Upgrade Bios To UEFI (Insyde)

[MarcoMjet]

Most manufacturer like Acer provide for the latest products two kind of bioses

1. BIOS
2. BIOS - UEFI for Windows 8 (Not for Upgrades)

The second enable the UEFI BOOT ENVIROMENT that have many benefits...
Laptops with Windows 7 preinstalled have a normal Bios, laptops with Windows 8 preinstalled have UEFI...

This guide is oriented to all laptops that have windows 7 and then legacy bios
if you flash new efi bios on older bios the flasher fails then open your xxxxx.exe file with whatever hex editor and find:

DisableSecureCapsuleFlash=1

change to

DisableSecureCapsuleFlash=0

now you're able to flash new UEFI Bios and install windows 8 on GPT partition

[MarcoMjet]

any success?

[nicoaleramirez]

any success?

Hi! I want to update my Acer V3-571-6459 from 1.13 to 2.15 but I get "please update to the same type of bios (1.xx)", because I bought my laptop without Win8.
So, can I do it that way?

I'm argentinian, sorry for my poor english.
Thanks!!

EDIT: Success! Thank you so much!!

[kevin.golanda]

WORK PROPERLY
but, is there issues if i use this method to force use UEFI ?
such a no perfomance inscrease or anymore

but, i has a one problem on UEFI mode @Aspire E1-421, that UEFI - BIOS not recognized my USB to boot up, but the USB detected under windows.
That is realy proper ?

[fax88]

which xxxx.exe file are you referring to? i've searched and cannot find DisableSecureCapsuleFlash=1 using a hex editor

Most manufacturer like Acer provide for the latest products two kind of bioses

1. BIOS
2. BIOS - UEFI for Windows 8 (Not for Upgrades)

The second enable the UEFI BOOT ENVIROMENT that have many benefits...
Laptops with Windows 7 preinstalled have a normal Bios, laptops with Windows 8 preinstalled have UEFI...

This guide is oriented to all laptops that have windows 7 and then legacy bios
if you flash new efi bios on older bios the flasher fails then open your xxxxx.exe file with whatever hex editor and find:

DisableSecureCapsuleFlash=1

change to

DisableSecureCapsuleFlash=0

now you're able to flash new UEFI Bios and install windows 8 on GPT partition

[BDMaster]

which xxxx.exe file are you referring to? i've searched and cannot find DisableSecureCapsuleFlash=1 using a hex editor

Most manufacturer like Acer provide for the latest products two kind of bioses

1. BIOS
2. BIOS - UEFI for Windows 8 (Not for Upgrades)

The second enable the UEFI BOOT ENVIROMENT that have many benefits...
Laptops with Windows 7 preinstalled have a normal Bios, laptops with Windows 8 preinstalled have UEFI...

This guide is oriented to all laptops that have windows 7 and then legacy bios
if you flash new efi bios on older bios the flasher fails then open your xxxxx.exe file with whatever hex editor and find:

DisableSecureCapsuleFlash=1

change to

DisableSecureCapsuleFlash=0

now you're able to flash new UEFI Bios and install windows 8 on GPT partition

There are two places where You can find It :

1. Unpack all and look for Platform.ini file

2. use an HexEditor and look here http://catchtito.blogspot.it/2013/05/how...-bios.html

Regards

[radioxoma]

Acer Aspire One 725-c68kk BIOS to UEFI update or how to get UEFI and x86_64 support (2019-10-24)

Sorry for necropost, I can't register and edit wiki https://www.bios-mods.com/wiki/Upgrade_I...os_to_UEFI

Aspire one been shipped with two kind of InsydeH2O BIOS firmware:

• Legacy BIOS V1.0.0 comes with preinstalled Windows 7 Starter 32 bit, called just "BIOS" ('BIOS_Acer_1.08_A_A.zip')
  
• UEFI V2.0.0 comes with preinstalled Windows 8, called "BIOS - UEFI for Windows 8 (Not for Upgrades)" ('BIOS_Acer_2.12_A_A BIOS - UEFI for Windows 8 (Not for Upgrades).zip')
  

"Not for Upgrades" means not for those, who "upgraded" Windows 7 with Windows 8. Official Acer BIOS update utility for Windows forbids update BIOS V1.* to UEFI V2.* (installer raises an error "Not allow to flash secure BIOS on current platform"). Fortunately even old AMD C-60 hardware able to run UEFI V2.* with x86_64 support and there is a way to install it.

At 2019-10-24 for Acer Aspire One 725-c68kk (AMD C-60, BIOS V1.0.0 with Windows 7 Starter 32 bit preinstalled) it can be done in such way:

1. Install Windows 7 SP1 Professional 32 bit to run Acer BIOS firmware updates
   
2. Update V1.00 to V1.08 as usual and reboot
   
3. Unpack, patch and update 1.08 to 2.12 and reboot
   

Note: In order to disable 'Secure boot' in InsydeH2O UEFI, one have to set supervisor password https://itsfoss.com/disable-secure-boot-in-acer/

1. First update 1.00 to 1.08 (latest version at 2019-10-24), because flasher for UEFI V2.12 crashes when detects V1.00.

Download latest V1.* (in my case V1.08) from official site https://www.acer.com/ac/en/ID/content/su...53;-;AO725
and run it (`ZHG108.EXE`). All will be done automatically. Reboot again and enter into BIOS Setup utility and check current version.

Note: Press F2 for enter to BIOS/UEFI setup utility, F12 for boot option menu (needs to be enabled by user)

2. Update 1.08 to 2.12 (latest version at 2019-10-24)
Based on this posts:

1. https://catchtito.blogspot.com/2013/05/h...-bios.html
   
2. https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-U...pire-AO725
   
3. https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads...ost-752003
   

When run unmodified V2.12 installer it raises an error "Not allow to flash secure BIOS on current platform". So we need to unpack all from `ZHG212.EXE` and patch it. 7zip won't help there, as ROM `ZHGBIOSR.FD` not packed, but attached to the end of `ZHG212.EXE`.

Run UEFI installer (`ZHG212.EXE`) and don't close it. Unpacked files will appear in `%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Temp`. Don't close installer and copy whole folder with unpacked files into safe place (e.g. `C:\bios`, without spaces and no-ASCII symbols).

Edit `platform.ini` file:

Code:

    [Others]
    DisableSecureCapsuleFlash=1
        change to
    DisableSecureCapsuleFlash=0

    [BackupROM]
    Flag=0
        change to
    Flag=1

Edit 'ZHGBIOSR.FD' with an hex editor (alternatively you could edit `ZHG212.EXE` before unpacking, as 'ZHGBIOSR.FD' attached to the and of it). File size should not change (4663472 bytes). Some people suggests that `platform.ini` will be overwritten by 'InsydeFlash.exe' during flashing, as it extracts config from `ZHGBIOSR.FD`. And therefore no need to edit `platform.ini`. But in my case BackupROM Flag=1 does the change and backup will be created (see below). May be in my case editing of `platform.ini` will be enough.

Code:

    DisableSecureCapsuleFlash=1
        change to
    DisableSecureCapsuleFlash=0

    $ diff <(xxd ZHGBIOSR.FD) <(xxd ZHGBIOSR_mod.FD)
    $ diff <(xxd ZHG212.EXE) <(xxd ZHG212_mod.EXE)
    355581c355581
    < 0056cfc0: 6c65 466c 6173 683d 3109 0920 2020 203b  leFlash=1..    ;
    ---
    > 0056cfc0: 6c65 466c 6173 683d 3009 0920 2020 203b  leFlash=0..    ;

Other manuals around internet suggests to set also other variables, but it wasn't needed for my case:

Code:

    [ForceFlash]
    ALL=1                            # 1 in my installer

    DisableCompare=1                 # 0 in my installer, but it doesn't looks like it will affect something
    SkipSecureBootProtectionCheck=1  # 1 in my installer

Run patched `InsydeFlash.exe`. It will flash UEFI and will create backup files:

• C:\ZHG.bin - 4194304 bytes (exactly 4 MiB), backup, contains your device serial number, can be used to unbrick device ("Crisis disk recovery or Fn+Esc method"), save it
  
• C:\ZHG_new.bin - 4663472 bytes (4 MiB + 458 KiB), same checksum as "ZHGBIOSR.FD" from flasher folder, no serial
  

Further reading:

• https://github.com/LongSoft/InsydeImageE...r/releases
  
• Backup ROM with `flashit.exe` InsydeH2O utility https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Welcome-FAQ...a-p/261119
  

Crisis disc recovery:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR6paPNebPY
   
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ0iVk67oTI
   
3. Service manual "BIOS Recovery by Crisis Disk", page 199 "ZHGBIOS.FD" (probably only first three letters of ROM file name is checked, somewhat "ZHG*.FD"