Question Zapped BIOS - I thought

[Sarscarix041]

Hi All
-- ASUS F555LA laptop (i5; W8 originally; 1TB HDD; "2014.09.20" on inside of case) --
My friend was finally persuaded by ASUS Live to do an update. I take it that it was a BIOS update.
It came up with text on a blue screen, saying that it was erasing her flash drive, so she turned it off by holding down the power button (thinking it was a virus).
She rang me. The machine would not turn on - absolutely dead. She brought the machine round.
I tried using a USB stick to install a copy of the BIOS from ASUS, using the USB recovery system; I finally realised that this (older) machine does not have that facility [duh!].
I have a BIOS writer [cue Superman theme] - CH341A. I have (successfully) written X555LAAS.311 and .307 and .305 (from the ASUS site). Still completely dead. Even the fan does not turn on. (I also tried X555LABAS.602, from the Ix-5555U list.)
I think I accidentally established that power goes to the BIOS chip, by (accidentally) trying to read from it while the power was plugged in.
The BIOS chip says "winbond | 25Q64FVSIQ | 1431".
Any help would be appreciated, but I have two main questions, please.

• Would a corrupt BIOS result in not even the fan turning on?
• Is there any reason to think that the power might be faulty, and is there any way of checking this? (I have tried >holding down the power button for 20 seconds and then >plugging in the battery and power separately.)

*Actually, if anyone can tell me whether I should use (on ASUS's page) Ix-4xxxxU or Ix-5xxxxU, that would be wonderful also; I am guessing 4 because 5 does not have a BIOS that old.
Any help very much appreciated. (I fully expected the machine to work properly when I turned it on after writing the BIOS.)
Also, is there some stupid thing I might have missed, when reassembling the machine?
Thank you in advance.
p.s. Should the power adaptor box get warm when * switched on (and)or * plugged into the machine? (It does not.)
p.p.s. Of course, I can not use Windows 10 to fool around with the BIOS.

 

[Lutfij]

Would a corrupt BIOS result in not even the fan turning on?

I think the board itself is bricked if the fan doesn't operate in spite of being powered up.

*Actually, if anyone can tell me whether I should use (on ASUS's page) Ix-4xxxxU or Ix-5xxxxU, that would be wonderful also;

You should look at the underside of your laptop to take note of your laptop's SKU(apart from the model number), that should indicate which version you choose from the drop down menu(according to the specs of your laptop) and the relevant BIOS and driver files.

 

[Sarscarix041]

I wanted to thank you, Lutfij, for your quick response. My friend ended up having the board checked by ASUS, and it was faulty. [My apologies for myself taking so long to post this; initially I was waiting to find out the outcome, and it ended up in the get-around-to-it category.]

I did end up with another question, though (which I am asking here, now) as follows. I have asked a few people, and the consensus seems to be what I originally thought -- turning the machine off is simply not apt to fry the motherboard. Is that right, please? (My conclusion (informed by one person saying this expressly) was that the machine was about to die, and this was "triggered" by the event.)

p.s. I researched BIOS updates online, and found a comment --< https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1428091 >-- that the CPU does not have non-volatile memory -- that it uses RAM for that [i.e. microcode updates]. That is... a BIOS update that includes CPU microcode (e.g. for vs Spectre and Meltdown) does not immediately involve the CPU.