DFI BIOSecure Programmer - just WOW!

[Mescalamba]

I just found this thing at my favorite German shop. Wish I had this thing half-year back, when one of my DFi was RMAed due bad BIOS flash.



Faster and More Safe Way to Upgrade BIOS
No more BIOS Crash

* Upgrade, rescue, backup motherboard BIOS.
* Simulate new BIOS.

Specifications:

Onboard Connectors

* 1 2x4 pin header
* 1 BIOSecure mini-USB connector
* 8Mbit SPI flash memory

Accessories

* 1 User’s Manual
* 1 DVD
* 1 USB cable

EMI_Regulations

* CE
* FCC

PCB_Size

* 87x50 mm
* 4 Layers
* PCB in black

HPM Computer Germany - DFi BIOSecure Programmer

I hope that I´m not posting anything that was already here..

[nullface]

Saw this when they put it up a week or so ago, but is it really necessary? I never had a bad BIOS flash in my life and i have done alot of flashing!

[biohead]

aren't those "dual bios" features enough to recover from a bad flash?

[HeXploiT]

In all my years I've only had one bad bios flash which was due to impatience. Seems neat but if one flashes bios enough to need this...it seems they would be skilled enough not to need it.

Nonetheless a cool tool to have on the shelf.

[saaya]

Saw this when they put it up a week or so ago, but is it really necessary? I never had a bad BIOS flash in my life and i have done alot of flashing!

same here
and all highend boards have 2 bios chips now... so if a bios goes bad, just boot from the backup bios and reflash the first chip...

this seems like an extremely inconvenient and complex solution for a very simple problem

[trueg50]

aren't those "dual bios" features enough to recover from a bad flash?

The Asus Rampage Extreme boards were notorious for dying BIO's chips; where the chips would just instantly corrupt themselves upon a reboot (not even flashing the BIOS!). I had a friend have this happen, get replacement chips, and the system last about a week before it did it again!

[zalbard]

I doubt this thing is targeted at mass consumer market anyway.
Pretty handy accessory if you plan to get into PC fixing business, though.

[saint-francis]

I doubt this thing is targeted at mass consumer market anyway.
Pretty handy accessory if you plan to get into PC fixing business, though.

Not so sure about that. Most people who have a DFI board are unlikely to be taking their computer to the local shop or geek squad or whoever to have their system worked on. If you are the type to go to geek squad you probably shouldn't be getting a DFI board to begin with.

[zalbard]

So DFI boards have only one BIOS chip?

[saaya]

yeah, apparently...
and the asus x58 premium only has 1 as well?

[Mescalamba]

Lots of "normal" mobos has just one BIOS chips. I´m now spoiled with BloodRage. But before that, flashing DFi mobo was quite adrenaline action.

I think that even two chip mobo can go bad.. plus this thing can emulate flashed BIOS without need actually flashing it. Which is something I would love to see especially after BloodRage BIOS G29/30.

[saaya]

The Asus Rampage Extreme boards were notorious for dying BIO's chips; where the chips would just instantly corrupt themselves upon a reboot (not even flashing the BIOS!). I had a friend have this happen, get replacement chips, and the system last about a week before it did it again!

first time i hear about this... sounds like there was something wrong with his board and not the bios chips then...

[Glow9]

So this is a usb hub which you stick your flash drive in with the bios? To me it seems kinda pointless, like you update your bios to that thing first and if all is good it flashes your mobos BIOS?

[highoctane]

While I have fond memories of my "old" dfi boards they where prone to bios corruption when oc'ing, allot of bios saviors where sold back in the day.

[Particle]

I've had three boards die due to bad flashes in my time. One was a dual BIOS board. What I found is that the dual BIOS board didn't help a bit. To be perfectly honest, I didn't even tell it to flash. The board simply rebooted after a crash and booted from the backup BIOS for some reason. It automatically reflashed the primary BIOS with itself, but ironically the backup was corrupt even though the primary had been fine. Dead. The other simply failed to write after clearing. I retried 3 times or so, but the flash was just faulty. Dead. The last one I don't know why it didn't work. It said it successfully flashed, but it never worked again.

I would find this sort of device quite useful.

[El Greco]

i wish i could find one of those in greece..Price?

[Serra]

I don't see a lot of these being sold, but I don't think the real market for them are for users (IMO 40 euro's is a very silly amount to lay out for something like this for a user). The target here would hopefully be the DIY BIOS crowd, who could use this to test at least the basic stability of new BIOS'.

[Hell Hound]

I use a mp4 player as a flash device,MSI has a usb utility that's very nice.

[cirthix]

just a usb spi flash programmer in a shiny case

[Mescalamba]

i wish i could find one of those in greece..Price?

Theres link directly to shop, tough officialy, they don´t ship to Greece, but you can try and ask them, they are usually very helpful.

[marmott]

just a usb spi flash programmer in a shiny case

I can't find if it's universal or DFI mb only

[Mescalamba]

just a usb spi flash programmer in a shiny case

That can flash your mobo without having your PC working, or backup your BIOS, or you can plug it and boot from it, without flashing your BIOS?

Not just programmer I would say.

[Mescalamba]

I can't find if it's universal or DFI mb only

Only DFi probably.. all DFi mobos have few pins that are meant to by connected to this. Even quite old ones, I guess that this thing was first used just by their techs/engineers and now they just released it to public. Maybe cause whiners like me wanted them to allow normal ppl to use it too.

[cowie]

ok let me see if i have this right,you have a dead bios borked dfi mb.
you just put a usb stick with a bios for the mb plug it in and this thing will get it back?
i'll be a ginna pig and try if thats the case....but is it?

[Diverge]

just a usb spi flash programmer in a shiny case

exactly. You can do the same with any spi flash programmer. the header that breaks out the spi pins is on the motherboard.

I'd personally rather have an universal programmer (which I already have), so you could use it for more then dfi motherboards... assuming the software that comes with it is limited to dfi.