HOT Flash on a SOLDERED Bios chip.

[hipro5]

Well.....after a bios flash to my ASUS P5E3 WS Pro a month ago from 306 to 402, the mobo DIDN'T boot up again.....

Bad flashing?......I don't think so cuz I have flashed and flashed back this mobo 100 times or more....

Bad flashing?......I don't think so cuz I did the EXACT SAME to my OTHER ASUS P5E3 WS Pro and the EXACT SAME happened....

So I had 2 x mobos OFF by bios flashing for a month or so.....

A friend have sent me a Programmer to program the Bios chip with a working bios BUT I HAVEN'T received it up to now....
I HAVE to bench CF so I did something "odd" to brink my mobos back to life.....

The bios chips on this mobo and on the new mobos, is SOLDERED on the mobo........So HOW would you "Hot Flash" it as we did back in the old times when we removed the bios chip from it's slot and we plugged another one in it to flash?....

Here's what I did....

FIRST you MUST HAVE A SAME working motherboard.....

Then you UNSOLDER the bios chip from it.....





Then you take a small screwdriver (or whatever you wish) and put some seal string on it....



Then you "grab" the bios chip with it (seal string is soft and sticky)....





....and you "place it" on its place....







We PRESS it much and we power up the mobo....

We go into bios and select "Easy Flash"....

BEFORE hit the button for it, we REMOVE the bios chip form the mobo and we do the EXACT SAME things we did above with the "bad flashed" bios chip (which is corrupted)....
We place it with CARE AND STEADY on mobo (its place) and we squeeze it so to be sure that it makes contact....

BEWARE when you place it on the motherboard's pads....You HAVE TO be gentle with it and "find the target" with ONE "hit"...

Then we HIT the "Easy Flash" button within bios and we follow the flashing procedure.....AFTER flashing it.....POWER DOWN the mobo, SHUT DOWN the PSU and remove the bios chip.....

Now you are ready to solder it back on your "dead mobo" so to work it as a charm again....

Now I have my beauty back....

[4Qman]

Superb guide

[DeltZ]

wow, that's genius. Nice "trick" shame you have to trick it in the first place though...Very cool though

[AliG]

Its a shame that they're not making socket bios chips on asus's newer models, having that is really useful in case you get a bad bios/you're cpu's too new (not recognized), then asus would just send you a new bios chip instead of all the unsoldering etc

[VoRtAn_MaDgE]

Mobo's will start to shi(f)t on her's pants before dying up on your hands m8

[eternaljammer]

Nice 1 m8te

[Kunaak]

A Thread Like This Is Sure To Be Handy For A Long Time.

Thread Stuck.

[Amey]

Wow interesting guide there !
it takes a genius to come up with such an idea

[hipro5]

Thanks guys and Kunaak........

I just HAD to do so because I NEEDED to bench CF these days.....
I had only Blitz Extreme to do it in my hands that does ~300 - 400 2k6 marks lower than the X38 at the exact same frequencies so I desperate needed my mobo back....

To be honest, I started by making a PCB for the bios chip to do the flashing BUT I had EMI through the long cables of it and it didn't work....I had to solder some capacitors on that PCB to work and I was too bored to do so and keep testing with it so I did as above....

[psilos]

wow...

you are amazing...

[hipro5]

wow...

you are amazing...

No, I was desperate.......

[Cupcake]

I never would have though of that

I would be the guy soldering different chips with the PC on

[eva2000]

nice stuff George... maybe make some kind of socket interface for the bios chip so you don't have to resolder it back on ??

[Nelly]

Can anyone tell my why Asus use soldered on bios chips? I know they never used to just checked my Asus A8N-Sli Premium.

Doesnt make sense, I guess it cuts an extra corner. . .

[Soakki]

Nice guide, i did same to my X800XT PE =)

[massman]

Am I the only one who finds 16s PiFast - AMAZING

[TI66ER]

cant you use the spi header to flash without removing the chip?

[Oliver]

Really cool George and no massman its not just you, George that pifast is really good.

Keep soldering it and push it.

[hipro5]

Thanks guys......

......and no massman you're not the only one....
I have another one at 5880MHz at 2.1VCore.....

@ Oliver: You always make me laught M8 with the "Keep ...." thing of yours.....I REALY LIKE it.... Keep saying it M8.....You're a good guy.....

cant you use the spi header to flash without removing the chip?

A programmer is coming to my place any time soon, so I will not do this again......Though from that time till now, I have done it OVER 30 times (for practice).....

[massman]

......and no massman you're not the only one....
I have another one at 5880MHz at 2.1VCore.....

That's sub 16s

[zanzabar]

wont u need a ws 64 since the crossfireX drivers are out and u need some 4 card 2900 ln2 45k 3d mark or something like that

[Vatos_locos]

what about that

unsolder the chip
solder on socket in place
and then place the chip in the socket

shouldn't this work ?

[jfbbms]

Thanks guys......

......and no massman you're not the only one....
I have another one at 5880MHz at 2.1VCore.....

@ Oliver: You always make me laught M8 with the "Keep ...." thing of yours.....I REALY LIKE it.... Keep saying it M8.....You're a good guy.....



A programmer is coming to my place any time soon, so I will not do this again......Though from that time till now, I have done it OVER 30 times (for practice).....

is it possible to share the programmer specs?
it would cut some work for me in the working place

[hipro5]

is it possible to share the programmer specs?
it would cut some work for me in the working place

Unfortunatelly that programmer NEVER came to my place though I have payed for it....

[jfbbms]

Unfortunatelly that programmer NEVER came to my place though I have payed for it....

ok, thanks
for me , i have costumers ( work for local store ) that find funny to flash
asus bios under windows vista 64... the funny disapears when the flash goes
for the " toilet "