It's a Joke !?! Computers are dead because the Bios v1.09 was bugged, not because we make a mistake... We can't accept this answer from eMachine. I've send an email to the support, I'm waiting for an answer.
hopefully someone gets some instruction on how to get our 350's going again. I've tried the acer aspire method, no dice so far. my unit has the atheos wlan chipset. i might have to take my case to a consumer agency to force a repair, otherwise the media is the next step.
good work Good work you lot i am glad someone is fighting for our rights, This is a disgrace they made the Bios its there fault not ours! and this just shows them up when they go accusing there customers of being in the wrong!, Well news travels fast so unless Emachines sort this out i am sure a lot of people will avoid them & not recommend them in the future!
same problem , upped to 1.09 and brick , they do this for brick some computers and make money with assistance .... , in fact they removed the 1.09 after some days , homewhere , i personally tried with 3 usb drives , 1 card reader , and nothing resolved at all , i have same problem of other users , when boot pc with fn+esc fan go to maximum but he dont start to read usb and search file !!!! still searching for solution !
btw, i tried to recover the bios using the acer 250 method ([fn] + [esc]) no dice. also tried to remove the wlan card and harddrive and tried again, still no dice.
The only solution is to replace the motherboard, 1.09 completly killed it, i think i have tried everything... I cancelled my RMA a few days ago because they said this kind of issues are not under warranty... at this point i didn't want to argue much with them so instead i went to the store were i bought the computer praying for a replacement but ofc it didn't happen, they started an RMA aswell. Yesterday they got the same answer as i did and the people from the store refused to continue with the RMA (good for me, if i want, this is a reason to start legal actions, if fixing the computer requires a budget they have to ask me if i accept or not instead of just refusing to continue). Today I called the eMachines official support again and explained step by step what is wrong and why this isn't my fault, even with proofs; like asking why they removed the 1.09 bios from the site, ofc they were clueless (giving me random and retarded reasons), this didn't surprise me, after all this official support isn't directly linked with emachines/acer (they also fix hp and other computers), to be honest they should open an inquiry with eMachines asking what is going on with this netbook instead of just assuming it is our fault which would probably be 99% of the times but not the case with this netbook and this faulty bios. I'm going to definetly send the netbook again and once it is there i really hope they see it wasn't my fault... if they try to charge me something then i will start legal actions. Btw, anyone here from Spain?, maybe we can share some info since our support center is the same. Will keep posting if i get new info.
i have this netbook from 2 days when upgraded bios , i contacted support via mail , they told me to ship the netbook at support centre and they want 40 eur only for handle the request , i sincerely dont want to spend more money , i hope to find a solution to recover .
eM support answered to me: Code: Hello, Thank you for contacting eMachines. Regarding your enquiry, This would be classed as a chargeable repair, the process would be the following. There will be a £55.15 charge taken from you before your machine is brought in for repair. You will then be given courier details so that you may arrange collection of your machine for shipment to our repair centre. Once received in the repair centre it will undergo assessment by one of our technicians. They will draw up a written proposal for you containing full details pertaining to your repair. This will be sent to you by post giving you ten days to respond. Once you have received the proposal you have the option to reject it, which means the £55.15 will cover the engineer and couriers fees, and the machine will be returned to you un-repaired. After ten days, if your proposal is not signed and returned to us by fax or post the repair is defaulted as rejected, your machine is not repaired, and shipped back to you. We can not give estimates of repair costs, under any circumstances, without the machine being diagnosed by an eMachines technician If you would like to book your machine in for an assessment please let us know and we will make the necessary arrangements. Regards Ryan eMachines Technical Support Team Guys, let me some day's me be I can find any solution.
Denmark is down too Hi there, Denmark calling I to have an Acer eMaschines em350 and i did the update to bios 1.09 to so now i am up in the line of dead machines. I've tried the recovery listet in mail#3 but with no luck, so i will like to know if, and when there is a solution to the problem. Best regards from Denmark Morten
after six hours of experiments I repaired my em350 If any one ready to disassemble netbook and has good soldering skill, also need PC with LPT port I can tell you my story
Awesome, im very ready to try this!, actually i dissembled mine twice but didn't bother with desoldering and soldering the bios (i couldnt find the chip on the board) so if u can explain the steps here i will try it.
It's Winbond 25q80 chip in soic8 package, near bios battery, and you need desolder it, the next steps I told you tomorrow.
Go!! Wow excellent news!, can you make a simple step by step guide ? I did some trick like that (on xbox and wii chips in the past) Thank you!!!!!!!
from Vietnam. bricked em350 with 1.09 BIOS I am in Hanoi, Vietnam. in May 25 i updated my eM350 BIOS to version 1.09 and i bricked it. i did update BIOS in Windows 7, i should do it in DOS so it is safer. When the BIOS update tool finished, windows 7 was shut down and the netbook did not boot. power button light is blue, the screen is blank. i tried "Undocumented INSYDE BIOS recovery method" but it didnot work for me. i have sent my bricked em350 netbook to local Acer Care Center. Acer personel called me yesterday inform me that the netbook mainboard is faulty and they will replace it at the price about 200 US dollars. i am verry dissappointed. Acer has pulled down BIOS version 1.09. today it is no longer on Acer website. my opinion is that Acer should do something on this matter. thank you.
It's one big bull#it, it's just need to reflash BIOS microchip, net needed to change motherboard fully. And it's 99,9% impossible to damage some of motherboard components, just flashed with incorrect BIOS file. I'm over 8 years working with PC hardware and can't remember any killed board wit this method
Now it's little guide how to repair your BIOS file (this guide also good for any other motherboard wit SPI BIOS) At start items that you need: 1. phillips screwdriver (for disassembling your netbook) 2. 4x 150 ohm resistors (may be 100-200 ohm also good) 3. 2x condensators (I used one ceramic 10uF and one electrolytic 100uF, also interface can work without its. ) 4. LTP 25 pin male plug, an any other PC with this interface. 5. soldering iron or heatgun to desolder BIOS chip (I'm used 40W iron) 6. some hours of free time Now about what you do next if you have all of this components. 1. You need to disassemble your netbook, screws on bottom, under battery, and under keyboard (if you have questions feel free to mail me) 2. Find BIOS chip on motherboard vvv.image-share.com/ijpg-692-240.html in our case its Winbond 25Q80 soic8 chip. 3. You need to desolder this chip, I tried to solder interface wires directly to chip without soldering it out, just killid 2 hours of time. 4. Now you need to make interface wire wits this schematic vvv.image-share.com/ijpg-692-242.html 3.3 Volt I'm taken from SATA Power interface, orange wire. Condensators between +3,3V and GND, for electrolytic don't forget about polarity. DON't use too long DATA wires between LPT and microchip.
5. Now when all soldered and connected to other PC (I used PC under Win XP) you need to download correct BIOS file from eM site, I used v1.8 You need file that is in DOS directory, called NAV51D2.fd Then you need flasher software, you can get it here hXXp://rayer.ic.cz/programm/spipgm.zip 6. put the flasher software and BIOS file to same directory, go to Win+R cmd, and go to to dir where software is located. Then: SPIPGMW /i if your flash chip found by software you got in message sime thin like this: FLASHROM JDEC ...... W20q80 (1Mb) If you get message that chip is unknown than some thin wrong with your interface cable. You also can read this FAQ from author of software hXXp://rayer.ic.cz/programm/programe.htm If all OK, you can dump your BIOS by: SPIPGMW /b [filename] also you can dump it twice with different file names, and check if it's no any difference in this file than interface working good. Then: SPIPGMW /u to unlock chip for writing. Then: SPIPGMW /e to erase your flash. Then: SPIPGMW /p NAV51D2.fd 7. Now solder your chip back to motherboard, insert battery, and check is it OK. PS: After I switched netbook first time its black screen and nothing, ... just forgot to insert RAM. After inserting RAM switched ON again, and it's working. PPS: After you do all of this you netbook UUID may be lost, and you will be need to activate Windows.
Hmmm Hi Archimidz Where do you put the condensators ? Is there not any other metode to recover the BIOS Best regards Morten
Sorry, forgot about it, it's between +3,3V and GND, for electrolytic don't forget about polarity, interface also can work without it, especially if you use 3V 2032 battery. Other method which I know is send netbook to eM service