Bad BIOS Flash P5B-Plus
in [Asus]
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From: daytripper on 29 Nov 2007 23:17 On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 19:54:22 -0800, "Kent_Diego" <None(a)no.way> wrote: >>I was hoping to see a BIOS chip socket but no luck! Not sure which chip. I >>can do simple soldering but the chips on the motherboard have very small >>leads. There is no way I going to get the chip out. I am hoping option 3 >>below involves sending the entire motherboard back to ASUS for repair. >> ... > >OK, I am sure is see the EEPROM chip. It is a little 8-pin DIP between the >ICH8R southbridge and the last PCI slot. It has part number X80VIG and seems >to have marker ink X or A written across top. It has an undocumented 7-pin >connector by it labled J1_SPI. I guess a small 8-pin chip could be within my >soldering abilities. I seem to recall even old cheap motherboards had >sockets for the EEPROM chip. I wish the ASUS would have indicated the chip >location in the manual. Maybe I can get out of this for $5.00 I will keep >everyone posted to progress. That isn't the bios eeprom, it's probably the serial eeprom for the ICH chip and probably contains the mac address for the embedded lan controller. Look for something with a lot more pins - like in the 40-48 pin range... /daytripper
From: daytripper on 29 Nov 2007 23:34 On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 23:17:15 -0500, daytripper <day_trippr(a)REMOVEyahoo.com> wrote: >On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 19:54:22 -0800, "Kent_Diego" <None(a)no.way> wrote: > >>>I was hoping to see a BIOS chip socket but no luck! Not sure which chip. I >>>can do simple soldering but the chips on the motherboard have very small >>>leads. There is no way I going to get the chip out. I am hoping option 3 >>>below involves sending the entire motherboard back to ASUS for repair. >>> ... >> >>OK, I am sure is see the EEPROM chip. It is a little 8-pin DIP between the >>ICH8R southbridge and the last PCI slot. It has part number X80VIG and seems >>to have marker ink X or A written across top. It has an undocumented 7-pin >>connector by it labled J1_SPI. I guess a small 8-pin chip could be within my >>soldering abilities. I seem to recall even old cheap motherboards had >>sockets for the EEPROM chip. I wish the ASUS would have indicated the chip >>location in the manual. Maybe I can get out of this for $5.00 I will keep >>everyone posted to progress. > >That isn't the bios eeprom, it's probably the serial eeprom for the ICH chip >and probably contains the mac address for the embedded lan controller. > >Look for something with a lot more pins - like in the 40-48 pin range... > >/daytripper Well, it wouldn't be the first time, but I could be wrong ;-) Asus may well have used a serial eeprom for the bios, because I'm looking at a photo allegedly of a p5b-plus and I don't see anything that looks like a traditional smt flash device... But, somewhere on the board there's going to be another serial eeprom for the lan mac address, so be careful you're not removing the wrong device... /daytripper
From: Paul on 29 Nov 2007 23:39 Kent_Diego wrote: > I was hoping to see a BIOS chip socket but no luck! Not sure which chip. I > can do simple soldering but the chips on the motherboard have very small > leads. There is no way I going to get the chip out. I am hoping option 3 > below involves sending the entire motherboard back to ASUS for repair. > I think I figured it out. I'm a bit slow :-) This is the best picture I could find of the board. This is the "Vista" version, but maybe this is close enough to give you a hint. http://www.unitycorp.co.jp/asus/motherboard/intel/lga775/p5b-plus_vista/big_photo.jpg The ICH8 has a couple of BIOS chip interfaces. The traditional one would be LPC (low pin count) bus, nibble wide at perhaps 33MHz. A typical chip would be a PLCC that fits into a socket. Badflash.com could help with that. The second option is SPI, a serial interface. Such an interface would slow down the rate that BIOS instructions could be executed. The serial data flow gets converted back into bytes, inside the Southbridge. It appears, by looking in a catalog, that SPI chips are available as eight pin chips. See page 2 and SOIC form factor. Hard to believe the silicon die size is small enough to fit. http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/doc3597.pdf To the side of the ICH8R, I see an eight pin chip, and a 2x4 header with one pin missing. The label says SPI_J1, implying it is a programming header of some sort, that connects to the SPI chip. So it looks like the chip is supposed to stay soldered to the motherboard, and be recovered by plugging a programmer device to the header. That is all I know right now. A quick search isn't turning up a purpose-made solution for this problem, at anything approaching a reasonable price. Paul
From: Paul on 30 Nov 2007 00:09 Paul wrote: > Kent_Diego wrote: >> I was hoping to see a BIOS chip socket but no luck! Not sure which >> chip. I can do simple soldering but the chips on the motherboard have >> very small leads. There is no way I going to get the chip out. I am >> hoping option 3 below involves sending the entire motherboard back to >> ASUS for repair. >> > > I think I figured it out. I'm a bit slow :-) > > This is the best picture I could find of the board. This is the > "Vista" version, but maybe this is close enough to give you a > hint. > > http://www.unitycorp.co.jp/asus/motherboard/intel/lga775/p5b-plus_vista/big_photo.jpg > > > The ICH8 has a couple of BIOS chip interfaces. The traditional > one would be LPC (low pin count) bus, nibble wide at perhaps > 33MHz. A typical chip would be a PLCC that fits into a socket. > Badflash.com could help with that. > > The second option is SPI, a serial interface. Such an interface > would slow down the rate that BIOS instructions could be > executed. The serial data flow gets converted back into > bytes, inside the Southbridge. > > It appears, by looking in a catalog, that SPI chips are available > as eight pin chips. See page 2 and SOIC form factor. Hard to believe > the silicon die size is small enough to fit. > > http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/doc3597.pdf > > To the side of the ICH8R, I see an eight pin chip, and a > 2x4 header with one pin missing. The label says SPI_J1, > implying it is a programming header of some sort, that > connects to the SPI chip. > > So it looks like the chip is supposed to stay soldered to > the motherboard, and be recovered by plugging a programmer > device to the header. > > That is all I know right now. A quick search isn't turning > up a purpose-made solution for this problem, at anything > approaching a reasonable price. > > Paul I found a reprogrammer here. It is a USB device that connects to another computer. A short ribbon cable with 2x4 female on the end, connects to the target. Cost: $175.00 http://www.dediprog.com/product.php?UID=2 The company makes some other SPI related products as well. Paul
From: RobV on 30 Nov 2007 02:07 Kent_Diego wrote: > Hi All, > I tried to upgrade my BIOS using the latest version of ASUS > Update on Vista x64 system. The first try erased present BIOS and > flashed 100%. The checksum verification failed at 0% as seemed unable > to read from motherboard. The status screen instructions said to try > again. So I tried again and erase said 100% but nothing else > happened. No matter how many times I clicked. On re-boot motherboard > is dead. PS and fans come on but nothing else happens. > > Anyone have any ideas? Sorry, but my P5B-Plus has no socketed chips at all, BIOS or otherwise (except the CPU, of course). This was one of the first things I noticed when installing it. The manual does not point out, or otherwise give any information, as to the whereabouts of the BIOS IC. Paul would be more knowledgeable about the specifics, as he has already provided helpful, detailed info regarding possible BIOS ICs. I did update the original BIOS to 0804 with some difficulty using a floppy. I was able to complete the flash using EZ Flash2 and, if I recall, a USB flash drive.
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