Help! I bricked my G73 with vBIOS

So I'm studying the vBIOS threads and became interested when the Overdrive was enabled along with ziddy's voltage adjustment. I ran into a few hurdles when using RBE and the boot usb drive and that should have been enough to make me stop, but it didn't.

I made a backup of my original vBIOS and saved on another computer. All I did was try to change the voltage on my original vBIOS and flash using RBE and Winflash (I know, we can discuss how boneheaded it was to flash in windows later). The flash process started (corrected: 3/4 ways finished), but it promted "Fail", the damage was already done I guess.

Now when I boot, lights come on like normal, but no display and then keyboard lights go out like normal when you wait for windows to load. If I hit CTRL-ALT-DELETE while in this state, there is a little action by the keyboard lights coming on and the optical drive spinning. It's like it's stuck on a DOS error message and the C-A-D is a reboot.

Can anyone help a blind man through this...Please

Thanks.
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Update #1: I'm at my wits end, I am passing the torch to Ken@GenTechPC for some hands on mojo. If it's going to get properly done, he's the man to do it.

Summary: I had WinFlash crash 3/4 way through with a Fail prompt. Frozen screen leading to a forced shutdown. Many bootable USB and CD attempts using great advice from the community and a lot of video conference help from premudriy, it is very stubborn in it's behavior.

Ken came to 2 great points on pg7:

to which I added:

I also add 3) the user isn't doing it right. Hands on Ken will nulify #3.

I'll keep this OP updated and maybe we can have a line ready to get someone out of this rabbit hole.

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Update #2 Ken has gone above & beyond working with my G73, but premudriy and I were doing it right. It simply will not boot from anything.

Not So Fun Fact: The 5870m in the G73 has less PCB layers and is wider, so it will not fit into a Xfire Clevo to flash while viewing with the other card. Way to non-conform Asus. At this point, a G73 5870m only fits in a G73.

It is hanging on an error (most notible reason is having to hold down the power button to turn off). Ken feels that maybe the vBIOS got so corrupt that an ID can't even be seen.

Ken put a MSI 5870m in my G73 and he got into system BIOS, no problem. He then put my 5870m in a different G73 and it exibited the same malfunction mine does. Everything points back to what was expected (VGA only FUBAR), but not being able to put it into a diff Xfire rig to flash was a major blow. Maybe a Xfire G73 or a special Asus tech bench can be the only option for that.

I called Asus support and told them what happened. They issued a RMA number and Ken will direct ship it to them. As of now, the rabbit hole is deep and dark, and could get worse, so use CAUTION in a vBIOS flash and stay tuned for what Asus is going to say.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Ken, premudriy and the rest of NBR for the assistance.

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Update #3 After being "in repair" since 7/6/10, I finally have a tracking number for it to arrive on 8/26/10. Hopefully, this thread OP only has one update left and it's "all is well"

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Update #4 (So much for #4 being the last) A positively horrendous return from Indiana repair center. Tech states that VGA passed all tests, but yet I find with 80F ambient that my idle temps are:
DispIO 65C
MemIO 95C
Shader 82C
It actually gets worse leading to hours worth of a BSOD debacle. There is even another layer of "worse" after that.

The good news is ziddy123 (and Chastity ) pointed me in the direction of Gary Key an Asus rep, and Gary as expedited some class A repair service with a tech in CA.

I have direct contact with my tech and he states he will keep me fully informed. We'll see how this goes, but the promised expedited service is starting off on a very good foot. Update #5 to come.

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Update #5 Read Here. Thank you Gary

Here's an "I'm Back" vid.

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Q

 

Sorry to hear that Q. It would be interesting to see how you can get out of the bricked without RMA/Recovery disk.

 

Thanks. Someone with a magical knowledge of how to do a blind vBIOS flash with a USB stick would be a godsend.

 

Pray to the ASUS gods for help becuase this is way beyond my expertise without looking at it.Sometimes it's best to leave things as they be.

Good Luck!

 

No VGA or HDMI. I remember my usb drive was 3 down. I didn't rename the vBIOS original, the name RBE gave it is:

2D 500, 1000, 0.95 3D - 400, 1000, 0.95.rom
So I boot, pressing ESC for the menu, arrow key down 3 steps and enter, wait 1 seconds and type:

atiflash -p 0 -f 2D 500, 1000, 0.95 3D - 400, 1000, 0.95 and hit enter.

Am I doing it right? I have a clean USB stick formatted using the HP tool and bootme according to zFactors thread . It shows the 3 hidden files that are supposed to be on it and then I have my vBIOS file.
Is this all correct, is my n00b showing.

 

Hello and sorry to hear that Quag. I think it is not going to be easy to flash old vbios back but its possible. First obstacle here is to get your flash media to load automatically if I remember correctly on g73jh you have to hit ESC button during startup to choose which media to load.


Sorry I see you are allready in progress here.

 

What did you used to backup your original vbios?

 

Thanks jmhdj. One of the problems is I have no confidence in my USB stick. Whn I made it, it boots to DOS fine, but I couldn't make a backup of the vBIOS with it. Maybe I should burn a dedicated CD with the vBIOS. I'll have to google for this unless someone can step me through it as to the files I need.
Without the USB stick in there, my optical is 3rd down from ESC at boot.

If I RMAd this, how would Asus fix it? What miracle do they have to reflash a bios blind, or would they just replace the VGA?

Man this sucks so bad, damn my curosity as I broke every rule I had by doing this.

Q

 

RBE 10char...

Do I have all I need on the flash drive: 3 hidden files (boot) and the rom file which I renamed newbios.rom?

I feel so helpless right now, we can save the slamming on me for later.

Q

 

Hello. I flashed my vbios using the WinFlash also.

I am not sure how to do it blind, but I have uploaded 2 vbios. The default Asus vBios and the AsusV2 Bios I'm using.
Free File Hosting Made Simple - MediaFire

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/482491-gsod-fix-g73-owners-vbios-update-guide.html
- See if Dkillzone or Xeven can help you.

 

I am not shure but with rbe you need winflash to backup your original vbios. Did you doit in this way?

 

Thanks ziddy, I hoped you would chime in. I PMd dkillzone and will hit up Xeven.

So you flashed in windows and didn't have any unusual errors? Do you flash with a USB stick to tell me if I'm doing it right, by having the proper files on the stick.

I built the stick according to this, but I have concerns over this line "once you select make the disc bootable you will need to add the bootme files to that disc." that I may be missing something. Those 3 hidden files is all I should have on it for a bootable flash, right? and then I add the vBIOS file and that's it, right?

Thanks.

 

I recomend you to download one of bioses that ziddy123 posted and then use atiflash to flash it blindly in dos from stick which you have made. And to be sure your stick is working properly in dos try to load it first on another pc and see if its ok.

Command to flash vbios: a\>:atiflash -p 0 (bios name).rom -f [Enter]

 

Yes. I did get a popup that said my vBIOS didn't support Overdrive and I should send an email to techpowerup, but since we all know we didn't have overdrive until Xeven made one with it, I didn't find it to be an error message.

 

Please treat me like the ignorant newb I am and give me a step list of what needs to be on the usb stick. I have it bootable (i.e. I get the dos prompt)

a\>: this is just the DOS prompt right? I don't type that?

So once I think I'm at the prompt I type atiflash -p 0 newbios.rom -f [hit enter]

I read the instructions as atiflash -p 0 -f newbios.rom

Do I need any other files on the usb stick other than the 3 hidden and newbios.rom?

 

No you dont. Offcourse you need atiflash there to though.

 

You can also try to write the flash command into the autoexec.bat file on your jump drive, so you won't have to type that in manually in the prompt without seeing what's on the scree (though I had to do it a few times too)

 

This is what I'm saying, treat me like a red headed step child

I verified the usb stick boots to DOS and gives me a C prompt on my desktop.

I put the newbios.rom on the stick.

I d/l'd atiflash v3.79 and I put that program on the stick (what about this "atiflash.chg" file?)

When I think I'm at the DOS prompt, I type: atiflash -p 0 newbios.rom -f [hit enter]

I guess it may take a minute, and then shut down and boot. (BTW, I can only shutdown by holding the power button for 5 seconds)

Do I have it right now? Thanks man.

Q

 

Ok, this is what I mean by my stick not being complete, I do not have experience with jump drives. There isn't an autoexe.bat file on it, but I do know what that file does (it's in the name

Please treat me like a n00b and tell me how to set this up. Thanks a bunch.

So you did a blind flash before and it took a few attempts?

Q

 

Yeah You dont need ati.chg only atiflash.exe
I recomend you to first try and flash manualy Quag. Just tipe command which I have posted earlier. And be sure that your both: original vbios and atiflash.exe are in your root folder.

 

Did you already make your jump drive boot-able? If it is bootable, then you just can make a file with a notepad and save it as "autoexec.bat".

In that file you can simply add a single line that you would type in the command prompt manually. That's it!

 

Sounds like go time to me with that autoexec.bat file.

But answer previous question, when I flashed, I just had the .rom file saved on my desktop.

 

Good luck Q. BTW what premudriy has a point with writing it into the autoexec.bat if it does not work. You could also use the autoexec.bat to run some HDD intense command like coping a bigger file from your usb stick to HDD also that might be a problem with coping from a FAB2 to NTFS file system. My only point is to check if your G73 system is running and really at the dos prompt were you think it should be. Any command the uses the HDD would be easy to spot with the LED lights.

 

Thanks, I've tried 3 times now, I simply don't know if I'm getting to the jump drive.

OK, made that and all it has is atiflash -p 0 origianl.rom -f saved as autoexe.bat with the proper icon, but this blind crap in trying to have the jump drive boot is difficult. Thanks.

Q

 

Also, it is pretty difficult to figure out if your laptop has booted from flash drive or not. Maybe it is just sitting there and waiting, but not booted from jump drive.

Therefore, you can:
1) remove the hard drive,
2) remove the CD-Rom,
3) put jump drive in with laptop off,
4) power on the laptop

This "should" default to boot from the only available device, which is your jump drive with the autoexec.bat on it.


Now, I don't know the parameters to that flash utility, but the utility might be asking for "Yes/No" answer during the flash procedure, which you might not see and the whole system can just sit there waiting.

You can run "atiflash /?" on another computer to see what switches/parameters are available and see if any of them will force "yes" for all questions (in other words run in quiet mode)

Add those switches to the line in autoexec.bat

 

It's a good idea (even though I have no idea how to do that) as I need to find out if I'm even getting to the bootable drive selection screen. The fact that I can hit CTRL-ALT-DELETE within 5 seconds of turning it on and getting my keyboard lights to reflash makes me think it is stuck at some DOS error like if you tried to boot to a non boot disc, anyone know what I'm talking about?

Ah man this sucks.

 

see my previous post now.

 

Try this command: atiflash -f -p 0 your_bios_name.rom

Dont give up Quag. just yet


-f stands for- Force flashing regardless of security checking BIOS file info check OR boot-up card

 

That first half is pure gold, but the second half scares the crap out of me being blind. I'll remove all the drives and optical and try it. Thanks.

 

hmm do you need "Legacy USB Support" to be enabled in the bios to make all this work?

Anyone knows a DOS command like a search command or anything that would use the HDD in dos mode? Anything so he can see his HDD lights working?

 

If you just run "atiflash /?" that "should" print the help. That would be pretty dumb if it would flash something. I don't think authors of atiflash is that dumb.

Where did you get ati flash? I can run it on my other system. Post link to "exact" version of atiflash that you're running.

 

Running this 3.79 version on my desktop gives an error asking whether or not I need a 32bit or 64bit verion. I got it here. Thanks to all of you for suggestions.

Q

 

I know you're in panic/recovery mode right now quag, but after this ordeal is cleaned up would you mind updating your OP with steps on how you will eventually get it back to norm? We're rooting for ya man ;p

 

Quagmire, see your PM

 

BTW Q if you do not find the command for a silent flash it will FOR SURE ask you a yes or no question during the flash. I guess it might be typing "y" and enter but could be "yes" and enter.

 

You're also forgetting that he also needs to setup the laptop to boot to his flash drive. If you have no screen, how can you tell if the flash drive is even booting. If this is the problem, pull out both hdd's and insert the USB drive. Hopefully the BIOS will boot to that drive.

 

Or... get on skype with someone else who has a g73. Have them go through the exact same process as you. That way they can tell you how many times to hit down, or where in the bios you'll need to go to get the order re-arranged.

 

You can tell if you're booting off the flash drive because nearly all flash drives have an LED light that blinks on access.

I'm nearly certain however that you're going to be getting a BIOS error message before you get to your boot selection.

It's also easy to tell if you're getting all the way through to boot devices by placing a bootable cd/dvd into the drive and listening for it to spin up. I'd bet that no usb activity, spin up, or windows boot is occuring because the BIOS is hanged on a VGA error.


Try turning it on, waiting 10 seconds, and then press F1 and check the cd/usb for activity and see if they're booting.

From there, use the autoexec to force a flash and GL Quag.

 

Nail on head man, I just spent an hour on Skype with premudriy (major reps) and we both think it's hung up on a VGA error.
We simply don't think it is reading any bootable device because it doesn't get that far due to the error. We tried the USB and a CD that he made an ISO for and we can't get either to go into action.
The fact that I can CTRL-ALT-DELETE and get a keyboard reflash (aka reboot) and I have to hold the power button down for a few seconds to get it to turn off tells me it's fubar. There is a spinup on the CD, always was, but it leads to nothing.
Unless someone can work with the VGA only, I may be able to remove and send it to someone who can reflash it, otherwise, it looks like a RMA.

Any thoughts?

Major Thanks premudriy

 

Ok Quag.

Your vBIOS has changed, and may be corrupt.

First, power off the machine and paperclip the reset hole on the underside of your machine for 15 seconds.
Then paperclip the reset with power on for 15 seconds.
Then with power off and battery/cord out for another 15 seconds (cause.. just in case, and why not?)

Once your bios is reset, it should not attempt a 'fast boot' which is probably hanging the BIOS completely.

It should instead run through a hardware checking slow boot. At this point if the VGA is toast, the bios *should* throw you an error you can press F1 to bypass.

Another few seconds after you F1 and the cd/usb boot should occur.

Watch for activity on the HD/cd/usb. If you've got activity, you've got boot. From there, all you need to do is hit ESC after F1 on each boot and try different booting devices til you hit the USB. (Power on, F1, esc, down, enter, see if usb; reboot, F1, esc, down, down, enter; etc.)

Pulling the MXM isn't going to be as easy as hotflashing a regular BIOS. The 5870 has ~100W going through it and it will NOT be hot-pluggable, even if the pcie lanes can normally hotplug fine, there's just no way in hell you'll yank that card cleanly and without damage.

So keep trying for a blind flash, or start sweet talking an RMA rep from Asus over chat

 

I had a bad flash with Winflash (on the W90) I got lucky enough to only flash one card though so I was able to flip my cards around and boot with my 2nd card and then flash the bad one back again (with ATIFlash)

You may be able to blind flash and fix your machine, just depends on if the G73 is picky about booting with no GPU showing up. Some systems will and some wont.

A question from me, I have increased the voltage before and did not get any good results from it, no higher overclock and I got artifacts a lot sooner than I would without, as well as higher temps.

Has somebody shown it to be good to increase the voltage and posted results that show it?

 

Thanks, I'm having another go at it. I guarantee the vBIOS is corrupt. Can someone who has flashed their vBIOS with a UBS stick verify that I am using the right code in my autoexe.bat please:

atiflash -s 0 original.rom -f

Where that's a zero (presumably adapter) and my file is original.rom. Thanks.

Q

 

Example of the blind flash thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/348865-v1j-failed-bios-flash-screen-will-not-come.html

He flashed the wrong BIOS however, the system still bootable without the correct vBIOS.

try this on autoexec.bat:

ATIFLASH.exe -p 0 -fa original.rom

 

Hello Ken, I see you pulled someone from their abyss I welcome you to my nightmare. Thanks fo0r chiming in.
I tried your code and I'm still at square one.
The only activity I can get out of my usb stick light is a light when power on and a quick flicker right after or CTRL-ALT-DLT will give it a flicker before keyboard lights flash and a flicker after. I have both HDD and optical removed.

Honestly, I don't know how blind people do it.

 

Can I get a confirmation that your BIOS has been reset using a paperclip on the underside of your laptop?

I can reset mine here and step-by-step the bios timing and keypresses if you can't get any activity blinkers after defaulting your BIOS.

 

Confirmed. I did it numerous times and step by step as told.
What happens for me:

1) press power
2) blue lights come on, usb light comes on then goes off
3) keyboard lights flash, usb light flickers once
4) that's it, if I had a cd in there, there would be initial spinup

What I can do now:
1) CTRL-ALT-DEL reflashes keyboard lights and one flicker out of the usb stick
2) hold power button for a few seconds to shut down. I also get a flicker right as it turns off

I do know the G73 can see the usb stick as a bootable drive. I was going to do the flash via stick so I did test that the G73 does boot from it because I got the prompt. So I don't thiunk the Legacy stuff should be affecting the stick from being read. I currently have both HDDs and the optical removed.

Thank you.

 

Did you try creating a bootable CD with the autoconfig?

 

Blind flash worked for him because his V1JP still bootable without correct vBIOS, maybe you want to try put the HD back to see if it'll boot to Windows, you can tell by check the HDD lights is blinking and login sound once it' booted to the login screen.

 

and pressing F1 after the power flicker does.... nothing? anything?
Give it like, 20-30 seconds to be safe after that flicker, and tap F1. If the BIOS will boot without VGA, it should continue to do so at this point.

 

Yes, premudriy may be making me another ISO with Kens code to try.

Yeah, it appears other blind issues had a life line to grab, I fell at terminal velocity It won't boot to windows, it seems to hang requiring holding the power button down to actually shut down.

Nada, F1 does diddly, doesn't matter how long I wait.
I have a couple PMs to check, thanks much all.

Q