Reflash BIOS

LM3

[H]ard|Gawd
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Mar 21, 2004
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Asus Laptop K55A HI5103D had bad BIOS flash. Motherboard has been removed. Does anyone have the ability to reflash this board?
 
May I ask how you determined the Bios was corrupt?.......Would it boot?, bricked? and why did you take the board out. Just asking to get a feel for what led up to your problem.
Iv'e owned many Asus boards and it always seemed possible to 'Re-Flash' the current Bios or revert to an older Bios.
Give Asus a call and ask them what you can do to recover the Bios. Maybe they can send you a new chip, not that hard to replace, probably soldered.
 
It is bricked. I tried to flash it in Windows and it would never complete. I contacted Asus and they wanted $410 plus to fix it. Would not tell me how.
 
Check on Ebay for pre-flashed replacement chip for ~$20. Should be easy to clip old one, desolder legs then solder on new one. Only 8 pins.
 
Doesnt your mobo have a backup bios that you can access so that you can then reflash, as most mobos nowadays come with two bios chips incase one fucks up.

Have a look at your manual and see if it has a second bios and if it does, how to access it when the main one takes a dump.
 
No backup. This seems to be a common problem with Asus laptops.

My soldering skills suck. I am not even sure which is the BIOS chip. Couldn't read the chips even with a magnifying glass.
 
Check on Ebay for pre-flashed replacement chip for ~$20. Should be easy to clip old one, desolder legs then solder on new one. Only 8 pins.

There is at least one Bios Chip for your laptop on Ebay for $19
 
Check on Ebay for pre-flashed replacement chip for ~$20. Should be easy to clip old one, desolder legs then solder on new one. Only 8 pins.

I have tried to practice on an old Dell board. Is there an easy way to get the old one off?
 
I must've gotten lucky then, I recently had to flash mine and opted to use Asus' Win8.1 utility to do it; worked fine.

I'm use to soldering on automotive wiring, but shit, you might need ant-man to help you out with this one.
 
Suggest clipping the legs closest to IC, desolder legs from pads then solder new chip on. If needed tape it down to begin and a solder a leg on opposite sides to get it to stay in place before doing the rest of the legs. No sense in risking damage to your mobo trying to salvage a $20 chip by trying to desolder it whole which usually requires specialized equipment. Really simple or take it to a local electronics hobby store to do it for you. Watch this YouTube to get the gist of it but maybe use fine point clippers instead of razor to cut the legs so you don't slip and cut traces.

https://youtu.be/ADxl1LN7iSk
 
Don't try to unsolder the chip. You'll screw it up unless you have the right tools and are skilled with a soldering iron.

Get an SPI programmer and an SOIC/SOP clip to connect it to the BIOS chip. It should cost less than $30 shipped all the way from China/Hong Kong.

Something like this would be super cheap, but you could get better ones for more.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EN25T80-Pro...XX25XX-STC-AVR-Support-TTL-BDUS-/371063100253

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SOIC8-SOP8-...-circuit-Programm-BIOS-24-25-93-/291334021888
 
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Dr.Nut, was going to ask if includes software to program the chip but it looks like it's downloadable from internet. Never programmed anything in place but neat if it works.
 
Dr.Nut, was going to ask if includes software to program the chip but it looks like it's downloadable from internet. Never programmed anything in place but neat if it works.

I agree. I would try this if I can find out everything I need.
 
If you can wait for sometime I can help you out, il desolder the chip and program the full bios backup to that chip and resolder it.
You have to pay only for shipping and bios file ( which I don't have but will be bought from a BIOS guy ),
If you have a full backup you can send it along so I can program it directly.

BUT ONLY IF YOU CAN WAIT UNTIL END OF AUGUST.
 
Continuing the discussion here from email.

The software driver can be found under another listing or by Googling "en25t80 software".

Probably a good idea to check if your chip type is supported not only for read but also for write.

And, assume any software from Asia to be infected so scan executables through VirusTotal and run it in a temporary VM.

Or, go with the chip replacement option.
 
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Probably a good idea to check if your chip type is supported not only for read but also for write.

I have tried to read what is on the chip but it is darn near impossible.
MXIO ?MX
25L 645E
M2I 103 or 8


Is there a way to determine what chip is on the board?
 
LM3, I just replied to your PM.

That link I sent you to digikey.com is probably the same chip that's on your laptop.

The programmer should be compatible with most SPI chips. I have never had any trouble programming MX chips or others on various motherboards.
 
Make sure it's the chip , because there are two chips, one for EC and one for bios.
EC chip will have a small capacity and bios chip will have 8mb or 16mb sometimes 32mb.
Before flashing the chip make an backup to a ".rom" file so in case if you flashed the wrong chip you can flash it back.
 
I just ordered everything. Will get back here when it arrives. Thanks for all the help.
 
I should have asked, but did you try to recover the BIOS using a USB thumb drive method?

The rename the BIOS file from Asus's web site to K55A.bin and place it on a FAT32 formatted thumb drive. Turn it on and press CTRL + Home immediately. If you see read activity on the thumb drive's light (more than a couple of blinks) then it is flashing the BIOS. Wait ten minutes and reboot.
 
I have tried to read what is on the chip but it is darn near impossible.
MXIO ?MX
25L 645E
M2I 103 or 8

Is there a way to determine what chip is on the board?

Fired up my EETools software and for Macronix chips in 8-pin SOIC package it lists two parts (let me know if it's more than 8 pins):

MX25L6406EM2I
MX25L6435EM2I

For detection, chips usually have a unique ID that can be read with something like flashrom open source software.
 
I should have asked, but did you try to recover the BIOS using a USB thumb drive method?

The rename the BIOS file from Asus's web site to K55A.bin and place it on a FAT32 formatted thumb drive. Turn it on and press CTRL + Home immediately. If you see read activity on the thumb drive's light (more than a couple of blinks) then it is flashing the BIOS. Wait ten minutes and reboot.

No luck.
 
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