If it’s not immediately obvious, this is my first time ever attempting to update a BIOS. Thanks for taking the time to explain it to me.
I may have been confused about the file type. It was probably ecflash.bat then as it came up with the update prompt and progress bar etc.
Yes, when I got the programmer I think I actually did make some backups now that I think of it. Following this thread. Although, they don’t seem to be of much use from what I can tell.
My laptop is an XMG A517 (Model: N850HP), so I’m pretty sure it’s these files.
I believe I found the chip. Do you still need a photo of the entire board?
@TheCM - It’s OK, don’t worry, people have to do this all the time as their first time, well get there Yes, I need to see images of the entire board as mentioned, both sides if possible, otherwise I can only guess if this is EC chip and not vBIOS etc. Unless you dump it and send me the file to check, which you should do right now anyway. Read, then verify, then save file and send to me. Do not use AUTO and do not erase or write anything until I’ve told you the dump was OK
Never mind, no, that is not a BIOS or EC chip
Send me those files you dumped previously, thanks! Maybe we can salvage your serial or MAC ID etc from them
I’m not sure how I overlooked these two chips, but perhaps one of these is the EC chip? I believe that’s all of the chips of this type on the top side of the board.
My guess is the second one, since it’s so similar to the BIOS chip. It’s further away though, right next to the HDD. The first is next to the CMOS battery and the one I sent earlier is next to what I believe is the Wi-Fi card.
I could still try and take some photos of the whole board, but I doubt you’d be able to read most of the text unless I get some close-up shots. You’re also suggesting there may be more on the underside? That’ll mean unscrewing the board and such to see. It is a laptop after all.
As for the backup files, yeah I can try and get those for you. I’ll have to boot up Linux again to get them. I think there’s the original and then some backups I created after I started flashing to the chip,
@TheCM - Yes, that one MX25U4033E, this is either BIOS chip or EC FW, or total BIOS is split between both 8MB and 4MB chips, this is 4MB - 1.8v chip so you need 1.8v adapter (like this - https://www.ebay.com/itm/313073675375) Send me the files you said you dumped previously, so we can at least try to see what’s going on here and what’s at least on that chip (if any of those were proper dumps) So, to get this fixed, no matter what, you need to order that 1.8V adapter so we can dump and or write to this chip too. You can get it on Amazon too, probably shipped faster from there but more $$ (and other sellers on ebay may ship quicker too, above link is slowest/cheapest)
I do not need more images of the board now, thanks. We’ve found both chips that would be BIOS or EC FW etc Unless either of these we’re discussing are on or near the graphics chip, then I still may need to see entire board (don’t care about reading chip ID’s, only need to see so I can point out possible BIOS chips)
I knew I should have just gotten all three items in a set, I’ll check eBay now to see if I can find one as your link is for eBay US.
So, the two MX25 chips - one is BIOS and one is EC? Or it’s possible they’re both split between both chips? Is it possible to find out which is which? What if I flashed BIOS.ALL to the EC chip or something?
Here is the original backup I made before writing to the chip using the programmer, but after I attempted to update in DOS. (Too big to upload here - 8MB+) https://ufile.io/hd2owp8y
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I had to step outside to get the lighting for this one, but here’s a shot of those whole board since you expressed concern over the chip’s placement in relation to the graphics chip.
I labelled them in the order that I sent the images. (1 is the chip I wrote to with the programmer, 4 is the other MX25 chip)
Edit: Do I need the 1.8v SPI adapter for the second chip I found or both? When I read this guide it said that was for AMD boards, so I decided I didn’t need it. Will I be able to read it and create a backup for that chip too?
@TheCM - Just search ebay for item 313073675375 - this is not a US Listing, it’s in China Anyway, it’s only example to show you, best way to search is this terms (all categories) >> 1.8v adapter SPI
I don’t know if one chip is EC and one in BIOS, as mentioned, it could be split BIOS across two chips, or EC one one and BIOS on another. We can’t tell until you give me dump from each chip. If you flashed BIOS to wrong chip, nothing you can do except fix it later when you can program both chips. DO NOT write anything to the other chip, or erase it, once you get this adapter, so we can see what is there before you do anything!
What is BIOS ID per # in that image? Only #1 looks like BIOS chip, 2-4 do not look like the other chips you showed me, but hard to tell which are square and which are rectangle for sure. But I guess that MX25U4033E is much more rectangle than usual BIOS square so I guess it’s one of those others. None of them should be vBIOS, since it is it’s own card, the vBIOS for that if stored on card would be on it’s own PCB usually And, checking your BIOS dump now, I see Nvidia GP107 vBIOS in BIOS, so I now doubt any chip on the board is vBIOS, since it’s in the BIOS itself!
I assume the following, correct? #4 = MX25U4033E - 4MB #1 = MX25L6473F - 8MB
Also, looking at the board now, and images of chips, I think this is is also possible candidate, so maybe vBIOS is on one and not on the card PCB. 25D10BT << This is Gigadevice 25D10BT (128KB) Probably EC FW chip, dump this and send to me so I can see what is on there. Use all of these, and send me dump from each so we can compare, or you can compare, if all same, just send me one CH341A v1.31(1.4) (CH341AFree) + ASProgrammer 1.41 + CH341 Programmer v1.1.1.32 + Colibri + 1.34 and GD2510 ID When possible, use correct 128KB size, and GD25D10 ID (may have to use GD25Q10 in some programs)
What chip did you dump above file at uploadfiles.io from, and are you 100% sure? This is complete BIOS Whichever chip this came from is the one you need to be programming BIOS back to, and due to you dumped it, and it’s size (8MB), it must be MX25L6473F Program BIOS.all to this chip and see if it will start the board or not.
So, unless the 4MB chip is messed up, you may not need 1.8v adapter! I’d go ahead and order though, just so you have, and in case you need, but hopefully we can get it working before having to dig into this chip after some long shipping wait
Sorry, not sure what guide you are talking about, but no programmer or item mentioned here is AMD specific
They’re all labelled correctly. #4 is the one by the SSD.
The only chip I have used the programmer with is #1. The backup dump file (uploadfiles.io) I created is from that chip before I wrote to it. I already tried flashing BIOS.ALL to that chip with no success.
I won’t be able to get a dump file from that chip for a couple of days, but I’ll try You’re suggesting #2 may be where the EC FW is stored?
What are these? Programs? What do you want me to do?
This one is BIOS >> MX25L6473F and your dump looks OK, have you tried writing that back yet? Either way, that or BIOS.All should start the system, if there is no other issue, and if you manually confirm the write is OK >> close program after write, do not start system, open program, read, verify, save and then compare in hex with what6 you wrote, if 100% match then software verify during programming is valid But, sorry, whatever BIOS version that backup is, you would need matching EC FW too So if you’ve updated EC FW already, then you probably cannot use that BIOS, so ignore that mention, if you did update EC FW previously - I think you said you did, so using that is not option unless you have the old EC FW to write to that chip too.
25D10BT may be the EC FW chip, especially since EC FW file is 128KB too.
Yes, those are all different programs and or versions etc. All are included in this package - http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fil…213094641136166 Dump EC FW chip with all those things I mentioned, then we can compare, see which tools reads it properly and also make sure it’s at least looking OK etc.
Sorry, I didn’t realize he said that on first page/guide, 1.8V BIOS chip is used on any board Intel or AMD, does not matter.
As you said, you won’t be certain of which chip is which until you get a dump from them.
However, you told me #1 was complete BIOS and that’s the one I used the programmer to flash the updated BIOS.ALL. It’s also the one you have told me I need to be programming. So this is the BIOS chip.
And yes, I’m pretty sure the problem is that I initially updated just the EC FW with the wrong model version. If I flash the correct model (and latest version) to that correct chip (#2), surely it’ll fix my issue. You’re thinking this is the EC FW chip
Also, will I need the adapter to read/write from this chip? (The GigaDevice one)
So, what do you think chip #4 (MXIC 2574033E M1I-12G) is?
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Some other questions, just because I’m curious:
(1) How are you reading the BIOS files? Do I need one of those programs to get readable text and not jumbled nonsense characters?
(2) - What do the other numbers on the chip refer to? When I look up the GigaDevice 25D10BT chip, I can’t get any results including the other two lines. Do they matter? Is there any difference between other 25D10BT chips? Same for the other types of chips.
Yes, maybe, if you flash correct EC FW to EC chip, then system will start possibly But not 100% sure because I assume BIOS needs to match EC and you have not updated BIOS to that new version (only EC), so BIOS would still be older version and you’d need old matching EC FW to go with that BIOS, unless you also update the BIOS. You may be able to update BIOS though, once you get proper EC FW in there
I don’t know what 2574033E is, you’d have to have 1.8v adapter and dump it then we could possibly find out.
I am looking at BIOS with hex editor and UEFITool 51
Other # on chips are usually batch info, manufacturer dates etc. Sometimes it may tell some specifics about the chips functions, depends on chip
The BIOS.ALL file I flashed to chip #1 is from the same download portal as the EC FW I downloaded. Pretty sure they’re both compatible as they’re the latest version. Surely this means I already updated my BIOS through the CH341A SPI Programmer?
However, you did say that the order might matter and I believe EC FW should be done first. I can always re-flash the same BIOS.ALL back after flashing the EC FW.
I’ll make sure to get a dump of that chip and run it by you before writing to it though.
Yes, if you think you;ve got both updated to what’s on the site then that’s a match and should be booting. order does not matter here since you are using programmer Dump the EC FW chip so we can confirm what’s in there.
I have a fried asrock X370 killer SLI , i have followed guide to flash the bios from asrock (5.10) but unsuccessful with both linux and windows (xp,10)
my question is 1. i need to extract the bios from a capsule or something like that?
@u535 - Use ASProgrammer 1.41 and MX25U12835F ID - https://github.com/nofeletru/UsbAsp-flash/releases/ BIOS is not in capsule, it’s just bin/rom file. Program in 3.10 ROM and then update using Instant Flash according to the directions on the BIOS download page per CPU and or which BIOS need to be flashed first, before other later BIOS can be flashed in.
You do have to have 1.8V adapter, in case you did not know
I realise it’s now been over two weeks, but I’ve finally got my laptop back to do some more testing. I just booted up Ubuntu Linux and dumped chip 2 (refer to previous labelled image).
I also received this message when creating the backup:
“ Using clock_gettime for delay loops (clk_id: 1, resolution: 1ns). Found GigaDevice flash chip “GD25Q10” (128 kB, SPI) on ch341a_spi. === This flash part has status UNTESTED for operations: PROBE READ ERASE WRITE The test status of this chip may have been updated in the latest development version of flashrom. If you are running the latest development version, please email a report to [email protected] if any of the above operations work correctly for you with this flash chip. Please include the flashrom log file for all operations you tested (see the man page for details), and mention which mainboard or programmer you tested in the subject line. Thanks for your help! Reading flash… done.”
@TheCM - this is 2114A FW, so does not look like EC FW, contents do not look similar nor does naming scheme match. So this is some other items FW chip, or wrong contents flashed into chip etc. Any other chips on the board? We really need someone else to dump that same chip, so we can see if contents similar, or if it really should be EC FW in there.
@TheCM - Yes, but I forgot Maybe 25D10BT is correct, but dump is corrupt due to how you dumped? Please dump it how I mentioned on post #177 so we can compare, try all 4 methods mentioned and send me the four new dumps I guess though, it doesn’t look corrupted, I can read it, but maybe some of it should not look like EC FW and that part is OK, but the EC part is corrupted. Hard to know for sure, best we do other dump methods to compare that way we are sure.
MX25U4033E is the only other one that looks like it would be FW, but 4MB is way to large for EC FW chip, so I doubt that is what is on there, but I guess we shall see once your adapter arrives. What makes you think you need 1.8v adapter to dump 3940S-A chip? That doesn’t even look like a chip that would hold contents, but hard to know without dumping it.
You’re suggesting 
So if you’ve updated EC FW already, then you probably cannot use that BIOS, so ignore that mention, if you did update EC FW previously - I think you said you did, so using that is not option unless you have the old EC FW to write to that chip too.
