[Aspire L100] Can't upgrade BIOS

[Shohreh]

Hello

The Aspire L100 (Mobo = Acer FC51PVG, BIOS = Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG, 12/28/2006) refuses to boot off a USB keydrive.

I've tried three different keydrives, to no avail: The USB ZIP/FDD/CDROM is ignored, and the host starts from the hard-disk.

So I downloaded what seems to be the latest BIOS for the Aspire L100 (BIOS for MB 3.3 BIOS_R03-B0.zip_R03-B0_A_A.zip), unzipped, and ran WinFlash.exe as admin with the 735A1P07.BIN file, but get this error: "Please load the correct BIOS file!".

I then tried [URL="http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-Acer-Aspire-L100-AcerPower-1000-R03-B0"]this modified BIOS[/URL], same error.

What could I try to boot this host from a USB keydrive?

Thank you.

[Galileo Figaro]

You could try a very handy little thing called PLOP. There's a talented programmer in Austria who has made a utility that lets you boot from USB devices in BIOSes that normally don't support it. You burn PLOP to a CD or put it on a floppy, or put it into the MBR (if you dare!) and reboot. A green text meny asks you to choose the boot device and off you go.

However, if your MB manual claims it can boot from USB on it own, you've probably missed something. After having set USB as your primary boot device, do check out if there's a menu for what hard disk should boot first. It is likely that your USB stick is seen as a hard disk in the BIOS. You could of course temporarily detach all hard disks except for your USB stick.

There could also be something wrong with the USB stick. Try it on some other computer and see if it works there.