Hello,
I hope I’m posting in the right section, I don’t speak perfect English so I don’t understand everything.
I have done some research and I can’t find a solution to my problem, but I came to this forum where I thought that maybe someone could help me.
I have a problem with an Alienware Aurora ALX PC (R1), I wanted to update the BIOS and there was a power failure… Now the computer boots but does not display anything. It beeps when I remove the RAM or when I plug in a USB stick. But those are the only signs of life I can get.
I bought an SPI programmer and a Pomona clip. I could see that the BIOS was on an MXIC MX25L3206E chip but unable to get anything out of it. The CH341 program tells me that it does not recognize the chip, I have tried many versions without success. Trying with the chip of my graphics card I have no problem, so it is indeed with the BIOS chip that there is a problem.
I don’t know much about it, I just did some research everywhere, maybe I’m doing it wrong…
Is it possible to do something or is the motherboard dead in your opinion?
Thanks in advance.
The SPI/BIOS chip firmware is probably corrupted and that should be solvable with a re-flash. It is doubtful that there is actual hardware damage. First, you need to be able to read and/or write the SPI chip. A quick search on the forum with this SPI chip does yield some interesting findings from another user a few years ago. Searching for MX25L3206E and CH341A might result in even more past user experiences which can help you pinpoint why you can’t get useful data out of the chip.
Thank you for your quick response.
So I need to unsolder the chip. That’s what I was afraid of. After all I have nothing left to lose.
According to that user’s experience, yes. Indeed at this point you have nothing to lose.
Ok, so that was the right solution. The chip can be recognized now. (Now I just have to see if I’ll be able to re-solder it, but that’s another problem!)
Thanks for the help already! I still need a little help if you don’t mind. I’m not sure what to put back into the chip. I can extract a bin file from the BIOS upgrade software and write it to the chip. Is there anything else to modify? This may be a silly question but I prefer to be sure before re-soldering.
Thanks in advance.
Ok so you are now able to read/write the SPI chip. Dump its contents to keep a backup, just in case. The latest BIOS from Dell (hopefully I found the right model) seems to include a 4MB BIOS image which matches the size of the (32Mbit) MX25L3206E chip so it should be full and thus ready for flashing. I have compressed and attached the official Dell 4MB SPI image below. Flash it, verify the contents of the SPI chip and re-solder it.
EDIT: Are you sure the system has only one 4MB SPI chip? There is a chance that that generation of Intel systems were using the Flash Descriptor structure and this 4MB image is the (2nd) BIOS only. Maybe it has another 1MB (8Mbit), 2MB (16Mbit) or similar SPI chip? I could be wrong though because I’ve forgotten how things were done back then. I’m fairly certain Flash Descriptor became obligatory at Intel 5-series (P55 etc) but maybe it was still optional at X58 (which was based on the previous gen). Is your system based on X58 or 5-series? The specs I find online can be confusing/contradicting.
au04.rar (662 KB)
I made a backup and I noticed that there were 2 times less lines in my backup than in the bios I downloaded by searching with emacs (Is it because my power failure occurred when I was at 50% of the update?).
The motherboard is an x58, which works with the very first i7 processors, I’m pretty sure there is only one BIOS chip. Otherwise I really don’t see where the other one is.
Normally the bios I had was this one: https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/…?driverid=9dcy7
Thanks a lot for your help.
Edit: I just searched I can only find this replacement BIOS chip on the shopping sites for this motherboard. I guess that means there is only it?
The main thing we are looking for is for the programmer to be able to read and write back all 4MB of the SPI chip. The current contents may be corrupted, cut in half etc depending on what was happening when the power was lost.
There must be only 1 chip because Flash Descriptor was optional at X58 and its size (4MB) is rather large for the time. Also, the AMI Core 8 BIOS Information section reports that its size is 4MB and Dual BIOS is set to No. This is the chip for sure, let’s proceed with flashing its 4MB contents.
I extracted the raw 4MB SPI image from the A11 BIOS you linked and attached below. Flash “a11.bin” with the programmer, verify that the data were written back properly, re-solder it and the system should be operational again.
a11.rar (702 KB)
Thanks for your help but I think I definitely killed the motherboard trying to resolder. I did a first soldering not so bad but the chip was slightly diagonal and the pin 5 was not in contact and while trying to desolder again I tore the copper under the pin 6. I then tried to put a copper twig in contact with the motherboard after scraping the plastic but nothing works. I just have to buy a new motherboard.
Just out of curiosity to know how to do it, you found how the bin file in the .exe?
Anyway, thanks again for your help!
Ah, it’s a shame that happened. At least you gave it a try on an old platform with nothing to lose. As for the SPI image, the executable from Dell has an old structure they were using (called TAB I think) which combined the required executables with the BIOS image in compressed form. You can use 7zip to easily get the BIOS image out of it as it seems to automatically detect the compressed section and show you the binary immediately.
Oh ok, thank you, I would have learned something at least from this experience.
I found a professional who can reattach the chip properly for about 30 euros. I think I’ll give it a try and if it doesn’t work again, I’ll give up (I hope I did put the BIOS back on the chip properly haha!)
Yeah that would be funny. Hopefully it works out. 
Just to let you know, I had the chip professionally re-soldered today and it works!
Thank you so much for your help and for what I have learned. 
Finally, I have one last little problem. If it can’t be fixed, it’s not a big deal. My Windows license and the serial number of the PC should be contained in the chip because now Windows tells me that it is no longer activated and my PC is no longer recognized by the Dell site.
Is there any way to recover the information from the backup I made and add it to the chip without un-soldering it from a software like the one on the Dell site?
Thanks again and sorry for taking your time.
Edit: Maybe for windows it has nothing to do in fact. I have the problem every other boot. I may try to reinstall it properly.
I don’t know specifics but these should be stored in DMI so tools like AMI DMI Edit (for old Core 8 BIOS v3, non-Aptio v4-5) might be able to read and change such info, provided that you know their old values somehow (sticker for instance). As for dumping the BIOS via software, you should be able to use AMI AFU v3. It should be easy on such an old platform but I don’t really know these so maybe someone else can assist more.
Ok! Thanks a lot for this information I will start my research alone and I will post in the BIOS section if I need help.
Well you’re already in the BIOS section, I made a mistake there so the post has been edited now.
Hello !
Sorry, I didn’t answer earlier I had some work to do. I did some research by myself and looked for differences between my backup file and the BIOS file. I didn’t understand why a whole part was different and I remembered that I tried to switch from A11 bios to A09 bios. So the first part of my backup corresponds to the A09 bios and the other part to A11… The difference starts from line 003B C890.
I will attach the files and screenshots to illustrate my point. Indeed in my backup I find the service tag of my PC and codes, potentially those that are missing for my Windows.
Now I could edit the A11 file to add the missing lines by copying my backup and flashing my bios but I don’t know how to do it and I don’t know if it’s a good idea.
Is it feasible or should I give up?
Thanks in advance !
Difference 1
Difference 2
Difference 3
Difference 4
bios&backup.zip (2.1 MB)
The offsets seem to be the same for this info and these are old BIOS so it might be as simple as copy-pasting them via a hex editor (.i.e. HxD etc). You can try it with those 4 sections (AMINCBLK+) and it’ll probably be ok.
Thanks for your answer!
I modified my file with VBinDiff (it is really good this software) but I have just 2 places where I don’t know what to do.
On the first one I have 00 00 00 00 on the a11 bios and FF FF FF FF on the backup. Should I modify or do I not care?
On the second one I have two lines present on the bios a09 and a11 but absent from the backup. (003A FFE0 & 003A FFF0) Should I delete them ?
And I did not understand how I can test the bios once I’m done, I would need a little more explanation, sorry.
Thanks again for your help!