HELP! Asus Laptop Wont Boot! Corrupted BIOS! How Can I Reprogram It?

[iamdarkyoshi]

My asus A53S (or K53SV if you go by the PCB and old BIOS title) no longer powers on.

I flashed the latest bios from their website and after flashing, the notebook just hung there for an hour. So I unplugged it and removed the battery, put them back in, and it does NOT turn on. I removed the bios battery, no change.

So now I'm stuck. I could buy another logic board at work, but I don't want to call it quits yet.

BIOS chip looks like its a Winbond 25Q32bvsig.

Can I reflash the chip myself?

Can it be done with an arduino?

If not, could I borrow a working board from work, power it on, remove the bios chip while its running, swap it for the corrupt one, and then flash the corrupted one that way?

If not, what else can I do?

Help! This is my only working computer right now!

[imidis]

This may help?

I think the 0 might be a Q

http://partner.winbond.com/NR/rdonlyres/B573ABE4-0DD6-4C10-AA9F-906945FC52B5/0/W25Q32BV.pdf

[iamdarkyoshi]

This may help?

I think the 0 might be a Q

http://partner.winbond.com/NR/rdonlyres/B573ABE4-0DD6-4C10-AA9F-906945FC52B5/0/W25Q32BV.pdf

Yeah it is. Winbond needs a better laser etching machine, apparenttly.

[iamdarkyoshi]

Would a programmer like this work?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/25-SPI-Series-24-EEPROM-CH341A-BIOS-Writer-Routing-LCD-Flash-USB-Programmer-/131861626827

[sainter]

You need to check witch family EEPROM chip you laptop has. After that, you can find needed programmer. Also I advice of getting soic8 chip clip, (look like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pomona-5250-test-clip-for-SOIC-8-Pin-SOP-EEPROM-24-25-93CXX-93C46-ICSP-M-F-USA-/171178171301?hash=item27db039ba5:g:4BYAAOxyvuVSHUOT) that you wouldn't have to desolder the chip.

Then you can get fresh bios from manufacturer website and burn it it. Alternatively you can find a preprogrammed chip and solder it on... but I would advice agains it.

[paulhm81]

Hi
You cannot program it with the firmware update from asus support site because it contains just a fraction of the data. You need a bios dump for your motherboard. You should find the exact name of the motherboard and the revision and then search for a dump. You usually find them on russian sites. As for programming it without desoldering the chip I don't think it would work. You should take it off.
Here's a link with a few instructions:
http://laptoprepairblog.com/restoring-bios-asus-k52-k53-k55-k56

[TheBay]

I've had success repairing corrupted BIOS's by taking a dump of the old one and merging that data with the new BIOS.
Most of the time it will be the updatable part that's corrupt and it will boot, possibly with a checksum error but then doing a normal BIOS update will fix it.

[iamdarkyoshi]

I've had success repairing corrupted BIOS's by taking a dump of the old one and merging that data with the new BIOS.
Most of the time it will be the updatable part that's corrupt and it will boot, possibly with a checksum error but then doing a normal BIOS update will fix it.

Hopefully I can lern how to do this, I'm good at hardware but bad at software. Maybe i'll look for a scrap motherboard with a compatible bios chip I can use so I don't write to the original one. Shipping info on the programmer estimates it should arrive next week...

Gah, I can't game on my desktop, its too hot in my bedroom!

[iamdarkyoshi]

Well guys, the cheap usb programmer from ebay plus the dump I found on some russian site WORKED!

Almost.

I don't know how to modify the dump so it has my original mac address and serial number. Before flashing anything to my original chip, I dumped the data off of it. Anyone know how I would go about editing the bios I got online to have my original serial number and mac address and stuff?

[Rasz]

russians usually have homemade dos programs/scripts that do that
for example this dude https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2EQmypjuRR4oBYQICIEgCg/videos (yes, I know Ukraine is not Russia ... yet) has plenty of vids where he shows his tools. He does mainly asuses/acers.

have you tried searching for binary value of the current mac address in the file? try different endianess to cover all bases.

[iamdarkyoshi]

russians usually have homemade dos programs/scripts that do that
for example this dude https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2EQmypjuRR4oBYQICIEgCg/videos (yes, I know Ukraine is not Russia ... yet) has plenty of vids where he shows his tools. He does mainly asuses/acers.

have you tried searching for binary value of the current mac address in the file? try different endianess to cover all bases.

I've managed to find my serial number, didn't sesrch for the mac

Serial number starts precisely on line 022000

[lpc32]

... 4 years later ...

You should find the exact name of the motherboard and the revision and then search for a dump. You usually find them on russian sites.

Which sites are recommended?

soic8 chip clip ... that you wouldn't have to desolder the chip.

As for programming it without desoldering the chip I don't think it would work. You should take it off.

Who is correct?