Winbond chips compatiblity - Naming rules

BIOS/UEFI Modding BIOS Modding Guides and Problems
1

Hi, I’m trying to buy some winbond chips, just to be safe. I’m lucky and my H97M-E motherboard has a Winbond 25Q64FVAIQ like this one (the pakage type is PDIP-8):



So i do not have to solder any cable in case of bad flash, I just need to remove my chip and restore my old dump with my raspberry pi. Btw, you can be careful as much as you want, but removing and inserting multiple times will damage the chip eventually, so I’d like to buy some backup chips.

I found some cheap 25Q64FVAIQ here …aliexpress really long links… but the shipping time is 1-2 months . I can’t find European stores with that chip available, but I found a lot of 25Q64FVAIG and 25Q64FVAIF…

From here https://www.pjrc.com/store/w25q64fv.pdf?page=86 (pages 86 and 87) you can read about winbond naming rules, so:
- The only PDIP-8 chips inside the 25Q64FV family are: 25Q64FVAIG, 25Q64FVAIQ, 25Q64FVAIF (also called W25Q64FVDAIG, W25Q64FVDAIQ, W25Q64FVDAIF)
- The final G stand for: Green Package (Lead-free, RoHS Compliant, Halogen-free (TBBA), Antimony-Oxide-free Sb2O3)
- The final F stand for: Green Package with Fast Sector Erase time (tSE)
- The final Q stand for: Green Package with QE=1 in Status Register 2

I need this one Winbond 25Q64FVAIQ (W25Q64FVDAIQ), can I use the other 2 variants? are there compatibility issues?

UPDATE #1:

Ok in the same pdf (page 13), I found that QE stands for “Quad Enable”, that flag (factory set, non-overridable) enable Quad SPI instructions, ence it changes some pin functionalities, btw the protocol is still the same SPI… the real question now is, do the chip controller (if any, or whatever thing communicate with the chip) expect the chip to work as Quad SPI or it read the status and work accordingly?

UPDATE #2:

PDF attached

UPDATE #3:

I bought a lot (5 chips) anyway, let’s wait 1,5 month yay! btw I’m still interested about the compatibility with the F and G versions.

UPDATE #4: (10/10/2016)
Chips have arrived!!!.. aaaand… They send me the wrong ones… 25Q64BVAIG instead of 25Q64FVAIQ…Guys, can you pls help me to find these chips somewhere in europe? Or at least from another store that isn’t aliexpress.

UPDATE #5: (15/10/2016)

Bought new chips… let’s hope for the best…

UPDATE #6: (11/03/2017)

Chips arrived months ago but they send me the wrongs ones again… -.-"… Btw I’ve done a nice “mod” to my motherboard/bioschip-socket so I do not have to remove my chips multiple times to flash it and I do not have to solder any cables directly to the motherboard (I’ll upload some pictures soon :smiley:

w25q64fv.pdf (1.23 MB)

2

Normally, they aren’t compatible unless your board manufacturer specifically designed a set of PCH GPIOs to control #WP and #HOLD pins on non-quad chips. In QuadSPI mode, both pins are used as IO pins, but in SPI/DualSPI they must be kept high for the chip to work properly. Moreover, if your BIOS is setup to support and enable QuadSPI on chip detection (which is the case for systems with Q-ships by default), it won’t start without modifications.
TL;DR: won’t work as drop-in replacement, may be forced to work after fairly simple HW (solder pull-ups to #WP and #HOLD pins) and SW (change descriptor/ME settings to disable QuadSPI support with FITC) mods. Some manufacturers have fallback mode for non-Q chips, and they will work right away on such systems, but I won’t expect any particular one to do so.
TL;DR2: buy the same chip with the same ID and capacity - it should work.

3

Chips have arrived!!!.. aaaand… They send me the wrong ones… 25Q64FVAIG instead of 25Q64FVAIQ…Guys, can you pls help me to find these chips somewhere in europe? Or at least from another store that isn’t aliexpress.

4

I’m sorry for resurrecting such an old thread but I’m also looking for W25Q64FVAIQ for my ASRock Z77 Extreme 4. Unfortunately it’s very hard to find and most shops sell W25Q64FVAIG instead, claiming that it’s compatible…

I’ve also read that W25Q64BVAIG can be used for my motherboard and that it’s pretty much the same as W25Q64FVAIG but I can’t find a confirmation.

Any help would very much be appreciated.

Best regards,
Crocodil

5

A late answer and I hope it helps someone. I’m the owner of an Asrock Z77 Extreme4 as well :). My original bioschip was called W25Q64BVAIG 1209. Then one day I got F4 error on system start. That means a new chip. I ordered one from bios-chip24.com. They sent me one called W25Q64FVAIG 1203 (preprogrammed with the latest beta bios 3.00). The chips works well in my mainboard.

6

Quad/Dual SPI function can be changed in Intel ME settings if board is Intel based with ME in the BIOS file before putting onto new chip - as mentioned above (Sorry, didn’t notice this was mentioned directly until already posted)

7

@Vento 25Q64FVAIG and 25Q64FVAIQ both worked with asrock z97, i tested it personally. The only difference i spotted is only that when it update the bios the 25Q64FVAIQ is a little quicker.