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Bricked board from failed bios flash

n0x1ous

n0x1ous

Platinum Member
So I was about to start overclocking my 6700k in my asrock fatal1ty z170 itx/AC board the other day. I thought sure lets go ahead and grab the latest bios first. Well it failed and now it won't post. It sounds like the bios chips are replaceable?

Asrock support is painfully slow. Waiting days between email responses. Does anyone have any experience with trusted eBay or other vendors to get bios replacement chips?
 
n0x1ous said:
So I was about to start overclocking my 6700k in my asrock fatal1ty z170 itx/AC board the other day. I thought sure lets go ahead and grab the latest bios first. Well it failed and now it won't post. It sounds like the bios chips are replaceable?

Asrock support is painfully slow. Waiting days between email responses. Does anyone have any experience with trusted eBay or other vendors to get bios replacement chips?
Click to expand...
no, but I have heard good things about Badflash.com

But I am sure any reputable seller on Ebay would be good too. Just make sure it is already flashed to a functional BIOS of your choice.

I have only had one bad flash and that bricked an old socket 7 board. I didn't care about the board and was just experimenting.
 
n0x1ous said:
So I was about to start overclocking my 6700k in my asrock fatal1ty z170 itx/AC board the other day. I thought sure lets go ahead and grab the latest bios first. Well it failed and now it won't post. It sounds like the bios chips are replaceable?

Asrock support is painfully slow. Waiting days between email responses. Does anyone have any experience with trusted eBay or other vendors to get bios replacement chips?
Click to expand...

Any idea what happened? My computers are always connected to a UPS to avoid power interruption. Is this just a shit happens thing?
 
bigboxes said:
Any idea what happened? My computers are always connected to a UPS to avoid power interruption. Is this just a shit happens thing?
Click to expand...

Yeah I think so. No power loss. Started the flash and it froze up and screen went black. I waited about an hour then tried restarting, clearing cmos etc etc. no luck
 
n0x1ous said:
Yeah I think so. No power loss. Started the flash and it froze up and screen went black. I waited about an hour then tried restarting, clearing cmos etc etc. no luck
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that. I usually don't update my bios unless there is a need to. Never just a do it cuz it's available. I remember doing it back when I would put them on floppies and had to enter some DOS command and then pray everything would turn out alright. Have flashed the bios from flash drives and even from the internet. Just not a task I'm comfortable with for no reason.
 
bigboxes said:
Sorry to hear that. I usually don't update my bios unless there is a need to. Never just a do it cuz it's available. I remember doing it back when I would put them on floppies and had to enter some DOS command and then pray everything would turn out alright. Have flashed the bios from flash drives and even from the internet. Just not a task I'm comfortable with for no reason.
Click to expand...

Exactly. "Don't fix won't don't need fixed".

That said, to this day I will still only flash my BIOS/UEFI within itself from a flash drive. No updates using utilities within Windows or from the internet. I've never personally had a bad experience with those types of updates, but I've seen enough "uh oh" posts over the years to just keep doing it the 'old school' way.
 
YMMV, but I've seen users report that their motherboards have been able to recover themselves by having the USB stick with the BIOS file inserted for a while when starting the PC, even though the motherboards haven't had any official BIOS recovery.
 
Could always try hotflashing. Done it a ton of times in years past.
That I was too lazy / cheap to get / build an EEPROM programmer 😛
 
WhoBeDaPlaya said:
Could always try hotflashing. Done it a ton of times in years past.
That I was too lazy / cheap to get / build an EEPROM programmer 😛
Click to expand...

If I had a spare bios chip sitting around or a spare board I would give that a go. Still waiting to hear back from Asrock from 3 days ago......I ordered a chip for it for $15 from what appears to be a reputable dealer on ebay "biosdepot"
 
n0x1ous said:
If I had a spare bios chip sitting around or a spare board I would give that a go. Still waiting to hear back from Asrock from 3 days ago......I ordered a chip for it for $15 from what appears to be a reputable dealer on ebay "biosdepot"
Click to expand...
Best of luck! Also, fair enough, since I typically tend to build rigs in identical pairs back then
(mine + my brother's)
 
I've been through this misery at least once or twice.

There used to be an outfit called BIOSMan.com, and there should be other sources. For ASUS boards, ASUS offers BIOS PLCC chip replacement for a custom-chosen BIOS version, and the last time I bought one, it was about $20. The other outfits have an arrangement similar to auto-parts stores for car-batteries: the give you a price if you send in your old PLCC chip.

Check the mobo documentation to see if you can identify location of the BIOS chip. If it isn't soldered to the board, you can replace it easily. You just need to purchase a custom-flashed replacement.

I suppose if AsRock was an ASUS spin-off, they might offer the same accessory options. You'll have to find out.
 
Try this method posted in this thread.
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1709981/asrock-z77-bricked-bios-update.html

1. Unplug the PC from the wall
2. Hold down the power button for 10 seconds
3. Remove the CMOS battery for 10 minutes
4. Put it back in
5. Insert the USB with the EXTRACTED bios into a fat32 USB. WITH NO FOLDER JUST THE FILE
6. Then pressed the clear CMOS button on the back of the motherboard
7. After that it started installing, then it restarted several times.
Click to expand...
 
SKORPI0 said:
Try this method posted in this thread.
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1709981/asrock-z77-bricked-bios-update.html
Click to expand...

Gave this a shot but no luck . It did reboot itself once but then nothing else happened for an hour.

Would be fine getting a new chip from asrock. Wish it could just be ordered but their support is terrible. Takes multiple days to get the first response then they ask me for my invoice and I've been waiting to hear back for 3 days after sending that. This is so painful
 
I have been using badflash.com for 20 years and the last chip a n7 I picked up was on 9/11 as the plane hit the tower.
Try looking up how to do a blind flash.
 
Last edited:
john3850 said:
I have been using badflash.com for 20 years and the last chip a n7 I picked up was on 9/11 just plane hit the tower.
Try looking up how to do a blind flash.
Click to expand...

So I need the DOS version instead of instant flash version to try this?
 
For future reference: always return the bios settings to stock settings & then re-boot, before attempting the bios firmware flash procedure.
There are brands such as Gigabyte or Asus that provide a method of repairing a bad flash.
Many Asus boards include a special USB port designed to be able to auto-flash the bios firmware, without even a CPU present. Gigabyte boards include a dual bios, so that if a primary bios failure occurs, the secondary bios can still boot the machine.
 
VirtualLarry said:
I like updating my BIOS whenever there's a newer version out.
Click to expand...

I've been doing the same thing for years. Only bad flash I ever had was on an eVGA Z68 board that I was trying to get IB support on. Other than that, I've flashed via Floppy, USB, and in Windows without issue. Only thing I never did was the internet bios update.
 
kirbyrj said:
I've been doing the same thing for years. Only bad flash I ever had was on an eVGA Z68 board that I was trying to get IB support on. Other than that, I've flashed via Floppy, USB, and in Windows without issue. Only thing I never did was the internet bios update.
Click to expand...

Bought a new chip from biosdepot on eBay and all is well now
 
kirbyrj said:
Have you tried getting the bad bios chip out of your board yet? Are you going to need an IC puller?
Click to expand...
As much as I recall, the BIOS flasher-sellers usually provide a pair of plastic chip-puller forceps.

But it would be fairly easy though tedious to lever the chip out of its socket with plastic tool resembling a screwdriver. Or any tool like that, making it more tedious to avoid any damage to the board. I'd think . . .
 
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