Anyone flash bios from another PC and successfuly boot up?

[davidm71]

Was wondering if anyone ever was able to flash the bios of another similar machine onto another slightly different model and get it to post? For example there are some router firmwares I know of that are compatible with an older version like the Asus N66U vs the newer AC model. So it makes me wonder if you could do the same with a PC? Would have the advantage of possibly newer uefi version among others.

Thanks

 

[Zyll Goliat]

When you saying PC what do you exactly mean???Do you mean motherboard bios?

 

[Solaris17]

sure used to do that with NF4

 

[jboydgolfer]

So it makes me wonder if you could do the same with a PC?

The thing is a router has a single firmware or bios, a PC has the bios for the motherboard, and also the bios for the GPU ,as long as it's discreet.

your analogy of router FW swapping doesnt carry over to pc. Generally when you do something like that with a router, you're doing it to gain functionalities that are not available on a lesser model or an older model router.

you could no more do that with a PC, than you could expect to swap the software for your Honda Civic's onboard computer for the software from a Ferrari F40, and expect it to enhance performance, or gain some functionality.

/sadly.

 

[Mussels]

You'd have to be able to flash it in the first place - and motherboards dont allow you to flash incompatible bioses.

the next hurdle is that its not just the one main chip, a mobo BIOS often includes secondary firmwares as well and they likely wouldnt be compatible

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Not sure if you would classify it other than a BIOS update but im pretty sure i flashed the BIOS on ASUS P6T which enabled the features of the deluxe version of the board.

Ive never attempted anything more scary or potentially damaging than that.

 

[R-T-B]

Yes, you can crossflash bioses.

No it doesn't usually end well. In about .1% of instances, it does, and you get something interesting. It's really not common, nor worth trying.

 

[Regeneration]

Yes. I have done it with a few motherboards and some other devices (DVD burners). But you gotta make sure you're crossflashing to a very similar device.

 

[davidm71]

I was wondering about flashing a bios from a similar model one revision up, modding the microcodes and gpu gop Drivers to match. For example I have a p8z68 deluxe rev 1. Maybe it could take the bios from the p8z68 gen 3 (slightly newer model). Got a bios rom programmer on hand to force the upgrade or downgrade. Curious. Thanks.

 

[jboydgolfer]

I was wondering about flashing a bios from a similar model one revision up, modding the microcodes and gpu gop Drivers to match. For example I have a p8z68 deluxe rev 1. Maybe it could take the bios from the p8z68 gen 3 (slightly newer model). Got a bios rom programmer on hand to force the upgrade or downgrade. Curious. Thanks.

in my limited experience with bios "modification" from what ive been told by those who DO know, your better off editing your actual bios, than using a different components bios. The situation i am referring to was when i was assisted in modifying my Ref GTX970's, so it may not translate into the world of MoBo bios modification, but id hazard a guess that it does. without the help of a bios editor program, im guessing it wouldnt be unlike translating ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics into spanish.

 

[davidm71]

I guess I discovered the Rosetta Stone here because it worked! Was able to flash the bios of an Asus M4A785D-M PRO bios onto an Asus M4A785-M board successfully. Was able to go into the bios setup program without issues. I guess the two boards were similar enough for it to work. Only thing is the LAN controllers are different and if I want to have working LAN I have to swap the LAN modules but no big deal. Had to use my CH341A programmer to pull this off because the Asus flash utility refused to program the M4A785D-M Pro's bios file (which was two years older - wish it was newer). At this point not sure about what difference this brings to the bios menu - I think the Pro has richer overclocking utility menu options. Should be interesting.

Thanks.

 

[Bones]

This type of BIOS flashing is dangerous and can brick a board.
Some are indeed similar enough you can do it with no ill-effect, others even if said to be about the same can lead to a board going bye-bye if you try it.

If you have the need to flash something from one to the other as the OP did I seriously suggest getting one of these:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NANO-USB-P...593344?hash=item3f2b8ce400:g:B6QAAMXQrNtR0sQZ

No need to worry about a bricked board via crossflashing/hotflashing with it and it's easy to use, got myself one of these sometime ago and it's been worth every penny spent for it and then some.

 

[davidm71]

Well it was an old board sitting in a closet collecting dust and I thought it would be a fun project to try out on my day off. FYI I do own a bios rom programmer like my last post indicated if it wasn't for my trusty Ch341A Black it would not have worked because the bios program refuses to flash a rom from another model. Of course I'm not going to try to flash a rom belonging to some other chipset as that obviously would not work. However I was surprised to find that all the ORom modules were all the same. Furthermore I copied my DSDT over for stability sake. So far no issues. Maybe I got lucky!

 

[delshay]

This type of BIOS flashing is dangerous and can brick a board.
Some are indeed similar enough you can do it with no ill-effect, others even if said to be about the same can lead to a board going bye-bye if you try it.

If you have the need to flash something from one to the other as the OP did I seriouslysuggest getting one of these:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NANO-USB-P...593344?hash=item3f2b8ce400:g:B6QAAMXQrNtR0sQZ

No need to worry about a bricked board via crossflashing/hotflashing with it and it's easy to use, got myself one of these sometime ago and it's been worth every penny spent for it and then some.

I don't know if it works on modern motherboards, but it works here on my classic 939 motherboard, but it's very high risk if you get it wrong.

Have new firmware on USB stick, boot into BIOS upto firmware update, but don't start it yet. Pull the BIOS chip out of the socket (do not power down motherboard) & insert "Any compatible BIOS chip" that fits the socket. Now press update firmware.

It must read update successful, if it does not, press reset, do not power down & repeat update firmware by going back into the BIOS until it reads successful.

NOTE: computer must never be power down until it reads a successful update.

It works for me first time. I can pull a BIOS chip from any computer & copy it for my motherboard or a similar motherboard. I have around six or seven spare BIOS chips for my motherboard & it work on near identical motherboards that have a small number of features missing, but BIOS chip that is flashed for other motherboard, you have to insert the correct BIOS chip for that motherboard in-order for it to function correctly.

This effectively is a BIOS COPY hack using your motherboard to reprogramme any BIOS chip that fit in the BIOS socket.

If you get a error after a successful update, just do a BIOS reset clear/load BIOS default & power down, this should clear the error & you should now have a spare BIOS chip.

To confirm everything is ok, just reflash it again in the normal way, their should be no errors whatsoever & new BIOS should be working as normal.

Just to make it clear, I don't know if this works on modern motherboards, but it always works first time on my 939 motherboard with no errors during reflashing.

 

[davidm71]

I bet it would work on a newer motherboards as long as the certain guidelines are followed such as:
1. Be same manufacturer
2. Same chipset
3. Similar product line

Such as grafting the bios of a X99A revision 1.1 board bios on a 1.0 board or something. They have to be similar.

Interesting findings I had from this experiment was that there really wasn't too much difference in the bios code.
They had the same rom drivers, same microcodes. Almost everything was the same except the Setup program
(and that was slight at best) and the DSDT aml code. It proved a point though that its doable.