G73jh - BIOS reprogramming trouble

Hello,
I have succesfully bricked my G73jh some time ago when I wanted to upgrade to 213 BIOS without any obvious reason. My warranty is gone due to a repaste 2 months ago. Notebook was dead as it could be - no reaction at all. So I went to my friend's place and we took out the BIOS chip. It is a Winbond W25Q32 SOIC8 - a standard chip except of its size - 32mb is quite a lot for BIOS from what I've heard. So he had flashed the chip and sent the notebook to me. He had only the motherboard available, so after he turned it on, the power light lit on and he assumed the notebook is working. I connected the display and saw nothing. Notebook turns on automaticly after power cord is connected and off after 6 seconds, so it can turn on again a second later. All the lights work, display don't. CPU fan turns on exactly when it should - after some time when it heats up. Does anybody here have a similiar experience and some possible solution? I am just about to send the notebook back to him.

 

Could be the LCD panel cable isn't connected properly. I'd also reset the BIOS using a hard reset.

 

I was trying to turn it on without anything connected, everything connected and display only. Of course I tried removing the battery and shortcutting the bios circuit without battery connected without any results. There is something more "technical" in it .

What do I think:
45% - BIOS was somehow badly flashed - BAD
45% - BIOS chip was damaged - VERY BAD
10% - something else is broken - VERY VERY BAD

I believe it will be one of the first two possibilities, in which a BIOS can be reflashed or a chip ordered from comrades in China/Taiwan.

 

Have your friend double check the settings used with the eprom programmer. If the machine is turning on by itself when power is applied it's a giveaway that your BIOS is still trashed (either that or a board problem - less likely because you bricked from a bad flash).

 

Thank you for your reply, I will tell him to do so. But from what I know, he had succesfully compared flashed BIOS and a source .bin or whatever the extension is file. One more question if I may ask, could a bad flash damage the chip? Thanks!

 

If he verified it then I don't really know what to say. It could be bad chip but I think that's less common. If the chip was bad the checksums shouldn't match after it's been flashed.

Are you positive that your connections are good? The RAM is properly seated, etc?

The fact that it turns on by itself makes me think it's the embedded controller and BIOS that's the problem. You've removed the CMOS battery to rule that out?

 

Everything should be well connected - but the laptop behaves the same even when everything except CPU fan and power is disconnected. And yes, RAMs are seated.

And what about the battery? I've disconnected the main battery and power cord, took the motherboard out, took out BIOS battery, shortcuted BIOS battery slot and waited for 5 minutes. Than I put the battery back on and connected powercord with the same results.

Or do you mean something else by removing CMOS battery?

 

BIOS battery is the same thing as the CMOS battery, just a different word. We're on the same page but I'm pretty much out of ideas...

Let us all know how you make out with it, maybe someone who has actually done a reprogramming with a G73 (or G53, G51J/x) will see your post.

 

I wasn't even aware that modern mobos even carried CMOS batteries anymore. Thought we dropped that leaving the MMX era.

If your monitor doesn't work, depending on how talented your friend is, you could suggest an alternate display by extracting the projected image directly from the pin.

But you could always try sending it back to Asus. If they can't prove that you opened your machine...

 

Display is not an issue but the fact that the notebook turns on automaticly after power is connected and off each 6 seconds repeatedely. Ill try to take off the cmos battery several more times as I've heard that these SPI chips can take some time until they begin to work properly. But yes, an opinion of somebody with the experience woupd by very appreciated.

 

Hi. Try and hold CTRL+Home before connecting power cord to laptop.

 

Have you thought about just buying a replacement Bios chip? There are usually a few floating about on ebay.

Only downside is you would need to get someone to install it again, but better than a whole new motherboard.

Just had a look and there is this one, which comes programmed for the G73JH:

BIOS CHIP ASUS G71G,G71Gx,G71V, N50Vc,N50Vn,G73JH,G73JW on eBay (end time 24-Apr-11 21:57:46 BST)

 

I had a bad flash because of put file in hdd,and try same way repro the chip,and got same resault,RMA is out of my choice because of time and cost,I found a close example from a case of thinkpad T410:It had an 64Mb bios chip and bios filesize just 3MB,to repair it u should dump data from chip and use WINHEX(or something else)to put bios file after first 5MB data.just a simple replace and save it as a bin file,and reprogramming.This is EFI BIOS,differ from early kind..
and in G73 there is an 16Mb chip,which means you need 2MB head file.
feel sorry for my bad English.

 

Just for information: The guy managed to flash the BIOS some time ago. It took him a month of trying. First problem was that I needed a complete BIOS backup, not just the file from ASUS page, as it contains only a part of it. So he erased the chip, uploaded the 213 BIOS and it didn't work - as the BIOS was not complete. I didn't do a backup before, so I asked people here to send me a BIOS backup. It almost worked. He used a diagnostics card to PCI express and as far as he could say, notebook booted up properly and froze in the last step without any obvious reasons. Some time later, he figured out that each BIOS is unique as it contains a unique number, which makes BIOS flash almost impossible. He flash a lot of laptops as it is his job, but he told me, he had never seen anything like this before. Again, some time later, he read about another chip on MB that contains this number as well. So he backed-up this chip, read this number from it, modified the BIOS back-up and flashed it. Notebook booted up normally

 

Hi davtex, I do Laptop and Desktop bios chip reprogramming here in Mexico and I'm in a similar situation. This last monday I had a dead Asus G73jh laptop, first problem I found was that bios chip is 4MB and update is only 2MB, I did a backup of the bios chip and used 1st half of it, for the 2nd half I used the bios update downloaded from Asus website, the laptop powered on but nothing shows on-screen. On the second try I set 1st half to FF's and used the Asus update for the 2nd half, same story. Originally the laptop was flashed with a bios for a different model, it ended up completely dead.

So far I've contacted user evgasr2 that obtained a backup of the bios with a programmer, so I now have a full 4MB bios file. I read your post (#14 of this thread) where you say that "each BIOS is unique as it contains a unique number", do you have any further information as to which chip was read from the motherboard, just want to be on the safe side as the customer is from out of town and he didn't leave the laptop for me to keep trying. Don't know if you can get me in contact with the guy who flashed your bios.

Thank you,
DRGN997

 

I took a look at the latest G73JH BIOS ("G73jhAS.213"). From what
I see, your splice should have worked:

Reconstructed_Image 0x0 - 0x1FFFFF = Bricked_Image 0x0 - 0x1FFFFF
Reconstructed_Image 0x200000 - 0x3FFFFF = Update_Image 0x0 - 0x1FFFFF

My best guess is that the tool used to write the wrong BIOS, to
the SPI flash, corrupted the first 2MB, or it was written using a
programmer (same effect). The code appears to be AMI based.
AFUDOS should not have attempted to write the first 2MB, even if
the BIOS image was for a different system (maybe if the file was
bigger than 2MB, and it wrapped around?). That area should have
been locked.

For anyone attempting a SPI flash reprogram, be sure to read the bricked
contents of the SPI, prior to erasing, or trying any experiments. That first
2MB (in the case of the G73) is essential, to reconstructing the new bios
image.

Good luck,

Sir Robin

 

Yes, it should have worked but it didn't, the problem is that I only get to try 2 times and customer prefered to take the laptop with him instead of leaving it in the shop. Last week I've got a phone call from the customer letting me know that he bought a bios replacement chip and it worked, the reason of his call was that upon startup of the laptop the fans keep running at full speed and wanted to know how to reset them.

Other consideration that I have is that the firmware of the KBC/EC was probably corrupted and I had only used the power supply, never used the battery. For example I've noticed that on Thinkpads the firmware of this KBC/EC doesn't update unless there's a battery installed with some charge.

A battle was lost, but not the war...

DRGN997

 

It sounds like the battle might have been lost, before the unit
ever made it into your hands

I have read similar reports, on other forums. I suspect the
BIOS image, being sold, is somewhat hacked, or from another
model (possibly different EC type/vendor). Yeah, if the fans are
running at full speed, that suggests the EC code is not running properly.
On the G74SX, the EC code is part of the update-able portion of the
BIOS (part downloaded from ASUS). If the customer does a BIOS
update (latest for that model), it may fix the issue. It might also brick
the unit again, if the purchased image has different descriptor pointers,
etc. Did the customer pull an image, from the device, before it was
soldered down? If so, I can take a look, and see if I can spot the problem
(PM me).

Good luck,

Sir Robin

 

I only had the laptop for about 5 hours and did get to try a couple of times, problem is that laptop has an 4MB chip so with my programmer it takes around 40-45 minutes to flash/verify.
No, the customer doen't have a programmer to obtain a dump from the chip that he bought, maybe he can try with software "RW-Everything", I've done it that way about 2-3 times.
This morning I received a call from the customer asking if I only messed with the bios chip, I told him that YES, that's the only component that I removed from the board, he's still having the same problem (fan running at full speed). Was told that after installing the replacement chip and trying to solve the problem he updated the BIOS with the previous version (went from v213 to v211), that being the case I suggested to flash with the first bios version available (v204) to get EC/KBC firmware updated and then go back to the latest version (v213). Initial problem is that a video card firmware update file was used to update the motherboard bios, that's was what I was told.

DRGN997

Correction: laptop has a 4MB bios chip (W25Q32BVSIG), not an 8MB as previously stated, I've edited the post.

 

That may explain why the original splice did not work. The
update-able portion of the BIOS must occupy that last
portion of the SPI flash. In other words, if you have an 8MB
flash (64Mb), and a 2MB update image (as in the case of the
G73JH), then the the update image should spice with the
bricked dump at 0x600000 - 0x7FFFFF. This is due to how the
SPI is mapped into the processor address space. The last
instructions, in the update image, are the reset vectors,
for the processor. Those vectors must reside at the top of
(32-bit) processor address space. The SPI flash is setup to
occupy the last xMB (depends on device size) of the address
space.

I thought I read that the JH had a 4MB SPI flash? If the customer
has an 8MB, it is possible that Asus changed flash sizes, somewhere
along the line. The 8MB flash is more expensive, and they do not
need the extra space. This means that some J73's may have one
size device, and others another. The SPI dumps are not interchangeable,
due to how the descriptor table/addressing works.

It would be very helpful if G73 owners could report back, on what is
installed on their motherboard. I believe HWinfo will show the SPI flash
device info.

Yeah, many of the SPI programmers default to a slow bit rate.
You may be able to increase the speed, in the setup menu's.
If you are doing ISP, don't go too fast, due to the extra cable
length/stubs etc.

I looked at RW-Everything a while back. Great tool! Unfortunately,
it does not appear to support SPI accesses. For LPC BIOS devices, it's
probably very handy. On the G74SX, the ME portion of the BIOS has been
locked (not readable by the processor). So far, I have not found a tool,
that correctly unlocks that portion of memory, so it can be read. The G73
may not have the same restriction, so it's worth a try. Here is a pointer
to tools, I've found to be helpful:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/656498-g74sx-circuit-reprogram-bios-spi.html

If my theory is correct, you should be able to take your original bricked
dump, and splice in the correct update file. I recommend using the same
image, that the customer was running, prior to the bad update. It appears
Asus/Easyflash places a copy on the C:\ director (I owe someone thanks,
for this tip, but I've lost track of where I read it). Otherwise use the
closest download file. Unfortunately, the unit will need to be disassembled
again, or you may be able to do the ISP trick.

Good idea, on trying the original bios. Hopefully it clears up the
problem!

Good luck,

Sir Robin

 

Hi everyone,
Does anybody have the reconstructed BIOS file of G73Jh or G53Jw or U30Jc in order to program my BIOS chip? I've bricked my laptop. I need a complete 4-MB-size BIOS file. Not the 2 MB one on ASUS site. If anyone is into BIOS chips, please back it up and send it to me or create it.
It's urgent and necessary.
My laptop is ASUS U30Jc, however the other mentioned model file is also of great help to me.
My E-mail: [email protected]
Thanks a lot. I'd appreciate it.

 

Hi,
I suggest you to make a backup of your BIOS chip, either verify it or read the chip again and compare files. Provide information like full model number (ASUS U30Jc-xxx) & initial bios version. I can give it a try to reconstruct the bios, it should work. ZIP the file(s) and upload it/them to a file hosting service.

DRGN997

 

Dear drgn997,
Thanks for your reply.
Now let me tell you the whole story short.
At first I falshed my ASUS U30Jc to a different model K42Jp in Wndows using WinFlash utility and once shut down, it didn't boot.
Then, I took it to a repair shop and detached the BIOS chip and programmed it with the latest BIOS update on ASUS site for my model, but it didn't boot neither.
The problem is that before programming the chip, I weren't aware that a backup is necessary, so I programmed it without backing it up and clearly the programmer erased it before writing onto it.
Now tonight I'm going to back up the chip and send it to you for reconstruction. I hope, now after 2 times of erasing and writing, I receive a 4 MB useful backup chip.
Anything you need to mention?

Thanks a lot.

 

Being that way you're going to need a full 4MB bios dump from a working ASUS U30Jc laptop. From Asus website the bios update is only 2MB, that will be the 2nd half of the 4MB chip.

4MB BIOS chip = 2MB (Missing part) + 2MB (Asus BIOS)
1st half = 2MB (Missing part)
2nd half = 2MB (Asus BIOS update)


On the next file file I filled in the first half with FF's and placed the ASUS Bios update on the second half where it should go, that's if you want to give it a try and if it is not too much hassle to remove the chip and place it back, otherwise in your position I'll wait a few days to get the right file so you only do this process once.

http://rapidshare.com/files/3509140711/U30JcAS217(2MB FF_s+2MB BIOS).zip

I also have a full 4MB dump from an Asus G73Jh, I can take the part that is missing and copy it to give it a try. Another option is to contact the seller on eBay that sells these chips pre-programmed, buy from him just the dump file to reprogram your chip.

DRGN997

 

Hi DRGN997,
Thanks a lot for your great help.
I deeply appreciate it.
Actually I'd be definitely testing the BIOS you uploaded in the previous post. I just don't have access to the repairman easily so it took a day or two for me to get around backing up and writing etc.
I did realize the story of 2+2 MB file that should be created.


Important: Something I did before flashing the BIOS to the K42Jp was at first I flashed it to G53Jw model and surprisingly the laptop booted but the screen was divided into 4 zones (G53Jw is a 3D laptop), the keyboard didn't work correctly and the fan was working at full speed. But the good point is that the laptop did turn on and I could flash it to U30Jc 217 BIOS and once shut down, it booted completely normally, but as I pointed out, after flashing to K42Jp, it didn't boot.
Now I'd be thankful if you could upload a probable G53Jw 4-MB file or if not available, please upload the G73Jh you mentioned which we're sure about being untouched to give it a try. (Of course at first I'll try the FF's + U30Jc that you recently uploaded). Since G53Jw worked on my laptop, I hope the G73Jh works as well, since G53Jw and G73Jh are a lot like each other. I'm really hopeful that G73Jh also boot the laptop so that I could flash it with U30Jc using WinFlash.

Thank you very much.

 

@DRGN997

Also ONLY if it doesn't take too much time, please replace the second half of G73Jh with G53Jw and upload it for me.
I think this is also greatly useful, since G53Jw also worked and these two laptops are alike each other. If FF's + U30Jc and G73Jh didn't work, I'd try this G73Jh+G53Jw as a third choice. So I'll be having 3 complete BIOS files in my hand once going to the repairman.
First half: G73Jh
Second half: G53Jw
ASUS - Notebooks- ASUS G53Jw

Thanks again.

 

Ask maxslo directly, he had 2 chips and working bios image I guess.
You already asked in this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/668404-g73jh-bios-chip-replacement.html

 

@ DRGN997
Thanks a lot for your help.
I deeply appreciate your great, sincere help.
I finally recovered my laptop using G73Jh+U30Jc and I'm currently typing on my own laptop!
http://rapidshare.com/files/1175037335/U30JcAS217(G73jh+Asus U30Jc bios update).zip
Thank you very very much.
I'm appreciated.
***
There's actually one individual problem and that's the fan speed which is working at full speed. I did downgrade to the first version, restart and then upgrade to the latest version, but the problem still exists. After 30 seconds since the system is being turned on, the CPU fan starts working at full speed.
Since down/upgrading hasn't helped. I think the problem is with the first half of the BIOS file which is still G73Jh.
I think I need the complete ASUS U30Jc 4 MB file to get over the problem completely.
However before writing to the chip, I asked the guy to save the dump file. I did tell you that we have erased the chip 2 times before this and the repairman have lost the first read file.
Important: Now the latest data that was read from the chip today before erasing made a 4 MB file. Is it possible that the first half data hasn't been erased?

I'm greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks James D,
I did asked him, but unfotunately he had sold his laptop this Friday with all the data on it!
Thanks for your letting me know.

 

Yes, my G73JH is gone, just ebay-ed it. Im sorry to see it go, it was a great companion =)

 

hi guys, i have a ASUS G73JH and i've bricked from bad flash with NTFS partition. yeah i know, i'm an idiot...LOL

i send to a facility to reprogram the bios, now the notebook just turn on but no video and the guy said he did everything right but probably i need other bios
can anyone give me the dump file for reflash?
i tried the link above from user blossom202004 but is dead

also any advice is welcome!

thanks in advance have a nice weekend all!

 

please if someone can, help me
no one has the files? any clues if this will work? or better get another bios from ebay?

 

I dont have anything left regarding the ASUS G73JH, but you should try contacting blossom202004 directly or ask some1 if they can dump you the file , the bios from ebay will most likely not work unless it's cloned from a working bios (meanin that it has full image on, not just the 2MB)

 

Thank you very much, i don't know what to do i'm just upset with my dumbness, i think the simple solution would be buy another MOBO and replace instead of pay for a chip or a reflash when there is no guarantee that is gonna work

 

Or get a faulty motherboard with a different defect and dump the bios from it
edit the second half of the bios and reflash it

 

G73jh_Full.rar

It should work for you if not, let me know

 

thanks maxslo you help me a lot, also HAPPY A NEW YEAR
i fixed it and now i'm trying to upgrade my video card in fact i'm studing 3d and i'd like to change my VGA for a fire if is possible

hope you and your family have a GREAT YEAR PAL!