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ASUS Bootblock file

Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 5:05 pm
by ruelnov
Hi BIOS Gurus,

I need to revive a corrupted BIOS image for ASUS P4T mainboard. Although the BIOS chip is soldered, I've managed to detach it from the mainboard and now in a position to hotflash it on another board using Uniflash.

The chip is SST 49LF004A which is obviously a 4Mbit 3.3V-only flash ROM. Have succesfully hotflashed it with another 516Kb bios image (not ASUS bios image) using UNIFLASH, and so it tells us that the BIOS chip integrity is very much OK.

The problem is that Uniflash complains that the ASUS bios image does not match the chip's capacity, as the ASUS P4T BIOS file I downloaded from ASUS site is only 256Kb. Obviously, ASUS website does not post complete BIOS images (I mean, the bootblock portion is missing).

My question then is: Where do I get the complete 512Kb BIOS image for this board?

Is there somebody out there who is kind enough to email me this complete BIOS image for ASUS P4T mainboard?

Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 2:28 am
by Denniss
Asus usually has Flashroms in sockets.
If Asus offers only a 256KB Bios image but Flashrom is 512KB this usually means OEM board especially if this thing is soldered-on.

Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 3:17 am
by ruelnov
Right, should be an OEM board.

But I wonder if there is indeed a 512Kb bios image for this board, for the fact that all bios updates posted in Asus website since the time of production are all 256Kb.

This makes me think that maybe the 256Kb Award bios images posted by Asus are already complete (i.e. with bootblock), but I wonder if there is a way to write a 256Kb file into a 512Kb flash ROM.

To Rainbow: What switch to use in Uniflash to ignore the size difference?

Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 9:57 am
by sulbert
On an Asus CUSL2-C (also with soldered 4 Mbit firmware hub) two 2Mbit images were appended and the resulting 4 Mbit image was flashed. It worked.

Edit: typo

Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 10:56 am
by ruelnov
Sulbert:

Nice tip!

So what utility could I use to append the two 2Mbit files?

Thanks for your help.

Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 11:36 am
by sulbert
copy /b 2mbit.bin+2mbit.bin 4mbit.bin should do the trick on a windows machine.

Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 5:32 pm
by ruelnov
Sulbert:

Your trick did work. Uniflash happily burned the appended 2Mbit images into the 512Kb flash ROM.

But please help me understand the logic behind it. Does it mean that the 2nd 2Mbit image is there to serve just as a backup bios image?

Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 6:56 pm
by sulbert
That way the boot block will be at the right address and so on (take a look at the datasheets of the chips). I you have some time for experimenting you cold just fill the second half of the chip with FFh-s (or some other data) and see what happens.

Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 6:58 am
by Toby B
ruelnov - Was that an HP board by chance?

For those who don't know me I am working on a support/help site for Compaq and HP computers. Having information availible to flash the OEM BIOS to retail versions would be a great addition to my site...

Thanks

Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 6:50 am
by ruelnov
No, it's an ASUS board.

Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 7:11 am
by Toby B
ruelnov wrote:No, it's an ASUS board.
The reason I asked is because there is at least one variation of the P4T used in HP computers:
http://www.s87841630.onlinehome.us/mode ... atraz.html

that and this comment:
Asus usually has Flashroms in sockets.
If Asus offers only a 256KB Bios image but Flashrom is 512KB this usually means OEM board especially if this thing is soldered-on.

Re:

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 11:24 am
by B-2Admirer
Toby B wrote:Having information availible to flash the OEM BIOS to retail versions would be a great addition to my site...
Toby B, do you have any new information about flashing retail BIOS to OEM board? I'm interested because I have an HP Alcatraz board (OEM variant of P4T) and would like to know if it's possible to flash it with ASUS BIOS, since the last HP BIOS does still not support HDDs over 128 MB.