptop.
    5. Unplug it.
    6. Remove the battery.
    7. Insert the flash drive into one of the USB ports.
    8. Hold down Fn and Esc (an often-cited key combination is also Window Key + B, but in my case Fn + Esc was “the one”).
    9. Plug it back in
    10. Power on the laptop (continue holding Fn + Esc).
    11. After 2-3 seconds, release the Fn & Esc keys
    12. 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.
    13. 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.

    http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/13095-Undocumented-INSYDE-BIOS-recovery-method.-Use-andy-s-tool-to-obtain-possible-names.

    Category Laptops, PCs & Hardware, Tech Tip | Tags: ,, | 21 Comments

  2. R.I.P., Dell XPS M1330

    July 2, 2010 by Andrew Block

    My Dell XPS M1330 died after only 14 short months of ownership (conveniently two months after the warranty expired). Dell’s tech support proved to be completely useless. Don’t recommend Dell, and definitely won’t buy another one.

    Will this be my turning point in getting a Mac? Time will tell…

    Category Laptops, PCs & Hardware, Ramblings & Misc | Tags: , | No Comments