Question CMOS Bios Chip for Asus a88xm-plus MB

[Battista133]

My spare computer has an Asus A88XM-Plus motherboard which I updated to he latest bios this month and it appeared to be working fine for a few boots. At some point, I was playing around with overclock settings and the computer no longer booted. I thought the problem was related to the CMOS Bios chip, so I've removed it and now need to reprogram it with a good bin image file. Unfortunately I don't have a back up of the bin file. I've tried to convert a CAP file to a BIN file using FD44Editor and UEFITool, but haven't had much luck. I don't have all the information that you would normally get off a backup BIN file. I have a CH341A Programmer that can write to the chip, but I don't have the bin file to write to it. If anyone has a bin file they can share, I could eliminate the CMOS Bios chip as the problem and continue at that point or just give up. I suppose I can buy a programmed chip from Ebay but if anyone has experienced this in the past and created a new bin file they are willing to share, I think I can enjoy my troubleshooting. It's a lot of fun, but I'm at the point where the Ebay option is looking pretty good and worth the $20 investment just to confirm if I'm on the right track in identifying the problem.

Thanks for reading. Have a great day.

 

[kerberos_20]

u dont need to convert it, just use alternative software for your programmer which can work with .CAP files aswell
https://github.com/nofeletru/UsbAsp-flash/releases/download/v1.4.1/AsProgrammer_1.4.1.zip
this one works with CH341A and reads CAP just fine

if u will have issues with that app connecting vs your device, here are drivers+sdk aswell

https://github.com/boseji/CH341-Store/raw/master/CH341-Windows-SPI-I2C-Driver%2BSDK-library/CH341PAR.ZIP

 

[Battista133]

Thanks for your help.
I downloaded the necessary files and gave it a try.
No problem with accessing the chip on the CH341, but after programming completes, the following messages are displayed.
Done
Execution time: 0:00:20
Current programmer: CH341
18:15:03
File size larger than IC size

I believe this is why the cab file needs to be converted to a bin file.

 

[kerberos_20]

its binary, bios image size should match ic size
are u sure u have correct bios file?

try openning CAP file with UEFItool, then click action -> extract body
flash that body with programmer

 

[Battista133]

I downloaded the latest bios from ASUS for the A88XM-PLUS motherboard (version 3004). The file name is A88XM-PLUS-ASUS-3004.cab. From what I've learned, this file contains header information that has to be removed before writing to the chip. There is an UEFITool.exe application that does this and you can save the modified file to a BIN file. I'm going to try writing this file to the chip and see what happens.

 

[Battista133]

The file size error message is no longer displayed. Appears the code was written to the chip. I put the chip into the motherboard and still nothing. As a matter of fact, its worse. The CPU fan stopped spinning. I plugged into another source and it spins from there, but I can't explain why the other source stopped working. I hate to say it, but I think it is time to give up and spend my time elsewhere. The bin file is missing some I think I will just take what I can salvage and put the board on eBay. LOL.

From other sources, I've read that this stripped BIN file needs to be edited to update some key fields specific for ASUS bios. I'm referring to ME Version, Dbe Version, MAC Address, System UUID, Motherboard S/N, etc. These you would normally get from the backup file you create which I of course do not have. This is why in my original description I was hoping to get a backup BIN file from someone who had created one. I've tried the FD44editor with this BIN file and entered some of the fields with values that I've been collecting from the Internet, but the program will not save the information. There is something it doesn't like or doesn't recognize as a valid Asus image file.

Thanks.

 

[Battista133]

Forgot to mention...I found this link and it looked promising, but a little too complex for me. The board is not the exact one I have, but I think a lot of the information is relevant.

Tools to flash and recover BIOS on ASUS P8xxx boards (FD44Editor, FTK)

This topic is my reaction to situation with BIOS corruption problems on current ASUS boards and inability to recover from it using ASUS tools. I have started this projects on overclockers.ru forum about 6 months ago, and now the tools I developed are proven to be working, stable and reliable by...

hardforum.com

This was another source I looked at that was useful.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu2PWxJ5IU0&t=2s