Wrong bios flashing on Asrock

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Setup.exe

Hi

Some days ago, like a total newbie - was in a hurry - I flashed my MB
under windows but with a wrong bios !! In fact, I had been fooled with
an incorrect driver link on clubic - a bios link said for my MB : Asrock
AM2NF3-VSTA - but its definitly NOT a bios for this card !!!
See here :
http://www.clubic.com/telecharger-pilote-148538-0-asrock-am2nf3-vsta.html

Flashing was ok, it did not said "this is not for this card .. "

So, after reboot : black screen etc, all dead.
I tried hotbios procedure 100 times in 100 different ways and
manipulations, but all insuccess, using Uniflash and all good things to
do with this prog.

I succeed flashing the good bios in another PLCC, but my MB don't boot,
acts exactly the same zombie way.

the original PLCC for this asrock is a winbond w39v040cpz
wich is said equivalent to the W39V040C ...

I don't know what means a succeed flashing (using Unlock command + bbot
block) and a different PLCC, like I did ... except that did not worked out.

So, after all, I really fear the first wrong bios flashing has destroy
the MB itself, do you think that can happen ? Cause when I swicth on the
PSU, the PC always starts directly, and the CDROM is spinning very
strangely, making CLIC CLIC in loop mode ... acts like crazy - i.e : you
cannot even open the door .. thats so strange ....

Thanks in advance


J.
 
Setup.exe said:
Hi

Some days ago, like a total newbie - was in a hurry - I flashed my MB
under windows but with a wrong bios !! In fact, I had been fooled with
an incorrect driver link on clubic - a bios link said for my MB : Asrock
AM2NF3-VSTA - but its definitly NOT a bios for this card !!!
See here :
http://www.clubic.com/telecharger-pilote-148538-0-asrock-am2nf3-vsta.html

Flashing was ok, it did not said "this is not for this card .. "

So, after reboot : black screen etc, all dead.
I tried hotbios procedure 100 times in 100 different ways and
manipulations, but all insuccess, using Uniflash and all good things to
do with this prog.

I succeed flashing the good bios in another PLCC, but my MB don't boot,
acts exactly the same zombie way.

the original PLCC for this asrock is a winbond w39v040cpz
wich is said equivalent to the W39V040C ...

I don't know what means a succeed flashing (using Unlock command + bbot
block) and a different PLCC, like I did ... except that did not worked out.

So, after all, I really fear the first wrong bios flashing has destroy
the MB itself, do you think that can happen ? Cause when I swicth on the
PSU, the PC always starts directly, and the CDROM is spinning very
strangely, making CLIC CLIC in loop mode ... acts like crazy - i.e : you
cannot even open the door .. thats so strange ....

Thanks in advance


J.
Click to expand...

Boards differ in the allocation of GPIO signals. General Purpose IO
can be used to control things like voltage regulators.

Say a wrong value was written out on some GPIO pins, and caused a
voltage regulator to make too high a voltage. That might
damage something.

If the PC "starts immediately" when switched on at the back,
sometimes stress on the Southbridge or SuperIO can do that.
I had an IDE ribbon cable loose one day (pulled it loose
while working inside the PC). Only half the pins were
touching the connector. And that made the PC come on immediately.
Control signals related to PS_ON#, are on the Southbridge
and SuperIO chips.

If the Southbridge was "blown", it would have stress symptoms.
And maybe PS_ON# would get asserted immediately.

It's hard to understand though, the CDROM symptoms.
Maybe the motherboard is spewing commands at the CDROM
continuously ? That sounds like insane code.

If you don't have a good way to do hotflash, you can try
badflash.com and get them to flash a chip for you. You
can even send them your flash chip, tell them what file
to flash, and they'll do it for you. Then mail it back.

http://www.badflash.com/orderbios.html

Paul
 
Le 7/6/2012 12:24 PM, Paul a écrit :
Boards differ in the allocation of GPIO signals. General Purpose IO
can be used to control things like voltage regulators.

Say a wrong value was written out on some GPIO pins, and caused a
voltage regulator to make too high a voltage. That might
damage something.

If the PC "starts immediately" when switched on at the back,
sometimes stress on the Southbridge or SuperIO can do that.
I had an IDE ribbon cable loose one day (pulled it loose
while working inside the PC). Only half the pins were
touching the connector. And that made the PC come on immediately.
Control signals related to PS_ON#, are on the Southbridge
and SuperIO chips.

If the Southbridge was "blown", it would have stress symptoms.
And maybe PS_ON# would get asserted immediately.

It's hard to understand though, the CDROM symptoms.
Maybe the motherboard is spewing commands at the CDROM
continuously ? That sounds like insane code.

If you don't have a good way to do hotflash, you can try
badflash.com and get them to flash a chip for you. You
can even send them your flash chip, tell them what file
to flash, and they'll do it for you. Then mail it back.

http://www.badflash.com/orderbios.html

Paul
Click to expand...

Thank you very much again, Paul.
I'm almost sure the motherboard had a shock.
(I tried with no ram no peripherals : same auto start ! )
I know badflash.com.
I'm already in contact with a german person who sails bios eeproms for
10 $ + shipping cost free ..

Such a mistake track me back 15 years before ...
I just feel YOUNG (better than be hangry)
 
Le 7/6/2012 2:16 PM, Setup.exe a écrit :
Le 7/6/2012 12:24 PM, Paul a écrit :

Thank you very much again, Paul.
I'm almost sure the motherboard had a shock.
(I tried with no ram no peripherals : same auto start ! )
I know badflash.com.
I'm already in contact with a german person who sails bios eeproms for
10 $ + shipping cost free ..

Such a mistake track me back 15 years before ...
I just feel YOUNG (better than be hangry)
Click to expand...

I just found about 2 or 3 entries in the web on the fact uncorrect bios
can destroy a motherboard. That make me think, even if I am guilty,
Asrock are foolish to offer Windows bios flashing, as their prog is
unable to block operation and prevent people if the bios is not suitable
for the selected mainboard !

Its absurd, cause I've seen many bios flashing tools that are (for most
of all) blocking any bios that would be no good for the mainboard.

I returned to the faulty Clubic post with the wrong bios and see it was
a people from Clubic that commited the post. Why on earth need to put
those 2 incomplète drivers for this MB, as it exists in all details on
Asrock official site ? I just wrote them to alert them. Cannot believe
that 1539 people have download this death trap ?? 1539 dead motherboards
? Thats odd ...
 
Setup.exe said:
Le 7/6/2012 2:16 PM, Setup.exe a écrit :

I just found about 2 or 3 entries in the web on the fact uncorrect bios
can destroy a motherboard. That make me think, even if I am guilty,
Asrock are foolish to offer Windows bios flashing, as their prog is
unable to block operation and prevent people if the bios is not suitable
for the selected mainboard !

Its absurd, cause I've seen many bios flashing tools that are (for most
of all) blocking any bios that would be no good for the mainboard.

I returned to the faulty Clubic post with the wrong bios and see it was
a people from Clubic that commited the post. Why on earth need to put
those 2 incomplète drivers for this MB, as it exists in all details on
Asrock official site ? I just wrote them to alert them. Cannot believe
that 1539 people have download this death trap ?? 1539 dead motherboards
? Thats odd ...
Click to expand...

Yes, normally a flasher, will check the ID string in the current BIOS
information, before flashing.

But in terms of flasher programs, there are also situations where the
flasher, on purpose, ignores the ID. There have been cases, where to
"revert" a BIOS, the ID has to be ignored. So if you were downgrading
a BIOS, the protection may be removed. It helps, if you know where
the tool and file, originated from. Some original download sources,
will warn of the more dangerous nature of a particular flasher instance.

Make sure your warning is posted to the thread, so someone will get
the necessary info. Or alternately, Google the file name, and see
if it's been delivered on other sites, and doing damage the same way.

But in terms of damage mechanisms, I would think "bus decode" would be
relatively bulletproof, while things like GPIO signals controlling
voltage regulators, would be an exposure. The usage of GPIO is a
custom part of each design, where the motherboard designer can make
the thing as safe or as dangerous as they want. Some enthusiast boards
have pretty extreme regulator boost capabilities on some of their rails,
and there have even been cases where an officially released BIOS
puts the wrong voltage on. (Users only notice, when a part on
the motherboard runs too hot. Then, a user with a multimeter may check
and understand what's happened. The BIOS then gets pulled from the
official motherboard site.)

If there are warnings out on the web already, the 1539 who downloaded
may not have used the file. (Some of the downloads, can be by robots.)

I've used custom (hacked) BIOS off the web. But for those,
I wait until the thread offering the BIOS, a number of
people have tested it. And that was for my Asrock board,
where the twits at Asrock simply refused to fix certain
bugs, and kept reissuing BIOS with the same problems.
And at that point, I didn't care if the $65 motherboard
blew up or not :-( The hacked BIOS, was actually a nice
piece of work (enabled SpeedStep, enabled usage of 2GB
modules, unblocked all available settings). I also used
hacked BIOS for my Nforce2 board, taking RAM command
rate setting between 1T and 2T for testing (trying to
find the best compromise RAM settings). The Nforce2 had
some problems at DDR400 speed.

Paul
 
Le 7/6/2012 8:27 PM, Paul a écrit :
Yes, normally a flasher, will check the ID string in the current BIOS
information, before flashing.

But in terms of flasher programs, there are also situations where the
flasher, on purpose, ignores the ID. There have been cases, where to
"revert" a BIOS, the ID has to be ignored. So if you were downgrading
a BIOS, the protection may be removed. It helps, if you know where
the tool and file, originated from. Some original download sources,
will warn of the more dangerous nature of a particular flasher instance.

Make sure your warning is posted to the thread, so someone will get
the necessary info. Or alternately, Google the file name, and see
if it's been delivered on other sites, and doing damage the same way.

But in terms of damage mechanisms, I would think "bus decode" would be
relatively bulletproof, while things like GPIO signals controlling
voltage regulators, would be an exposure. The usage of GPIO is a
custom part of each design, where the motherboard designer can make
the thing as safe or as dangerous as they want. Some enthusiast boards
have pretty extreme regulator boost capabilities on some of their rails,
and there have even been cases where an officially released BIOS
puts the wrong voltage on. (Users only notice, when a part on
the motherboard runs too hot. Then, a user with a multimeter may check
and understand what's happened. The BIOS then gets pulled from the
official motherboard site.)

If there are warnings out on the web already, the 1539 who downloaded
may not have used the file. (Some of the downloads, can be by robots.)

I've used custom (hacked) BIOS off the web. But for those,
I wait until the thread offering the BIOS, a number of
people have tested it. And that was for my Asrock board,
where the twits at Asrock simply refused to fix certain
bugs, and kept reissuing BIOS with the same problems.
And at that point, I didn't care if the $65 motherboard
blew up or not :-( The hacked BIOS, was actually a nice
piece of work (enabled SpeedStep, enabled usage of 2GB
modules, unblocked all available settings). I also used
hacked BIOS for my Nforce2 board, taking RAM command
rate setting between 1T and 2T for testing (trying to
find the best compromise RAM settings). The Nforce2 had
some problems at DDR400 speed.

Paul
Click to expand...

Well, in fact, I checked the wrong bios affair, and if the Clubic file
itself was not physically dammaged, it appears to be NOT a wrong bios !
So the flashing under windows, plus being actually a downgrade (my bios
was just up to date and did not need to be changed) 1) failed 2)
destroyed the MB.

Why ? I don't know .. I did what it asked : closed all other programs
and the procedure went till it ask to reboot without errors.

On reboot, I had wait a while not to disturb the machine. And that was all.

Hard config : PSU ok, Phenom 4x, 4x4 GB ddr2 800 Mhz by pairs
AGP card not suitable but working without the propper driver (Radeon
Saphire 512 mo) ... SSD Kingston 64 MB. DVD, Floppy, FM/ TV Tunner PCI
Card.

I just noticed it was impossible to install the GART driver from NVIDIA
nor any of the NVIDIA (All In One) officiel driver for this board.

If the bios flash file under windows was faulty, its obvious many of the
1539 downloaders would already have alert the site with hudge words !!!

Mystery remains ... btw, you were very intuitive for the "downgrade" -
absurd "donwgrade" - i was trying to solve the AGP compatibilty problem
on this board, and I believed my bios was not up to date. In fact it was.
 
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