@PhatAgent - You should have ordered CH341A + U Type Flat IC extractor instead, using new stock programmed BIOS chip you will loose your serial, UUID, and have to fix LAN MAC ID etc. And, without programmer, you can;'t dump your old chip to grab original UUID from either. Do you have ANY previous BIOS backup, could be made with any program, at any time in the past? If yes, send to me, that will have all your system specifics in it, so I can fix proper BIOS for you. You are correct, without flash programmer, you can’t fix this due to this model does not have USB Flashback. Unless you have other similar Asus board with socketed BIOS, current bricked BIOS chip can be flashed via hotflash on another board, but it’s not ideal and messy if it’s not same model (We can fix later, but not ideal).
UBU ucode issue is probably due to padding added or removed above the microcode volumes (offsets do not matter). Would be waste of time to check, I will just make you proper updated BIOS. What BIOS version do you want me to use to fix you a BIOS, 3603 (latest)?
If you do not have ANY previous BIOS backup, then please send me a zip of ALL stickers on your board, check side of 24 pin connector, top/bottom sides of PCI/PCIE slots, on/around the LAN metal block port (be sure to look on bottom of the block itself too) Look on back of board as well, and don’t forget the long skinny white sticker on side of PCB
* Edit - I checked the bad BIOS above, I can’t see for sure what the issue is, no added/removed paddings, but I can assume incorrect method was used by UBU (Should be MMTool used, not UEFIReplace, because these are in PEI volume), and I can tell it was not done that way most likely, due to other alignment stuff
Unfortunately no backup of this board. I just bought it used to complete a budget build for a family member.
I’ve done bios modifications many times, including UBU to update MC via mmtool( I did not use UEFIReplace). Have also updated manually by HXD tool for the padding you mentioned. But it’s been a while since I’ve used UBU and I just assumed it was safe to update every MC via UBU.
Last time I used UBU mmtool I replaced all MCU with just one single MC. I made a mistake obviously. But as you said, I’m not sure why it was incorrectly done as I double checked it and it looks to be OK.
@PhatAgent - Most of that you do not need for this board, but it will come in handy for you in the future with other boards. Yes, you also need IC Extractor (U Type Flat IC Extractor) Best to get that on ebay for $1 + Free shipping, and then wait for the long delivery, vs paying $4-8 for shipped from Amazon
UBU decides often what method is used to replace microcodes, MMTool or UEFIReplace etc, sometimes for some BIOS this just needs done manually. Padding stuff I mentioned cannot be edited, added, or removed etc by Hex editor. Sometimes you can update microcodes by straight hex edit, if they are in ideal location and you know how to do. In this case that should not be done either. No, UBU is not always 100% OK to edit all BIOS microcodes, you have to check before/after BIOS with UEFITool 51+ and be sure everything is same in all edited locations (no added/removed padding in any touched volume), and that parser tab matches before/after, otherwise sometimes can = brick (not always)
You can use only one microcode in the BIOS if you want, and if it’s correct one for your CPU, and if the edit is done properly.
This board does have BIOS recovery via USB. Please check the manual; alternatively, see the below:
1. Turn on the system. 2. Insert a USB stick with ONLY the BIOS file in root directory (I’d recommend using my modded one as it’s newer and named correctly) into a USB2 port 3. Crash-Free BIOS Utility 3 should read the BIOS file and enter EZ Flash 2 utility automatically 4. It should then force you to enter BIOS setup where you can enter <F5> to load defaults initially, then restart to configure as you require.
Make sure the first thing you do (if required) is upgrade ME to the latest as per my instructions.
@PhatAgent - Yes, it can be done without extractor, but it’s SUPER easy to bend the legs terribly bad, or break them etc. Best to wait. Yes, hotswap is just like you mentioned. Boot with one BIOS, get into EZ Flash or windows, then remove the BIOS chip, put in other one, then flash BIOS. If you do anything like that, try to make a backup first, or wait on your programmer to make backup, before you do anything to the original chip, that way you can preserve your original UUID and it’s easier to put all sys details back into proper places in proper format etc.
Video tutorial here shows the PC booting with an error message saying the system has went into recovery mode…
I boot mine up and it just flashes the CPU led on the board. Never posts or anything. I did try plugging the USB drive with nothing on it other than the bios with no luck.
Steps tried, powered on for several seconds, plug usb into rear USB2 ports. Waited several mins with nothing
Using UBU, I just compared the BIOS you attached and the MC layout is absolutely identical to mine so I cannot understand this problem at all. I also checked the NVMe insertion in UEFITool and that appears fine too.
Have you tried a Clear CMOS?
Failing that, could it possibly be the CPU has gone faulty? Do you have another you could try?
Think I have the DIP-8 Bios chip in correct. The indent on the side is pointing to the right which I believe indicates Pin 1 is above it. it is plugged into the 25xx left side.
Do I have do mess with the jumper pins or is it good to go?
What program do you recommend I use to reflash it? ------------------------
@PhatAgent - Glad to hear you are back in action now, good work!! But, not sure what BIOS you programmed in? Did it have your serial, UUID and Ethernet MAC ID? If not, and you need me to fix, hopefully you dumped your chip with programmer before you erased or wrote to chip! If you did not, did you make any software backup of BIOS at ANY time in the past?
Probably recovery method failed due to incompatible USB, Asus USB recovery and flashback is VERY picky about USB sometimes
He linked stock edited BIOS, so no your serial, UUID and Ethernet LAN MAC ID all would be missing since you programmed that in with flash programmer. It’s all OK to not have, since you can’t RMA now, except for Ethernet MAC ID, if that is stored in BIOS and not on Ethernet chip FW, then your Ethernet will not work until you fix it. We can fix this stuff with FPT software now, so you wont have to use programmer again, unless using programmer would be easier for you than learning how to use FPT, if you don’t already know how to use it.
If you mean you dumped your “badFlash.bin” as in the file at post #1, this is not a dump, that is a stock edited BIOS (That you may have later dumped, if you programmed that in with programmer). When I mentioned dump, I meant dump with programmer now, after the bad flash and BEFORE you did anything with programmer. << This is the only file that will have your serial, UUID, MAC ID all in place and original. Or, any previous BIOS backup you made with any tool, BEFORE this happened.
1. I have a similar problem to what @PhatAgent was facing, with some nuances. 2. I was running Bios version 9903 modded with nvme with no problems. 3. I’m not sure exactly when, but at a certain point, possibly after i flashed that modded bios, i updated the Intel ME to latest supported/recommended version in @Fernando 's guide. 4. Inspired by @Iken 's offered bios i wanted to update my own modded bios with the newer OROMs but without the microcode update (to my understanding the MC is spectre/meltdown related and i didn’t want to risk reduced performance). I did not dump the bios that’s currently live and running, but instead used the modded 9903 bios file i had saved on my computer. 5. I made changes to that file with UBU (Intel Sata and JMICRON), put the patched file on a usb stick and flashed through EZ-Flash. 6. All seemed ok but when the pc rebooted it couldn’t post. 7. No Beeps, No signal on the screen, and CPU ERROR is lit SOLID (@PhatAgent 's was blinking). 8. Mobo responded to 7 second press on power, Mem OK! button was responsive too. Clear CMOS seemed to be working but not helping, same for battery removal, CPU reinsertion, running one with of memory, with/without the PCIE GPU, basically nothing works. 9. The BIOS chip can be pulled out. Very hard to see the writing. Seems to be something like Winbond 25Q648VAIG 10. I would deeply appreciate a guide on how to repair the motherboard, what tools i need in order to fix this without frying the chip and how to do this properly 11. In the meantime i ordered a pre programmed bios chip for this exact motherboard with the latest official firmware, which would probably be version 3306. plan was to flash it to my old modded 9903 (the file i used before i made the recent updates with UBU. I currently don’t have access to those files (my old modded 9903, and the new one that failed). 12. Since the CPU ERROR led is solid, I’m worried the new chip would not work either, or that flashing to my old modded 9903 bios would fail too. Perhaps there’s some Intel ME involvement which is preventing POST? 13. Would it be better if i ask the ebay seller of the new chip to pre program it to @Iken 's bios, and downgrade the MC afterwards? is that a better alternative?
@cookie Order a CH341A programmer and possibly U Type Flat IC extractor, see #2
Looks like your got a socketed bios chip, so there’s not too much danger for read errors, but more for bent legs- be careful. Dump your old bios chip (backup it), it may contain board specific information (UUID, mac- address, serial…) Read it twice with different programs and compare the result, should be 100% identical.
Attach the file here or give a link to it.
Your pre- programmed chip is a stock bios on a chip, you could’ve easily done that yourself with a new chip and a programmer.
Chip is probably Winbond 25Q64BV AIG, most programs will work with that chip.
Hi, Thank you. Do i need to mod the programmer? i saw some conflicting information regarding 3.3V and 5V, unsure what i should do with my chip. and regarding the chip model, what you wrote sure makes sense
Should i use the black/gold one or something else? I saw that one has a jumper but couldn’t find information which voltage is on which position. There are quite a few programmers. A link to Aliexpress/eBay would be mush appreciated. I’d like to order sooner than later because of shipping times.
I’m getting a HDD enclosure later today, I’ll upload my old modded 9903 bios then.
@cookie Those are low quailty items, so there might be always one in betweeen that’s not OK. I bought one that got warm, didn’t write first tries but afterwards worked perfectly fine. There’s always some extra attention with being 100% sure that you read/ wrote what you intended to.
If you need a soic 8 clip or a 1.8V adaptor depends on your hardware/ plans for the future…
There’s a lot of talking about 5V on the signal lines, I flashed quite a lot of the normal 3V chips with those programmers, worked without problems. Look at picture in first link, jumper is in corerct position there (TTL or SPI), it’s written on the downside of the circuit board somtimes, too.
Sorry for this “The following contents have been linked to this post:”, it came up automatically…
