(Solved) Random Shutdowns

[alkanator]

Just a few questions about that-
To update the bios, I must download the appropriate file from the Acer site, unzip, and run the Windows installer, correct?
Is this risky to do? I've read a number of reports of bios-updating crashing people's computers.
Will this affect GRUB at all?

Sorry about my many questions. I just don't want to mess anything up.

[wayne128]

Just a few questions about that-
To update the bios, I must download the appropriate file from the Acer site, unzip, and run the Windows installer, correct?
Is this risky to do? I've read a number of reports of bios-updating crashing people's computers.
Will this affect GRUB at all?

Sorry about my many questions. I just don't want to mess anything up.

just my little 2c.
If you can boot computer, and run well, do not upgrade bios!.

Bios is stored in the eeprom, the risk of upgrading depends on your power supply and hardware as well as the software used to write from computer back to eeprom.
If power supply gets interrupted during the eeprom writing cycle, you will get big oop! because you need to bring the computer to some shop to reprogram the eeprom ( for those computers that had eeprom soldered onto the mother board, they will need to desolder them and program it using a eeprom programmer, of course it will cost some $$)

So, if computer can boot and run, do not upgrade bios.. that is just 2c.

[AlbertP]

Just a few questions about that-
To update the bios, I must download the appropriate file from the Acer site, unzip, and run the Windows installer, correct?
Is this risky to do? I've read a number of reports of bios-updating crashing people's computers.
Will this affect GRUB at all?

BIOS update can be risky if your power drops during the update but usually it's safe. Grub should not be affected. (I have also upgraded BIOS on my HP laptop, it fixed fanspeed somehow and Grub/Linux still worked fine)

[alkanator]

I upgraded the BIOS and it works! The fan is running properly and the laptop doesn't shut off (without me telling it to).

For anyone else having this problem, I looked this up, and apparently, for this particular laptop model (Aspire 5315), Acer decided to try something different. Instead of putting the fan-controlling abilities in the BIOS, they put them into some of the preloaded Windows-only software (Acer ePower Management), which made it very hard to use other operating systems on the computer. Thankfully, some people spoke out, and Acer released a BIOS update, so that the BIOS can once again control the fans.

Well thank you guys very much! This would have taken a lot longer, and possibly ended in a major crash, or in my giving up, without your help. This problem seems to be completely solved. Now I can use Mint like an actual operating system. I've been looking around on it, and I must say, I'm impressed. I hope to have many happy Linux days ahead.

P.S. Is there any type of credit-giving system in this forum or way of indicating that the problem is solved? (this is the first forum I've ever posted in.)

[AlbertP]

Please edit the first post of the thread to add [solved] to the title.