HELP! Has anyone ever attempted a blind BIOS flash?

I was just copying the new 7811 BIOS from my 6831 to a USB flash drive and I accidentally ran it! It then started flashing the wrong BIOS onto my 6831 and I couldn't stop it! It didn't even do a check to see if it was the correct laptop. I crashed it out about 8 seconds after it started and thought I might be ok.

Then I lost both keyboard and mouse inputs. USB mouse was Ok but I thought this is bad. Rebooted and yep whole lappy is dead. Livid. When I press the power button a couple of times it lights up but the lappy is still dead.

Anyone got any ideas how to fix this? I remember reading that you can blind flash but I haven't got a USB floppy drive. Can you blind flash from USB thumb drive?

I'm so livid with myself.

 

Blind flash info:

4.4. Boot Block Feature
Boot Block function provides a safe solution to recover system BIOS in case of BIOS code in flash memory is corrupted. BIOS provided Crisis mode to support Boot Block function provides a safe solution to recover system BIOS in case of BIOS code in flash memory is corrupted. There have way to enter Crisis Mode:
BIOS corrupted, Boot Block function will enter Crisis mode automatically
Hold the press of “Fn + ESC + Power Button” button and then press Power button to enter Crisis Recovery Process from USB Floppy.
While system do the boot block POST, only necessary components are initialized, and the security block (ex. Password) will not be erased after this procedure is completed.

4.4.1. How to Create the Crisis Recovery Disk
If we are unable to boot our system and successfully load the Operation System, the BIOS may have been corrupted, in which case we will have to use the Crisis Recovery Disk to update the current corrupted BIOS. Below is the procedure how to create a crisis recovery disk.
1. Ensure you have this zip file ‘CRISDISK.ZIP’. (It can be gotten from BIOS source code.)
2. Unzip the contents of CRISDISK.ZIP into a local directory, presumably c:\crisdisk.
3. Insert a clean disk into drive A. (ex: USB FDD)
4. Run this file ‘WINCRIS.EXE’.
5. Write protect and label the Crisis Recovery Disk.

Has anyone done this before?

 

Ok looks like you figured it out.

Back before Johnksss and EWrecked got out of the gateway business and they were playing around with the BIOS heavily JohnKsss figured out the fn+esc route.

Glad you figured it out though. I know a bios, screw up is a teeth grinding experience

Hold on and let me see if i can find his exact post for you

 

Problem is I don't have a USB floppy and I have a feeling this might have fooked the BIOS so much even this wont work.

 

Yeah i think you pretty much need the floppy to make it work.

But you still should be ok though, THe reason Johnksss had to blind flash is because he tried the 7811 BIOS and it tanked his 6860. According to what i remember he recovered perfectly from it witht eh blind flash. (though he did have a usb floppy)

I cant seem to find where he started all of this stuff though. According to what i remember he was actually able to intall his original BIOS from nothing (i think there was an internal back up file or something)

You might need to PM him to see. I'll keep looking for the posts though

 

i have a back up of the 94.29 bios if you need it sent to you iaTa.

 

Ok this is for ACER laptops but might work for you or give you some ideas.
Check the threads below, blind flash using a USB drive. Caution: it seems like the USB drive should be small, 256mb or less to make it work using these methods!

INSYDE http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=284686
PHOENIX http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=328328

 

I don't know man. I think the BIOS recovery mode would operate independant of any BIOS changes, so I say give it a shot. I don't think you can cause any more damage than has already been done. As for booting from a flash drive, I don't know if it will work but I would certainly try it.

 

Wow thanks for all the help guys Appreciated.

My bloody ex has my old 64MB flash drive. Mine is 1GB. I knew I shouldn't have donated that lol. Will have a read of those links though...

 

I think you might can use any size USB drive for this to work. You just have to use an Floppy Emulator to make the computer think its using a floppy disk instead of a USB.

http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html

I'm not sure if it will work with a BIOs flash but it might

(BIOS companies should SO stop making Floppy required... its a dead format move on already)

I also found this while trolling the web
1, Make USB flash boot disk
2, add the original bios file to the usb disk and copies of the bios with different ex. like bios.bak, bios.wph, bios.rom and executable files autoexec.bat and fix.bat with string "PHLASH16 /mode=3 /x bios.WPH" and the patcher phlash16
**Not sure to trust that one or not though**

 

Problem is the laptop is literally completely dead apart from the light under the power switch. I don't think even a USB floppy will fix this.

 

sorry to hear that mate.

We know the blind flash works, so you might want to try the USB floppy before you start looking else where. (cheaper than a new notebook)

You also might could email the guy at WimBIOS. He's a pretty smart cat and if you can get him to actually answer your emails he could probably find you a solution. I would also suggest BIOSMAN... but he's never been much help with gateway (though no stone unturned and all that if you want to give him a try as well)


wimsBIOS
http://www.wimsbios.com/index.jsp

BIOSman
http://www.biosman.com/

 

Cheers Kam for the great help.

I'll try and find a cheap USB floppy and give it a go just in case.

 

The Phoenix Recovery Crisis setup is supposedly able to find the BIOS philes from a USB flash drive. I don't believe you need an autoexec.bat or any of that.. supposedly if you just put the BIOS files on in form of bios.wph bios.rom and bios.bak then use the fn + esc method it will boot and read the BIOS files and the bootblock will automatically restore the BIOS. I could be wrong, but.. that's what I gathered from when I bricked my first OCZ. You should PM johnksss tho, he can get you up and running in no time.

I know this is scary.. believe me. And, john had his box in hand, was about to send out the unit..literally, and tried one last time and the whole thing restored itself. Also, you may need to reset the CMOS by removing the battery and discharging any remaining power inside the system by holding the power button for 10-15 seconds. Good luck, you'll get it back

 

I've just been trying a few things including holding down the power button with no battery but no luck. I've also noticed that at no point does the little light come on my USB flash drive which means it's not even getting any power.

What are the exact key presses e-wrecked? I was a little confused by this:

"Hold the press of “Fn + ESC + Power Button” button and then press Power button to enter Crisis Recovery Process from USB Floppy."

 

I just PMd johnksss.. I'm sure he can give you better guidance. But, you need to remove the battery, remove the CMOS battery.. hold the power button for 10-15 seconds. Plug CMOS battery back in, plug in power.. then holding the fn + escape buttons, press the power button and hold all three.. now, release the power and continue holding the fn + esc. You should hear the fans spinning up to full speed..once they spin up it's in recovery mode..release the keys, sit, and wait. That's what I gathered. I couldnt ever restore my OCZ cause it didn't have a built in Crisis recovery. Your system does though.

 

hey iata. sorry to hear it didn't go over well...

lets start by trying to hold the fn key first for one second then add the esc key while still holding the the fn key. then power on. tell me what happens...

 

As soon as I plug the power cable in the power switch light illuminates.

That key combo does nothing.

Is it worth taking the CMOS battery out? I assume it's near the memory somewhere? Ah it's under the wireless card.

 

iaTa, You have to hit the power button, not just plug in the unit. ignore anything you've read up to this point.. just follow johns lead.

 

did you do it exactly how i mentioned up above?

 

Yes, exactly. Doesn't do anything at all. Just sits there with power switch and power light on front of laptop illuminated. Other than that laptop is dead.

 

it just appears to be dead...im optimistic...it's not dead.
take out the cmos battery and regular battery and power cord.
let it sit for about 5 minutes.

and this fn+esc+power then plug in cord. key thing your going to have to try at least 10 times till you get the timing of it down. and of course i know you did the key combo before even plugging it in yes?


im pretty sure your going t0 need a usb floppy for this to work. the blind has a fail safe for the usb floppy (pretty sure speculation)

 

Ok will keep trying. I've tried all sorts though. Hold keys, plug in power, hold power etc. Am I right in thinking that I should at least be able to get the fans to spin up and power to the USB, even without a floppy drive connected, once I get that key combo correct?

Worryingly though before I rebooted I lost keyboard and trackpad input. I wonder if that is still the case...

 

Just an FYI.. if you plug in a corded optical mouse you'll see the USB has power. It has constant power..

 

no, usually the fans and stuff are on at like 20 percent and all the lights light up sometimes. each line of laptops are different. but when in blind flash mode.. it will touch the usb drive for a brief second...then start loading what's on the disk.

 

Life!!!

I held all three Fn, Esc and power and then plugged power lead in. At which point all the lights came on for bout 2 seconds and the light on my USB flash drive came on and stayed on.

The excitment. Now what John, I assume USB FDD? What files should I put on my USB flash drive to test it just in case? I have this:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1XUEISLY

with

A1R3100.BAT
A1R3100.ROM
A1R3100.wph
phlash16.exe

Are all these needed on the USB flash drive - do I have to rename any?

 

if those are your bios files, then yes.
1: make a new file called autoexec.bat
2: put this command in it: a1r3100.bat
3: save it and copy it to the usb flash drive along with all the other files

hopefully it will be that easy. the system reads the disk and then reads the autoexec.bat file which loads the a1r3100.bat which loads your rom file.

lets try this first. if it doesn't work, they we will do it the other way.

 

Nope that's not working. Even made the USB drive properly bootable with MSDOS system files. When the lights flash on for a couple of seconds it's looking for something. I assume a USB FDD. Or I need files of a specific name on the USB drive (rather than bootable with autoexec). What files are in that crysis.zip for the USB FDD?

 

that bootable flashdrive needs
msdos.sys
io.sys
command.com
autoexec.bat

edit: hold on a sec.... i got you doing a few things wrong...

 

out of the two files you have:
A1R3100.ROM
A1R3100.wph
one of them needs to be renamed to bios.wph
it also needs to be called this in the autoexec.bat file as well.

A1R3100.wph<---- i would try this file first.

 

Ok I've now renamed to BIOS.wph and BIOS.ROM and repointed autoexec:

AUTOEXEC.BAT
BIOS.ROM
BIOS.wph
COMMAND.COM
IO.SYS
MSDOS.SYS
phlash16.exe

Autoexec.bat contains:

Drive is definitely bootable. Will test it now...

 

Nope that doesn't work.

 

then it might have to be a usb floppy.

and you tested the usb flash in another computer and it told you it was bootable correct?

 

Yeah it boots fine on any other PC.

Is it definitely trying to boot something - or is it just looking for a ROM to self-flash itself?

Thank you for your help - will have to rep you tomorrow for all this.

 

no problem. hopefully we can get you on by later tonight. ill look at my notes on it. maybe im missing something.

 

what if you were to use a virtual floppy disk to mount a volume, then you can make the crisis recovery disk on that..then use a usb flash drive and copy that virtual floppy w/ boot volume to the usb thumb drive.

I did all this before, but unfortunately I can't remember the programs I used. But, it worked in lieu of a floppy disk drive..crisis won't run without one.

 

now that sounds like a good plan there E. i had thought about using that one before, but never really had to use it. if you find it. let me know so i can add that to my little back of tricks..

or ill look into it later to night when i get back.

 

Really, would that work?

 

This is the program I used to mount a virtual floppy, called VFD:
http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html

After that, you can run crisis and it will allow for you to create the bootable floppy on the virtual A: drive.

Then, use a program to copy the image..I used WinImage
http://www.winimage.com/winimage.htm

Pretty simple and straight forward.

 

Where do I get crysis from?

Running 64-bit too lol. Sods law. Don't fancy creating an image for me do you?

Found this: http://web.telia.com/~u43311424/crisis-recovery-disk/

 

thank you sir.

 

you dont need 32bit. I never had 32bit installed. Give it a go and see what happens. And, there's crisis recovery disks out you just gotta search for em. There's several versions..search for Wincrisis or something..

 

Virtual floppy is x86 only I think. Having read about this some more I think it will work. John have you still got the floppy that you created?

Edit: No ignore me looks like x64 build will work.

Edit: Nope:

Failed to install the Virtual FD driver.
The specified resource type cannot be found in the image file.

 

the flopply setup consist of 4 files
autoexec.bat
minidos.sys
phlash16.exe
bios.wph

you get the minidos.sys from the crisis recovery tools

 

What about CRISBOOT.BIN

If you have the floppy to hand could you image it with winimage and upload it to rapidshare for me?

 

not sure iata...

http://www.rechner.org/data/B1800_crisis_recovery_disk.zip
but this has all the files in it

 

Yeah but I can't just copy the files as it creates a custom boot loader which is hidden I would assume. I would need the image of created disk really.

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?t=2105

Interesting...

And this:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=284686

Ok going to give this a go:

http://www.box.net/shared/j2u98ci67f

1. Use HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool with MiniDOS files to make your Bootable: Flopy, USB Stick, USB Flopy.
2. Copy all the files from Rescue to your: Flopy, USB Stick, USB Flopy.
3. Rename your BIOS file to bios.wph and copy it to your: Flopy, USB Stick, USB Flopy.
4. Remove the battery, unplug the computer from the power.
5. Hold down: Fn+B or WinKey+B and while holding plug the computer in to power (do not plug the battery) and pres the power button.
6. Now you should hear the flopy drive working, hold the keys for a while and then let go.
7. Leve the computer for at least 10 min. and if the computer does not restart it self turn the power down.
8. Plug the battery and the power sorce and if everything went OK the computer shold start normaly.
Note: This procedure is for Phoenix BIOS`es only and in some cases the USB Stick might not work.

No luck. It's definitely looking for the Crysis disk but can't find it.

It's this bit which I think is causing it to fail:

CRISDISK will perform the following actions: format a floppy, copy the needed files to it (MINIDOS.SYS, PHLASH16.EXE, BIOS.WPH), and install a customized boot sector.

None of the methods I have tried do this bit.

 

So your laptop has Phoenix BIOS right? So why don't you try the link I gave you, all the files you need to include are listed there. And I wouldn't try to emulate floppies and stuff, I'd keep it simple! Just borrow some USB drives from your friends, the smallest you can find, configure them like stated in the link I gave you and try them on. You cannot harm the computer trying it.

1. From the Phoenix thread get this, this is the direct url.
2. Find some USB sticks, the smaller the better, keep it under 512MB. This part is important!
3. Then just follow what the guys said.

I saw you're concerned that the laptop does nothing just flash some of the light and that's it. This is totally normal with erased/corrupted BIOS.

 

yeah, that's a problem...most people dont own a usb floppy

 

I now have a USB FDD and had to hunt round the whole city for a floppy! Will report back.

ATG yes it's Phoenix and I've tried the USB Flash disk method and it just wont work.