Swapping BIOS chips... ok?

[foobar77]

Hi guys,

I have an Asus P6T7 board with an old bios version that I cannot boot as it does not support my 980X until a later firmware. The 980X was removed from my Rampage III Gene that has an identical bios chip, what is likely to happen if I remove the bios chip from the Rampage and pop it into the P6T7 board, would it get me far enough on to re-flash with the correct bios for the P6T7.

Would be worth the try? its not likely to do any damage right?

 

[alexoiu]

Hi,
I don't think it will work.
I've read somewhere about hot swapping the chips.
That would be an option, using the ASUS AiSuite utility. Not sure though.
The safest way: ordering a BIOS chip: http://www.ebay.com/itm/BIOS-Chip-ASUS-P6T7-WS-SUPERCOMPUTER-/380193007314 or if in US, from ASUS eStore.

 

[foobar77]

Hi,
I don't think it will work.
I've read somewhere about hot swapping the chips.
That would be an option, using the ASUS AiSuite utility. Not sure though.
The safest way: ordering a BIOS chip: http://www.ebay.com/itm/BIOS-Chip-ASUS-P6T7-WS-SUPERCOMPUTER-/380193007314 or if in US, from ASUS eStore.

I dont want to wait that long to get hold of a chip, I really need to get this machine booted.

I figures I would boot the rampage and try to flash the P6T7 bios in ezflash then stich the chip into the P6T7 but its not having any of it "no update module was found in file", presumably because ezflash is intelligent enough to know im trying to flash a P6T7 bios to a rampage board?

Its really frustrating, just flash the damn thing

 

[alexoiu]

No, http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=62
It would be like this: Booting the Rampage III Gene, installing ASUS Update (for flashing the BIOS from Windows), downloading the P6T7 BIOS version, then, without turning off the Rampage board, removing the BIOS chip and inserting the P6T7 one.
Running ASUS update for flashing the P6T7 chip. Turning off the board (not restarting) and swapping againg the BIOS chips.
It might work, but I wouldn't try it, as it might render the Rampage board unusable.

 

[Pinhedd]

Hi guys,

I have an Asus P6T7 board with an old bios version that I cannot boot as it does not support my 980X until a later firmware. The 980X was removed from my Rampage III Gene that has an identical bios chip, what is likely to happen if I remove the bios chip from the Rampage and pop it into the P6T7 board, would it get me far enough on to re-flash with the correct bios for the P6T7.

Would be worth the try? its not likely to do any damage right?

This will not work.

The "BIOS chip" as you call it is nothing more than an EEPROM which is accessed in a standard fashion. This allows the same chip to be used for multiple motherboards. However, the data written to that EEPROM will be different and is specifically tailored to each motherboard.

Most Asus motherboards have a method of flashing the motherboard firmware (BIOS and UEFI firmwares) without requiring a supported CPU. Check your motherboard manual to see if they included something of the like on your particular board.

 

[foobar77]

Most Asus motherboards have a method of flashing the motherboard firmware (BIOS and UEFI firmwares) without requiring a supported CPU. Check your motherboard manual to see if they included something of the like on your particular board.

No, there was no way to do this because with or without the CPU installed I had no graphics initialization so not able to get to EZ flash and its not a ROG board so couldnt flash it that way either.

I have solved the problem now, using a dos boot disk and BUPDATE didnt work, thats just EZ flash in exe format and just would not put the P6T7 bios onto the EEPROM, presumably because bupdate is checking the rom file to ensure it was right for the board.

Booting a copy of ubuntu, running flashrom to erase the EEPROM and re-flash it with the P6T7 worked a treat, because as you rightly corrected me, the chip is nothing more than an EEPROM. You don't need a "bios flasher" to flash it, you just need either hardware and/or software to program the EEPROM.

Linux FTW... again!

Now I can take the old EEPROM from the P6T7, stuff it back into my rampage board and use ROG connect to re-flash that back to a rampage bios so both boards are functional again.

 

[foobar77]

Now I can take the old EEPROM from the P6T7, stuff it back into my rampage board and use ROG connect to re-flash that back to a rampage bios so both boards are functional again.

ROG connect is so sweet, you dont need a CPU or even any ram to flash. Hell you dont even need to turn the board on, it'll flash from a USB in standby. I dont know why all motherboards dont have a similar feature.