How to use an ASRock mobo to flash another ASRock mobo's BIOS?

[wwenze]

Now, before you think my end-goal is crazy, it's not. I have an H81M-ITX that suffers from a BIOS that likes to corrupt itself (link). But this time, because I left it alone for more than a year due to business trip, now I couldn't even get it to boot up intermittently to flash itself.

I also have an H110M-ITX/D3 and both mobos use DIP8 in socket. So I proceeded to do the old days' method of BIOS flashing - boot the com, change the BIOS chip, flash.

But this method does not work anymore. With the ASRock Windows flash utility, it says the BIOS is unsupported on this mainboard. With Instant Flash, it does not let me select the BIOS I need.

With AMI AFUWINGUI, it reports size of ROM file does not match

And even if I use the BIOS meant for the mainboard (i.e. H110M-ITX/D3 bios on H110M-ITX/D3) I get a ROM file may be corrupted error.

AFUWINGUI does detect core version / project version / firmware ID etc for the H81M-ITX's BIOS chip so the chip seems to be at least working.

 

[alexoiu]

You can buy a BIOS chip on ebay.

 

[wwenze]

Ok, having better luck now. But still stuck at the file size check.

I suspect: H81M-ITX uses a 32Mb BIOS chip while H110M-ITX/D3 uses a 128Mb chip. I suspect the system only reads the existing BIOS size once during bootup, so this value stays the same even after I swap to the defective chip.

Basically, I need to forcefully bypass this check. Any solution?

 

[The Paladin]

still sounds like your bios chip (physical chip) need to be changed. then flash it

 

[alexoiu]

Ok, having better luck now. But still stuck at the file size check.

I suspect: H81M-ITX uses a 32Mb BIOS chip while H110M-ITX/D3 uses a 128Mb chip. I suspect the system only reads the existing BIOS size once during bootup, so this value stays the same even after I swap to the defective chip.

Basically, I need to forcefully bypass this check. Any solution?

Are you trying to flash the D3 BIOS, or the H81M-ITX? If H81M-ITX, then I guess that it would not work from Windows.
Ordering a BIOS chip from ebay, flashed with the correct BIOS version seems to be the best option, I think.