ECS G551 Dead

ivanhasouivanhasou
edited November 2004 in Hardware
I tried to update my ECS G551 laptop's bios with the latest one available from ECS's taiwan ftp (G551_040204), however, it seems to have caused the bios to fail, even tho the flashing went fine. The computer now simply turns on and nothing appears on the screen, and there are no beeps, and it seems to want something from the cdrom drive, although this may just be it starting up. Nothing happens after more than 5 minutes of it on. Does anybody know any kind of recovery method?? I used the G551Flash program to update the bios

Comments

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    I don't know if the BIOS is replaceable in a laptop - but you may want to check out badflash.com
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited April 2004
    My friend has done this several times. He booted up a good comptuer into DOS prompt. Took out the BIOS chip in the good computer and replaced it with the bad chip. Flashed the BIOS on the bad chip. Took it out and put the proper BIOS chip back in.

    I dont know if it will work with a Laptop BIOS tho.
  • ivanhasouivanhasou
    edited April 2004
    i wonder if the warranty covers something like that?
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited April 2004
    Might as well check. Couldnt hurt.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited April 2004
    ivanhasou wrote:
    i wonder if the warranty covers something like that?
    Even if it doesn't you should be able to order a replacement for $20-$30.
  • ivanhasouivanhasou
    edited April 2004
    profdlp wrote:
    Even if it doesn't you should be able to order a replacement for $20-$30.
    :sweflag:

    do you know what type of chip ecs uses on the g551/g550?
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited April 2004
    My guess would be PLLC, but I don't know. If you're really unlucky, it'll be soldered on. :(

    You'd have to take it apart to find out for sure, though. And that would almost certainly void the warranty. So, I'd contact ECS first and see what they say. I know ASUS covers dead BIOSes (I'm now up to 5 A7N8X Deluxes. WHEN will they stop sending me these POS rev. 1.04 boards that crap out at ~200MHz FSBs? :D)
  • ivanhasouivanhasou
    edited April 2004
    actually, im not the only one that's been experiencing this problem
    http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=51&threadid=1269379&STARTPAGE=1&zb=988245

    I blame ECS' poor quality :(

    although i hear that they will replace it
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited April 2004
    At least they'll replace it. I suspect it's an error in the BIOS source code, unless flashing to other BIOS versions has resulted in the same problem.
  • ivanhasouivanhasou
    edited April 2004
    i believe the same happened for other people updated to an august edition
  • ivanhasouivanhasou
    edited April 2004
    i also heard the laptop comes back and seems repaired, but the problem lurks around the corner
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited April 2004
    I was looking for a little more info and it seems ECS has pulled the BIOS from their download section. I'd raise hell with them, it's obvious they have a problem - don't let them leave you holding the bag.
    :necro:
  • ivanhasouivanhasou
    edited April 2004
    well, i sent it in to the company i bought it from, and im getting it back in two weeks :/, wayy too long
  • ivanhasouivanhasou
    edited April 2004
    Well i got it back, but they killed my video. The LCD screen now has 5 rows of pixels on the bottom that it doesnt seem to be able to use
  • ivanhasouivanhasou
    edited April 2004
    they think they were being clever apparently, and they flashed the video bios, and now it thinks it has 64 megs of ram, whereas it really has only 32. This seems to be the root of the problem
  • ivanhasouivanhasou
    edited April 2004
    does anybody have the bios for the g551 radeon mobility 9000 32 meg edition?
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited April 2004
    oh good. I'll see if I can find one.
  • ivanhasouivanhasou
    edited April 2004
    What happens is that the screen is shifted up, so that the bottom four rows of pixels are one color only, which comes from the 1st pixel on the bottom of the screen

    X/X1=regular pixel
    Y=X1

    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX1
    YYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
  • jeffwigojeffwigo
    edited November 2004
    ivanhasou wrote:
    they think they were being clever apparently, and they flashed the video bios, and now it thinks it has 64 megs of ram, whereas it really has only 32. This seems to be the root of the problem


    Hey bro I have this problem also. Last week I noticed there were new G551 bios to update so I updated my system since the screen goes crazy at times.

    Now my video card says its only 32MB in ram. Did you get this fixed?
    I hate the ECS...they never reply their emails.
    Also they never update their drivers...please help me if you have it fixed

    Many thanks
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