I'm looking at this laptop to purchase: Acer Aspire AS8730-6951, http://tinyurl.com/cwjnme (newegg link).
I've had problems with a Toshiba laptop (their "intermittent screen blanking" issue) where I've had to upgrade the BIOS numerous times as a fix (without success). Luckily, I kept the Windows Vista partition when I installed Etch, because that's the method I've been using to update the BIOS. I've looked at Acer's support site but can't figure out or find the procedures for upgrading the bios. What I think I'm seeing though, is that Windows Vista will be required to update the BIOS. I've seen posts in the past, and in googling in the past, I know that some laptop brands you can copy the bios update file(s) to a CD/DVD or USB drive and boot from that (or the old method of booting from a floppy for versions of Windows earlier than Vista, but floppies no longer come with laptops) to update the bios. I've also seen a post or two that states that if you update the bios on an Acer laptop you void the warranty? And if the bios update process fails for whatever reason and the bios chip is bricked, the laptop can't be fixed. Is there a method of updating the bios on an Acer without booting into windows? I tried asking Acer tech support this question, and while underlining that I wasn't asking them for Linux support but planned to run Linux as the reason for the question, they went off the deep end twice so far with the mention of Linux, and haven't answered me yet for my third explanation of just asking for _all_ the bios update procedures (ie: any method other than requiring to update while running Vista, usb/cd/dvd/other, DOS, FreeDOS...), without any request about Linux. Acer's response (and their lack of documentation in various Acer models' manuals or their support web site for the procedures for updating the bios is throwing up red flags as to whether or not I should trust them for a thousand dollar plus laptop purchase. The reason I'm looking at this laptop is price compared to other brands with the processor speed, nvidia graphics, screen size/resolution, etc. I was planning on using the laptop with Lenny as a front end for mythtv (720p/1080i) especially with nVidia/VDPAU coming to mythtv, along with general desktop use, development, etc. Any guidance on updating the BIOS on Acer, opinions on quality/support/general hardware with Linux kernel will be appreciated. Thanks, Laura -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org