[PROBLEM] How to open/modify/flash an Intel mainboard BIOS?

@noInk

Thank you so much for your help.
I will test all of them, as long as there is no other option without a second hardware, this is the only thing I can do.

@elektron

Yea, I’m not able to restore your ME region from zero without the hardware and the backup of that region.
What I can do is try to bypass altogether the ME boot requirement (since it sort of worked before).
If any of the bios change something on the NUC activity maybe we can get to partially boot without.

Hi everyone,

For some mysterious reason I can no longer enter the BIOS settings on my DX58SO rev. 702.
Mashing the F2, F7, F10 keys does nothing, except occasionally, if done just right, it makes the board beep (like it’s getting unexpected keypresses) or hangs the POST altogether. If I force the BIOS to display some kind of error/warning where it prompts to press Enter, it does say Setup Entry Key Detected.

The board just attempts to boot the HDD or USB in BIOS mode, or defaults to the PXE ROM if nothing else is attached.

I’ve tried flashing to 5600 via DOS (it had 5503 or 5506 orginally). I tried downgrading to 5020 (as I understand from this thread, going lower may cause issues). I’ve tried the BIOS config jumper - it makes no difference. I’ve tried removing the battery and power, waiting til it clears and booting, in which case I get this:


It only accepts the Enter key, and it seems like it detects the F2 key just fine, just fails to open the BIOS settings and continues to boot whatever boot device it can find.
I can get a similar screen by removing a RAM stick, in which case the message says something like “amount of RAM decreased, press Enter to continue”.
I’ve tried both jumper positions in both 5020 and 5600, with both the battery in and out. I’ve tried different keyboards. I’ve tried different CPUs (X5650 and i7-920). I’m out of ideas.

I can dump the firmware image using an external flasher. The bios chip is not socketed (although apparently it was socketed in some revisions) but I should manage it. It’s located between the southbridge and the top PCIe x16 slot with nothing else nearby, luckily. Hopefully it can be done without desoldering, but i’ll desolder it if it fails to read/write while on the board. Going to use a Raspberry Pi with flashrom, had success with flashing SPI chips before using this.

@noInk , any ideas? Which of your posted images should I try to flash, and which byte ranges should I preserve (serial, MAC, board ID/revision, etc)? I’m guessing DX58SO_BACKUP_UPDATE.bin is my best bet? Is it possible to flash certain BIOS settings, for example, enable UEFI? Hopefully you still read this forum, as you’re probably the most knowledgeable person when it comes to these boards.

@turnip

Unless your board is dead you shall not use any of the file available here.
Without a backup flashing something coming off another board will permanently remove your unique data, mac address, serial and other stuff will be lost.

The DX58SO_BACKUP_SOL was made for @eivrah board, it contain his serial and unique data.
Cloning his board will make funny stuff happen with OS activation and other stuff related to Microsoft.
Other files doesn’t work or as been removed right now.

If you downgraded the bios chance are some stuff might be not there anymore. About the range for backup and restore purpose on a working bios you need mainly your own 0 > 7FFF ( 0 > 12FFF to be safe)
I wasn’t able to read or write the chip content with an hardware programmer while attached on the board, but if you do, I can make it work again with your data if you dump the chip content.

@noInk

Managed to dump it just fine with the chip on board. Used a Raspberry Pi, flashrom and half of a floppy ribbon cable. Apparently it works fine even with thin 28 AWG wires. Did not need external power.

Pics:





(Edit: The tweezers short the /HOLD pin to VCC, but apparently it’s not required, it seems to at least read just fine with the /HOLD pin disconnected. Interesting.)
(Edit 2: my board revision is 702, not 701 as previously stated. Hopefully it can overclock well. There’s at least one person who has managed to reach 225mhz FSB on a DX58SO.)

Sent you the dump via PM. It would be wonderful if you could also apply the improvements you made (NVME support, increased max TRFC, TRIM-modded IRST 11.2 (I assume?)).


Hi all
I’m a similar problem that demiurge
I have a Gigabyte mobo (since 2013) GA-h61M-dsv2 with a I3-3220 and 2x4GB DDR3 ram.
Past december I buy in Aliexpres a I5-3570 and I installed it in the H61M Mobo.
In january the mobo dont start normally. The fans start to run and stop, run and stop.
I tested the mboo and 2 mosfet (k4212) are in shor circuit.
I decided to buy a sencond hand Intel DQ77MK (EBAY) because this mobo have USB3, Sata3, NVmE and the more important, 4 banks of memory. Also I buyed two more 4GB ddr3 banks in aliexpress.
I rececibed the DQ77MK the past february 14th and worked until the 20th. When I push the power button the computer boot in bios directly. I press "F10" in order to "save and exit" to reboot, but the display freeze and its not posible to restart. I powered off the power supply and the mobo don’t boot
It has not started again. It does not show video.
I have tried with different source, processor, ram and graphics card. I have tried to recover the bios from USB but the board does not send power to any USB port so it does not read them.
I sent videos to the seller and he has given me the money back and he has also told me that it was not necessary for me to return the broken plate to avoid paying for transportation.
As I read that this could be a corrupt bios problem, I bought this programmer
I would like to try to recover it but I don’t know which chip is the one that contains the bios in this mobo.
Near the chipset and the jumper I found two 8 pin Winbond chips, 25Q32BVSIG and 25Q64FVSIG and next to the bios jumper, another 8-pin 4502GM chip
And near the LPC_Debug port I find a 232GE-218RC5, and two NUVOTON NCT6776D (128 pins) and NUVOTON NPCT420IA1WX. Although I believe that the latter, by their datasheet, are responsible for controlling in / out.
Any help
Excuse me for my bad englis and the extension of the post.


I have find 2 .bio (073 and 074) but I can’t upload

@otraver it’s the Winbond chips, one is 4MB, the other is 8MB. It appears that your BIOS is 12MB in size (the 074 version .BIO file is ~14MB) and is split across the two SPI flash chips.

Have you tried:
1) the BIOS recovery feature (pages 63 and 75 of the tech spec, instructions with pictures here). You shuld use an empty FAT32 formatted USB thumbdrive with the .BIO file on it.

2) Intel ME reset as stated in page 64 of the tech spec


Thank’s for your answer.
Yes, I think that appears a 12MB bios in two chips.
As you mentioned the 073 and 074 .bio files are ~14mb (14.811.168 bytes)
As I could not repair it, finally I bought a new motherboard + micro + ram. Now I would like to try to repair it simply by distraction. And also because I have an i3-3220, an i5-3570 and 4x4GB ram with which I can mount another computer
I have also bought a post card debug and a CH341A 24 25 Series EEPROM Flash BIOS USB Programmer.
But I’m thinking, what will I do to program a 14MB bios on an 8MB chip + another 4MB chip?


Yes, I tested these possibilities before returning to the seller. I even made some videos that can be seen on my YouTube channel.
But since I bought a new power supply, just in case something had changed, I tried again and recorded a new video.

Thank’s for your quick answer.

[quote=turnip|p105325]@otraver it’s the Winbond chips, one is 4MB, the other is 8MB. It appears that your BIOS is 12MB in size (the 074 version .BIO file is ~14MB) and is split across the two SPI flash chips.
Hi,
Hi have find this info for the two chips.
The W25Q64FW as 64Mbits (8MB) and W25Q32FW as 32Mbits (4MB)

HOw can I program 14MB in 8+4 MB chips?

@otraver .BIO files are a special format and contain extra stuff, it is not simply the contents of the chips. For example, on a DX58SO, the .BIO file is ~3.6MB, even though the flash chip is only 2MB. It also doesn’t have the board’s unique information.

Since you already have a flasher, you should start by reading the contents of both of the chips. You must preserve the unique data on the chip, such as board ID, serial number, MAC address, etc. Once you have the backup dumps of both chips, maybe someone can help you fix them.

@turnip

Sent your bios back.
Should work once flashed but run the maintenance manager to clear the setting. The bios you dumped was previously customized with the ITK (flex) utility.
If it does not boot or exhibit the same issue as your dump or cause random watchdog BSOD on sequential boot I can eventually see to rebuild the NVRAM partition from mine last backup.
To know if it random BSOD just reboot the UEFI-OS on the login screen without log-in for few time and without manually cutting\removing the power cord in between.
Usually if it doesn’t BOSD on the third attempt you are good to go.

I’ve removed the flex entry, adjusted some NVRAM entries (some will be builded back on later boot stages once cleared) changed the main firmware volume size added NVME support, OROM IRST 15 changed the TRFC value and updated the microcode to the latest available, maybe more dunno.
There still some invalid NVRAM entries left.

The bios you dumped had all data required to restore your own board unique data, so… eventually you can do what ever and still restore it with the hardware programmer.

Also, since I saw an REFIND value within the boot path: know you need to disable RAID to get DUET working without providing an full EFI (SATA) RAID (DXE) driver embedded directly within the firmware.
ICH10 RAID disk once masked require their own special EFI driver over the filesystem type to get em boot in UEFI.

Also, made and sent you one with a NVRAM without settings.
Report back.

To modify the motherboard of a computer it is essential to know the system configuration as this is the only key to choose an appropriate motherboard for the computer. Professionals from the Acer Laptop Services Center can help regarding this matter. Any kind of computer issues can also be solved with the help of experts.



Yesterday I received the CH341A programmer and obtained two .bin files. But I don’t know how continue.,
I think that the mobo is stay alive because If I don’t install any ram module I can hear 3 shorts beeps. But No video.
In my youtube channel I uploaded some videos with all the test I tried without any good result.



Yesterday I received the CH341A programmer and obtained two .bin files. But I don’t know how continue.,
I think that the mobo is stay alive because If I don’t install any ram module I can hear 3 shorts beeps. But No video.
In my youtube channel I uploaded some videos with all the test I tried without any good result.



Problem solved…
With a €7,72 CH341A Programmer EEPROM and the 2 .bin files from https://vinafix.com/ ($2,99) I recovered a mobo destined to recicle bin. And time, many time reading and reading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwsQTLcw4GE

Nice, but I wouldn’t waste an single €1.00 on downloading something stored on earth, also your board is “not” actually your board anymore.
Change at least the MAC address and HARDWARE ID.


Strangely, the two MACs are still the ones I had. I assign static IP by MAC and still have the same.
As for the hardware ID, I will look at how it can be changed.

And it also solves a small problem.
As I said, a few months ago I bought an I5-3570 that I found cheap in AE to replace my old I3-3220.
In a few weeks my 2013 gigabyte board (GA-H61M-DS2V) stopped working. I think some mosfet went short and for that reason I bought the Intel QD77MK mobo in Ebay and also bought 2x4GB memory module of the same model as the 2 I had because this board has 4 memory slots.
When the QD77MK was blocked in the bios, I decided to completely update the system and bought a new case, PS (650W), motherboard (GB H310M SZH 2.0), CPU I3-9100 and ram 2x8GB DDR4.
So I had without using the case, two CPUs, s, 4 RAM modules …
I was thinking of buying another second-hand board, but now I have a second backup computer, which I may use as a PLEX server.

@otraver

If you re-install the OS those will change with the BIOS assigned MAC address, so save them on a sticker.



Hi,
Previously to flash the new files I have readed the two chips and backuped.
How can change in the new files (or once flashed, in the mobo) the board ID, serial number, etc.?


I said yesterday that it seemed strange to me that the MACs were the same.
I have not installed any OS yet. I just looked the mac in the bios options and compared to the ones I had reserved on the router.
I am waiting to receive an NVMe ssd for the new motherboard and I will use the old Samsung SSD 850 EVO for the DQ77MK