I will be the first to admit I made a mistake. I have a Dell 5675 desktop computer which is compatible with Ryzen 1000 series processors and is using a 1700x currently. I know that the Dell 5675 and 5676 both use the same motherboard part number, however the 5676 supports Ryzen 2000 series CPUs while the 5675 does not. You can see where this is going. I went ahead and flashed the 5676 bios onto the 5675 (by clearing the check platform match flag) using the windows exe flash tool, and sure enough, I have a brick now. I had done some research beforehand and thought I was the first to try this, but of course once I started looking for BIOS recovery options for the model computer, I found another person who had tried this and had the same result.
That all being said, in the past 24 hours doing research to try to resolve this problem, I found this forum and am greeted with a ton of knowledge. So thank you for that. Now, I am trying to recover the machine and restore it to its previous state as a 5675 using the latest BIOS. I have ordered a USB programmer (Organizer SOIC8 SOP8 Test Clip For EEPROM 93CXX / 25CXX / 24CXX + CH341A 24 25 Series EEPROM Flash BIOS USB +1.8V Adapter + Soic8 Adapter Programmer Module Kit ) and the BIOS chip I see on the board is Winbond 25Q128FWSQ. I am hoping the programmer I ordered is capable of reading and writing to that chip, which is a 1.8v eeprom from what I have found, and it seems the suggested software to use is AsProgrammer 1.4.1, which I now have. I also have another working 5675 board to get a BIOS dump from. Of course, there are things I will need to do before I flash the BIOS from the good board, like service tag, MAC address, etc. And that is one of the first things I need help with.
Is there a specific location, module, or software to look for these parameters? Are there other parameters I am overlooking that are unique to one motherboard that I should be aware of and be taking note of? ME? Windows key? Serial #?
I can dump the existing bricked EEPROM to look for these things, and add them to the good dump from the working board EEPROM. Correct?
Excuse my ignorance, this is my first post here and I’ve only been lurking for a day. Any suggestions welcome and I will update along the way (with dumps, in case anyone else gets in a jam with this board).
While I wait for my programmer to arrive, I was at least able to find some of the board specific info I was looking for. I imaged the drive in the machine and booted it into a virtual machine, where I was able to get the service tag, windows 10 key (which was activated, so same as the one in BIOS), and the ethernet MAC address. Hopefully these things are easy enough to write into the BIOS…
I got the programmer today and went to get a dump from the BIOS chip. Unfortunately the clip would not connect. I was getting almost all 00 or FF on the dumps. Not sure why, if the clip was broken/garbage, or because the BIOS chip was in circuit. Anyway, I reluctantly desoldered it, since my soldering skills are very limited. I was afraid of overheating the chip or damaging the pcb, which I may have (looks like I lifted a trace, but it appears ok). Anyway, the chip read fine in a socket type programmer attachment and I got the dump. Read and saved 3 times and all files identical. I can also see the MAC address in the hex, as well as the service tag. I am not entirely sure what part of the BIOS is corrupt, or if the BIOS just doesn’t work on the board for some reason given the model # difference, but I will have another 5675 board soon and will reference it to see the differences. @Lost_N_BIOS if you have some advice on how to proceed, please let me know. I can go ahead and edit the hex to reflect mac address and then flash? I have not yet found the windows key, as it is not in plain text or hex. It must be encrypted I think. I don’t see where to add an attachment, but I will try to add both dumps when I have them both.
edit: 6MB upload limit. BIOS is 16MB, so I will have to host them.
:well I found this thread:
[TOOL] H20EZE - Insyde “Easy BIOS Editor” (2)
and it seems that program may be exactly what I need to fix my BIOS, and potentially install the updates from the new model onto the old one. Will report back!