Bricked BIOS for Lenovo P710, need help fixing it

[ItxLeo]

Hi guys! It has been a while since I’ve been here

I was working on a Lenovo Thinkstation P710 with a corrupted BIOS. A wrong bios update was performed via windows and since then it gives out a black screen.

I have a CH314A so I took a dump of the BIOS, it’s a 16MB ROM, I’ll attach it here.

Problem is, I can’t find any other bin file online, Lenovo only gives you the 8MB file, I’ll link the page right here: Flash BIOS Update - ThinkStation P710 - Lenovo Support IT

So I really don’t know how to get a bin file that I can flash back using the programmer, if any of you knows how to fix my corrupted dump or can find a functioning 16MB bios, it would be amazing!

I’ll tag @Lost_N_BIOS as you helped me a LOT back in the day when I was working on the LGA 1151 mod for Coffee lake on Z170, I still owe you one!

Thanks in advance to everybody, it’s very nice to know that a forum like WinRaid exists

I
Lenovo P710.zip (8.6 MB)

[lfb6]

@ItxLeo

Lenovo Thinkstation P710 with a corrupted BIOS. A wrong bios update was performed via windows

Lost_N_BIOS hasn’t been active here in more than two years.

There’s no sign of a failed bios update in the dump provided, it’s bios S01KT72A and all the static parts are identical to stock.

So it’s either settings in NVRAM or a corrupted ME (but it opens fine in FIT) or something not firmware related…

[ItxLeo]

First of all thanks a lot for the answer and for taking a look at it!

That’s sad to hear about Lost N Bios, hope he’s doing okay

I triple checked the hardware and it really is all good, how it went bricked is:

The guy selected every optional windows update available and for some reasons there were like 20+, rebooted the PC and it’s bricked since then.

If it’s the ME or NVRAM, is there a way to fix it?

Thanks in advance!

[lfb6]

@ItxLeo

able and for some reasons there were like 20+, reboo

Try the attached file, NVRAM emptied to DMI data, ME cleanly rebuilt.

710enme.zip (8.5 MB)

[ItxLeo]

THAT WORKED PERFECTLY FINE!!!

I don’t know how to thank you mate, truly a great job I was absolutely certain it was corrupted somewhere lol.

I really do love tech and I’ve explored pretty much every possibility in the past years, but I’m still very noob-ish when it comes to bioses. Could you recommend me a way to start to really learn about how to work on corrupted bioses, cleaning the NVRAM and accessing the ME? I’d love if you could teach me a little

[lfb6]

Thanks for the feedback, glad to hear it worked. Since there were two changes combined (reinitializing ME and emptying NVRAM) it’s unclear where the fault was. No visible corruption both areas…

Cleaning / fhreshly initializing Intel ME:

[Guide] Clean Dumped Intel Engine (CS)ME/(CS)TXE Regions with Data Initialization

Guide-How To: Clean Dumped Intel Engine (CS)ME/(CS)TXE Regions with Data Initialization Last Updated: 2020-07-22 This guide is relevant to those who need to clean the DATA section of an Engine (CSME, ME, CSTXE, TXE) Region, which is part of a dumped SPI/BIOS image, in order to flash the latter on a different machine of the same OEM model. It is not meant as a guide on how to completely transform a dumped Engine region into a stock Intel-provided one. Although the guide can be used for that some…

About the NVRAM- there are some posts here and a lot of posts, but this depends on bios manufacturer and version, there’s no ‘general rule’. Take a look into the files with UEFIToolNE and compare them with HxD, it’s actually not much I did change!