Help downgrade BIOS in Asus 1015PEG

Ever since I upgraded the BIOS from 0801 to 1202 the notebook stopped charging my high-capacity battery, a genuine Asus 5600mAh part.

I'm sure it's because of the BIOS so I am looking to revert the upgrade.

Unfortunately I can't find a way. The Asus Update program on Windows 7 says I should do it in DOS, but the DOS-based BUPDATER tool insists that the 0801 version cannot be flashed because it is older.

I believe I'll need a third-party BIOS flashing program, or an engineering version of the BUPDATER utility, to do the downgrade. Hoping to minimize the risk by using a proven method. Anyone able to give me a hand?

Thanks

 

Attempt to flash the BIOS using the internal ALT+F2 flasher failed as well. I used a FAT16-formatted USB drive and the system said "image outdated."

 

argh I hadn't realized how deep this mud is. There's virtually no way to downgrade, and good luck finding a way around the battery issue.

I suppose one could hex the ROM file to alter the date? Guess I'm that desperate

 

There has always historically been a way to rollback a BIOS flash in the Asus systems, but I can't recall what that is. It wasn't too convoluted, but did take a couple of steps and specific settings - the protocol has been discussed here in the past within various thread responses, but I can't find it with a quick search.

Aha - it's in former moderator E.B.E.'s sticky on the subject Follow the segments written in Green, which cover the BIOS downgrade pathways. It's a good bit older, so there may be bits that won't apply to more current Asus models, but worth a look to see if you can make it work.

Else, you can also send a PM to Ken Lee @ GenTechPC - I'm sure he'll know the details.

 

Thanks that's encouraging. I'll message him and post back.

 

I tried the 3 suggestions in that sticky thread but I think they don't work with the current breed of Asus netbooks.

The EasyFlash method is not available because the system BIOS does not have it. The AFLASH2 utility hang when I ran it in DOS, and WinFlash did not start because it apparently depends on some "ATK0100" hook that this system does not expose.

 

ATK0100 is part of the ATK package, download it from Asus' support site and install it. Personally, i wouldn't touch winflash with a 10ft pole, but apparently the latest releases are working as they should.

 

Try AFUDOS engineering edition:

http://gentechpcforums.com/Images/Asus/AFUDOS236-ENGINEERING_EDITION.zip

with this command:

AFU236U /1015PE-ASUS-0308.ROM /pbnc /n

 

I downloaded and installed the package but the error message persists.

I got the 2010.09.10 version of "ATKACPI driver and hotkey-related utilities" from the U30JC download page and tried two WinFlash versions: one from Asus U30JC download page ("Windows BIOS Flash Utility" dated 2010.07.14); and one from Asus V5J (dated 2007.04.23).

I think I understand why; in my experience, on systems that need this driver, like some Asus motherboards, the BIOS exposes a special device that this driver is installed on. Without an explicit ATK device in the 1015 notebook, the driver file may be present on the system, but it would never be loaded by Windows.

Hi Ken, thanks for your suggestion. I tried the command but got this error:

ASF Signature not found
ERROR: BIOS has no flash information available​

Same message when I tried to dump the current BIOS into a file (/oDUMP.ROM switch)

All DOS commands so far were tested in both MS-DOS (Win98SE) and FreeDOS environments that I booted from a USB drive.

Has anyone been successful running this engineering version on the 1015/1215 netbook series?

 

You can try Google and download AMIBIOS Flash Utility if the AFUDOS ES doesn't work.

 

Got AMIFLASH off ami.com and tried the executables in that package. Tried both dump and flash.

AFUWIN32 & AFUDOS say ERROR: BIOS does not support AFU

AFUDOS for Opti system says ERROR: problem getting flash information

 

Looks like it won't work, I was able to confirmed with Asus on Friday the newer models such as 1015 BIOS cannot be downgrade even with AFUDOS ES version.

 

Well that's depressing but at least ASUS service let me send in the notebook and have them look at it. I expect their first reaction would be "what's with that high-capacity battery," but since it is a genuine part I'm gonna try to insist and maybe get them to change the BIOS chip (if possible) or complete motherboard.

In the meantime this thread should serve as a friendly alert that there is no way back from upgrading the BIOS on these systems.

Thanks for all your help folks

 

Well Asus refused to help since the part was not purchased directly from them. It is a genuine battery but since I got it from abroad they said they won't support it. Looks like I'll get a 5200mAh battery off eBay and call it a day.