Here’s an odd one that’s got me tearing my hair out. I’ve got an Advent 9117 laptop in for a replacement hard drive. It’s a Dual Core T2310 system with 1Gb RAM and running Vista Home Premium. I thought this would be a straightforward reinstall, data recovery and update – which it was- until I ran Windows update…
Since the update I can only get the laptop to boot if I clear the BIOS, then when I shut Windows down the computer fails to POST until I clear the BIOS by removing the CMOS battery. I’ve stripped it down, re-seated all mainboard components & cables yet the problem remains. I’ve tried different RAM to no avail and the laptop will refuse to POST even with the RAM, HDD and all ancillaries removed. It will only boot if I clear the BIOS. The Advent 9117 is actually a Uniwell L75II made by ECS and unfortunately there is no BIOS code to download on the ECS website, not even the original code. So unless I can find suitable BIOS code I’m stuffed to even re-flash the BIOS. The laptop was sold in the UK by DSG Retail (PC World, Dixons, Currys) and CPU-Z identifies the mainboard as ‘DIXONSXP’ and the BIOS information as “Phoenix Technologies Ltd, version 1.00DIX with a date of 08/31/2007” so I’m as yet none-the-wiser as to what mainboard is in this piece of junk to try and source BIOS code elsewhere.
I’ve never known of Windows update killing a BIOS before and to be honest I didn’t think it was possible, but a Google search to try and identify the root cause of this problem brought me this thread on the unofficial Advent Support forum . So it appears a recent Vista update has killed a lot of Advent (ECS) laptops with the same problem.
I’ve tried blasting the BIOS with third-party utilities and none have made a jot of difference. Anyone here come across this problem before and any ideas how to resolve it?
Since the update I can only get the laptop to boot if I clear the BIOS, then when I shut Windows down the computer fails to POST until I clear the BIOS by removing the CMOS battery. I’ve stripped it down, re-seated all mainboard components & cables yet the problem remains. I’ve tried different RAM to no avail and the laptop will refuse to POST even with the RAM, HDD and all ancillaries removed. It will only boot if I clear the BIOS. The Advent 9117 is actually a Uniwell L75II made by ECS and unfortunately there is no BIOS code to download on the ECS website, not even the original code. So unless I can find suitable BIOS code I’m stuffed to even re-flash the BIOS. The laptop was sold in the UK by DSG Retail (PC World, Dixons, Currys) and CPU-Z identifies the mainboard as ‘DIXONSXP’ and the BIOS information as “Phoenix Technologies Ltd, version 1.00DIX with a date of 08/31/2007” so I’m as yet none-the-wiser as to what mainboard is in this piece of junk to try and source BIOS code elsewhere.
I’ve never known of Windows update killing a BIOS before and to be honest I didn’t think it was possible, but a Google search to try and identify the root cause of this problem brought me this thread on the unofficial Advent Support forum . So it appears a recent Vista update has killed a lot of Advent (ECS) laptops with the same problem.
I’ve tried blasting the BIOS with third-party utilities and none have made a jot of difference. Anyone here come across this problem before and any ideas how to resolve it?
