Abrupt power loss or power disruption by the user can brick the board -- meaning it will be as useful as a brick when it comes to computing. Do not disconnect power at any time during this process. Don't perform during electrical storms.
I'm on an alienware m14x r2 and i'm attempting to flash it to unlock the bios in order to overclock my keplar gpu at higher frequencies instead of being capped at +135 Mhz. I referred to this thread here as a starting point.
[http/forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m14x/1841-[m14x-r2]-vbios-mods-unlocked-overclocking-limits-voltage-tweaks-modified-clocks.html] For those not familiar with an alienware m14x r2 hardware, check below.
Alienware M14X R2 A03 BIOS Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit 3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3720QM 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHzV 2 GB DDR5 NVIDIA GeForceGT 650M Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio 256 GB Crucial M4 SSD Several general questions about the process have not been asked and after some googling and youtubing i'm not entirely satisfied with what i've seen so far so i'm here to ask the expert community on how to do a basic bios flash. 1. My first question is what utility to use? nvflash or flashit. Judging from softpedia, flashit reviews are higher and seems to satsify the majority of the users who've downloaded and used it. 2. My second question involves the actual process. I have a patriot 16 gb usb thumbdrive. a.) Will it need to be formatted to FAT32 or is NTFS compatible? b.) Second will i need to make a folder inside my drive with the ROM/.FD file with the flashing utility as well? c.) Will the process be affected if there are other files on the drive. d.) I will need to boot from the drive (set the priority to first) as well correct? e.) What commands will i need to input in order to execute the flashing? Finally, i have a couple of questions regarding the history of my BIOS and the possible outcomes with these settings. I changed to AHCI mode and have changed no other settings in BIOS. Will I need to select defaults? Will this complicate the flashing process (cause a crash or freeze)? Will I need to select set to defaults under all sections or just once to flash successfully? If my pc is set to AHCI and setting my defaults back to RAID, what If I crash and can't load windows? Does my voltage sync adaptively with my core clocking or will I need to adjust it manually? --- If anyone can please list a numbered step by step easy DIY tutorial on the process as detailed as possible that will reduce the risk of bricking as well as answering all of my questions, it would be extremely helpful. Thanks guys, hope to hear from someone soon. Video Tutorial: How To Flash BIOS with an ASUS BoardSetup & Necessary Tools
Warnings & Notes
When updating via internet, most boards will store the update locally, wipe the old firmware, and then apply the update. In the event your board does not do this, but instead requires a constant internet connection, it is advisable not to disconnect your wire during the update. We would also advise opting for a wired connection.
Also note that flashing BIOS will wipe all settings, so it is recommended that you write down any overclocking settings before proceeding.
Note that many high-end boards -- like MSI's Z97-GD65 -- offer a 'dual-BIOS' feature. This is a good thing. The reason that flashing firmware can brick a board is because there exist no consumer means to recover a corrupted firmware chip. To update firmware, the board must first wipe the existing blocks housing the firmware, then apply the update block-by-block to the flash device. Failure or power loss during the 'wipe' phase will likely result in catastrophic failure -- or unrecoverable corruption to the Flash memory.
Dual BIOS eliminates this concern. If BIOS fails due to a bad flash, a physical switch on the board can be toggled to enable the backup BIOS chip.
For most users, it is recommended that you don't fix something that isn't broken, to paraphrase an adage. Updating BIOS is advisable in the instance of new features (like support for new CPUs and unlocking CPUs) or fixed features (often, this is RAID).
Step-by-Step Guide to Updating BIOS on an ASUS Motherboard
That's it! You're done. We've got similar content coming for updating via internet when using MSI and ASRock boards. Subscribe to the YouTube channel for more tutorials, as always.
Writing / Video: Steve 'Lelldorianx' Burke.
Camera work: Patrick 'mocalcium' Stone.
How To Unlock Bios Password
If you’ve tampered with your Chromebook—to install Windows on your Chromebook, for example—you may have replaced its BIOS with a third-party option. Here’s how to roll all your changes back and turn that Windows or Linux PC back into a Chromebook.
If you haven’t tampered this heavily with your Chromebook, you can factory reset it the normal way. The following guide is intended for those that have installed a different BIOS and operating system altogether.
Step One: Restore Your Chromebook’s Original BIOS
RELATED:How to Install Windows on a Chromebook
You can restore the BIOS using the same script you used to replace your BIOS in the first place. That script, if you recall from our guide, creates a backup copy of your BIOS, making it easy to restore. However, this script must be run from a Linux system with a full Bash shell, so you won’t perform this step from within Windows.
Instead, you’ll want to boot your Chromebook into a Linux environment. We’ll use Ubuntu as the example, but other Linux distributions should also work fine. Download an Ubuntu ISO and the Rufus utility. Launch Rufus, select a USB drive, and pick “GPT partition scheme for UEFI” as well as “FAT32”. Click the button to the right of “Create a bootable disk using” and select your downloaded Ubuntu ISO. Click “Start” when you’re ready.
Rufus will ask you if you want to copy the image in ISO mode or DD mode. You can choose the default “ISO image mode” and continue.
NOTE: If you reinstalled your Chromebook’s BIOS write protect screw, you’ll need to remove it before flashing the original BIOS. If you left the write protect screw off, you can continue.
When you’re done, connect the USB drive to your Chromebook and reboot. The BIOS should automatically boot from the USB drive. If it doesn’t, press any key at the start of the boot process, select “Boot Manager”, and select your USB drive. Select “Try Ubuntu Without Installing” to get a live Ubuntu desktop.
Click the Wi-Fi icon at the top right corner of your screen and connect to your Wi-Fi network when you reach the desktop. This will give the Linux system internet access, which it needs to download the script.
You now now run the same script you ran earlier. Open a Terminal window in Ubuntu and paste the following command, pressing Enter afterwards.
This command changes to your home directory, downloads the http://mrchromebox.tech/firmware-util.sh script file, and runs it with root privileges. Consult the developer’s website for more documentation about how the script works.
The script will download and run, presenting you with a helpful menu.
Use the “Restore Stock Firmware (full)” option. Type “9” and press “Enter” to run it.
Answer the script’s questions, connecting the USB drive containing your BIOS backup file and pointing the script at it. The script will flash the backup BIOS back onto your Chromebook.
If you’ve lost your backup copy of the original BIOS firmware, the script can attempt to download and install copies from the Internet. Just tell the script you do not have a firmware backup file when it asks. Downloading the original BIOS from the Internet only works for devices using the Haswell, Broadwell, or Baytrail architectures at the moment, according to the script’s documentation.
The process should complete successfully. You’ll be told you need to restore Chrome OS using the Chrome OS recovery media, and then re-run this script to reset the firmware boot flags.
You can now shut down your Chromebook.
Step Two: Restore Chrome OS
You’ll now need to create the Chrome OS operating system using recovery media. You can do it on any computer—Windows, Mac, Linux, or Chromebook—with the Chrome browser installed. Head to the Chrome Web Store and install the Chromebook Recovery Utility Chrome app to get started.
Launch the app and connect a USB drive. This USB drive will be erased as part of this process. You can use the same USB drive you used for Ubuntu earlier, if you like—Ubuntu will be erased from it, but you won’t need Ubuntu again for this process.
Find your Chromebook model in the Chromebook Recovery Utility application. You can pick it from the list or just enter the codename.
If you don’t remember your model of Chromebook, you can turn on your Chromebook and you’ll see the model number displayed at the bottom of the recovery screen.
Go through Chromebook Recovery Utility wizard. The application will wipe the attached USB drive and place Chrome OS recovery media on it. If your Chromebook has an SD card slot, you can also use this utility to place the recovery media on an SD card instead.
When the tool finishes creating recovery media, you can remove the USB drive from your computer and connect it to your Chromebook.
With your Chromebook still powered off, press and hold the Esc and Refresh keys (the Refresh key is where the F3 key would be on a normal keyboard). Press the Power button while holding these keys and then let go of the power button. Release the Esc and Refresh keys when you see a message appear on your screen.
Your Chromebook will boot into recovery mode and you’ll see a message telling you to insert a recovery drive to continue. Connect the USB drive you created to your Chromebook.
How To Flash My Bios
Your Chromebook will automatically detect the recovery media and use it to restore your device. Ensure the Chromebook is plugged in and allow it to automatically restore the operating system.
If your Chromebook doesn’t automatically detect the connected drive and start the recovery process, there may be something wrong with your recovery media. You may also need to remove any other SD cards, USB drives, and USB devices before starting the recovery drive. Ensure you only have the one USB drive connected to avoid confusing the system.
When it’s done, your Chromebook will ask you to remove the recovery media. Your Chromebook will then restart automatically.
Press Ctrl+D to agree to continue in developer mode when you see the “OS verification is OFF” warning. You don’t want to re-enable OS verification just yet!
Boot into Chrome OS, where you’ll see the Chrome OS installation wizard. Sign in and set up Chrome OS normally.
Step Three: Restore Your Firmware Boot Flags
As the script mentioned earlier, you’ll need to reset the firmware boot flags to their default settings.
From within Chrome OS, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open a terminal window. Type
shell and press Enter to access a full shell.
Paste the following command and press Enter to download and run the firmware script one last time:
When the script interface appears, choose the “Set Boot Options (GBB Flags)” option by typing “4” and pressing Enter.
Tell the script you want to “Reset to factory default” by typing “5” and pressing Enter.
Step Four: Disable Developer Mode (Optional)
At this point, you may or may not want to disable Developer Mode.
Developer Mode is a special mode that allows you to modify your Chromebook’s system software. It’s another way of saying the “OS verification” feature is off, allowing you to tamper with the OS. While Developer Mode is enabled, you have to press Ctrl+D to boot your Chromebook every time it boots.
If you don’t want to mess with the Chromebook’s software, you’ll want to disable Developer Mode. If you plan on installing Linux on your Chromebook using something like Crouton, you’ll want to leave Developer Mode enabled.
If you do want to disable Developer Mode, restart your Chromebook and press the Space bar when the “OS verification if OFF” screen appears.
(If you don’t want to disable Developer Mode, just keep pressing Ctrl+D each time your Chromebook boots.)
Press the “Enter” key to confirm you want to disable developer mode when your Chromebook asks.
Your Chromebook will wipe its internal drives and re-enable OS verification, which prevents you (or malware) from modifying the system partition and operating system files. You also won’t have to press Ctrl+D every time you boot.
You’ll have to sign back into Chrome OS after you do this, as disabling Developer Mode wipes your internal storage.
Step Five: Reinstall the BIOS Write Protect Screw (Optional)
You may want to re-enable the BIOS write protection, too. This doesn’t require that you disable developer mode. In fact, you can flash anything you want to your BIOS and then reinstall the screw to protect your modified BIOS from changes.
If you’ve flashed the original BIOS, you can reinstall the screw to protect the original BIOS from modification. Your Chromebook will be back to the same state it was in when you bought it, running the original BIOS and protecting it from modification.
Just do the same thing you did when you removed the screw. First, shut down the Chromebook—don’t just put it to sleep, but shut it down completely. Turn the Chromebook over and unscrew the bottom.
Locate the screw hole you unscrewed the BIOS write protect screw from previously. Take the exact same screw you unscrewed earlier and screw it back into the hole.
Once it’s secure, reattach the bottom to your Chromebook and boot back up. The BIOS will be write-protected and you’ll be using a stock Chrome OS operating system. Your Chromebook will be in the same state it was in when you purchased it.
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01-27-2012, 01:06 AM (This post was last modified: 01-27-2012, 01:07 AM by SnakyJake.)
(01-24-2012, 01:31 PM)akbar102 Wrote: yes the advanced and power are hidden. thanks man for your help im wait for your work Thanks for the info, i just wanted to ask, which forms are hidden :-) Good part so far: I found all the functions which are in my bios. Bad part: they hid the forms differently and I don't know YET how they done it. There are three ways to hide the forms: by code within the SetupBrowser (my bios), by VSS-Data (inside bios data) or by Form OP-codes. The VSS-data is formatted in the downloaded bios. If you flash it, it takes the VSS-data, which is already installed on your computer (which I don't have :-)) So maybe you see any way to dump YOUR current bios? With linux it actually is no prob; I don't know if HPs windows tools offer a way to backup your current bios. They actually should. Could you please check and if possible upload a backup of your current bios? That might be a great help to have your current bios WITH VSS-data :-) Why Does This Happen?
There are a few good reasons that a card would be sold as a 4GB video card:
Bios How To Unlock Flash Iphone
The second option is common, and also happens on the CPU side of the industry (and system memory, for that matter). It is possible that some of the card's VRAM is not performing to spec, and rather than throwing out the whole card, AMD uses VBIOS to lock utilization to four of the known-good modules on the card.
Risks
There are also a few important risks with attempting a VBIOS flash – and some of those may be obvious, given the above:
Only if reasonably certain that the VRAM modules can accept an 8GB VBIOS should you embark upon this process. We'd generally advise spending the extra money ($240 8GB RX 480) rather than risk a card, but enthusiasts familiar with the process likely know what they're getting into.
Mitigating Risk
To mitigate risk, we'd suggest using MemoryInfo to validate the ID on the memory modules. We took the more physical approach to this and pulled the shroud off the card (read about that over here) to read the ID on the memory modules. Make sure the memory module IDs match known IDs of 8GB cards (1GB modules). For example, one of ours uses the ID “SAMSUNG 616 / K4G80325FB-HC25 / GZL0440S.” You can check other tear-downs online and known identifiers to determine which modules are known 1GB (8Gb) modules. Determining that the product legitimately has 1GB modules is the first step, as opposed to 512MB (4Gb) modules that would be impossible to unlock to anything greater than 512MB.
Do not use VBIOS from a card with a completely different design.
Next, we'd suggest exporting a ROM image of your current VBIOS, so that it could be rolled back if absolutely necessary.
Run some benchmarks (FPS benchmarks or synthetic, e.g. 3DMark FireStrike) prior to the flash to build a baseline for performance. Use this later to validate your flash.
Unlocking from 4GB to 8GB
Knowing the risks, having taken mitigating steps, and knowing the “why,” we can now attempt an unlock.
Use MemoryInfo to validate that the modules are “SAMSUNG 616 / K4G80325FB-HC25.” If you're opening the card up for a cooling mod anyway, you can check the physical module for this same identifier.
Use GPU-Z to validate the current memory capacity and speed.
Launch ATIFlash 2.7.4 with your 8GB card connected, then click “Save” to export the card's retail VBIOS. Save this somewhere easily accessible, in case video output is ever lost. Label accordingly. You will use this to import the ROM to your 4GB card. If you do not have an 8GB card, there are ROMs hosted online to help with this procedure – use at your own risk. Research before installing. It is ideal to pull a VBIOS that matches your card – if using a reference model, grab a reference VBIOS.
Above: Backing up the current ROM should be done first.
Use the “Load” button to load your 8GB ROM, then click “Program.” Do not touch the computer. Let it do its thing.
Once complete, restart the system. Check GPU-Z to see if 8GB GDDR5 is seen, then check AMD WattMan to ensure that it is reporting the same specs as GPU-Z. You should also see 2000MHz for the memory clock, rather than 1750MHz.
Run stress testing software (3DMark's FireStrike Stress Test is good) for a long period to validate that slowness and instability are not present.
If everything looks good, call it a success and carry on. If you've got flickering or crashing issues, or just low memory speed, it may be the case that some modules failed validation or that the VBIOS is not functional on this card. Reprogram your old VBIOS that you saved, then rollback to it.
Again, this is entirely at your risk. You could end up with a dead card if not conducted perfectly, or if the card just doesn't accept the VBIOS.
Editorial: Steve “Lelldorianx” Burke
Video: Andrew “ColossalCake” Coleman Comments are closed.
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