I was writing my Asus S550CM bios when something gone wrong. I desolder the W25Q64 flash and now I-m tryng to flash with Flashrom but I have always this error >
Calibrating delay loop... OK.
Found chipset "Intel ICH10R". Enabling flash write... OK.
Found Winbond flash chip "W25Q64" (8192 kB, SPI) at physical address 0xff800000.
Error: Image size doesn't match
It’s 6MB because ASUS doesn’t include the ME Region inside the SPI image. Also, ASUS always has an AMI Capsule header at their BIOS images. So, in order to flash it with a programmer, you need to a) remove the AMI Capsule Header and b) include the ME Region at the SPI image. First, dump the chip and attach the 8MB resulting image.
Big problem, my 8mb dump is 100% blank!
That’s a problem, you need to find online someone else’s dump of the exact same model first. We can take the ME Region from there in such case and clean it while retaining ASUS model settings before applying it to your system.
Oh my god, it’s impossible find this dump!!
Well from a quick search I can see one 8MB dump HERE (search for S550CM) but you need to register or something, hopefully no VIP/money is asked after that. Give it a try. And since you have access to the chip and mobo, check if the model of the latter is indeed K56CM Rev 2.0 as that site seems to report the dump came from.
I’ve seen but it costs $ 19… for now I have found these two dump from K56CM motherboard rev. 2.0 (same as mine):
http://www.mediafire.com/download/uy67ex97gr5p3l7/dump.rar
http://www.mediafire.com/download/7z7e6312bvgi7tc/dump2.rar
We can do something?
The first dump came from a K56CB, is pretty similar to my S550CM. Also the two bioses from Asus support look identical:
https://www.asus.com/it/Notebooks/K56CB/HelpDesk_Download/
https://www.asus.com/it/Notebooks/ASUS_V…pDesk_Download/
By searching for EFI_SUCCESS tag via a Hex Editor, you can see from what motherboard these were dumped from. I chose dump2.bin because it reported K56CM instead of K56CB that dump.bin did even though I noticed that dump.bin and the original ASUS bios are a lot more similar. Doesn’t matter, since you don’t have your own dump, I replaced the entire BIOS region with the one ASUS provides. What I did:
1) Used dump2.bin as the base for the rest of the regions (FD, GbE and ME).
2) Cleaned the ME Region by removing any dumped DATA which can cause problems.
3) Replaced the BIOS Region with the one from ASUS website for your model.
I could also have updated the ME to the latest but since you can do this yourself once the system is running, I left it to you. In the end, I have attached the final file for you. Flash it, perform a CMOS and let me know how it goes.
Tony2k_Final.rar (3.39 MB)
You saved me, thank you!!!
Now I’ll try to update last ME (v8.1.65.1586), fingers crossed!
That’s great. Since you had no personal older dump, you may have lost some ASUS Serial Numbers and such (in case they were displayed at the BIOS) but at least the system is operational now. To be 100% certain, use Flash Programming Tool with command fptw -greset once to reset the ME status. Afterwards, updating the ME is easy: visit the ME thread, download latest ME8 1.5MB, flash with FWUpdate and after a restart check if everything is ok with MEInfo and MEManuf. All links, instructions etc can be found at the ME thread. If you want to mod some aspects of the BIOS (for example microcode, lan) then you can use UEFI Bios Updater. Lastly, you can also use Flash Programming Tool to dump, mod and flash the BIOS quickly. The ASUS tool will probably require the AMI Capsule with integrity signature checking and so on. You don’t have to worry about any such things with FPT but if you plan to use it, be careful with it and make sure you type each command correctly.
Bricked another time!! After flash Intel ME Firmware v8.1.65.1586 (1.5MB) with command fpt -f ME.BIN…
Obviously. That’s completely wrong, I said to be careful with FPT. All you did is flash your entire 8MB SPI chip with the ME firmware.
At the ME thread, where you can find all the mentioned tools, firmware and instructions, it’s clearly stated that the tool to update the ME firmware is FWUpdate and not FPT. So it’s FWUpdLcl -f ME.bin.
If you were to flash the ME Region with FPT, which you don’t need to do because a) you would have to move settings with Flash Image Tool and b) FWUpdate is all you need to update and not replace the region in case it’s corrupted, the correct command would have been fpt -f me.bin -me. I’m fairly certain that FPT warned you that you were going to flash something of a smaller size too.
I mentioned FPT before in order to flash the BIOS, not any other region of the SPI image. BIOS does not mean SPI Image, it’s a part of it.
So, you now need to reflash the SPI image I made earlier. Then there are two choices: either make sure the system is working and leave it as it is or read the guides/threads carefully and only then proceed with any kind of module updating. Not being careful and not reading instructions will only result in more bricks and hassle.
Ok, I was able to upgrade ME but I have also found a new problem: I have lost the GeForce GT 635m!!
ASUS doesn’t include the Nvidia VBIOS for some reason at that model’s BIOS. Probably a mistake. Normally you should contact them and ask them to fix that mistake. Transferring the nvidia vbios of another model is risky as it may work but not behave properly under heavy load. I found another ASUS model which uses the same gpu with same amount of RAM of the same generation, ASUS N56VJ. I took it’s nvidia vbios and placed it at the BIOS of your own model. That modded BIOS is attached. I do not guarantee that this will work, it may, it may not. Test the gpu under heavy load as well for stability if it gets detected first. Flash the attached BIOS region via Flash Programming Tool using command fptw -f S550CAAS_NV.bin -bios followed by a fptw -greset . Again, you should contact ASUS, this is just a test.
S550CAAS_NV.rar (2.49 MB)
I tried to give your command fptw -f S550CAAS_NV.bin -bios but it tell me that the file is too long and it never will be written entirely. Can I continue?
I have also bought a S550CM dump, now I can see Nvidia gpu but don’t work (error code 43).
S550CM dump
For FPT I suppose you have downloaded the Intel ME System Tools v8 pack, right? The BIOS image (not SPI image) I uploaded before cannot brick the system, only cause detection or stability issues for the nvidia card. The actual system cannot brick if the flashing is done properly, it’s the exact same BIOS region from Asus + an nvidia VBIOS which for some reason was missing. I am referring to the pre-edited stuff which were most probably the result of forgetting to add -bios at the end of the fpt command as I wrote. The _NV BIOS region I attached before is exactly the same length as the normal BIOS Region of the SPI chip so FPT shouldn’t complain about the size if it’s told to flash the BIOS region only (-bios).
a) Run fptw with the command fptw -i and show a screenshot of the result.
b) Run fptw -d SPI.bin and attach the resulting SPI.bin file here.
c) For any Mega links you need to include the Decryption key with the link, it’s useless without it.
Yes, I use Intel ME System Tools v8 pack!
Here two screens:
In the attacment there is the dump from S550CM, the same dump modded by me, S550CM bios from Asus support, the same bios modded with Intel RAID ROM/EFI BIOS module v14.8.2.2397.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/7xdqqi…g63/Desktop.rar
I wasn’t able to extract SPI.bin
The Flash Descriptor is locked so I assume you flashed a SPI image (dump) that had it locked. The SPI image that I had uploaded had it unlocked so that you wouldn’t have to use the programmer in case a complete SPI chip reflash was needed. Now however, if it’s required to replace the ME Region or Flash Descriptor then the programmer will be needed once again. And due to that, you can no longer dump full 8MB SPI image from within an operating system using fpt. Only the bios with fpt -d file -bios. That’s why fptw -d SPI.bin did not work.
Once again, for any Mega links you have to include the decryption key. Otherwise noone can download the file. Mods are not important right now, getting the Nvidia card to work properly is. Upload the dump file of the exact same model, the one that you paid for. You can compress and attach it here as well.