BIOS Updates forum

Is de-soldering and then flashing the only option to fix a messed-up BIOS chip that is soldered on the motherboard (assuming that it doesn't have any recovery options like boot-block BIOS)? Or is it possible to flash it somehow on-board with external flasher?

TIA

I don't know any way of flashing it on-board. If it is a standard DIL IC not surface-mount, unsoldering might not be too painful.

Actually I meant PLCC chips (sorry, forgot to mention it). I have heard, that somebody soldered wires to the chip (actually not less work than de-soldering the chip) and flashed it that way. But maybe this was just BS. Any idea why it can't be flashed on-board?

s@curious

That might work but I think that you must disconnect the 5V power pin from the board - otherwise you would power the entire board (or all 5V components) from the programmer's power supply which will obviously not work.

Hi,

Could you explain what do you meant by "Messed-up BIOS chip"? Do you mean entire chip has gone bad or it hangs at some stage or what?? If you are not sure, just plug the PCI/ISA check-point card [displays value from port 80h] and see what value you are getting at the end.

Depends the value, we could see whether you could reflash your BIOS by without desoldering or not.

I meant something like power failure during flashing, wrong BIOS image flashed, virus etc , e.g. the computer won't boot at all.

Yes, it really worked. By disconnecting only the power pin I was able to flash the BIOS without completely desoldering it with my c't-flasher and a self-made special PLCC adapter.

Well done that man !

Hallo!

Try this way: Take a hot air gun and add a stainless steel tube with 5 mm diameter on blow hole. I have only the cheap version with 3 step switch - without dimmer. But full power 550° is ok. But you must be carefull! Try to shove the BIOS chip to side and blow in circles around all pins. If the chip will come, then temove it fast and cool it!
I have practise this with over then FLASH ROM's and all was programable and also work after this prociture!
You see, so don't need expensive special tools. The habbit from a normal hobbyist is enough

Gerald

An American colleague found http://www.usbmicro.com/apps.html; using a vacuum de-soldering iron, an aquarium air pump and some steel wool to make a hot-air soldering tool which will do individual SMT devices.

How do you attach a 5mm stainless steel tube to the outlet of the hot air gun ? (link to picture, please )

Hallo Nick!

This is a normal add-on, what you can buy optional in evry do it yourself store. I can't remember, what it cost 5-10 Euro in this range it is.
My air gun is from Steinel, but most no name products are compartible to ther systems.

Gerald

And then bad news concerning disconnect the power pin-technology. Tried to fix a Gigabyte GA-7VA which had a GA-7VAXP BIOS image flashed inside the BIOS chip (and as a result of that, the super I/O isn't working) - didn't work Last (successful) attempts were made on an old Intel socket5 MB.

The board has standard Flash ROM? Many newer boards have LPC chips.

Standard Winbond W49F002U chip.

Fixed the GA-7VA today. De-soldered the BIOS chip with a cheap heat gun (350° C, didn't dare to use the full power). First the chip behaved weird when I put it in my programmer (and I thought I killed the chip), but afterwards everything was OK. Didn't want to heat the flash chip again so I soldered a PLCC socket on the board.