about 3 weeks ago i had successfully modded my bios with the help of @Pythonic - all went well until i changed some setting myself and laptop proceeded to go into boot loop ( assume from a setting i enabled) unsure of which setting it may have been.
Since then i have bought a Ch341A programmer and have tried multiple times to reflash the modded bios ( confirmed as working prior to issue ) and I’m 1) unable to find my exact chip in any bios reading programs (AS Programmer, Neoprogrammer etc) an unable to reflash the modded bios to the Chip on my motherboard ( this is the only chip on the board that i can identify clearly as the bios chip ) i get errors saying the buffer size is not equal to the IC Chip - when i change the chip size manually it flashes successfully but it appears to flash it jumbled and not as the original file is, and laptop still sits in boot loop, when i flash other images it changes the behavior of the laptop, so i assume this chip is where i need to be but having trouble with the reflash process, and not get anyhthing on boot (screen blank - but fans spin)
Assuming the modded bios i know works well, would have all the details i need to flash to the chip, ( unfortunately i do not have the original bios backed up ( stupid i know ) would anyone have any help or suggestions that could help me to be able to re flash this bios correctly?
These are the only 2 chips i can read on the board - the ( Winbond 25Q16JWSIQ ) is 16mb chip, the other is only an 8mb chip - so based in bios file size the 16mb one has to be the correct chip
You have to learn the difference between bit and byte- the two mentioned chips are 16Mbit and 8 Mbit respective, meaning they are 2 MByte and 1 MByte and can’t be the bios chip. They might be / have been Thunderbolt firmware, firmware for the graphics card(?), EC firmware.
And you don’t identify firmware chips by their size but by their content. Dump the chip, identify it as correct firmware, save the dump(!!), then begin to work with it.
I assume you didn’t look into the datasheets, the 16MBit chip is 1.8V. Did you use an 1.8V adaptor when flashing trying to flash? If not there’s a chance you might’ve fried or damaged the chip.
Your backup isn’t a complete firmware, it’s just the bios region, missing ‘the other 16 MByte’ FD and ME region. Every attempt to flash just this region back with a programmer will anyway brick the board (even if flashed to the correct chip).
The ‘bios’ chip is probably the 25Q256JV, it’s WSON and won’t work with the SOIC clamp.
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=> Do you have a backup of the 25Q16JW? Attach/ post this file.
Thanks yes i do have a backup for the 25Q16JW Chip please see attached,
will the 25Q256JV Chip need to be desoldered imagine? the bios firmware on that chip would still be intact, the ony issue would be the settings i changed would they still remain the same if reflashed or is there a way to return them to default?
this bios worked perfectly fine prior to settings change, i could compile a list of the setting that were changed if that would help in restoring the bios image to default settings
I also forgot to mention i did ue the 1.8V adapter - the chip is still in working condition can read and write to it no problem - have managed to flash the above backup file to that chip.
Good - but that’s a 16 Mbit chip corresponding 2 MByte yet your backup has just 1 MByte?
Firmware:
You can either exchange the bios region of your dump with the bios region you backed up or you can just empty the NVRAM and replace by stock.
For the 256 Mbit chip you need a special clip or have to desolder it. Just as an example (first link I found):
Clip has to be hold during reading and writing!
You need the right distance between the pin rows correspondig to your chip since this isn’t a flexible clamp that fits several sizes.
And there’s still the thing with the half size backup?!
( stupid i know ) would anyone have any help or suggestions that could help me to be able to re flash this bios correctly?