Hello all,
I would like to kindly ask your help/feedback on flashing stock bios back to a Intel NUC 7i7DNHE (now Asus after product line acquisition)
Problem: I have this NUC from a long time. After a while, it was able to boot and reboot and sometimes with no video signal from any HDMI port. Tried different cables/monitors with no luck. After that it started to stop booting completely. I cannot use any standard method from asus site as I cannot boot the NUC at all. So no F7, USB or UEFI Shell.
What I have tried so far: With the help of CH341a programmer
I did a backup, erased and recovered BIOS to original chip - no luck
downloaded latest official BIOS (v82 from Asus site) and flashed original to BIOS chip with a clip - no luck
Purchased same chip and flashed with stock BIOS (Winbond WQ128JVSQ) and soldered back to MB - I used the BIN file - no luck
What I get now, at least is the MB tries to power on but it shuts down immediately and goes in loop. Not even the time to spin the fan.
Chip is soldered back correctly and I verified BIN image with flashed chip and they match.
What else I can try to bring the NUC back to life?
The file you used is a complete Intel firmware, despite missing machine specific data the machine should boot!
The way you described the flashing, checks that the chip is properly flashed and chip exchange there’s no longer a chance that this is firmware related- Sorry.
I assume you have reconnected / reseated everything that sits in a socket / connector. Then there’s not too much left that can be fixed easily at home!
Could it be anything related to ME Regions?
The full truth is this NUC has been repaired from a professional before.
By the time I got it back and few boots later to install ubuntu (repairer installed Win11) it went back again into the same issue as before
Do you know where I could get the Intel Flash tool for the ME region reported in the UEFITool? 11.8.95.4551?
This is the first time for me and I’m reading/learning as much as I can, apologies if the question is not pertinent
Thanks
So what was the issue that lead to a professional repair and what was “fixed”?
And went back to what symptoms?
There’s nothing wrong with your Intel ME FW image 11.8.95.4551.
Flashing FW images doesnt correct any issue on seated corrupted images.
Besides the Winbond PCB label “SPI U4202”, i see a lot of IC’s on the other side of the board, have you read them and check their content?
For your reading only and have an insight of the Intel Engine Firmware:
Yes, this is the stock image from Asus site. Chip verified ok after writing.
I should do have a backup copy of the old binaries before replacing the chip.
Unfortunately the old chip broke so I cannot read the image from there again.
The issue solved is the one stated in the problem at the top of the thread.
Thanks for the links, there’s quite a lot to read.
I’m on the phone atm and will try to upload the old backup image (which stopped working) almost after the repair was done. Maybe the issue is not with the bios, it could be a fault on other components.
This file “oldbios” is only for original system data recover attempts if still intact…and seems to suffer from a failed Intel ME update failure stated by NVAR.
What matters here is verifying the reading content flashed to the IC against the original file used to program, to check if data bit discrepancy.
Then we could assume its hw related and not SPI program issue, as i went back read your initial post, the system loses image output signal and could have an issue in the PCH.
Anyway, good luck.