Z590 mpg gaming force is now a brick

BIOS/UEFI Modding BIOS Modding Guides and Problems
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I’m in a tough spot with my MSI Z590 MPG Gaming Force (non-WiFi) motherboard and really need some advice. This is the first part of my story, where I’ll explain what I tried to do and what went wrong.

What I Was Trying to Do:

I wanted to make my NVIDIA GTX 1660 Super GPU better by enabling something called Resizable BAR (ReBar). I found a guide on GitHub (GitHub - terminatorul/NvStrapsReBar: Resizable BAR for Turring GTX 1600 / RTX 2000 GPUs) that showed how to do it by changing the GPU’s BIOS.

The Problem Starts:

While trying to follow the guide, I rushed and didn’t do the BIOS flash step right. I thought it wasn’t working, so I turned off my PC too soon. This was a big mistake. I knew completely what was wrong when I tried to power the PC back on and saw red CPU light and post code being --…bricked… :frowning:

Trying to Fix It with BIOS Flashback:

I knew I messed up, so I tried to fix it by using the BIOS flashback feature. This is supposed to help fix the BIOS if something goes wrong. But when I tried it, things didn’t go as planned. The motherboard didn’t seem to read the USB stick I was using for the flashback. It started up and the lights blinked faster, but then a red CPU light turned on and the display showed “–”, which doesn’t match anything in the manual.

This literally does not make sense as the bios flash back port is designed to be for situations like this where if you cut power mid way in a bios flash. …you should be able to recover it with the flashback port …yet for me. No matter how I name my bios file. Format it. Quick. Full. MBR. GPT. Linux. Windows. Nothing makes this port successfully flash my bios back into a working state.

The best way to describe what is going on is it seems to start flashing with the led blinking fast but the motherboard just powers on with the led still blinking. I can wait as long as I want and nothing changes. It just stays in this powered on state forever until I reboot.

It’s bricked plain and simple and my fallback to save me can’t work

So now I’m stuck with a final option which is to use a bios programming chips reader and hope for the best.

The only thing I need to ask here is 2 things

What is my bios chips model on this board. ( There is a few potential candidates on this board and each one gives the impression it could be it but God do I know ).

And finally can I flash the ami bios files provided by MSI on the motherboard webpage itself. Or do I need legit DUMP file online

( I have flashed a bios before using this method and saved a laptop so I at least have a little experience here)

Here are some pics of my motherboards potential chips.

Below you will notice the mxic chip. It’s a legless chip which means clamping on to it is gonna be hell…I really hope it’s not that chip…

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You need a 256Mbit / 32 MByte chip. ALWAYS read the chip and check it’s content before overwriting it. Overwriting the chip with a stock bios (if complete firmware imag provided by vendor) will delete board specific information like serial, maybe MAC, too, on Intel systems.

1 Like
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MX25U25673G

This is a WSON package, normal cheap CH341 programers clip wont do the job here, you need a special adapter or desolder the IC, you may try also the header above (JTPM)

Usually yes, as seen in MSI forum for Z490 recovery methods.

EDIT: Seems that USB drive models play a part here…

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@MeatWar, USB FlashBack procedure was written a long time ago, according to the USB 2.0 standard, which is why it works for small volumes of USB sticks.

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Yes Michael we know that this is an old issue and its advised to use small and old 2.0 usb disks… the strange thing is a user with a modern motherboard reporting still the same on MSI forums… cheers.

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Can you point me in the right direct for the tpm header? I have not seen anything in the manual showing pin out so I don’t know how I might connect to it. That would be the ideal situation here
and Imagine that’s how MSI might connect to it too. Any idea ? Also heres one more pic so we can make sure it’s is.

BeautyPlus_20240315133401834_save
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So the flash drive needs to be 2.0? And low size? …hm…IDK if my board is even saveable but I can try buying a cheap Chinese 2.0 drive with super low capacity

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JPTM1 is a header for external TPM module and sometimes it can provide access to SPI, not valid for all mbs.

MSI JPTM1 Intel 500 series

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Its the first time i see that MSI forum report on USB disks… you may investigate it a bit more and try your luck or leave it.

To learn a bit more on programming, search the forum for CH341 guides, there will be some info on MSI JPTM1 access and/or WSON package connection.

This is an example of a “needle” clip connector for standard programmers.

Its not going to be an easy task for an inexperienced user, be warned. This is a task for a repair shop.
When not using this, the IC is desoldered, soldered on a small pcb adaptor or pre-made chip package adapters, programmed and then soldered back in the mb,

There’s some success reports on certain mb models via JPTM1 and there’s also users that couldn’t get acess to read/writing.

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Could I make my own needle prob? If I was do this got a general idea of how I might make one? I assume I just need the needles to touch said chip “pins” so I’d need to wire every needle in a way that matches the normal “clip” that it comes with. Maybe I can modify the clip itself to use needles instead of a clamp. I’m not scared to attempt this just don’t know if the needle prob has anything special in it besides pins. Wires and adapter on the other side to connect. To the programmer the shipping time on these probs is going to a long time

To add to this can I use normal needles? Or do the needles need to be copper or brass. If it’s normal steel needles this should be super easy days worth of work…I can 3d print the whole thing to make it more neat and make it work. Just don’t know if the inside of the blue sheeting has anything in it

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Also based on the mdf data sheet it says the chip is 1.8 volts so I’ll have to use my adapter to step down the voltage

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Out of my league… experience/explore yourself, since the board is death anyway, nothing to lose.

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Alright. I have a few options which make me hopeful. Desoldering the chip might be a fool proof method to ensure good connection and reprogramming just need to get a. Cheap hot air rework kit.

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Sorry for asking for more advice but I made progress. I desoldered the bios chip with my rework. One tiny small smd thing fell off and I lost it but it appears to be a resistor. Black size. Very tiny but I’m certain this won’t make the board not run. Anyways. I managed to get this chip hooked and rigged up to be read. It identifys the chip and I tried to flash a bios I got off the MSI site for the board. The instructions for msi says the file has to be named MSI.ROM before flashing via the MSI flashback port. I assume this is the same? Otherwise the file is titled e7d06ims.A30

Iv seen some readings on some people having to flash bios dumps or bin files. I’m not entirely sure if this is right but I tried to flash the file MSI.rom after I renamed it. It seems to have flashed… I see data now. Before it was all FF ( blank) ??? But now it has letters. With a. Few sections that say FF. But I can only assume this bios chip got wippednout somehow… I’m kinda not sure what I should do here. From my research I found this.

This is a bios site for what I assume is repair bios people? …it seems to be a dump It’s sized 32mb.

Should I pay the 9 dollars to grab this file? Or can the stock bios update files I see on MSI work?

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It may but i wont bet… if its there it has a purpose…

No effect on a programmer…only the data of the file matters

Now that is flashed, can be an official bios file or a dump (Not for all mb models), any of those will not have the mb original data like UUID, SN, MAc etc… thats why we ALWAYS do a backup of the current state of the SPI, even bricked, this way we can try to recover this data.
To verify the flash, read it and save it several time and compare it with original data used to program, and HEX editor or any other of your choice.

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Unfortunately despite flashing. The PC does nothing with power on. CPU removed. Before bare min I got red CPU light and. – on the numerical code. Now nothing. Bios chipped removed or put back on. No signs of life…

Can a PC still be powered on with out a bios chip at all just to see if it gets power? Because now nothing at all shows there’s power …I believe I’m utterly out of luck…the only power I have is atx and CPU. Zero devices plugged.

I flashed the bios chip after I made sure it was unprotected. It seems successfully written. But if the PC can’t even use it :sob:

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No and that could be a bad soldered/shorting IC… or that small SMD remember.
You need the MS-7D06 Schema/Boardview, if you want to further advance/investigate.

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Well. The bios chip has a huge pad under the back side assuming the be a ground pad. I do have it centered with pin 1 lining up to how it originally appeared. The solder joins appear to wet and the chip appears to sit flush with each individual pad / pin legless soldered on.

Those tiny smds are going to be hell…they are so tiny it’s like a spec of grain on my thumb. I really don’t think I have the capability to fix this. Maybe the bios chip isn’t flashed right? But then again it was messed up before and at least the board powered on to show it had a chance to life. Since I flashed this newer bios and saw that data was indeed written. Maybe that’s the issue? Even if the bios was corrupted the PC should at least show an error in the LEDs or something…I tried to find the board view and it appears to be a Spanish website that offers it for 15 dollars. Even if I could read it and understand. Getting the smd on there and working will be a huge under taking. I checked all over the area and can’t see anything shorted or bridged. Maybe MSI can repair it for a small fee? I don’t exactly have a proper warranty on it anymore though… Or… I’ll buy someone’s used board for 120 …with a missing USb header as per his description and work with that… I just know I won’t be trying to flash modded bios anymore after this. :rofl::rofl::rofl:.

At least I own a rework gun and a few useful supplies now…

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Yeah… WSON is not as easy as SOIC, about flash mods… not really a situation to give up, its needs correct preparation, easy steps and lot of verification/reading and i’m still wondering why that USB bios flash back didn’t worked… it should… unless you messed a bit hard in those mods, all the best, good luck.

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I went ahead and bought a used version of my board and I’ll try to get the broken one fixed with time instead then when I fix it I’ll resell it to make up my costs. Least it gives me an excuse to buy the schematic and maybe attempt a repair. I really needed my computer working again so it felt worth it.

The only things that changed is those smds and I really don’t see any other way to make the board work again unless I absolutely get them on there …