Dual BIOS replacement?

[tomhorn1850]

Well, the deal is do I NEED to replace BOTH chips? That is my question please. I could write a few pages how asooos support are the sorriest on the planet how they said to send the serial # of the mobo in and then I could send it to them but then the sorry sob's LIED TO ME and I never heard from them again. I could mention it DOES NOT have EzFlash when it says it does at post and I could go on and on and on. But then, who needs to hear that. I just want my question answered please. Do I NEED to replace BOTH chips??????????????? Oh and it is Nasiheka C and Marc at Asoooooos. Yes I am abit po'd after three weeks of the people at Asooooooooos!
Just the one little question please, "Both chips or no both chips replaCEMENT?

 

[CountMike]

Both chips need replacing because if only one was bad the other one would take over, that's why there are two of them. If they are soft bricked then they can be reprogrammed without replacing them but that needs specialized equipment. No manufacturer will honor warranty if problem is user induced like in flashing BIOS is done wrong

 

[tomhorn1850]

Both chips need replacing because if only one was bad the other one would take over, that's why there are two of them. If they are soft bricked then they can be reprogrammed without replacing them but that needs specialized equipment. No manufacturer will honor warranty if problem is user induced like in flashing BIOS is done wrong

Thank you Mike I was just needing confirmation on that I have many different advise on the issue I do really appreciate it.

 

[CountMike]

Been there, done that, only it was Gigabyte MB and they were just as non-cooperative, private service guy fixed it for low price, to reflash with proper equipment takes only few minutes.

 

[BFG-9000]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from tomhorn1850 : "Dual BIOS replacing chip(s) replace both?"

Dumb question......I need to replace my BIOS chip or chips plural on my Asus P7H55-M and see there are two of them. I assume you have to replace both of them correct? I did order another one just hoping for some feedback here. Thank you
Tom

I'm unfamiliar with that particular motherboard. Having two bios chips typically means that if one becomes corrupt, you would simply use the other one. I suppose you could replace the one that is no longer usable. Have you not tried to use the other bios to see if it works?

*Looking at the product page for that motherboard, it shows to have
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/P7H55M_LE/
[CrashFree BIOS 3] The ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 allows users to restore corrupted BIOS data from a disk containing the BIOS file. This utility saves users the cost and hassle of buying a replacement BIOS chip.

So, I'm assuming the bios chip is simply no longer functioning? Or have you tried to re-flash the bios at all?

Normally if a dual-BIOS board fails to boot from the primary BIOS, it fails-over to the backup automatically. If it doesn't you look up the datasheet for the BIOS chip to see which leg to ground to disable the primary chip.

That is of course irrelevant because your board does not have dual BIOSes. All of the online pictures of that board show only one socket to plug a chip into.

As stated Crashfree BIOS 3 means there's enough smarts in the BIOS chip to accept a flash blind--that is, even if the BIOS itself fails to load so nothing like video works, it can flash a bios file from the driver CD or a USB stick.

Normally if a dual-BIOS board fails to boot from the primary BIOS, it fails-over to the backup automatically. If it doesn't you look up the datasheet for the BIOS chip to see which leg to ground to disable the primary chip.

That is of course irrelevant because your board does not have dual BIOSes. All of the online pictures of that board show only one socket to plug a chip into.

As stated Crashfree BIOS 3 means there's enough smarts in the BIOS chip to accept a flash blind--that is, even if the BIOS itself fails to load so nothing like video works, it can flash a bios file from the driver CD or a USB stick.

This Asus motherboard does not have EzFlash in the BIOS tools even though it says it does in the post it is not there when you go into the BIOS, I went around and around with Asoos unsupport for three weeks trying to get some help. There is no help at Asoos and I will never spend another nickle on them, ever. Marc at asooos said send in the serial number and then I could send in the board for them to fix. No reply from them after that after 14 attempts they now ignore me. I even tried registering my desktop there, for 8 years. They ignored that problem too. They are sorry.

EZflash is just a program that can run in DOS. If you can't find it in the BIOS (or the copy on the chip is corrupted), then it's easy enough to just copy it to and run it from a bootable USB stick also holding the BIOS file.

The manual flashing tool EZflash has nothing to do with Crashfree BIOS 3 which is intended for use when the board can't even POST. If the board POSTs and the chip is writable, then there is certainly no reason to replace a perfectly working chip. That's like thinking you have to replace the HDD when you want to install a newer Windows.

It is often the case that EZflash cannot be accessed from within the BIOS but requires a specific key pressed on bootup (not the same one used to enter the BIOS). The POST message should say what key that is.

 

[Barty1884]

Please keep the discussion to one thread OP.