Eee PC bios resurrection

posted Sep 25th 2009 12:25pm by Mike Szczys
filed under: repair hacks

flashsolderedtoboard

Hot on the heels of our post about reading passwords from EEPROM, [n0th1n6] tipped us off about a similar hack used to resurrect an Eee PC from a bad bios flash. After discovering that a factory repair for a dead bios costs about $200, [CutenaCute_7] took on the challenge herself. She disassembled the computer and desoldered the bios chip from the board. After writing a program to flash the chip using C#, she temporarily soldered jumpers to make sure the flash worked. Looks like this is a zero cost hack, plus the time savings from not having to ship her computer somewhere. Bravo.

Comments [18]

tagged: bios, desolder, eee pc, flash, repair, solder

Reader Comments

That should be an SPI flash part. While the soldering is impressive, there may have been an easier way as SPI is typically in circuit programmable.
http://www.dediprog.com/SPI-flash-in-circuit-programming/SF100
http://www.dediprog.com/SPI-flash-accessories/SO8-testclip

Yes, it would be expensive for a one time fix, but I suspect someone could come up with a home brew equivalent.

Posted at 1:36 pm on Sep 25th, 2009 by Matt

Is the linked site being run through a translator? It’s half English, half… Filipino, I assume? Good work, in any case!

Posted at 1:46 pm on Sep 25th, 2009 by Ben Ryves

It’s the hangout of Filipino electronic enthusiast and “She” is awesome!

Posted at 2:37 pm on Sep 25th, 2009 by Francis

Really worthwhile and cool hack.

Necessity breeds creation, as they say.

Posted at 2:43 pm on Sep 25th, 2009 by Spork

Really nice. I like that it’s more common to see people reversing and modifying complex systems now, even if it’s just a IC flash.

Posted at 3:26 pm on Sep 25th, 2009 by tjhooker

Also she only posted pseudo code, but it’s fairly simple in this case.

Posted at 3:29 pm on Sep 25th, 2009 by tjhooker

Translation: French »English (http://translate.google.fr)

xD
but I think the EeePC has a system of dual bios lol

If the first BIOS is dead
– Must be disassembled for the EeePC press a button not accessible
– Synchronize a combination with the power button and also time
– And (I do not remember to always)
But surely the Bios.ROM on USB / SD for reflash

but! the second BIOS didn’t menu! neither option! because the screen did not use

is too old in my memory
and luckily I never missed a flash

PS: I am sorry for my bad English
I’m french

Posted at 5:17 pm on Sep 25th, 2009 by Jp 1.5

Serious technical chops and sufficiently fearless to seize success from the jaws of paying almost as much as the initial cost of the unit! mórthaibhseach, étonnant, впечатляет, kick-ass!

Posted at 7:41 pm on Sep 25th, 2009 by Blodgar

hello,

thanks for the appreciation…

to Jp1.5,

I tried a LOT of techniques to recover the bios (bootblock recovery, USB with the ROM inside, reading all the articles in the Asus EEE forum) for many days but still without luck… The flashing process hanged when it is currently writing at the bootblock area. from what I read, the method to recover from a bad flash is in the bootblock. however, since the writing at the bootblock area was not completed and was erased, I have no choice but to recover it using a DIY SPI programmer.

if the bootblock area was not erased nor programmed, maybe it will be easier for me to recover this little machine using just the keypress combinations for bootblock recovery or boot through USB with the ROM file. :)

Posted at 8:06 pm on Sep 25th, 2009 by Cute_na_Cute_7

She is amazingly fantastic. After working in that eePC, she studies about motherhood.

Posted at 11:59 pm on Sep 25th, 2009 by Woots

Cute_na_Cute_7 – that’s a very fine hack indeed.

Nice work. :-)

Posted at 6:52 am on Sep 26th, 2009 by Richard

Cute_na_Cute_7: Is that an Awake! magazine?

Posted at 3:11 pm on Sep 26th, 2009 by Jarett

did this project even use resisters? I was thinking of fucking with this atmel eeprom I have and wiring it strait to the printer port. its 5v but I don’t understand what the hell ohms are so I am afraid of blowing it out like you. Something about a law of current or something.

Posted at 9:59 am on Sep 27th, 2009 by T&P

@ T&P, most eeprom are interfaced using SPI or I2C. miss cute_na_cute7 used I2C since it is the given interface by the chip. should your atmel eeprom uses I2C, it most likely have to have a pull up resistors on both clock and data lines.

@cute_na_cute7, this is an awakening for me… i admire you! and i’m also glad that your a mother!

Posted at 7:44 pm on Sep 27th, 2009 by marcelino

@marcelina

I used SPI on that chip :D

@T&P

if that atmel eeprom is an I2C interface, you may have a look at varieties of JDM programmers + IC-Prog software as I was able to use those programmers before in my projects.

Posted at 4:42 pm on Sep 28th, 2009 by Cute_Na_Cute_7

@Cute_na_cute7, I’m sorry about that… i thought you used I2C. NOTED! Should EEPROM uses I2C, I’ll consider JDM based programmer.

How many kids do you have? Really..!!! I’m glad you could still manage to do amazing stuff while being a mother!

Posted at 5:30 pm on Sep 28th, 2009 by marcelino

Here are some links on DIY SPI flash programming:

http://mondotech.blogspot.com/2009/05/asus-p5b-deluxe-bios-recovery-spi-flash.html

http://richard-burke.dyndns.org/wordpress/tag/p5b/
http://www.fccps.cz/download/adv/frr/spi/msi_spi.html
http://rayer.ic.cz/elektro/spipgm.htm

Posted at 11:40 am on Oct 2nd, 2009 by Andy

:D :D :D

Posted at 9:37 pm on Oct 7th, 2009 by Gwapo_7