Please transfer this to appropriate section if this is the wrong one.
So here’s the story:
I have an X202e, and while installing Windows 10 my UEFI got corrupted and system wouldn’t POST.
Since I have sufficient knowledge to do the repair myself, I bought CH341A programmer, unsoldered the chip, programed it with a .bin file I found on another forum and I’ve managed to get it working again.
The problem is that I can’t get my LAN card to work since it’s not recognized by the system (not Win10 nor Ubuntu).
I guess it got something with me flashing a dump from another computer that is probably causing a conflict (incorrect MAC address or something).
I’ve tried using FD44 to read the data from my dump but file won’t open. I’ve tried also opening the dump file that I’ve used to program the chip but I get the same message: "Error parsing BIOS data. $BOOTEFIS signature not found. Please open correct ASUS BIOS file."
What do you think is the problem.
Also, will importing the data from the original BIOS make my LAN card work again?
Thank you in advance.
P.S. I’m a complete noob when it comes to UEFI (only worked with BIOS-es before) so if there are things that I should read please share them as well.
P.P.S. Let me know if I should upload dump files
EDIT by Fernando: Thread title specified (to improve the chance to get support by an expert)
@Bummer :
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
The location of the thread is ok, but I have specified the thread title to make it more meaningful.
What you probably mean is, that you own an ASUS VivoBook X202E, whose UEFI BIOS got corrupted (it took some time to find it out).
Questions:
1. Did you already contact the ASUS Support and asked for help?
2. Are you sure, that the *.bin file you found on another Forum, has been designed by ASUS for your special X202 model? At ASUS Support pages there are different BIOSes available for the models X202E, X202EV and X202EP.
3. After having successfully repaired the entire BIOS of your notebook by using a programmer, have you entered the UEFI BIOS and checked the LAN Controller settings?
Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)
Thank you!
Can you be sure that the BIOS is the exact part that was effected? Before this I had no idea about Intel UEFI structure (I’m mostly AMD guy and they still just have BIOS in the UEFI, if I’m not wrong) and I’ve never heard of ME. IS there a possibility that ME was the reason why system wouldn’t POST?
- I’m not sure if I’m entitled to ASUS support anymore since my warranty is out, but I could try.
2. The one that I’ve used for flashing was actually for X201e (rev 2 of the motherboard), but in the specification I couldn’t find any differences between the models (except the touch screen on X202e).
After that I’ve found the one that was specific for my model but I didn’t want to bother with removing the chip again so I’ve used FPT to do the flashing. Maybe that was a mistake?
3. I did check and everything seems to be enabled. Thing is that this BIOS seems modded, some options that are included weren’t present in the original bios (and the secure boot setting is missing) but I don’t know if this is the leftover from the programing with the first BIOS and FTP just rewrote some parts instead of the whole thing (Since the descriptor was unlocked I was able to flash all the parts). Now the descriptor and ME are locked and I might need to do the resoldering again if there’s a need for that.
Additional info: I’ve used FITC 8.1.4 to decompose the dumps and HxD to compare them. I’ve also compared BIOS regions of both files with official BIOS downloaded from ASUS (removed 800 offset which is the CAP part). All of it is identical except the lock bits in the Flash Descriptor regions, and ME regions that are "completely" different - the ME region from the dump for my model has much, much more data inside.
Yes!
The BIOS chip of your mainboard contains not only the "real" BIOS data (which are located within the BIOS Region), but additionally the Intel ME data, which are stored within the ME Region.
That is absolutely normal. The Intel ME data of a BIOS file, which has been delivered by the mainboard manufacturer, are completely different from the Intel ME data of a specific mainboard BIOS chip (look >here<).
I am sorry, but I cannot help you further on, because I am not an expert regarding these sorts of BIOS/ME problems.
Hopefully you will get support by someone else.
Good luck!