Motherboard BIOS recovery

[itsakjt]

Suppose the BIOS chip of a motherboard is faulty. Now if we replace it with a new chip which has nothing stored in it, will the BIOS recovery for that particular board initiate?

[drdeathx]

Originally Posted by itsakjt

Suppose the BIOS chip of a motherboard is faulty. Now if we replace it with a new chip which has nothing stored in it, will the BIOS recovery for that particular board initiate?

I think the new bios takes over.

[itsakjt]

Didn't get you. Assume the new chip to be completely empty. Then?
If it is preflashed, then the board should fire up right away.

[drdeathx]

How are you getting a new bios chip with no bios loaded on it? I don't think that would work by cadaveca would know more. You may have to wait till tomorrow.

[terrastrife]

I'm pretty sure you'd need a working boot bios (the part of the bios that boots before loading post), so a blank chip won't boot your motherboard.
Time to hot flash.

[itsakjt]

@drdeathx-I was just thinking. Because those HP guys won't give me a replacement BIOS chip. I have to buy it from outside and manually program it I think.
@terraslife-That's what questions me. That means the BIOS recovery instructions are stored in the BIOS itself.

[Jetster]

BIOS chios come preloaded. At least they use to. But they do make BIOS programer boards

[itsakjt]

Absolutely. Let me tell you the story. A HP 430 laptop was given to all of us students from our college. Now everyone was facing a BIOS problem which perhaps happened due to a BIOS bug and it fixed in a later revision. All the laptops which were under warranty had their motherboard replaced. Now a student gave me his laptop with BIOS problem(warranty over now). I opened it up cleared the CMOS and it worked. So I updated the BIOS. Completed successfully and rebooted. Now when I turned off the power and power on again, it will not boot and the caps lock will blink 2 times(BIOS corruption). Resetting the CMOS no longer works. Please note my laptop(same model) runs the same BIOS(latest) that I updated his with. I made a recovery HP tools disk with the BIOS files. The screen comes and writes BIOS but the verification fails at block 607/1056. I checked the log file and it says device error. So this is the story. To verify if I was following the correct recovery method, I deliberately destroyed the BIOS of my laptop(removed power while reflashing) and then recovered it. It passed in one shot. So it must be the BIOS chip that is faulty.

[95Viper]

If the chip is removable (or, if you have the skills and tools); you, probably, can order a programmed bios from some business (try a search on the web for it).

If needed, maybe, you can get the motherboard on the cheap... from, like, ebay or one of the many laptop parts resellers.

If the chip is physically defective there is not much else you can do.

Did you try the recovery to the original bios? If not, maybe that may take.

[cadaveca]

Try this?

http://www.badflash.com/


I used to use BIOSman, but he's no longer selling BIOS chips.


BIOSman, you could tell him the chip type, send him BIOS, he'd mail you a flashed chip. Not so sure on badflash, but it's worth a shot.

[itsakjt]

@95Viper-I tried the initial BIOS but with that the screen is not coming even. The latest BIOS is the only one with which it atleast attempts to recover the BIOS but fails. I am looking forward to get a replacement chip.
@cadaveca-The BIOS is from Insyde. I think badflash don't provide support for Insyde. My friend has serious bad luck I think.

@All-Also is it possible that the motherboard itself is faulty in some way or the other? Maybe the BIOS chip is not addressed correctly?

[drdeathx]

Originally Posted by itsakjt

@drdeathx-I was just thinking. Because those HP guys won't give me a replacement BIOS chip. I have to buy it from outside and manually program it I think.
@terraslife-That's what questions me. That means the BIOS recovery instructions are stored in the BIOS itself.

HP won't cause they can't. They don't have bios chips laying around... With all the hassle, look into a new board..

[itsakjt]

@drdeathx-Its a challenge for me to repair the laptop-whether I do it myself or take help of someone to apply my thoughts. Replacing the motherboard will be expensive and cause me to fail.
It is just like a computer with a faulty HDD that has a corrupt OS and won't reinstall and you are replacing the whole computer because maybe the HDD is not available?
There are lot of options-like putting the chip from a similar board which has something else bad or programming the BIOS chip externally. Think it like this-The motherboard was just manufactured and it's BIOS is empty. It needs to be programmed.

[Sasqui]

Originally Posted by itsakjt

@drdeathx-Its a challenge for me to repair the laptop-whether I do it myself or take help of someone to apply my thoughts. Replacing the motherboard will be expensive and cause me to fail.
It is just like a computer with a faulty HDD that has a corrupt OS and won't reinstall and you are replacing the whole computer because maybe the HDD is not available?
There are lot of options-like putting the chip from a similar board which has something else bad or programming the BIOS chip externally. Think it like this-The motherboard was just manufactured and it's BIOS is empty. It needs to be programmed.

Here's a thread from HP forums if you haven't already found it. If it's a laptop, it's probably soldered to the board.

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Noteboo...00/td-p/160689

What model HP is it???

Edit: More links: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Noteboo...te/td-p/679987

[itsakjt]

Originally Posted by Sasqui

Here's a thread from HP forums if you haven't already found it. If it's a laptop, it's probably soldered to the board.

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Noteboo...00/td-p/160689

What model HP is it???

Edit: More links: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Noteboo...te/td-p/679987

Yes. The chip is soldered in the motherboard. I saw it and verified it in the datasheet. It is a 2*4 pin IC and pretty easy to remove with a heat air gun as I saw on YouTube. But first to find the replacement.

BTW, the model is HP 430 motherboard id 3672(Pentium processor)

[Sasqui]

Here's a UK firm selling BIOS chips:

HP-Compaq G61 Notebook Series
Available BIOS Parts, MX, Winbond, SST and cFeon Please let us know which makres part you would prefer if you should place an order.

G61-6xx
G61-5xx
G61-4xx
G61-3xx
G61-2xx
G61-1xx
Misc
HP-Compaq G61-600 Notebook Series HP G61-631NR W25Q16BVSSIG HP G61-632NR W25Q16BVSSIG


HP-Compaq G61-500 Notebook Series HP G61-511WM W25Q16BVSSIG



HP-Compaq G61-400 Notebook Series
HP G61-400 Notebook PC Series (AMD)
Covers the following AMD models, HP G61-408CA, HP G61-409CA, HP G61-420CA, HP G61-423CA, HP G61-424CA, HP G61-428CA, HP G61-429WM, HP G61-448CA
Available Parts: W25Q16BVSSIG, SST 25VF016B, cFeon F16, MX25l1605 Please state which you would prefer id you order
HP G61-400 Notebook PC Series (Intel)
Covers the following Intel models, HP G61-400EP, HP G61-400SL, HP G61-400SP, HP G61-401SA, HP G61-405EL, HP G61-405SL, HP G61-406SA, HP G61-407SL, HP G61-410EB, HP G61-410ED, HP G61-410EL, HP G61-410SA, HP G61-410SI, HP G61-410SS, HP G61-415EA, HP G61-415EL, HP G61-415ES, HP G61-415SA, HP G61-415SB, HP G61-418EO, HP G61-420EA, HP G61-420EB, HP G61-420ED, HP G61-420EF, HP G61-420Si, HP G61-420SL, HP G61-420SO, HP G61-420SS, HP G61-421SO, HP G61-422SO, HP G61-423EO, HP G61-425EB, HP G61-425EL, HP G61-425ES, HP G61-429SA, HP G61-430EF, HP G61-430EG, HP G61-430EL, HP G61-430SB, HP G61-430SF, HP G61-430Si, HP G61-430SL, HP G61-430SS, HP G61-435ES, HP G61-435Si, HP G61-435SL, HP G61-435ST, HP G61-440EA, HP G61-440EL, HP G61-440SG, HP G61-440SS, HP G61-440ST, HP G61-445Si, HP G61-450EE, HP G61-450ES, HP G61-450SG, HP G61-451EE, HP G61-452EE, HP G61-453EE, HP G61-454EE, HP G61-455EE, HP G61-455ET, HP G61-456EE, HP G61-465SL

http://bios-repair.co.uk/Programmed-...Notebooks.html

[itsakjt]

Originally Posted by Sasqui

Here's a UK firm selling BIOS chips:



http://bios-repair.co.uk/Programmed-...Notebooks.html

Thanks. But I couldn't find my model here. This particular model is not so popular atleast for the time. Anyway, the faulty laptop has an MX IC BIOS chip and my laptop(absolutely same model) has a Winbond chip. The chips have same pin configuration and same features.
So I am inclining towards the Winbond chip as mine still works flawlessly after immense torture.
The model is
Winbond 25q32bvsig

And I need a suitable programmer to flash it. That I will find in local laptop repair shop I think.

[terrastrife]

If you have acess to multiple machines, you can probably just hot flash it yourself.

[itsakjt]

Originally Posted by terrastrife

If you have acess to multiple machines, you can probably just hot flash it yourself.

I had that idea actually. But what if the chip itself is bad which I think it is?
I mean else the recovery would have worked.

[itsakjt]

BTW found it finally.
http://www.biosdiy.cn/wzcp/BIOSCHIPS/MX.htm. Its the first chip under the 32 MB section. And they are flashing it for free too. :-)
http://www.biosdiy.cn/wzcp/BIOSCHIPS/WINBOND.htm. The Winbond is there too. 2nd in the 32 MB section.

[Sasqui]

Originally Posted by itsakjt

BTW found it finally.
http://www.biosdiy.cn/wzcp/BIOSCHIPS/MX.htm. Its the first chip under the 32 MB section. And they are flashing it for free too. :-)
http://www.biosdiy.cn/wzcp/BIOSCHIPS/WINBOND.htm. The Winbond is there too. 2nd in the 32 MB section.

That's awesome, and the prices are way cheap. Post back with the results, are you doing the solder install yourself?

[itsakjt]

No I will take help of a mobile repair shop since I don't have the heat air gun. I just have a normal 10W soldering iron. And yes I will post back the results. Thanks a lot for your support.