Hi folks,
Since my HP EliteBook 2170p Notebook was not powering up, I extracted its 25Q128FVSG winbound bios chip and managed to read its contents with ch341a software. Thanks to the those in this forum who directed to various guides.
I inserted photos what the software shows me. Is my bios chip completely dead? Pls advise, thanks)
Why showing MACRONIX…?
EDIT: Well dont you think you should correctly choose the correct IC ID on NeoProgrammer…???
No idea, the label on the chip says winbound 25Q128FVSG 1333
Well that’s basically my question why the soft shows such gibberish when “detect” button is pressed.
Im not saying that you can trust the Detect button…im saying you can manually select it.
As the IC was desoldered from the mainboard and presumably well soldered to the WSON/DIP adapter, if everything is working… yes we also can assume its a dead IC…
Good luck
Recommend to read the chip properly before drawing conclusion. What’s the meaning of reading a X24something with 128 byte size if the chip obviously has 16Mbyte?
I’m sure that software will have a device ID check option.
As has been said, select the correct part from whatever lists there are
Then read out the FULL chip and save it.
Chips are not that expensive anyway, just a PITA to find sometimes.
Edit: One of these chips on eBay for $1.79. Used part though. Others are $10 ish
Good luck,
-68k
Thanks for additional tips, guys.
I did select my bios name in ASprogrammer, managed to read it and saved the bin two times with identical file size of 16 mb.
As far as I see, there are only ffs in this file, no valuable info to extract.
Reading the guides again, I see that next steps should be erase the chip, verify the blank and then write again a bios file similar to my laptop version. If I am lucky to find one)
Anything else I am missing here?
Possibly bad contact of the clip- the CH341 won’t complain, just generate a file with ‘FF’
Thank you all for the excellent tips. I fiddled a bit with AS software and managed to read bios from the chip correctly. I see that there is some info on the chip.
How should I check whether the info is corrupted or not?
This bios firmware should contain a password, so Id like to investigate and find it as well before erasing the bios.
Any suggestions how to proceed further? Thank you.
I attach file just in case.
originalBios1.rar (5.1 MB)
Try that image: originalBios1_3.zip (5.2 MB)
Padding between the last 2 EFI volumes in bios region was different to stock, maybe not updated? Otherwise re-initialized ME and emptied NVRAM.
If the machine doesn’t boot with this firmware (properly flashed, separate read a 100% identical!) then it’s not firmware.
Thank you very much, I will give it a try
