How to flash older bios? (ASUS p8z68-v LX)

fo0k

Member
Jan 12, 2002
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Before I begin, let me just warn everyone not to upgrade past 0703. If you need 22nm support, buy a new motherboard. Any bios post 0703 induces overclock instability, wonky voltage control (as if it could get any worse with these lame offsets), no more speedstep, and 6950->6970 reflash incompatibility.

My 4.5ghz @ 1.32v 2600k is now barely stable at 3.8 @1.35v had to bump the voltage to 1.4v to get it prime95 stable. My 6950 gets 2d and 3d anomalies at stock settings with just the shaders unlocked when i used to be able to run 1000/1350 with 6970 bios (just for the upped voltage).

Those of you familiar with ASUS probably already know they don't make downgrading easy on some boards. I've been searching for a solution for a couple weeks now and haven't come up with anything.

AFUDOS says something along the lines of my bios being incompatible
AFUDOS ES doesn't work with my motherboard either (confirmed by ASUS as well as third parties and my own experience)
EZFLASH would be the best solution, but of course that won't work allow me because i'm trying to flash an "outdated bios"

Apart from buying an external flasher or purchasing a chip on ebay, anyone have any ideas? Why isn't there any software to just force a write to the bios chip even if it detects incompatibility?

Thanks
 

bankster55

Golden Member
Mar 24, 2010
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Everything went to hell with the Ivy Bridge update bios series on the Z68 P67 mobo lines, also known as the 3XXX series.
The manuf's made a major mistake by adding IB support to SB mobo. This entails running ucode for two dif CPU AT THE SAME TIME!

Also IB needs ME vers 8 and SB oly needs ME vers 7.0
Even worse, the nicely settled IB rollout which had most issues resolved now will never be updated anymore WITHOUT IB included!
They should have left the SB mobo alone and made the Z77 IB only. That way each could be updated on its own without concern for the other.

Even better they could have made parallel bios updates - one for those running SB only and one for guys with IB CPU.

So, first came the Z68 IB bios updates with a three operation bios flash
First operation took 55 seconds, including frantic reboots
Second operation took 55 seconds also with reboot
Last operation took around 45 seconds with reboot
Total time ~ 3 minutes
Stop it anywhere along the way and you have an incomplete bios image. The mad rebooting takes place to "drop" the orom changes and UEFI (RST) features updating. The one that gets borked usually is the ME firmware update - this is the big one.

ASUS apparently having noticed the massive grief associated with the Z68 bios scripted multiflash routine decided to do it a bit different for the P67 IB upgrade 3XXX. Now it became a two step proceedure THAT YOU THE ENDUSER initiate to run the bios flash TWICE - the second time after the first shows successful and it stops on the F1 to enter setup message. Once again one must never interrupt the proceedure once started. With the P67Del I have seen posts where peeps have had to wait >5 MINUTES for the second flash to complete (the ME). Stop it prematurely and you are dead meat.

I have been experimenting for more tha 3 months now (bios came out Feb 26) with all this bios up and downflashing. I have bought my own eeprom programmer (SOFA-8) and bought 180 blank chips on alibaba. I have also bought chips from ASUS E-Store and most of the ebay stores in various countries.

Well THEIR bios disaster cost me so many hours of experimentation I dont want to think about it. ASUS forced me to do all this just to have all my PC running as they should before the IB bios upgrades, through NO fault of my own. I had absolutely no interest in bios methodology. Updating a bios should be a no brainer.

And to OP: is money so dear to you that $15 plus $7 shipping for a new chip is out of the question to get your PC running again?
 
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fo0k

Member
Jan 12, 2002
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And to OP: is money so dear to you that $15 plus $7 shipping for a new chip is out of the question to get your PC running again?


It's just the principal of buying it twice because of ASUS' incompetence. I failed the mention that i bought a bios chip with the latest 0309 bios because when i updated mine, i couldn't POST anymore. I assumed it was a bad flash. Turns out it was just incompatibility with a 6970 video card.

Besides, I'd like the satisfaction of being able to fix this myself without dumping money into it, since it really is just a software issue.
 

Ultimo_Posto

Junior Member
Mar 11, 2013
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Hello! I have a quick question about my P8Z68-VLX. If my board won't POST after a BIOS update, is it okay to swap in a BIOS from another P8Z68-VLX? I have a replacement board coming, but I was hoping a chip swap would save me from doing a complete board swap. This is for my work file server so any help is appreciated! Thanks.
 

Harvey

Administrator<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Hello! I have a quick question about my P8Z68-VLX. If my board won't POST after a BIOS update, is it okay to swap in a BIOS from another P8Z68-VLX? I have a replacement board coming, but I was hoping a chip swap would save me from doing a complete board swap. This is for my work file server so any help is appreciated! Thanks.

It should work... as long as it's socketed, and you don't have to unsolder it. No guarantee until you try it.

Good luck. :)
 

Ultimo_Posto

Junior Member
Mar 11, 2013
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It is the socket type. Six little pins. Something from the birth of semiconducters, I think :) I think my real question is: ruling out electrostatic death, can it fry the board, or can the board fry the chip?
 

Harvey

Administrator<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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It is the socket type. Six little pins. Something from the birth of semiconducters, I think :) I think my real question is: ruling out electrostatic death, can it fry the board, or can the board fry the chip?

Assuming both the BIOS chip and the board are working correctly, no, neither will harm the other. The board is already non-functional so, except for the cost of a replacement BIOS, there's nothing to lose by trying.

To be sure, you can try to contact Asus' tech support and ask them. If your board is still under warranty, and it was damaged using their BIOS flashing software, they may repair it at no charge. If it's out of warranty, they still may do it for a reasonable fee (less than replacement).
 

Ultimo_Posto

Junior Member
Mar 11, 2013
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I am back up and running, but it turns out it wasn't a corrupt BIOS or the motherboard. It seems that the new BIOS file broke compatibility with my 8400GS PCI graphics card. I removed the card and everything booted up. D:
 

Harvey

Administrator<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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I am back up and running, but it turns out it wasn't a corrupt BIOS or the motherboard. It seems that the new BIOS file broke compatibility with my 8400GS PCI graphics card. I removed the card and everything booted up. D:

The new BIOS may not be incompatible with your p8z68-v LX. The board has onboard video, and the new BIOS may default to it so it may do the same thing with any plug in vid card.

To check/fix tlhis, go into the BIOS setup and turn off the onboard video or set it so it defaults to the PCIe video card. Then, plug in your vid card, and see if it works.
 

Ultimo_Posto

Junior Member
Mar 11, 2013
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So turning off the discrete graphics would stop the system from POSTing if an external graphics card was installed? Btw, I had 2 monitors plugged in to the integrated graphics output at all times.
 

Harvey

Administrator<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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So turning off the discrete graphics would stop the system from POSTing if an external graphics card was installed? Btw, I had 2 monitors plugged in to the integrated graphics output at all times.

I've seen some boards with onboard video that, after adding a discrete graphic card, won't boot when you remove it because, on installation, the default was set to the PCI/PCI-e card, either manually or automatically, rather than the onboard video.

In other words, it hung looking for a vid card that wasn't there.
 

elive

Junior Member
Aug 3, 2013
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Today i decided to update my BIOS (god why i did it..) and after that i noticed that i cannot overclock my CPU (i5 2500k). Windows crashes every time.

My bios used to be 0703 but now i cannot downgrade it. Having the same issue as the OP.
 

Harvey

Administrator<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Today i decided to update my BIOS (god why i did it..) and after that i noticed that i cannot overclock my CPU (i5 2500k). Windows crashes every time.

My bios used to be 0703 but now i cannot downgrade it. Having the same issue as the OP.

The flash program should have given you the option to save the old BIOS version, but either it didn't, or you missed it when it came on the screen. :(

Here's the Asus download page for your motherboard. Download your preferred version, and flash it back to the version that allowed you to OC your CPU.

Good luck. :)
 

elive

Junior Member
Aug 3, 2013
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The flash program should have given you the option to save the old BIOS version, but either it didn't, or you missed it when it came on the screen. :(

Here's the Asus download page for your motherboard. Download your preferred version, and flash it back to the version that allowed you to OC your CPU.

Good luck. :)

Sadly i missed it. Right now im using the Version 3703 and its not allowing me to downgrade it back to 0703.
 

Harvey

Administrator<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Sadly i missed it. Right now im using the Version 3703 and its not allowing me to downgrade it back to 0703.

On the same page, under BIOS-Utilities, download the BIOS Updater Utility V1.30 for flash BIOS under DOS. It should include instructions on how to flash your version from a bootable floppy or flash drive that has been set up to boot from DOS.

I have to go out, right now, but I'll check back to see if you need help with creating a bootable floppy or flash drive (if someone else hasn't already helped you). :)
 

elive

Junior Member
Aug 3, 2013
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On the same page, under BIOS-Utilities, download the BIOS Updater Utility V1.30 for flash BIOS under DOS. It should include instructions on how to flash your version from a bootable floppy or flash drive that has been set up to boot from DOS.

I have to go out, right now, but I'll check back to see if you need help with creating a bootable floppy or flash drive (if someone else hasn't already helped you). :)

Noone else help me and i've never done anything like this :)
 

bankster55

Golden Member
Mar 24, 2010
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you can buy a new chip from ASUS E-Store and specify on the order what vers bios you want flashed to, otherwise they send latest.
http://us.estore.asus.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=3885
Remember any chip change needs a PSU unplugged CMOS reset before first boot, and should be changed with PSU unplugged also.
Remember to reset same SATA mode in bios before boot (IDE AHCI RAID)
Remeber chip only goes in one way.
Best to rollback Intel MEI to vers 7 before bios change

The CodeRush FTK tool will get you back, but I wouldnt fool around with it until you have a spare chip as a backup on hand since you are a bit new at this.
 

Harvey

Administrator<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
35,052
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bankster - I don't think he needs a new BIOS chip, but it could be an option if he can't flash his current chip back to his preferred rev.

If your machine has a floppy disk, you can download a file that will install your choice of versions of DOS from bootdisk.com. There is another link on the same page to download a Driver Free Disk For BIOS Flashing. It may be exactly what you need. Read the "About" link for this file for more information.

That "About" file also reminded me that you could do the same thing by creating a bootable CD with the required BIOS file and installation program.

If you want to create a bootable USB flash drive, download this file, HPUSBBOOTTOOL.zip. The zipped file contains an old HP utility for the purpose and the DOS boot files you'll need. Just add the DOS BIOS flashing utility and the BIOS file.

With any of these methods, boot to DOS, and run the flash utility from the command line.

If you don't feel confident about how to do this, ask a friend or a local technical service person. Just show them this post. It contains everything you need to create a bootable floppy, flash drive or CD. :cool:
 

bankster55

Golden Member
Mar 24, 2010
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The Z68 firmware downflashing has no way regress the now upgraded ME 8 bios partition back to V 7

Thats why ASUS created the flashback module for Z77 (and up) chipsets with the 192Kb "header added" .CAP bios which is stripped off during the backflash. Thats what makes the downflash possible.The module is basically an offline programmer. You just run it with power off, and even if bios wont boot machine, it will still reprogram the chip - assuming you have prepared the USB stick correctly and set right USB boot parameters in bios.

And fwiw only with latest software would my own programmer flash Z77 Z87 bios correctly.

Bupdater 1.3 is a freedos app that programs but does not full erase. There is however a known working two step process using AFUDOS (to wipe) AND bupdater to program which eliminates the ME issue: Bupdater then starts from "fresh" blank chip.. This will work for P67 and Z68, but not Z77 Z87 (which do not need it anyway)
Latest AFUWinGUI and AFUDos are 5-2-2013 which may actually work all by themselves now on Z68 P67, since they have program all blocks option and separate ME option, which initiates a wipe. The essential trick is to get rid of bios current ME programming.
http://www.ami.com/Support/amibiossupport/

The bupdater cmd line is /pc /g (program-reset cmos /graphical interface)
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But all this requires lots of knowledge. So, once again, just buy a new chip from ASUS, there are too many ways for you to get in trouble here. Or buy your own programmer on ebay - they are about $40-$50. Just search for SP8-B Universal USB
Example:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/6000-chips-...092?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item232a0bfcfc

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Edit:
Found the tut on the two step flash - but again, this is for experienced users, not those new to this stuff.

I know that many people have some issues after update this BIOS (3203) form ASUS. I recently updated my motherboard BIOS to the latest version 3203. However, after the update, my system is unable to enter the OS and restart again then again stop at q code AE. In this situation i am decide to resolve this issue first myself and if i failed i will send my mobo back to the dealer for warranty claim. after hardworking of 3 days i got the solution.
The solution is AFUDOS. This is AMIFLASH DOS environment application from American Megatrends inc. you can download this file from http://www.ami.com/Support/amibiossupport/ and u need bupdater (1.3) from asus too. you can download this from asus web.

Procedure:
First make a bootable (cmd.com, MSDOS.sys, I/O.sys) USB 32 Flash Drive (USB 2 legacy enabled in bios, USB 3.0 disabled) and extract AFUDOS and bupdater in the Flash Drive root.
2nd: copy ur BIOS ROM in the Flash Drive root and restart ur pc. boot from USB Flash Drive and type this command ( AFUDOS /ixxxx.ROM /pbnc /n ) and enter
If you have BIOS 3203 and you want downgrade your BIOS 0902 or 0706 so AFUDOS will warn u like that. (This rom did not match with your current rom if u force to flash you may be destroy your BIOS) so dont worry about this u simply press F and enter
After the successfull process do NOT restart your computer.
Now type this command ( bupdater /pc /g ) and enter. This command opens bupdater utility now
Select the the same BIOS rom that you select in AFUDOS process and enter it will flash your bios now restart your system and be happy with your sweet old bios.
Might also mention Linux System Rescue CD can do the backflash for P67 Z68 bios using the embedded flashrom app cmds
http://www.sysresccd.org/
And its easy to make bootable SRC USB with LiLi using SRC ISO as source
Q7Yhslb.jpg

http://www.linuxliveusb.com/


And lastly theres the always reliable CodeRush\Intel Flash Tool Kit
method http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1726429
 
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Harvey

Administrator<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
35,052
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86
bankster - Good info. Thanks. Based on his previous post, I don't know if our new friend, elive, will be able to follow all of it, but it's a good, clear roadmap for a more experienced friend or local tech. :cool: :thumbsup:
 

elive

Junior Member
Aug 3, 2013
4
0
0
well thanks for the help and support. So far i ended up staying with the latest bios and OCed my CPU manually :)