Hi all,
I’ve got a ASUS Vivobook K712 with a GigDevice GD25B127D BIOS chip. The machine shut down in the middle of use and wont boot, I’m thinking it was in the middle of a BIOS update of some sort.
I can read the BIOS with a CH341A but can’t seem to write or clear it, I’m guessing due to protection. Any help or suggestions on how to write a clean version of firmware to hopefully get the machine running again?
Thanks,
Travis
Welcome to the forum
We never write anything without a proper reading and a full backup.
How do you see the chances of a successful writing operation when theres no reading at all.
Thats the most illogical operation when dealing with SPI programing.
Search on the forum for “CH341” guides and other users experiences on flashing laptops, the connection may require CMOS battery off/on, PSU stand-by, the correct IC voltage.
Last resource is desoldering the IC from the mainboard for external programing.
The mainboard can have several ICs (Main bios, EC, TPM, ME…)
Good luck.
Sorry, I did take a backup before I tried to write. With that said, this is my first go at working with BIOS other than adjusting included settings. I may have jumped into the middle rather than starting at the beginning, but the initial resources I found weren’t great. Somehow my google-fu missed this place until this evening.
I will take a look at the CH341 guides.
Travis
Post / attach the dump / backup you made.
Apparently I can’t upload as a new user…I’ll look for alternate methods.
No, it seems you couldn’t even read the chip- the file you did send contains just “FF”, 16 MB of it. A CH341 is a very simple device, it sometimes indicates a read process, even without proper contact to the chip…
Now it’s unclear what’s still on the chip / if there’s still something on that chip. You might have erased or overwritten it partially? without recognizing.
What did you want to flash? Please attach this file, too!
What exact type is this Vivobook?
I was just trying to write back what I got from it. the clip is finicky, but when it wasn’t right it would error. It also wouldn’t physically feel right. So whatever went wrong, seemed to erase, or corrupt the chip to “blank” it.
It is a Vivobook 17 K712EA
Thank you for the help so far, it is greatly apreciated.
Travis
So you don’t have another firmware image as the (worthless) empty file you attached?
I recommend to read the chip again, hoping that the earlier read- tries were not successful and you weren’t successful in erasing / overwriting the chip either.
If the chip is erased and you don’t have a valid backup you’re quite dead in the water. Asus doesn’t provide complete bios images afaics and a short search didn’t show any images floating around for this model,
Mght’ve been solvable with a properly made dump of the bricked firmware- image (if at all firmware related)
Good luck!
Here’s to hoping!
Thanks again.
Well, its a good thing I was a moron. I didn’t have the CH341 configured properly. I do now and it has taken a reading with more then just FF in it. Would someone mind taking a look to see if it looks corrupt?
Thanks,
Travis
ASUS 712 12-24-23.zip (7.5 MB)
That indeed looks like a proper Intel firmware image.
Sorry, but not any trace of such events. This is bios 304 and static code is a 100% identical to stock bios region.
So there are 2 firmware related options:
Try this image. ME reinitialized, NVRAM empty/stock: ASUS 712 12-24-23_envr_ME.zip (7.3 MB)
(I’m afraid this won’t work and then it’s hardware, unfortunately.)
Make sure you get the file written properly into the SPI chip. Read / dump it again in a separate process, save, compare the newly read content to the original file, they should be a 100% identical.
Disconnect all batteries and clear CMOS according to manufacturers manual.