I need a new BIOS Chip what are my options?

I have had tons of problems with my Clevo D900K in the past. I have sorted almost all of them out.

I have two D900K boards at the moment. One is brand new and the other is defective. The defective one simply needs a new BIOS chip because the BIOS on it is corrupt.

Is there any way to format a Bios chip and install the files on it from an external unit?

I can physically remove the chip from my motherboard, but I want to be able to code the D900K 1.00.09 Bios to it.

Is there any external devices which can do this, possibly through a serial port or something?

I want to know because I really do not want to have to buy one done for me from Biosman, it is a complete ripoff especially because the chip I have is not a standard SST bios, it is a EON Bios ROM

K-TRON

 

Two things you can do:
1. Hot swap the chip. If the BIOS chip is accessible in a position that you can run the computer and still pull the chip, you can boot on the good chip, pull it hot, insert the bad chip hot, then re-flash the chip. I have done this many times in the past with desktops with great success. Have never done this on a laptop, but that's mostly because I've never had to.
2. EPROM Burner. I don't know much about these, but I know you can get them to either interface with various computer interfaces (my old job had a parallel one I think...) or to directly interface with the chip. Sorry I don't have more info on that.

 

if you go with a programmer, then you'll have to have the bios code in HEX or BIN format most likely, which I doubt that you have.

so I guess go with the hot swap. I've never done it, but I guess its possible since you can reprogram your bios while the computer is running, which means that the chip can go offline to be reprogrammed. So may as well try it.

 

I never thought of hot swapping the chip. Would I piggyback the bad bios ontop of the good one, or the good one ontop of the bad one?

I have never done this before. If anyone has any good links I would appreciate them

Oh yeah, can this damage the good BIOS chip? (Lets just say the Bios chip is soldered and removed properly)

K-TRON

 

Well, if the chips are soldered to the board, you'll likely need to remove both, just because I do not think piggybacking will work. You make a temporary setup for the chip to attach to the board, like an external socket that you place chips in. You put in the good chip, boot, remove, insert the bad chip, flash, done.
I don't know if the specific board you have had a socketed or soldered chip, but I am certain that most laptops have soldered chips. Soldering ICs is fairly delicate, they're sensitive to heat, so yes, you'll be risking damage to the good chip as well. If it's a socketed board, this is straight forward and easy.

 

Actually it may be possible to do onboard. Check out this image:


Unfortunately the way the system is designed, their is a plastic part of the shell which covers, where it looks like a second bios chip can be installed

I am going to try and get hold of two of those plastic socket adapters for the Bios chips.

K-TRON

 

May I make a suggestion?
If you have the skills to do a surface mount solder, remove the known good chip, and install sockets on the motherboards. This will make the swap relatively easy, and it looks like you have the space for it. You can harvest the sockets off of old desktop boards.

 

Agreed, best solution. With sockets hotflash is no more problem. Easy to be done..

 

Well I finally got my hands on a PLCC socket.
I soldered it on, installed the BIOS, and tried powering up.

The system does not turn on. However the processor, and graphics do get hot very fast like they usually do.

Nothing appears on the screen.

The green wireless light comes on, which is not supposed to happen. This happened before removing the BIOS chip, it lets me know that the BIOS chip is corrupt.

Now I was testing my corrupt BIOS chip, which I know boots, but recurrently runs the BIOS over and over and never gets through.

This time nothing happened.

So either one of three things happened:
1) one or more of the 32 pins are not fully connected between the socket and the motherboard
2) the BIOS is melted from removing it with a heat gun
3) the motherboard is damaged because when I removed it, the board became soft when I used the heatgun to remove the BIOS chip

WHat really confuses me is this
The system gets hot.

According to my computer knowledge, a system without a BIOS will not power on.
Mine turns on but the screen does not come on

any ideas?

K-TRON

 

I probably would not have used a heatgun to remove that BIOS chip, but we already discussed heatguns via PM. I've made the same mistake before, thinking it was a quick, safe way to remove surface mounted components.

The system gets hot because current is running through the components. There's no software to clock them down either, so they're running at full power.

A system with no BIOS can be powered on, but it will not boot. With no BIOS, there is no basic system to tell the system... anyway. It's just a bunch of circuits with no instructions on what it should be doing.

 

Mmm...
That reminds me of when I was trying to run a quad core processor in my E6400, who's BIOS apparently supports only 2 cores. Most of the time, it would start up, and the hardware would heat up, and would produce a POST error after about 30 seconds.

I would say that there's something wrong with the BIOS. Options 1 or 2 on your list. But then again, the BIOS chip should be designed to hold up to high temperatures, so option 1 is more likely.

Then again, I don't know too much about BIOSes (and would certainly not try soldiering mine, like you did), so take my advice with a grain of salt.

 

I am going to try resoldering the PLCC socket tomorrow.
I do not think I damaged the board. It acts like it used to, only now the LCD doesnt come on.
If one or more of the 32 pins on the BIOS chip are not contacting the board, than problems will occur.
Unfortunately there is no way, or at least I think there is no way, to check contacts because it is a multi layer PCB.

K-TRON

 

I spot soldered the BIOS chip to that second port which I thought may be a BIOS positioning point, however it did not turn on.
I wonder if the actual BIOS chip is dead.
Its either that or the second port is not designed for a PLCC mount.

I will be resoldering the PLCC socket to ensure every pin is in contact.
Hopefully I can get it going.

K-TRON

 

Some potentially good news

I resoldered all 32 pins

The wireless light comes on, when plugged in.
When I power up, the caps lock, hdd light comes on for a second. The system doesnt post, but after 20 seconds it shuts off and restarts on its own. (This did not happen before, so I'm getting closer)

The cpu is getting warm, but not as hot as before.

Maybe the Bios chip is indeed dead?
It should post, but its not.
I think the board is fine, I just need either a new Bios chip, or one or more contacts are still not connected properly

K-TRON

 

When a multi layer PCB becomes pliable from heat it makes me a little nervous...
I don't actually know but don't be too shocked if you find out the board is what is bad.

 

Well I still do not know if the BIOS is just fried from removing it with a heat gun, or the board is dead, or the PLCC isnt connected, or any combination of them.

Here is an image of the PLCC socket soldered to my D900K board:


K-TRON