Risky Attempt at Resetting BIOS (need simple advice)

[mtea]

I'm about to do something risky.
To some, this "risk" might sound trivial and outright stupid but please bear with me.

I'll have to reset BIOS settings of my laptop because the screen is not getting any data from my mobo, resulting into a constantly empty screen.
Reading the online manual of the laptop, the instructions sound quite dangerous to me.

They involve shorting CMOS jumpers.
Specifically, by continually shorting the jumpers AND plugging in the AC current and waiting for bios POST, all that while keeping the jumpies shorted.

Few years ago I burnt a desktop motherboard by a similar practice, shorting + AC current. Regardless, the experience was rather alarming.
The issue occurred upon exploring BIOS environment, I changed the value of "default monitor something something" into "auto", it previously had another value but I couldn't remember which of the 5-6 different values it was, so 'auto' seemed like a decent choice.

Since that was my only change, I trivially saved the new setting and restarting I found a pitch black screen that would persist no matter what for these past few days.
Obviously the mobo is feeding the info elsewhere and not my screen.
I tried VGA and HDMI outputs in hopes the "auto" mode shifted toward them, but that didn't work out.

I tried all the typical ways to reset bios, like getting the battery out, CMOS battery out, waiting, casual shorting, more waiting, pressing power button in such and such manner etc etc.
Now my last resort seems to be doing the "proper" shorting.

So my question boils down to:
Even though it comes straight from the official manual of the very laptop I own, I'm still afraid of potential complications.
What are the chances of a disaster and how safe is it and what tool would be better used for this task?

Laptop model is Acer Aspire V3-771G

Here's the manual in PDF form, you'll find the instructions I'm talking about in page 250 (PDF pages) or manual page 5-6.

http://data.manualslib.com/pdf3/55/...?938780cbf246ab9d32913aa3e7ef2420&take=binary

 

[vailr]

The "shorting" method is (according to the manual):

"NOTE:
The following procedure is only for clearing BIOS Password (Supervisor Password and
User Password).

The 2nd method seems safer and doesn't involve shorting pins, but instead uses a specially
prepared USB thumb drive to re-flash the bios.

BIOS Recovery by Crisis Disk 0
BIOS Recovery Boot Block 0
BIOS Recovery Boot Block is a special block of BIOS, used to boot the system with minimum
BIOS initialization. Users can enable this feature to restore the BIOS firmware once the
previous BIOS flashing process failed.
BIOS Recovery Hotkey 0
A function hotkey- <Fn+Esc>, used to enable the BIOS Recovery process when system is
powered On during BIOS POST. To use this function, it is strongly recommended to have the
AC adapter and Battery present. If this function is enabled, the system will force the BIOS to
enter a special BIOS block, called Boot Block.
Steps for BIOS Recovery from USB Storage 0
NOTE: NOTE:
Prior to performing the recovery, prepare a Crisis USB key. The Crisis USB key is
created by executing the Crisis Disk program in another system with Windows 7 OS.
To Create a Crisis USB key, perform the following:
1. Format the USB storage disk using the Fast Format option.
2. Save ROM file (file name: VAG70X64.fd) to the root directory of USB storage. Make sure
that there is no other BIOS file saved in the same directory.
3. Plug USB storage into USB port.
4. Press <Fn+ESC>button then plug in AC power.
5. The Power button flashes once.
6. Press Powerbutton to initiate system CRISIS mode.
7. When CRISIS is complete, the system auto restarts with a workable BIOS.
8. Update the latest version BIOS for this machine by regular BIOS flashing process.

 

[mtea]

The "shorting" method is (according to the manual):

"NOTE:
The following procedure is only for clearing BIOS Password (Supervisor Password and
User Password).

The 2nd method seems safer and doesn't involve shorting pins, but instead uses a specially
prepared USB thumb drive to re-flash the bios.

BIOS Recovery by Crisis Disk 0
BIOS Recovery Boot Block 0
BIOS Recovery Boot Block is a special block of BIOS, used to boot the system with minimum
BIOS initialization. Users can enable this feature to restore the BIOS firmware once the
previous BIOS flashing process failed.
BIOS Recovery Hotkey 0
A function hotkey- <Fn+Esc>, used to enable the BIOS Recovery process when system is
powered On during BIOS POST. To use this function, it is strongly recommended to have the
AC adapter and Battery present. If this function is enabled, the system will force the BIOS to
enter a special BIOS block, called Boot Block.
Steps for BIOS Recovery from USB Storage 0
NOTE: NOTE:
Prior to performing the recovery, prepare a Crisis USB key. The Crisis USB key is
created by executing the Crisis Disk program in another system with Windows 7 OS.
To Create a Crisis USB key, perform the following:
1. Format the USB storage disk using the Fast Format option.
2. Save ROM file (file name: VAG70X64.fd) to the root directory of USB storage. Make sure
that there is no other BIOS file saved in the same directory.
3. Plug USB storage into USB port.
4. Press <Fn+ESC>button then plug in AC power.
5. The Power button flashes once.
6. Press Powerbutton to initiate system CRISIS mode.
7. When CRISIS is complete, the system auto restarts with a workable BIOS.
8. Update the latest version BIOS for this machine by regular BIOS flashing process.

I did try the shorting the jumpers but seems haven't worked.
Although I can never see the screen so I'm not sure what to do at which point.
Will post later today with results of your suggestion.

 

[dma0991]

I've had a similar problem a long time ago. The only thing different is that it was a desktop motherboard with dual BIOS, where one is corrupted and had blank screen POST and spare BIOS didn't reset the other BIOS till I got an older BIOS revision that did.

Your possible chance of repairing it is to force it do a BIOS reflash. The catch is that you have to do it blindly with a blank screen. The other catch is finding the correct BIOS for that laptop. Manufacturers do not usually provide BIOS download for laptops as the components are usually fixed and doesn't need to support a wide range of hardware like desktop motherboards do.

If its still under warranty, send it back. That's the easiest and sure way of getting it functioning again.

 

[mtea]

UPDATE:
Past few days I've tried a number of things and found myself in a dead end.

As far as I know there are 2 formal ways to reset bios.
The one is to Short Jumpers and the other is to use Crisis Disk mode.

I tried both and neither worked, although they are certain instructions that must be done in a correct order for these resets to work.
In my case, both of the methods include the Power Button, holding it down and releasing in a very specific way.

That doesn't work now because: My laptop opens as soon as I plug the AC in, it auto-starts, it turns on automatticaly just by pluggin in the AC cable.
I google'd it and almost everyone attributes the problem to bad BIOS.
The auto-start only started occuring after the earlier attempts to reset bios.
My guess is that I messed the BIOS in the process of reseting the healthy BIOS.

The story:

0.Everything is fine.
1.I explore bios, look around settings.
2.I find "Default/Primary Screen/Monitor Display" or something along those lines and press enter to see other possible values for the option, there were 5-6 different ones.
3.Moving away from that option I forgot which was the default value of the option so I put "auto" instead, thinking that is the holy grail of healthy curiosity.
4.I exit BIOS saving the changes, that was the only change I had made, didn't see anything wrong with that.
5.Upon restarting at that very instant, my screen turned black and unresponsive, it was obvious, my motherboard wasn't feeding power/data to my actual screen, a result of the options.
6.I tried removing all batteries and AC for minutes, hours hoping for a bios reset but that didn't happen.
7.I started searching on the internet and found that I had to short the jumpers for a proper hard reset, reached for the manual and there was a precise but for me dangerous practice of reseting bios, which I described in OP.
8.My first attempts to short the jumpers weren't correct, which is when I think my BIOS got wrecked and the reason why laptop powers up when plugged in.
9.Next day I tried both jumper shorting and USB CRISIS mode, although both of them required a certain way of pressing power button, it was that moment I first noticed the laptop was turning on automatically when plugged.
10.The reset methods were impossible to recreate, because as soon as I plugged the AC in, I had also use Power Button in a certain way but pressing it would shut down the laptop, because it was already powered up.

Recap:
My initial mistake was capable of fully explaining the earlier symptoms.
When I tried(half-assed) to reset BIOS, I made things worse by bricking BIOS.
Which resulted in auto-start when plugged, which makes seemingly impossible to follow the correct sequence of reset methods.
A paradox is created, to fix BIOS I have to fix the auto-power-up, to fix auto-power-up I have to fix BIOS, or at least this is how my limited range of knowledge perceives it.

If you were in my place, with all your knowledge what would you do?

I heard another option, keep the motherboard away from any power source for weeks so all the internal memory gets wiped out.
Do you think this is possible? If so, how much time would it really need?