2 years ago I got SFF PC with cheap motherboard which was showing black screen after restart. I decided to flash the BIOS but because of horrible web page and confusing versioning I flashed the wrong one and I bricked the machine. So I asked my local repair shops but none was interested in fixing it. Then I found your channel and instantly I was like: "why my local shops are not like this dude?". After watching some videos I bought this programmer for £5 and flashed the BIOS using the clip without desoldering the chip. Black screen issue was solved. So far I have fixed 2 machines with it so I think it is money well spent. Regards.
Fro those watchi9ng this a couple of years later. I got a CH341APROG V1.7 which has a slide switch to select 1.8,2.5,3.3 or 5V. Worked great for me on a 1.8 V bios chip.
This was the most helpful video on bios chip programming I have ever watched!!! Holy crap you answered every question that I had and more!! Thank you so much, this has made my life a lot easier:) See ya next time!! and also, you should have a million + subscribers with the kind of knowledge you're throwing out. I feel like you might be one of the best youtubers at being informative and clear with explanations. Really, you rock:)
I'm glad you kept hitting problems. Far too many you tube how to videos say 'plug this in here, download that file, click this and it works'. And it rarely does leaving the eager viewer up a certain creek without any paddles. Thank you.
I love your vids. I think perhaps the best aspect is that you do show those little mistakes that I am sure all people make but don't necessarily like others to see - but the point is that we viewers can learn from those mistakes.
I can totally recommend the MiniPro (TL866) and the XGecu TL866II. Very versatile and reliable programmers! I also own a RT809H for the more complicated stuff (f.e. Flash recovery)
If you are going for a programmer like this you might want to go out for the XGecu T56, it's the successor to the TL866II plus. The big benefit is that it seems to support programming voltages up to 25V which was one of the problems with the TL866II plus (which could only go to 18V and thus failed to do some older style stuff that required 21V). It supports far more chips than the TL866II plus as a result.
I'm definitely not an expert, but I suspect it's the length of the cables that determines the efficacy of the SOP clips. I was looking to Libreboot a laptop of mine, and on the website it mentioned that there's sometimes an issue using dupont cables longer than 10 cm. If your clip is anything like the ones I have, they're all 30+ cm. Thanks so much for these wonderful videos. You have a real talent for teaching technical skills. You're so calm an relaxed, and it puts me at ease whenever I'm learning something new, and it gives me the confidence I need to actually attempt doing it. I've learned so much from you, and it's helped to spark a new hobby/passion of mine. I even purchased an RT809F programmer because of the video you posted showing us how to use it. It's too bad there wasn't an affiliate link, because I would have gladly used it. If you're taking requests, I'd love to see some more videos of you using that device.
This was fantastic! I honestly think seeing you hit and overcome multiple unexpected complications was actually much better than a very simple job, it shows people like me, who are going to be trying to do something like this for the first time, that various unexpected issues can and will crop up along the way, and that you will have to do research outside of official documentation to find answers.
"I have this REALLY NICE computer, I am updating the bios, and OOPS, I pulled the power cord!" 🤣🤣🤣. Total ballsy move!!! Much respect on the recovery. 🙂
outstandig explanation ! 👍 just a quick tip graham.. had lot's of trouble with the clip too.. but if you take a close look at it, you can see there is a thin plastic padding on top of the pins which essentially grabs onto the pins of the bios chip, making no connection.. you need to file that layer / padding away until the bare pins have no padding anymore
You are an amazing guy, I'd never attempt what you do despite building PC's for fun over 30 years or so. Nobody could question your skills and experience.
@@bob-g3e3x I have seen many tech in action, and he is the only one that has ever re-programmed a BIOS chip. Everyone else says to send it back the manufacturer. BTW this is meant to be a compliment.
This is the only ch341a tutorial video which includes the part where you need to install the actual bios file for your own personal device. They always skip that part and make it seem like the programmer just creates the bios data itself. Thank you for clarifying.
Because they are not step by step guides but just highlights of particular problems. Needless to say that everybody who buys a programmer has two specific purposes in mind, either he is a user and he wants to flash a particular file into a device that he uses, or is a designer of some kind of homegrown PCB with microcontroller that needs to read data from SPI Flash, either one of use cases cannot lead to you owning a programmer without composing yourself or downloading a file of data you want to flash.
Excellent video! You have the teaching gift with your "Real world" demonstrations and the precise verbiage required for layman term comprehension. Hats off and a bow to you for this show and tell and I just wish more were like this. Again, impressive work.
I am glad you posted this with all miss haps. It was like what happens every time I try to fix something.😁. can’t find the data sheet, need adapter, need a different program, you have to stand on your head and hold the wire just right to get it to work. Lol
Thanks for the amazing tutorial. There are two points I would like to add: 1. In some situations, USB BIOS flashback would not work as well. I had my ASUS Maximus VIII Ranger (Z170) with corrupted ME firmware (Debug code 00) and USB BIOS flashback could not bring it back to life. Basically, some regions like the ME (Management Engine), FD (Firmware Descriptor) regions are locked and hence USB flashback would not flash those regions. CH341A saved me. Later on, I modded the BIOS of the board as well with the CH341A and now it runs a Coffee Lake i5 9600K CPU @ 5.1 GHz. 2. The procedure you followed is nearly perfect. Why do I say this? Because you are going to lose board specific data like the serial number, UUID, MAC address, DTS audio license, Windows license etc. To overcome that, you will need to use something like FD44Editor. And that is where the old BIOS dump will come in exceptionally handy. Since those data are stored in the FD region and since normal BIOS update procedure does not write on that region, there is a very high probability that you can fetch those from the corrupted BIOS file using FD44Editor. Once done, using FD44Editor again, you can inject the board specific data and prepare the final BIOS file which would keep the board in its original state. Just wanted to add these points to the knowledge base. :)
@@geraldh.8047 It really depends on what the manufacturer provided as dummy MAC in the BIOS. For my ASUS Maximus VIII Ranger, it was 88-88-88-88-87-88.
I have the ASUS Maximus VII Ranger with the 00 error. Do you have the GD25B64BP1G chip, and what was the chip selection in the software - the CH341 supported chip list doesn't directly specify my chip -. Thanks.
I like you vids a lot, they are very educational and I learned a lot, even if I can't fix stuff to the level you are doing, I know now that it is possible and a professional can Fix stuff, instead of buying new and creating waste.
Having done this sort of thing back in the late '70's and early '80's and requiring to jumper to a break-out board with specialized components to tell the chip to connect the cut-short programming pins TO the memory writing components by use of a fixed voltage... using a lego kit sounds relaxing. Add in the light source and legos sounds like an incredibly joyful way to do it. And all of this is precisely why I *only* buy Asus mainboards that have pullable chips. I have absolutely no problem with paying a $1.50 extra for a motherboard that I can pull _one or both_ of the CMOS chips out of and take some place to pay $5 to have reprogrammed.
Great content. Your tutorial is easily the best I've seen. That you left in the errors you encountered is definitely a good thing. I cringed when you pulled power during BIOS upgrade.
You are one mad dude, deliberately bricking a motherboard. (Love It) I have an TL866 II Plus, I can highly recommend it, although when downloading the software, you have to read Chinese, use a translator or even better do what I do and guess.
This is the first video I watch from you, it refreshing, informative and seems to be honest! The tinkering and specially the kind of problems 99% of “us” whom will try this our self is just what “we” need to get a complete picture. So keep on select Murphy products and boards to show you great skills. The problems (and solutions 😎) make it great content, thanks for releasing!
Absolutely astounding,I think I understand half of your explanation,but it is still mind blowing.Wish I was younger and had more time to get into actions you demonstrate.One thing which surprises me ( hugely) is that you can desolder/solder the BIOS chip without any damage to it.Lead free solder seems to be not very forgiving.Top notch clip
Thank you very much for your explanation of letters L, Q, U on 25 series microchips beginning from W, I have written it down on the piece of paper that I have glued to my CH341 programmer, because an average engineer (not PC repairman) uses those things so really, that enough time might pass to umemorize important details. Do not assume that I haven't read the datasheet for my particular IC.
I don't understand why people dislike videos like this, I mean he literally didn't insult or said anything bad about anything/anyone, and yet there is 8 dislike ? I mean did the poor test computer dislike the video ?
why cant any of these other big well known Pc Hardware reviewers/ Techies that has like over millions of subs and views showcase some real world troubleshooting and problems like this one? because by far this guy and what he showed was actual real world Troubleshooting steps/fixes with NO video EDITs period. It shows that someone like this really actually lives up to what it truly means to problem solving and not rely upon the option of "Its bricked so just buy a new one" and then actually is trying to figure out the core root of the problem. Amazing video , he showed that He really actually cares about why your pc wont post or boot etc, and wont give you an excuse of "buy new one". Great and Amazing video 😁😎
Always good to know there are options to repair a bricked motherboard. instead of just buying another one.. I hope next time you can also venture out to tablets and phones.. :)
Thank you for helpful video. I saw the one where you voltage modded the ch341a " Black version" programmer too & I was unaware of the higher voltage on program pin ! Actually for everybody to know, there are 2 versions of this out there one called older version and one newer version & I have the former. I used AX programmer which appears better than CH341 programmer you have used here but latest is NeoProgrammer at github (it's based in AX prgmr code BTW) with huge array of chips in its database and is being currently maintained. it shows pic of how to place the chip in the ch341a board ZIF socket too! BTW I HAVE used the clip in jaws successfully many times, the main spring in it has to be replaced with one that exerts gentler pressure and i did this! I Can send a pic. Also one copper contact in the jaws was slightly bent originally and i straightened it !! Use a magnifier & tweezer for this delicate work at jaws tip which must be aligned in its tiny recess in jaw plastic. Of course we need a few tries on any chip on motherboard before it sits correctly and each try we need to run "detect chip" ! usually if jaws sit right on the chip it detects chip correctly after few tries (keep jaws perfectly vertical over the chip!) by reading the chip ID with neo programmer or AX too , repeat jaw (re) placement until it reads correctly!. Need advice about I faced a problem a year ago with my Lenovo T450 laptop where i programmed the bios to allow it to use lenovo battery which suddenly started giving msgs like "battery is non lenovo , it won't charge, use lenovo approved battery", after the bios mod which i got from "Molfar" (bios hacker expert). after this bios flash it was ok although a side effect was that bios menu wouldn't allow any changes , yet laptop was usable with win10 for a year i used it ok.. but Recently i got lot of keyboard errors and i decided it was due to bios that i modded and bought a lenovo battery supposed to be genuine with lenovo chip inside, & flashed bios with ch341a like before with original bios which i had saved before modding it. Now the laptop flashes its power light and keyboard 3 lights (fn key, caps lock, etc) but dosen't enter POST ! Any ext cd drive on its usb port, its power light also flash in synchronisation (4 sec one flash) i tried flashing bios and verify again, twice (verify is OK) but laptop doesn't start! any insight you might give? could the 5v on data output of my programmer have destroyed something in the mother board that "reads the bios chip" at startup? ( because i hadn't modded my programmer since i saw your video now only being unaware of this problem). btw my bios chip is 25Q128FV in levovo T450 laptop.
Thank you. My msi a320m-a pro motherboard works again. I had to puchase a 1.8v 25u12873f $5.00 chip trom China after getting a 15 dollar 3.3v wrong item from San Jose. I have improved with soldering as well. Your video gave me the confidence to do this. Thank you.
This was very informative. Thank you. I've just ordered a brand new Intel Core i5-13600kf and an ASUS Tuf Z690-Wireless DDR5 motherboard to plug it into, so I'm doing research to see how much trouble I'm in for assuming the BIOS needs an update to support the CPU, which it almost certainly does.
I have an ASRock motherboard, it has a socketed BIOS chip. It's real nice :-) For SPI flashing, I use a BusPirate and a chip clip (it's not the best clip, but I've been able to get it working). For EPROMs, I really love my TL866II Plus (mine came with a whole bunch of adapters)! Also, I had an issue with my board not POSTing, and ASRock mailed me a new BIOS chip! :-D
I suppose I was lucky last week when I managed to clip onto my BIOS chip and reflash all while (unknown to me) supplying chip with 5V rather than 3.3V. End result was a working laptop so I am very pleased! Thanks for sharing all this info so I can do it properly next time! Valuable!
Great stuff Adam.broke leg off the ic while doing the mod .but that actually worked out for the best in the end,managed to have just enough of broken leg to solder to so no tape insulation required.now to fix my bricked 78LMT.Just for the extra skill set.Thanks again awesome vid.
Thanks for this video!!!!! It helped me unbrick a gigabyte itx b350 board. I got the clips to work for me but I discovered the hard way that you NEED TO REMOVE the CPU for this to work. I don't actually know if it would have worked by just removing the battery but I suggest anyone trying this should remove the battery and cpu before attempting to flash.
What also makes the CH341A a bad product, especially for beginners (but non-beginner wouldn't use it anyway), is that it doesn't really care about read errors. TL866II, and RT809F to some extent, can detect bad pin contact before even attempting to do anything, and during read they will often clearly error out if something goes wrong. Not a 100% guarantee that what you read is what's stored on the chip but it's a huge help. I've seen way too many people losing the original content because the read operation went wrong. (and a backup *is always* useful, especially on laptops) And they post some random dump full of 0xFF without noticing (tip: if you zip the file and it's only a few kB or less, something went wrong).
I remember considerably older boards having removable chips. They would need some kind of puller but you would still get your chip out if you had one. If you were one of the unfortunate people who bricked the board you could order a chip with the BIOS already on it. That would have been a better choice for people like me but it is nice to know this kind of thing is doable at home. I just don't recommend everyone do it unless they at least watched it being done. A lot of things can go wrong.
In the early 2000s i have made myself a completely self-build LPT1 flashing-cable for bios reflashing via JSPI1 connector for MSI boards, which i have still today. - I also have done many bios reflashing actions on asus and msi boards with an old raspberry pi 1 directly hooked up to the bios chip and the raspberry pi compatible software "flashrom". I remember last completely dead system i revived with flashrom on raspberry pi was an msi trident 3 arctic gaming pc, which came fully back to life after a gone wrong bios update attempt. Best regards from germany !
Great video, the issues you had showed what could go awry, but gave me enough confidence to go ahead and 'unbrick' my Asus X470 motherboard, which suffered a bad flash. It's up and running fine now. It's great to know I can downgrade the BIOS if necessary too. I got all the parts from eBay for less than £15. I cobbled together a ribbon connector for the Jtag pins from an old serial ribbon. The clip I got with my CH341A was frankly rubbish, hence plugging onto the Jtag was a much better way to do it.
5:30 I just used a $2 programmer at work, which came with a clip like that. Worked just fine. A little fiddling required to make proper contact, but it did the job.
Thanks a lot for the SF DL link, Graham. As you say, it is very difficult to find out this kind of resources. I also own an SVOD3, with the ZIF 128-pin EC adapters. But I love the tiny 341.
Great video .. good info on the ins and outs of bios flashing .. the only thing I would say was the throwaway comment that AM4 needs to die because the bios size was too large .. I'm very glad that AMD doesn't force you into buying another motherboard every fraking time you upgrade the CPU .. Just for the amount of E-Waste that this generates
I think it may have dropped in price, because I was sure the TL866II Plus was over £100, but a casual look around earlier this week showed that it's actually half that. I'm almost certainly going to pick one up at some point.
You make that soldering job look SO much easier than it actually is. Perhaps the room I was working in was too cold, around 50F (10C) ambient, but I did warm up the board a bit with a heat gun. My practice attempts on another board were also not so good. There are alot of capacitors and resistors around it that were melting before the wson8 would budge at all. Any advice for this?
Try 'wetting' the joints with a soldering iron and fresh solder first. Adding leaded solder (or low melt if you have it) will drastically reduce the heating time needed with hot air.
I have made a few videos on the CH341A using the clip, I managed to do about 4 before the clips wore and would not clip on or stay clipped, there are 8 pin clips on CPC for about £15. I also bought the CH341A GREEN with the voltage selector jumper.
What happens if you turn on the computer without the BIOS chip on the board? Obviously, it's not going to post, but could doing that damage any of the other electronic components on the board?
No damage, it just won't start. You can mess a board around a lot with failed flashes or the chip not on properly and still get a fix once you've straightened it all out again, they're pretty tough in the majority of cases.
out of interest, as I'm not able to remove the chip myself in order to solder it to the programmer, should the clip not fit properly where would i find the cable to connect to the jspi1 port and what kind of cable am I looking for? Thanks this video has been incredibly helpful!
How to recognize between update bios and complete bios before reflash ..? Do you have a video tutorial to work with a motherboard with 2 ic bios ? Regards A. 👍
Hi mate, Is that working with Flash rom of Tiger T800 plus full HD satellite receiver? I lost my software used bad file. My receiver is not working only the tiger geen lamp is on when it connected with electric. Hope you can guide me how to fix the problem. My regards and thanks for all tutorials by you. 🌹❤️🌹
I have 1 of these and I did not mod it yet. It reads the chip dump but only programs zeros and now won't load back the corrupted file or the good file dump. So basically it just blanks the chip. Is this because I did not mod it? I soldered it on the test board pin 1 is where it should be and the programmer "sandwich" is all good, what am I doing wrong?
Found this while looking for a way to reciver the bios on my msi z370-a pro. As it bricked itself after upodating. And the uppdated went fine as far as i can Tel. Do you belive this could work whit that board as wel? Adrian 😁
So... I didn't mod my CH341a (black edition) with 3v3 rail. I used the clips on a 128M Winbond chip that didn't work with the 1v8 adapter. Flash is OK. Already verified 3 times after writing the extracted .CAP file from ASUS. (It's a B450 PRIME GAMING BR). But now the motherboard doesn't turn ON. Only standby LEDs are working. Any tips?
Hi " normally the bios on manufacturer's website is an upgrade version and that file could'nt be written directly to bios chip to work. So what did u do to the file to be able to write to the chip .I think this is the most important phase. Getting the right file from update one. Regards
For ATX mobos like this, the BIOS file on the website will be a complete "clean" image - so you can write it to the chip with no modification. The giveaway is if the BIOS file you have matches the ROM chip size. Update files will be noticeably smaller. Some laptop OEMs may only provide an update file, but this varies on brand and model, and often there are ways to extract the full image from the original download - this subject is a whole video itself. You do also need to watch out for some boards where a BIOS update might also include EC updates, RGB firmware, and so on, but this can be resolved once you've got the board to actually POST again by then doing another update from within BIOS setup.
2 years ago I got SFF PC with cheap motherboard which was showing black screen after restart. I decided to flash the BIOS but because of horrible web page and confusing versioning I flashed the wrong one and I bricked the machine. So I asked my local repair shops but none was interested in fixing it. Then I found your channel and instantly I was like: "why my local shops are not like this dude?". After watching some videos I bought this programmer for £5 and flashed the BIOS using the clip without desoldering the chip. Black screen issue was solved. So far I have fixed 2 machines with it so I think it is money well spent. Regards.
Link to the clip u bought please...I accidentally bricked one of my machines
Fro those watchi9ng this a couple of years later. I got a CH341APROG V1.7 which has a slide switch to select 1.8,2.5,3.3 or 5V. Worked great for me on a 1.8 V bios chip.
you absolute madlad!
This was the most helpful video on bios chip programming I have ever watched!!! Holy crap you answered every question that I had and more!! Thank you so much, this has made my life a lot easier:) See ya next time!!
and also, you should have a million + subscribers with the kind of knowledge you're throwing out. I feel like you might be one of the best youtubers at being informative and clear with explanations. Really, you rock:)
I'm glad you kept hitting problems. Far too many you tube how to videos say 'plug this in here, download that file, click this and it works'. And it rarely does leaving the eager viewer up a certain creek without any paddles. Thank you.
I love your vids. I think perhaps the best aspect is that you do show those little mistakes that I am sure all people make but don't necessarily like others to see - but the point is that we viewers can learn from those mistakes.
I can totally recommend the MiniPro (TL866) and the XGecu TL866II. Very versatile and reliable programmers!
I also own a RT809H for the more complicated stuff (f.e. Flash recovery)
Jes i think its the better Way. This "programmer" is only a pcb with a USB Uart on it
If you are going for a programmer like this you might want to go out for the XGecu T56, it's the successor to the TL866II plus. The big benefit is that it seems to support programming voltages up to 25V which was one of the problems with the TL866II plus (which could only go to 18V and thus failed to do some older style stuff that required 21V).
It supports far more chips than the TL866II plus as a result.
I'm definitely not an expert, but I suspect it's the length of the cables that determines the efficacy of the SOP clips. I was looking to Libreboot a laptop of mine, and on the website it mentioned that there's sometimes an issue using dupont cables longer than 10 cm. If your clip is anything like the ones I have, they're all 30+ cm.
Thanks so much for these wonderful videos. You have a real talent for teaching technical skills. You're so calm an relaxed, and it puts me at ease whenever I'm learning something new, and it gives me the confidence I need to actually attempt doing it. I've learned so much from you, and it's helped to spark a new hobby/passion of mine. I even purchased an RT809F programmer because of the video you posted showing us how to use it. It's too bad there wasn't an affiliate link, because I would have gladly used it. If you're taking requests, I'd love to see some more videos of you using that device.
This was fantastic!
I honestly think seeing you hit and overcome multiple unexpected complications was actually much better than a very simple job, it shows people like me, who are going to be trying to do something like this for the first time, that various unexpected issues can and will crop up along the way, and that you will have to do research outside of official documentation to find answers.
"I have this REALLY NICE computer, I am updating the bios, and OOPS, I pulled the power cord!" 🤣🤣🤣.
Total ballsy move!!! Much respect on the recovery. 🙂
Excellent tutorial, especially given everything that could make reprogramming difficult happened in this example. Great, useful content!!
outstandig explanation ! 👍 just a quick tip graham.. had lot's of trouble with the clip too.. but if you take a close look at it, you can see there is a thin plastic padding on top of the pins which essentially grabs onto the pins of the bios chip, making no connection.. you need to file that layer / padding away until the bare pins have no padding anymore
You are an amazing guy, I'd never attempt what you do despite building PC's for fun over 30 years or so. Nobody could question your skills and experience.
You are one of perhaps a handful of computer technicians that can re-program a BIOS! Kudos.
O....K, where did you find that information, the BBC
@@bob-g3e3x I have seen many tech in action, and he is the only one that has ever re-programmed a BIOS chip. Everyone else says to send it back the manufacturer. BTW this is meant to be a compliment.
@@SuperFredAZIt was just a bit goofy. There's lots of people doing this. That's why this is a product.😅
Thanks!
This is the only ch341a tutorial video which includes the part where you need to install the actual bios file for your own personal device. They always skip that part and make it seem like the programmer just creates the bios data itself. Thank you for clarifying.
Because they are not step by step guides but just highlights of particular problems. Needless to say that everybody who buys a programmer has two specific purposes in mind, either he is a user and he wants to flash a particular file into a device that he uses, or is a designer of some kind of homegrown PCB with microcontroller that needs to read data from SPI Flash, either one of use cases cannot lead to you owning a programmer without composing yourself or downloading a file of data you want to flash.
Excellent video! You have the teaching gift with your "Real world" demonstrations and the precise verbiage required for layman term comprehension. Hats off and a bow to you for this show and tell and I just wish more were like this. Again, impressive work.
Tip for voltages. Check them on the mobo with a volt meter. GND is easy to reference via the USB can or known pinout of another part.
Fascinating.. can't help but admire your work
I am glad you posted this with all miss haps. It was like what happens every time I try to fix something.😁. can’t find the data sheet, need adapter, need a different program, you have to stand on your head and hold the wire just right to get it to work. Lol
Thanks for the amazing tutorial. There are two points I would like to add:
1. In some situations, USB BIOS flashback would not work as well. I had my ASUS Maximus VIII Ranger (Z170) with corrupted ME firmware (Debug code 00) and USB BIOS flashback could not bring it back to life. Basically, some regions like the ME (Management Engine), FD (Firmware Descriptor) regions are locked and hence USB flashback would not flash those regions. CH341A saved me. Later on, I modded the BIOS of the board as well with the CH341A and now it runs a Coffee Lake i5 9600K CPU @ 5.1 GHz.
2. The procedure you followed is nearly perfect. Why do I say this? Because you are going to lose board specific data like the serial number, UUID, MAC address, DTS audio license, Windows license etc. To overcome that, you will need to use something like FD44Editor. And that is where the old BIOS dump will come in exceptionally handy. Since those data are stored in the FD region and since normal BIOS update procedure does not write on that region, there is a very high probability that you can fetch those from the corrupted BIOS file using FD44Editor. Once done, using FD44Editor again, you can inject the board specific data and prepare the final BIOS file which would keep the board in its original state.
Just wanted to add these points to the knowledge base. :)
Very true and been done successfully by others.
Thank you for the addition! What will the MAC address be if you don’t do this? All zeroes?
@@geraldh.8047 not sure about MAC, but I know the other alternative empty Hex buffer of FFFF is 0000 are the same.
@@geraldh.8047 It really depends on what the manufacturer provided as dummy MAC in the BIOS. For my ASUS Maximus VIII Ranger, it was 88-88-88-88-87-88.
I have the ASUS Maximus VII Ranger with the 00 error. Do you have the GD25B64BP1G chip, and what was the chip selection in the software - the CH341 supported chip list doesn't directly specify my chip -. Thanks.
I like you vids a lot, they are very educational and I learned a lot, even if I can't fix stuff to the level you are doing, I know now that it is possible and a professional can Fix stuff, instead of buying new and creating waste.
Even though the average joe would never do this we still love the information and the way you make your videos. Much love keep them coming!
Love watching all the adventurous things you do...great stuff buddy :D
Having done this sort of thing back in the late '70's and early '80's and requiring to jumper to a break-out board with specialized components to tell the chip to connect the cut-short programming pins TO the memory writing components by use of a fixed voltage... using a lego kit sounds relaxing. Add in the light source and legos sounds like an incredibly joyful way to do it.
And all of this is precisely why I *only* buy Asus mainboards that have pullable chips. I have absolutely no problem with paying a $1.50 extra for a motherboard that I can pull _one or both_ of the CMOS chips out of and take some place to pay $5 to have reprogrammed.
Graham, would it be possible to determine the voltage of the BIOS chip by measuring the voltage coming to the chip on the mobo with the multimeter?
Yea that would work 👍
Yes
You are an absolute champion sir, this video helped me revive my dead msi motherboard from the dead. Thank you so much!
Great content. Your tutorial is easily the best I've seen. That you left in the errors you encountered is definitely a good thing. I cringed when you pulled power during BIOS upgrade.
You are one mad dude, deliberately bricking a motherboard. (Love It)
I have an TL866 II Plus, I can highly recommend it, although when downloading the software, you have to read Chinese, use a translator or even better do what I do and guess.
This is the first video I watch from you, it refreshing, informative and seems to be honest! The tinkering and specially the kind of problems 99% of “us” whom will try this our self is just what “we” need to get a complete picture. So keep on select Murphy products and boards to show you great skills. The problems (and solutions 😎) make it great content, thanks for releasing!
Absolutely astounding,I think I understand half of your explanation,but it is still mind blowing.Wish I was younger and had more time to get into actions you demonstrate.One thing which surprises me ( hugely) is that you can desolder/solder the BIOS chip without any damage to it.Lead free solder seems to be not very forgiving.Top notch clip
Thank you very much for your explanation of letters L, Q, U on 25 series microchips beginning from W, I have written it down on the piece of paper that I have glued to my CH341 programmer, because an average engineer (not PC repairman) uses those things so really, that enough time might pass to umemorize important details. Do not assume that I haven't read the datasheet for my particular IC.
I don't understand why people dislike videos like this, I mean he literally didn't insult or said anything bad about anything/anyone, and yet there is 8 dislike ? I mean did the poor test computer dislike the video ?
why cant any of these other big well known Pc Hardware reviewers/ Techies that has like over millions of subs and views showcase some real world troubleshooting and problems like this one? because by far this guy and what he showed was actual real world Troubleshooting steps/fixes with NO video EDITs period. It shows that someone like this really actually lives up to what it truly means to problem solving and not rely upon the option of "Its bricked so just buy a new one" and then actually is trying to figure out the core root of the problem. Amazing video , he showed that He really actually cares about why your pc wont post or boot etc, and wont give you an excuse of "buy new one". Great and Amazing video 😁😎
leaning tower or bios adapters, I love it
Always good to know there are options to repair a bricked motherboard. instead of just buying another one..
I hope next time you can also venture out to tablets and phones.. :)
Thank you for helpful video. I saw the one where you voltage modded the ch341a " Black version" programmer too & I was unaware of the higher voltage on program pin ! Actually for everybody to know, there are 2 versions of this out there one called older version and one newer version & I have the former. I used AX programmer which appears better than CH341 programmer you have used here but latest is NeoProgrammer at github (it's based in AX prgmr code BTW) with huge array of chips in its database and is being currently maintained. it shows pic of how to place the chip in the ch341a board ZIF socket too! BTW I HAVE used the clip in jaws successfully many times, the main spring in it has to be replaced with one that exerts gentler pressure and i did this! I Can send a pic. Also one copper contact in the jaws was slightly bent originally and i straightened it !! Use a magnifier & tweezer for this delicate work at jaws tip which must be aligned in its tiny recess in jaw plastic. Of course we need a few tries on any chip on motherboard before it sits correctly and each try we need to run "detect chip" ! usually if jaws sit right on the chip it detects chip correctly after few tries (keep jaws perfectly vertical over the chip!) by reading the chip ID with neo programmer or AX too , repeat jaw (re) placement until it reads correctly!.
Need advice about I faced a problem a year ago with my Lenovo T450 laptop where i programmed the bios to allow it to use lenovo battery which suddenly started giving msgs like "battery is non lenovo , it won't charge, use lenovo approved battery", after the bios mod which i got from "Molfar" (bios hacker expert). after this bios flash it was ok although a side effect was that bios menu wouldn't allow any changes , yet laptop was usable with win10 for a year i used it ok.. but Recently i got lot of keyboard errors and i decided it was due to bios that i modded and bought a lenovo battery supposed to be genuine with lenovo chip inside, & flashed bios with ch341a like before with original bios which i had saved before modding it. Now the laptop flashes its power light and keyboard 3 lights (fn key, caps lock, etc) but dosen't enter POST ! Any ext cd drive on its usb port, its power light also flash in synchronisation (4 sec one flash) i tried flashing bios and verify again, twice (verify is OK) but laptop doesn't start! any insight you might give? could the 5v on data output of my programmer have destroyed something in the mother board that "reads the bios chip" at startup? ( because i hadn't modded my programmer since i saw your video now only being unaware of this problem). btw my bios chip is 25Q128FV in levovo T450 laptop.
Thank you. My msi a320m-a pro motherboard works again. I had to puchase a 1.8v 25u12873f $5.00 chip trom China after getting a 15 dollar 3.3v wrong item from San Jose. I have improved with soldering as well. Your video gave me the confidence to do this. Thank you.
This was very informative. Thank you. I've just ordered a brand new Intel Core i5-13600kf and an ASUS Tuf Z690-Wireless DDR5 motherboard to plug it into, so I'm doing research to see how much trouble I'm in for assuming the BIOS needs an update to support the CPU, which it almost certainly does.
Surprisingly you are so generous! You tried to share us what you have all! Thanks!
I have an ASRock motherboard, it has a socketed BIOS chip. It's real nice :-)
For SPI flashing, I use a BusPirate and a chip clip (it's not the best clip, but I've been able to get it working). For EPROMs, I really love my TL866II Plus (mine came with a whole bunch of adapters)!
Also, I had an issue with my board not POSTing, and ASRock mailed me a new BIOS chip! :-D
@ASRockGlobal Now that’s legit.
I suppose I was lucky last week when I managed to clip onto my BIOS chip and reflash all while (unknown to me) supplying chip with 5V rather than 3.3V. End result was a working laptop so I am very pleased! Thanks for sharing all this info so I can do it properly next time! Valuable!
You were not lucky, voltage drops during flashing from 5v to 3,3v. You have videos on yt about it
Great stuff Adam.broke leg off the ic while doing the mod .but that actually worked out for the best in the end,managed to have just enough of broken leg to solder to so no tape insulation required.now to fix my bricked 78LMT.Just for the extra skill set.Thanks again awesome vid.
Thanks for this video!!!!! It helped me unbrick a gigabyte itx b350 board. I got the clips to work for me but I discovered the hard way that you NEED TO REMOVE the CPU for this to work. I don't actually know if it would have worked by just removing the battery but I suggest anyone trying this should remove the battery and cpu before attempting to flash.
Great video, thank you so much for creating and sharing your knowledge. I'm grateful to you
like man i literally knew exactly what this video was about and my heart still dropped though the floor when you yanked the power omg LOL
What also makes the CH341A a bad product, especially for beginners (but non-beginner wouldn't use it anyway), is that it doesn't really care about read errors. TL866II, and RT809F to some extent, can detect bad pin contact before even attempting to do anything, and during read they will often clearly error out if something goes wrong. Not a 100% guarantee that what you read is what's stored on the chip but it's a huge help.
I've seen way too many people losing the original content because the read operation went wrong. (and a backup *is always* useful, especially on laptops) And they post some random dump full of 0xFF without noticing (tip: if you zip the file and it's only a few kB or less, something went wrong).
This is a great info about zipping the dump file to know the real size, thank you.
@@lezyhun I had to use uefitool to successfully write my bios, it was a few kb's too big
LOL!! I lost you at the point where you pulled the plug on the machine but I can see how useful it would be to someone who is more tech-savvy than me😉
Greetings from Mexico City. I didn´t expect that you use the 1.8v adapter, your video is better than a tutorial, thx too much.
*GASP* O.O Thanks for the video, looks like I need to buy a mobo with bios flashback.
Thank you that was amazing. I didn't know if a bricked BIOS could be repaired. Nice one mate
I remember considerably older boards having removable chips. They would need some kind of puller but you would still get your chip out if you had one. If you were one of the unfortunate people who bricked the board you could order a chip with the BIOS already on it. That would have been a better choice for people like me but it is nice to know this kind of thing is doable at home. I just don't recommend everyone do it unless they at least watched it being done. A lot of things can go wrong.
Excellent video.
Manufacturer: Macronix
Partname: MX25U25673GZ4I40 (Quad I/O)
8-bit bytes: 2000400h (33,555,456 Bytes)
Organization: 2000400h (x8 bit)
Part number breakdown:
MX = Macronix
25 = Serial Flash
U = 1.8V (V=2.5V, L=3.3V)
25673G = 256Mbit
Z4 = WSON8 package
I = Industrial (C = commercial)
4 = 4nS (I believe since 08=8nS, 10=10nS, 12=12nS etc)
Size = 8x6mm, 1.27mm pin pitch, height = 1mm
In the early 2000s i have made myself a completely self-build LPT1 flashing-cable for bios reflashing via JSPI1 connector for MSI boards, which i have still today. - I also have done many bios reflashing actions on asus and msi boards with an old raspberry pi 1 directly hooked up to the bios chip and the raspberry pi compatible software "flashrom". I remember last completely dead system i revived with flashrom on raspberry pi was an msi trident 3 arctic gaming pc, which came fully back to life after a gone wrong bios update attempt. Best regards from germany !
Great video, the issues you had showed what could go awry, but gave me enough confidence to go ahead and 'unbrick' my Asus X470 motherboard, which suffered a bad flash. It's up and running fine now. It's great to know I can downgrade the BIOS if necessary too. I got all the parts from eBay for less than £15. I cobbled together a ribbon connector for the Jtag pins from an old serial ribbon. The clip I got with my CH341A was frankly rubbish, hence plugging onto the Jtag was a much better way to do it.
Very informative - wondering what the average cost for something like this could be?
Adam really enjoy your channel. You really enjoy what your doing. Not many people can say that!
I use the Pomona 5250 SOIC8 test clip. Haven’t had any issues with it. They’re pricey (about $10-$20) but worth it.
I like to use NeoProgrammer for my CH341a . Seems to have a wide range of chip support.
It's Awesome that you recovered the bios chip and it works
5:30 I just used a $2 programmer at work, which came with a clip like that. Worked just fine. A little fiddling required to make proper contact, but it did the job.
Thanks a lot for the SF DL link, Graham. As you say, it is very difficult to find out this kind of resources. I also own an SVOD3, with the ZIF 128-pin EC adapters. But I love the tiny 341.
Thanks! I just resurrected my MoBo right now thanks to your guide
Great video .. good info on the ins and outs of bios flashing .. the only thing I would say was the throwaway comment that AM4 needs to die because the bios size was too large .. I'm very glad that AMD doesn't force you into buying another motherboard every fraking time you upgrade the CPU .. Just for the amount of E-Waste that this generates
genius found on youtube. i love all of your videos. it helps a lot! =)
if you think it wasn't simple, you definitely made it look easy. Great work and luv your channel
what was that paste gel at 11:20 you used, how much did it cost and content in the tube?
I ve warched all the video and all i say good job man you just gave me all i want thank u
The shop looks so clean back in the days
I like this presenter's warts and all demos.
I would just get the TL866II Plus , Covers 99% of your bases and just works.
Get all the adapters then you are covered including for 1.8v
I think it may have dropped in price, because I was sure the TL866II Plus was over £100, but a casual look around earlier this week showed that it's actually half that. I'm almost certainly going to pick one up at some point.
@@Adamant_IT Yeah prices have dropped and software is very easy to use plus covers just about every ic under the sun.
@@mspecjase And with an added bonus of being able to test logic IC's as well.
@Mr Guru guess it depends on your application I just repair pc’s/phones/tablets/gpu’s and find it perfect for my needs
@Mr Guru I just noticed the software he was using was not for the tl866ii plus and is version 6.7 current version is 11.3 , was his just the tl866 ?/
Excellent Info. Thank you.
25:25 What do you mean, mod? I programmed a 3V bios chip with it today without any mods. It was the MXIC 25L6445E
Would you tell us what your camera set up and your microscope names and model numbers are??? Thanks for your videos...
The bench cam is a Logitech BRIO, and the face cam is a Logitech C920. I record in OBS Studio 👍
I always feel like im in the 90s with your videos lol but I love em either way!!
That was awesome man!! Thanks for sharing!!
You make that soldering job look SO much easier than it actually is. Perhaps the room I was working in was too cold, around 50F (10C) ambient, but I did warm up the board a bit with a heat gun. My practice attempts on another board were also not so good. There are alot of capacitors and resistors around it that were melting before the wson8 would budge at all. Any advice for this?
Try 'wetting' the joints with a soldering iron and fresh solder first. Adding leaded solder (or low melt if you have it) will drastically reduce the heating time needed with hot air.
awesome job as usual with good explanation. love it mate... :D
7:00 What is the problem? The Macronix web site states the MXIC 25U series is 1.8V.
A proper analogy for 1:13 is instead of a torch you're using a laser and instead of the receiver receiving the signal they get blinded instead
What if you try programming the chip without using the adapter? Didn't you have to change the bios extension to bin?
voltage doesn't matter you can directly use this chip to flash straight to a 3.3 volt chip
Its also just like 70 micro amps so the reference with "burning your hand" is just dumb
@@user-mb2yh9rq4f yeah... I actually flashed several chips since with it and they were all fine 😂
I have made a few videos on the CH341A using the clip, I managed to do about 4 before the clips wore and would not clip on or stay clipped, there are 8 pin clips on CPC for about £15. I also bought the CH341A GREEN with the voltage selector jumper.
Great video, but how do i restore mac address, serial number, and uuid on msi mainboard when i flash fresh rom at it.
What happens if you turn on the computer without the BIOS chip on the board?
Obviously, it's not going to post, but could doing that damage any of the other electronic components on the board?
No damage, it just won't start. You can mess a board around a lot with failed flashes or the chip not on properly and still get a fix once you've straightened it all out again, they're pretty tough in the majority of cases.
out of interest, as I'm not able to remove the chip myself in order to solder it to the programmer, should the clip not fit properly where would i find the cable to connect to the jspi1 port and what kind of cable am I looking for?
Thanks this video has been incredibly helpful!
How to recognize between update bios and complete bios before reflash ..? Do you have a video tutorial to work with a motherboard with 2 ic bios ? Regards A. 👍
Hi mate,
Is that working with Flash rom of Tiger T800 plus full HD satellite receiver?
I lost my software used bad file.
My receiver is not working only the tiger geen lamp is on when it connected with electric.
Hope you can guide me how to fix the problem.
My regards and thanks for all tutorials by you.
🌹❤️🌹
I have 1 of these and I did not mod it yet. It reads the chip dump but only programs zeros and now won't load back the corrupted file or the good file dump. So basically it just blanks the chip. Is this because I did not mod it? I soldered it on the test board pin 1 is where it should be and the programmer "sandwich" is all good, what am I doing wrong?
Found this while looking for a way to reciver the bios on my msi z370-a pro. As it bricked itself after upodating. And the uppdated went fine as far as i can Tel.
Do you belive this could work whit that board as wel?
Adrian 😁
you could measure pins 4 and 8 on the motherboard after removing the chip to know whether its 1.8v or 3.3v
Curious if your NIC MAC address was blanked out when you did that and if it broke windows activation.
The work you do is Brilliant wow 👍👍
Hi
Thank you for your video. Any chance you reviewed the ch347 board?
So... I didn't mod my CH341a (black edition) with 3v3 rail.
I used the clips on a 128M Winbond chip that didn't work with the 1v8 adapter.
Flash is OK. Already verified 3 times after writing the extracted .CAP file from ASUS. (It's a B450 PRIME GAMING BR).
But now the motherboard doesn't turn ON. Only standby LEDs are working.
Any tips?
Curious if the other bios has a different mac address in it, since it was dumped from another motherboard?
Can't you use a capacitor (or squid gate) to prevent the voltage spike?
4:28 or what he refers to as jtag/gtag connector where can i find one
Hi " normally the bios on manufacturer's website is an upgrade version and that file could'nt be written directly to bios chip to work. So what did u do to the file to be able to write to the chip .I think this is the most important phase. Getting the right file from update one. Regards
For ATX mobos like this, the BIOS file on the website will be a complete "clean" image - so you can write it to the chip with no modification. The giveaway is if the BIOS file you have matches the ROM chip size. Update files will be noticeably smaller.
Some laptop OEMs may only provide an update file, but this varies on brand and model, and often there are ways to extract the full image from the original download - this subject is a whole video itself.
You do also need to watch out for some boards where a BIOS update might also include EC updates, RGB firmware, and so on, but this can be resolved once you've got the board to actually POST again by then doing another update from within BIOS setup.
Thank you very much
@@Adamant_IT You should do a video on extracting the bios file from an executable..