ASUS N61Jv - BAD BIOS FLASH "the brick"

EDIT: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO UPGRADE BIOS WITHOUT READING AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE IN THIS AND OTHER FORUMS WHEN LOOKING INTO ASUS BIOS UPDATE.
This error is practically grounds for a Class action suit or something.
QUOTE from "Good Will Hunting": "Its NOT YOUR FAULT".
ASUS has left a fatal hole in their BIOS upgrade procedure. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO UPGRADE BIOS WITHOUT READING AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE IN THIS AND OTHER FORUMS WHEN LOOKING INTO ASUS BIOS UPDATE.

Hi I wrote this up on a gaming thread about a bad BIOS flash, but thought a model specific thread would be more helpful in the long run.
Last 3 days, worst of my laptopping life...

Some threads I looked through:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...954-asus-g73jh-bst7-bios-crisis-recovery.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...bricked-laptop-help-crisis-recovery-help.html

HI I have a similar problem with my ASUS N61Jv. Do you think the recovery process will work with that? I am not sure how to make a recovery USB... Any help would be really appreciated...

Got some advice (unfortunately didnt seem to work), my further explanation:

Hey thanks for the advice.
Unfortunately I get no response from the machine.
No LED power light when the DC adaptor is plugged in.
I created a boot USB, edited the autoexec.bat, put it in the machine, plugged it in, pushed power button, hit ctrl-home, waited...
Pulled out DC adaptor, pulled out battery, held power buttom for a minute. Then repeated above... Nothing...
Is it possible a bad BIOS flash can lock up the computer, because (and this is a guess, I dont know anything about the effects of a bad BIOS flash) the LED's, fans, any signs of life are gone...
evgasr2: What is SPI programming?!
I will be calling ASUS today, but the machine is second hand and any warranty will have to be done off the shipping dates and serial numbers...
I understand it may be possible to have it LOOK completely bricked, but low level BIOS is still atempting to run, or could it have, somehow caused a short circuit from having corrupt code or wrong code?!
ASUS should not put BIOS code out as "helpful" updates if doing them can destroy functions to this level. Its the last time I run anything without googling "when good updates go bad"...

Further info:
Oh and, sorry to ask so many questions in quiet desperation, but if a BIOS chip is fried, can it be replaced for, like $200 bucks?! or a mother board?! I got quotes and it looks like 400 to 500 done privately worst-case-scenario...
My nephew said it might be possible to over write the bios using some kind of "piggy back method", he's guessing, or it can be just unplugged???
When I called technicians I got the phone equivalent of blank stares when I asked, "can you confirm you can fix it, worst case scenario", or "can you quote me a minimum and maximum cost?"...
Its really uncomfortable to be so reliant on servicing good-will...
I am worried I will get it back and it will just not run the same... It was really solid, except for the odd HDD warble sound, but the BIOS update said it would fix that...

So I hope I can fix this... And after fixing it leave a trail back to Laptop life here.
As I said above, worst 3 days of my laptopping life...

EDIT: RMA (warranty return and repair/replacement of parts) was successful. They replaced the mother board, see my later post in page 2 for full details.

 

Sorry for your troubles.

When BIOS flash goes bad, the only way to get it fixed is RMA it to Asus for them to reset the BIOS. Mucking around in the BIOS takes pretty advanced skills, and has a better than good chance of *really* messing things up even more.

This has been discussed many times here. The answer is always the same. RMA.

 

Thanks for the heads up.
I worry about the warranty side of things, its 20 months from date of manufacture, so within the 24M warranty on the sticker... But it may well have been an import laptop, that got sold second-hand...
I will call ASUS in a couple of hours (its 6am in this part of the world, australia), and just hope I can get it done under warranty...

 

The advice I gave you didn't work which means your USB ports weren't working too. Now this leaves you 3 options:

1. Get it to someone that knows SPI programming, if you do, you might want to show the guy this thread too. It is for G74SX but it should give the guy some heads up before trying anything.

2. RMA.

3. Get a replacement motherboard somewhere.

Edit: Did you pull out all the HDD and your Optical drive before trying the USB flash method? It's very important as this is the only way to make sure the boot drive is defaulted to the USB stick.

 

No I didnt pull both of those out, but when I hit the power button there is no signs of life, HDD does not spin up, DVD drive doesnt whir, no LEDs shoe at all.
Could it still be functioning at a low level?!
No USB lights at all at any time.
I will try pulling the drives now, and I use the most recent BIOS to attempt flash. Should I use the original BIOS?! Does it make a difference?
thanks for taking the time to help me.

 

1. Edit the autoexec.bat and change:
aflash2.exe /auto:G73JhAS.204 /force

to

aflash2.exe /auto:[insert your bios name here, including the file extension] /force

Of course, remove the [ and ].

2. Replace the BIOS file G73JhAS.204 with the BIOS for your laptop.

aflash2.exe /auto:N61JvAS.224 /force

 

Try to use the BIOS that is known working correctly, preferably the one that was already working fine until you had flashed it with the new BIOS from Asus site. Try again with all the HDD/Optical drive pulled from the laptop.

 

Yes that's right.

 

Ok, I put USB in, plugging in DC adpator (I left the battery out).
No DVD drive in it or HDD.
No USB lights...
I pushed the power button, I also hit ctrl-Home. (will try again in 10 minutes without hitting those buttons.
The only thing I cant do is hit reset CMOS button. N61Jv's dont seem to have one...
THAT could be stopping my efforts to reflash blindly...

 

Ahh, use the last working BIOS, ok. I wasnt sure if I could go back to that one after attempting an update. I'll do that now, edit the autoexec, and copy the old BIOS onto my USB.
The USB is a Lexar 8GB, formatted to FAT32.
I had tried Bios xxx.224, but will revert to xxx.220.

 

You can try pulling the CMOS battery out but that might require an almost full disassembly.

 

If there's no light on the USB stick (If there's an indicator), chances are even the USB ports are not working, at this status you only have few options out there. Replace the BIOS chip/Motherboard, RMA, or SPI programming. You can still try pulling the CMOS battery out for a min and back in, but this action will only reset the "settings" back to default, not the "BIOS" itself. Sorry mate my advice didn't work .

 

Nope, still dead.
From the posts on SPI (goes over my head like a satellite) it seems total VISUAL bricking doesnt mean any hardware damage or irrecoverable BIOS chip damage.
It just means its stuck at go...
Theres hope yet that I can fully retain all manufactured parts intact and just have it re-flashed by SPI... Unless ASUS doesnt know how to do that.
But from what I have read you cant tell them it was their fault, I need to "play dumb" and lie to get a warranty RMA done.
Thats crazy...

 

Hackness!!! Brother in arms!!! Dont be down on the failed help!!! It was, is and always will be ASUS killing the baby rabbit on this one.
Bad flash program code?!?!?!?! No fail-to default for obvious boot amd POST failure... Sheesh, they may as well say pour coffee on the keyboard to help typing. Then say "Well we didnt say you should REALLY do that... did we?" haha

 

Well yes it is true giving customer service too much information might pervent you from getting a RMA warranted I guess you know what to do now

 

lol, I tried to back up my files using a USB portable HDD plug, corrupted my HDD, it got accepted for RMA, and under warranty, now when they get it the HDD will be blank!!! Its like a circus...
Anyway I guess they will just reload windows and drivers etc as they probably will replace the motherboard, I hope this is all over soon!

 

Well on the brightside it's all under warranty. A corrupted HDD is still readable through the right tools like SpinRite or GetDataBack by the way, but I doubt that ASUS would take the time to do that .

 

I read through the warranty more today, it says, basically, "Even if we accept the cost of transporting the RMA'd machine to the repair facility, it does not mean it is accepted for repair under warranty. We reserve the right to NOT repair under warranty, and charge you for return, as well as issue an offer of repair at your expense which you can accept at your own descretion.".
Thats a little hard to believe, under extreme circumstances, maybe, but I get the feeling I should be counting any chickens yet before they hatch.
It makes me wonder what someone is supposed to do if they decide not to repair, I mean, the guy then has to pay for a courier to return it, or pay for their repair of it and then pay for the return. Or pay for return and then find another repairer.
I was not sent anything, so far, laying out those as conditions to the transaction, and I wouldnt expect many would after being told they will look at it and arrange a courier.
I do think it will go ok, but after the BIOS thing, I have lost confidence in the company and its forethought on customer peace of mind.

 

RMA went fine. ASUS australia, sydney to be precise, replaced the mother board.
I didnt have or need to provide a receipt. I didnt have one as it was second hand...
It was done off the serial number and the WARRANTY: 24M on the sticker (date of manufacture is on the sticker).
I formatted my hard drive to remove all trace of any virus that could have caused problems.
Do it if you are in a similar positions as they can refuse RMA because of REGISTRY settings for overclocking software, c: drive overclocking software present and hidden folders (app data etc) details of overclocking. My friend had RMA refused just because of some pirated video or software.
NOT saying I did that lol
I ran format/deleted file recover software after getting the laptop back and recovered everything.
To format you can remove the hard drive, get a plug with USB from another externa; hard drive (or buy one) and just format drives c: and d: etc. DO NOT FORMAT ENTIRE DRIVE AS YOU MAY OVER WRITE GHOST DRIVE THAT HAS OPERATING SYSTEM, but if they replace the MB they will reload wondows 7 for that MB so its not really a big problem, just covering as I dont know if replacement is their standard handling.
Cost me nothing to get it fixed, but I was lucky I formatted the drive.

Anyway, its ASUS's fault for having badly tested code in winflash, so I dont care.
End of a bit of a mind crack over getting it fixed, happy with result. Thanks for all the hints and tips, appreciate the comradery
Best of luck.

 

mate!!
you could have pm'ed me earlier, then you would have saved some time.
but thats ok.
all sorted and everything working fine.

 

Oh, thanks, yeah its working fine. Havent done an overclock burn in yet but it used to go up to 575Mhz (from 450Mhz) and only heat up from 45 degrees C to 54 degees C... 60 under heavy, long duration load.

Did you successfully recover a bricked BIOS?
I mean totally bricked in my case, no apparent USB support or LED DC lights etc...
I am interested if that is really possible without the chip being externally re-flashed.

 

yea its possible , I have discovered a new way ,
its a long procedure .

 

I unknowingly bricked my laptop this morning trying to upgrade the flash. I wish I had read this before I did the BIOS upgrade. Because the manufacture date is 2010-02, it is out of warranty now. I called ASUS support and they gave me an RMA number and told me I would have to ship it.

After I did the bios upgrade, the computer turned off. I turned it back on. The display was dead. The fan started to go on full spin and I saw the num light and power light up front turn on as well as the caps lock key. It went on for a while and I pressed the power key. The computer turned off and I removed the battery. Now, the computer won't even turn on. There is no indication of power in the computer itself. Even the battery light in the front is not working.

Is it possible for me to fix it myself? How can I do that? Please, please help.

 

Try to PM evgasr2, he's got a good understanding I think. Otherwise it should be possible to get it done by someone other than asus for 150 to 180 bucks.
Just check them out to make sure they have experience, like "Piggy back re-flashing", its putting leads on the chip to reflash it while its still on the motherboard (instead of removal and re-solder), if it can be just replaced: check if its possible too.
ASUS replaced my motherboard, and for you that could be expensive.

 

I got a problem like this one... On an ASUS G60JX.

At this time, evgasr2 is kindly helping me changing some e-mails. I'll keep you informed about the progress.

I'm hoping to see my asus back to life again soon!



Thanks!

 

Hi,
I just bricked my Asus N61JV-JX007V while flashing the bios.
I can get a working motherboard of a Asus N61VN-JX013V.
Can I mount it in the N61JV chassis?
Where do I find a disassembly manual for the N61JV?
Or is there a way to fix the broken bios?

Thanks a lot!