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PI 1536 BIOS update failed :(

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PI 1536 BIOS update failed :(

Postby Anor255 » Thu Mar 12, 2009 11:00 am

pi-1536 won't start after bios flash.
If I push Power button num caps scroll lock and power led on and after 5-7sec reboot leds off and re until AC off.
I tried bios recovery (read anywhere) create Phoenix crisir recovery battery remove ac cable remove press Fn+b connect AC cable power on ... but.... :( :(

PLEASE HELP!!!

Thanx!


Sorry for my BAD english!
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Re: PI 1536 BIOS update failed :(

Postby georgemv » Sat May 30, 2009 5:03 pm

I have the same problem.
Does anybody know what do Amilos expect to read from the CD drive if the BIOS has failed?
I've tried a disk created from the BIOS ISO image from FSC support site, and an other one with just the bios image inside, with 3-4 different names. None seems to work.

Any ideas?

By the way, _DO_NOT_ use BIOS version 1.25. It kills 1536s for breakfast.
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Re: PI 1536 BIOS update failed :(

Postby xanderman » Thu Dec 03, 2009 12:13 pm

Hi Guys,
I have the same problem with my Amilo Pi 1536 did the 1.25 bios update and it crashed during flashing now it does the same as yours!! Nothing!!! :(
Have you been able to solve the problem? If so, how??

Cheers,

Xander
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Re: PI 1536 BIOS update failed :(

Postby trin » Mon Feb 01, 2010 8:35 pm

i found something in another forum where someone had the same problem with an amilo. he/she used Fn+ESC and said that only an external floppy worked no external cd drive. Link: http://www.theeldergeek.com/forum/index ... ntry270644
i'll try it tomorrow.. hope it'll help me.
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Re: PI 1536 BIOS update failed :(

Postby MarioGallaway » Tue Feb 02, 2010 1:04 am

I found this on Ebay: 160400584343

Fujitsu Amilo PI 1536 Motherboard Fix BIOS Repair Chip
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Re: PI 1536 BIOS update failed :(

Postby trin » Thu Feb 04, 2010 1:21 am

ah.. tried everything but couldn't find a bios. (btw i own a amilo sa3650) when i mounted the .iso file or burned it to a cd I saw absolutely nothing. there were ~24mb of nothing O_o! not one file.. I tried to download multiple versions of the bios file but every time it was the same. on three different comupters (one even had linux installed so it's appearently not a windows problem). so there was no way of flashing it via floppy and useful key combination. (when i downloaded the file for the amilo pro in the tutorial above there was no problem to view the data in the .iso file btw)
so i called the helpdesk and the guy there said i should send it in. he even said i might get warranty... hopefully... so for now. i wish you all good luck if you ever have this problem.

things i learned: never ever flash your bios without having a backup file stored.
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Re: PI 1536 BIOS update failed :(

Postby mitove » Sat Oct 30, 2010 3:49 pm

I found the answer to the problem, after trying and trying. I just did this, and I want to share it with you right away. The information is spread in little pieces over the internet. I tried to put something together and it works. V 1.25 should certainly not be used. You do need a USB floppy drive, but maybe somebody knows how to boot it from a usb stick. You should download the Pheonix Crisis Recorery.zip from this website http://www.theeldergeek.com/forum/index ... opic=21209 I joined as a member because I wanted this file, and I could not find it anywhere else. Please install 7-zip on your computer if you do not already have it. On the Fujitsu site you should download the V1.23 BIOS Windows Flash (EXE) (FTS_BIOSWindowsFlashEXEAMILOPi1536Pi1537__1011722) for this laptop. When you have it, click on the icon of it, and right mousebutton, 7-zip, than Open Archive. In the archive there is a bios.wph file, extract it and replace it with the current file in the disk for the Pheonix Crisis rec. Connect the disk to you laptop, take the battery out, and the powerplug, and insert the powerplug again. Press Fn+B and also Ctrl+Home, and then press the powerplug once. keep the other keys pressed for about 2-3 minutes. The floppy should start working, and after some minutes it turns off by itself. Press the powerbutton and it should work again. This worked for me. I am not an expert, but let me know if it works for you. I have a working floppy with the files on it, but I do not have mediafire, but if anybody is interested I can mail it so it can be shared from there.

Good Luck!!!
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Re: PI 1536 BIOS update failed :(

Postby mtmarco » Tue Feb 22, 2011 10:16 pm

mitove wrote:I found the answer to the problem, after trying and trying. I just did this, and I want to share it with you right away. The information is spread in little pieces over the internet. I tried to put something together and it works. V 1.25 should certainly not be used. You do need a USB floppy drive, but maybe somebody knows how to boot it from a usb stick. You should download the Pheonix Crisis Recorery.zip from this website http://www.theeldergeek.com/forum/index ... opic=21209 I joined as a member because I wanted this file, and I could not find it anywhere else. Please install 7-zip on your computer if you do not already have it. On the Fujitsu site you should download the V1.23 BIOS Windows Flash (EXE) (FTS_BIOSWindowsFlashEXEAMILOPi1536Pi1537__1011722) for this laptop. When you have it, click on the icon of it, and right mousebutton, 7-zip, than Open Archive. In the archive there is a bios.wph file, extract it and replace it with the current file in the disk for the Pheonix Crisis rec. Connect the disk to you laptop, take the battery out, and the powerplug, and insert the powerplug again. Press Fn+B and also Ctrl+Home, and then press the powerplug once. keep the other keys pressed for about 2-3 minutes. The floppy should start working, and after some minutes it turns off by itself. Press the powerbutton and it should work again. This worked for me. I am not an expert, but let me know if it works for you. I have a working floppy with the files on it, but I do not have mediafire, but if anybody is interested I can mail it so it can be shared from there.

Good Luck!!!


Thank you very much mitove! I'm here to thank you, and help all other people that are as us in trouble with the amilo.
I have got the same problem of you: one day i've flashed many bios version to do some test, then when i flashed back to the amilo Pi 1536 bios 1.25 (from windows with winPhlash!) i've bricked the bios.


So i suggest as any other with our experience to use always DOS-Bootable usb pen to re-flash your bios!

However when i thought that i haven't got any chance to recover my motherboard, i've found this post. Following mitove steps and other info retrieved around in the web, i've returned back to life my notebook.

I'm posting here to confirm all the well mitove work, and to make a point of the steps to do to "REVIVE" your AMILO (Phoenix bios based) notebook:



1) The symptoms that characterize a bricked bios are continuous reboots with a little loading from the hard disk at the start and blank screen all the time;

2) The first thing that we need now is to download the PHOENIX CRISIS DISK, that is a package that contains dos boot files, a phoenix flash tool for dos, a file named bios.wph, and an executable that creates a bootable floppy or a bootable usb pen with all these files.

NOTE: I've attached all the needed file to the end of the post for download (CRISIS DISK 1.7.0.18+BIOS.WPH 1.23), in case the forum moderators delete the file or the download don't work i will explain all the tools you will need to recover a bricked phoenix bios, so you can search for these with Google.



3) Second thing that we need is the new Fujitsu Siemens bios file we want to reflash to "unbrick" our notebook; The bios must be downloaded in the Windows Executable format(WinPhlash EXE-file, not ISO-CD or Disc-Image); I suggest the Fujitsu Siemens bios 1.23 for Pi 1536 because it was the bios used by mitove with success, and i used that bios with success too! (you can download the bios from fujitsu siemens support);

4) At this point we must have installed also WinRar or 7-Zip and open with WinRar or 7-Zip the EXE-File with the bios that we downloaded from fujitsu siemens support (for the Bios 1.23 the name of the file is FTS_BIOSWindowsFlashEXEAMILOPi1536Pi1537__1011722); viewing the file into winrar we can find many files, and between these files we can see a file named "BIOS.WPH", that is the real BIOS file, and we need to extract it to a folder into the pc;

5) Now we must extract the PHOENIX CRISIS DISK to an empty folder, and in this folder we will find many file, including another BIOS.WPH we don't need; now we must overwrite the BIOS.WPH extracted from BIOS 1.23 to the BIOS.WPH found into the PHOENIX CRISIS DISK (the bios.wph from 1.23 will be the new bios to reflash the bricked notebook);

6) At this point we need to insert an usb pen with less of 2gb of size (to have dos compatibility in fat-16! a larger pen could not work);

7) Now we must launch the file WINCRIS.EXE found into the PHOENIX CRISIS DISK extraction folder(possibly from a Windows 32-bit system as worked for me and as many say is better); from this tool we will select the usb pen or a floppy to make it bootable, then we have to select Removable as disk format, and create MINIDOS crisis disk as disk options, leave the two checkbox in the bottom not checked (compress the bin file and ibm crtm crisis disk); Click START, confirm to erase all files and wait for the creation of the bootable Crisis Usb-Pen or Floppy; (p.s: make sure you have changed the BIOS.wph in the folder with WINCRIS.EXE, with that of the 1.23 bios, as described in point 5) );

8 ) Go to the bricked notebook, unplug the battery, the ac power cable, and insert the usb pen (for superstition i want to say that i've used the first usb port on the left side of the notebook, near the ac cable connector :D, i'm saying this only to tell precisely what worked for me, but every usb port would work );

9) At this point keep pressed these keys: FN+B and CTRL+HOME (all the four keys simultaneously);

10) While keeping pressed the four keys insert the AC Power Cable (without battery! only the power cable) and press the Power-ON button; keep the key pressed while the notebook boots up, at this point if you have done all well and are keeping the keys pressed you will see the led on the usb pen (if your pen has a led) blinking, and the notebook doesn't reboot: this means that all the thing is working, let the pen to blink still some seconds then leave the four keys you were pressing; now after some seconds the pen will stop to blink, but don't touch anything for 5-10 minutes at least, because the notebook will begin the BIOS recovery in background also if you can't see anything, using the crisis disk, and this process consist in loading the bios file in central memory, then the bios is flashed in 5-10 minutes to the ROM.

11) When the process of recovery is completed(about 5-10 minutes), if all has gone well, you will see your notebook shutting down automatically. GOOD, IS A VERY GOOD SIGN: disconnect the USB pen and power on your notebook again.

12) It Works. (Or at least I hope it for you!!!!!!!!!!!! For me and mitove has worked... it's a great thing, and many people don't believe in the possibility of revive broken bios, especially when it is a notebook bios, but i want to say that IT WORKS! REALLY!! AND LIKE A CHARM)


For more informations ask me (hoping i will be still here and i can answer, but i've tried to explain everything above).
Attachments
CRISIS DISK - Phlash16_v1.7.0.18.zip
CRISIS DISK 1.7.0.18 (with BIOS.WPH from amilo bios 1.23)
(592.34 KiB) Downloaded 3409 times
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Re: PI 1536 BIOS update failed :(

Postby beethoven646 » Mon May 23, 2011 5:39 pm

Many thanks to all in this forum.

I'd just like to add that I can confirm that the BIOS recovery procedure described by mtmarco also worked for my bricked Amilo Li3710.

I have searched all over the Net for a solution but this is the only place where I found the answer. The critical difference was the holding down of 4 keys rather than the various combinations of two keys which are mentioned everywhere else.

For information I used a 256mb USB flash drive in the USB port on the left hand side of the machine and used BIOS version v1.10 from the Fujitsu support website. I created the rescue disc in Windows XP (rather than Vista) - not sure if this had any bearing on the result. It took less than a minute to right itself.

Hope this information helps others and those with different Amilo models.
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Re: PI 1536 BIOS update failed :(

Postby emimor123 » Tue Jul 05, 2011 7:16 pm

Hello,
Sorry for my english.
I have this problem, I update de bios with version 25. I try to follow the steps you said, but it don't work for me. I download PHOENIX CRISIS DISK, replace te bios file, create the disquette (I create a pendrive too) but when I hold this 4 keys, conect the power and keep pressed FN+B and CTRL+HOME, the floppy don't start reading, the same whith pendrive. I leave the laptop this way for several time, and always on, don't shut down automatically.
Please, can somebody help me, doesn't matter if is in english, but I'm spanish. Please help me.
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