Can I replace Aptio 4 BIOS with Aptio V?

[Mugsy]

I have a Windows 10 touch-screen tablet with AMI's Aptio 4 BIOS (which lacks touch-screen support.)

I'd like to reflash the BIOS, replacing it with their new Aptio V BIOS (with touch-screen support.)

Does anyone know if this would even work? Or would a newer version of the same BIOS likely be incompatible?

 

[MaikuTech]

Name and model number of the tablet so we can get a better understanding of what your trying to flash.

 

[Mugsy]

Name and model number of the tablet so we can get a better understanding of what your trying to flash.

Thx for the reply.

Here is the tablet: https://www.insigniaproducts.com/pdp/NS-P11W7100/5255800

The link isn't very helpful. It's BestBuy's own brand, discontinued, and the only downloads are the Manual and WiFi driver.

 

[MaikuTech]

To be honest if it still works do not attempt to flash it with whatever bios you come across.
The only way to know if it will work, contact the original manufacturers who made it.

 

[Mugsy]

To be honest if it still works do not attempt to flash it with whatever bios you come across.
The only way to know if it will work, contact the original manufacturers who made it.

Thanks. Unfortunately, it does not work in it's present state due to corrupted Bios settings. The Bios itself is fine. The hardware is fine. Windows is fine. Only my settings are bad. I was hoping that replacing the non-touch screen AMI Bios with the newer version that added touch screen support would allow me to make the necessary changes (changes that might not even be necessary if flashing the Bios wiped out the old settings.)

I just heard back from the manufacturer. They said they do not have a copy of the original Bios to give me and a newer version was never made.

If anyone knows someone with a working Insignia 11.6" Windows-10 Flex tablet that could prove me with a copy of their Bios, I'd be most grateful.

 

[MaikuTech]

Well that sucks, you are going to hate this idea and me with it, go talk with the geeksquad at BestBuy.
You will want to talk to the lead the technicians or the person running that department.
You explain to Him/Her what the problem is, if they are unable to fix it and want to offer you a newer model.

Tell them yes if you have the money to do so, the only reason why I suggest doing that.
I really don't think anyone on the internet will go through the motions of dumping their bios and them walking you through it.
That tablet looks nice but looking at the reviews at a few online stores, it has some bad problems and lack of support.

http://www.tomsguide.com/forum/
Ask toms hardware in their tablet section and see what they think, be sure to show them this so they can be brought up to speed quickly.

 

[Mugsy]

Well that sucks, you are going to hate this idea and me with it, go talk with the geeksquad at BestBuy.

[...]

Ask toms hardware in their tablet section and see what they think, be sure to show them this so they can be brought up to speed quickly.

Been there. Done that.

"Geek Squad" is less knowledgeable than I am (a career tech of 35 years), and the manufacturers themselves say they are unable to help (despite asking their own techs.) The computer has been discontinued and there is no newer model.

Here are my threads on Tom's HW (and here, and here.) As you can see, it has been going on for quite a while.

 

[MaikuTech]

Well I'm sorry I couldn't help fix it, but think of it over about getting another one or save up some money and get ultra thin notebook.
You should see if this might be optional here:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/RCA-Camb...66001f5-c28ab31e-f5fc0ceb4a79005d&athena=true

 

[Mugsy]

You should see if this might be optional here:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/RCA-Camb...66001f5-c28ab31e-f5fc0ceb4a79005d&athena=true

Thx for the recommendation, but while the RCA Cambio tablets are a great deal, they are only 720p (1366x768, even their 11.6" version) where my own tablet is 1080p (1920x1080), which is one of the reasons I bought it.

I think my next move is to find a working used one on eBay, clone the Bios, write it back to my disabled tablet and see if that fixes it. If so, I can resell one of them back on eBay and if not, at least have a working tablet once again.

 

[MaikuTech]

I was going to recommend ebay but if you were willing to do that go ahead and buy it.
Dump your bios and boot back up into windows, copy the file name of that bios file.
Run a advance search on google then try bing advanced search, if someone had success with it or fixed it.
The search results will find it, if it were me dealing with that tablet, I would throw it inside a recycling bin or run over it with a car.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ excuse my violent remarks for things that aren't worth fixing that cannot be fixed after multiple attempts.

 

[Mugsy]

if it were me dealing with that tablet, I would throw it inside a recycling bin or run over it with a car.

I'm too poor to just throw away a $200 tablet. If there was something "physically" wrong with the tablet such as a cracked screen or broken hardware, I probably would. But when the problem is "software" related, I know that's a solvable problem.

 

[MaikuTech]

LOL well violence travels far with me, also you are never poor unless you think and act like you are poor.
Just do what you have to do to earn money and buy yourself a better tablet/notebook/desktop core i5 machine.

 

[Mugsy]

A brief update.

I purchased a used duplicate tablet off eBay for just $50 (no KB, no accessories. Works great.) for the purpose of saving a copy of the BIOS (including settings saved to the same chip) to a .bin file, then copying that over to the disabled tablet. (If successful, I'll have two working tablets and can resell one to recoup some of my losses. If not, I'll at least have one working tablet.)

Something odd has come up though. I downloaded the "Aptio 4 Firmware Update Tool" software from the AMI website and it reported I needed the software for "Aptio V". So apparently, the bios on the tablet is already "Aptio V"... just an earlier version w/o touch-screen support (2016).

So I used the Aptio V software to make a copy of the BIOS on the "new" tablet, and despite having a 64MB Bios, the saved .bin file is less than 5MB.

Does this make sense to anyone? Shouldn't the .bin file be a full 64MB (since the Winbond FlashRAM chip is 64MB)? I don't have another bios/bin file (for this tablet) to compare it to, but the latest BIOS download for my desktop PC is only 6MB, so maybe that's right.

Very confusing.