[HELP] Acer Predator PH317-51 - Can't get to UEFI/BIOS settings, Windows runs fine.

[Alexscended]

Hi guys,

I'm kinda new here and still learning. I'm looking for a way to get any version of Linux going on my gaming laptop, the ACER Predator Helios 300. Here's everything I've tried so far:

The problem
Since I bought this laptops second hand, I don't really know what happened before that, but I know I couldn't get into BIOS when I got the laptop in the first place. I've been stuck on this problem for a while now, and I literally spent entire free days reading on forums and tinkering with new tools, bios versions etc. But I somehow just can't get into my UEFI BIOS settings..

My wishes
Why I want to get into the bios: Because I want to make the switch to a native Linux installation on my main rig. And to achieve that I therefore need to disable Secure Boot.


Symptoms
- Windows runs fine, I've had this ACER for over more than two years now and I never had any problems.
- When I press the designated F2 key to enter BIOS, a static underscore displays in the top-left, it doesn't blink and the bootproces freezes from here.
- On force shutdown and letting Windows boot normally all is fine. Everything works flawlessly, I can game, perfomance is great, but I just can't get into BIOS.

Things I've tried
- Battery reset button on the button and holding it for at least 60 sec. When power adapter was plugged and when I was unplugged.
- Replacing CMOS battery and waiting 10 min. in between while internal battery was disconnected.
- Re-flashing bios of the same version, even did downgrades (by modifying platform.ini) to see if any of the older versions would make a difference.
- Afterwards let Windows download the latest BIOS update for me (v1.21), same results..
- Re-flashing the BIOS via USB and holding Fn + ESC and pressing the Power(on) button.
- Bought a SIOC8 + SPI programmer so I could dump and reflash my bios on hardware-level.
- Removing 1 of the 2 RAMs and retrying all the above steps.
- I did a bios-mod unlock request thinking this would solve the problem.. and it did not, but at least I have a my own dump now with all options unlocked lol (Thanks Dudu2002 for this!).

Specs
Model: Acer Predator PH317-51
BIOS-version: v1.21 (Insyde)
BIOS-chip: Winbond W25Q64JVSIQ 1715

As I don't know to much about bioses, reflashing or modifying them, this is all that I've managed to achieve and learned so far.. but I think I might be running out of options here. Can anyone help me on this, I'll be happy to provide you with dumps, log files etc. But I can't wait to finally make my move to Linux. 

EDIT: Added attachment with the latest stock bios .bin file from Acer.

[Dudu2002]

Hi guys,

I'm kinda new here and still learning. I'm looking for a way to get any version of Linux going on my gaming laptop, the ACER Predator Helios 300. Here's everything I've tried so far:

The problem
Since I bought this laptops second hand, I don't really know what happened before that, but I know I couldn't get into BIOS when I got the laptop in the first place. I've been stuck on this problem for a while now, and I literally spent entire free days reading on forums and tinkering with new tools, bios versions etc. But I somehow just can't get into my UEFI BIOS settings..

My wishes
Why I want to get into the bios: Because I want to make the switch to a native Linux installation on my main rig. And to achieve that I therefore need to disable Secure Boot.


Symptoms
- Windows runs fine, I've had this ACER for over more than two years now and I never had any problems.
- When I press the designated F2 key to enter BIOS, a static underscore displays in the top-left, it doesn't blink and the bootproces freezes from here.
- On force shutdown and letting Windows boot normally all is fine. Everything works flawlessly, I can game, perfomance is great, but I just can't get into BIOS.

Things I've tried
- Battery reset button on the button and holding it for at least 60 sec. When power adapter was plugged and when I was unplugged.
- Replacing CMOS battery and waiting 10 min. in between while internal battery was disconnected.
- Re-flashing bios of the same version, even did downgrades (by modifying platform.ini) to see if any of the older versions would make a difference.
- Afterwards let Windows download the latest BIOS update for me (v1.21), same results..
- Re-flashing the BIOS via USB and holding Fn + ESC and pressing the Power(on) button.
- Bought a SIOC8 + SPI programmer so I could dump and reflash my bios on hardware-level.
- Removing 1 of the 2 RAMs and retrying all the above steps.
- I did a bios-mod unlock request thinking this would solve the problem.. and it did not, but at least I have a my own dump now with all options unlocked lol (Thanks Dudu2002 for this!).

Specs
Model: Acer Predator PH317-51
BIOS-version: v1.21 (Insyde)
BIOS-chip: Winbond W25Q64JVSIQ 1715

As I don't know to much about bioses, reflashing or modifying them, this is all that I've managed to achieve and learned so far.. but I think I might be running out of options here. Can anyone help me on this, I'll be happy to provide you with dumps, log files etc. But I can't wait to finally make my move to Linux. 

EDIT: Added attachment with the latest stock bios .bin file from Acer.

I already replied to your private message

[Alexscended]

I already replied to your private message

Thanks again dude, you helped me alot! He managed to fix the corrupted BIOS as well, even though the official BIOS flashers from Acer couldn't.
Finally managed to get into BIOS and turn of Secure Boot! Here we go Linux!  

TxID1: cbf8644169581c155251c9d8fe9507d57e0a075b0237a30e9b3c93bf62f6ae99
TxID2: a354750055ee12642f1bb7c4fcaaf2de205a7da0df7f2199c5ea2067b07d0879


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