Hello! The laptop: Model: Asus X5MS MB Ver.: N53SV ID: 1A X5MSV-SX866D asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/N53SV/ Basically I'll try to explain the story from beginning. I got this laptop from my brother, since he wanted a new one, but the battery was broken or was it acpi issue? It was showing 0%, charging all the time, so I decided to upgrade BIOS. The old bios it had was 214 and new one is 215. I tried to flash the bios with EasyFlash and WinFlash, but both said it needed battery with at least 20% charge, so oh well that failed. Also I tried AFUDOS, but when I typed afudos /oold.bin it just didn't do anything - as in the cursor was blinking, but it didn't return back to the console input and just nothing was happening, also same thing with afudos /i Anyways yeah, but then I decided to flash with the AFLASH2 (DOS) 3.12 from Asus, but unfortunately that one didn't work either since it was showing "...upgrade from service" or something like that text when I ran it. So I tried older aflash2 (v3.04 to be specific) and it semeed to be working fine, it was showing what bios I had and etc. and then I chose to flash the new bios. When I selected that option it was a bit weird that it wasn't showing anymore the old bios version, but instead was showing some random ascii characters, but I thought since it was showing it all properly when you first run it then I thought it was just a glitch so I just input the 215 bios file name and proceeded with the flash. After flashing completed I restarted laptop and all lights turned on, fan started spinning, but no other sounds and nothing was showing up on the screen and the lights just stayed lit up like that (no flashing lights or anything, just frozen lit up lights). I then tried to determine what type of bios I have by reading the 215 bios file with ami tool, award tool and phoenix tool from these forums. Ami and award tools reported that the file wasn't ami or award bios. Phoenix tool reports that it is EFI / Insyde and that the recovery file name is N53SV.bin, so I tried the Insyde recovery method, but the usb flash drive (2gb, takems, FAT 16, not bootable, but also tried bootable) just lit up when I turn the laptop on and then the light is gone and no more activity there. Tried I think all the possible key combinations, but no change either. Maybe I am doing something wrong or can someone please check if the bios for N53SV is really recoverable by Insyde recovery method? Or should i go to someone to re-program the chip for me (since I don't have chip programmer)? Or should I buy new bios chip from ebay and replace it with existing? (i found one here www .ebay.com/itm/BIOS-CHIP-ASUS-N53SV-N53DA-N53SN-/260876657637) I would be really thankful for any help. Just want to get the laptop back in working condition. Motherboard photo: img11.imageshack.us/img11/2263/k1xk.jpg
sounds like a bad ram stick due to ASCII characters. CTRL Home for asus recovery if u do get a spi programmer.. DO NOT ERASE CHIP untill u made a backup.bin (youll loose serial numbers if u dont)
I made backup (twice) with aflash2, but it said verification error both times, but still I have the files. Tried left ctrl and right ctrl + home, but nothing changes. If I hold the power button down then it powers off and then turns back on on its own and then after 5 seconds turns off/restarts and the process just repeats itself. I had it laying around for the night without cmos battery and now whenever I plug the AC cord it automatically turns on, but before I had to press the power button.
It's the same as what I described and what LatinMcG is talking about (Insyde undocumented recovery method).
o.o AMI Tool says its not ami bios img90.imageshack.us/img90/6246/3z28.png award says its not award img560.imageshack.us/img560/2848/50g9.png phoenix tool says its EFI/Insyde img545.imageshack.us/img545/7452/5gdd.png
I wasn't able to find the "agesa" string, but i found img809.imageshack.us/img809/704/aii3.png Formatted the flash drive to FAT32, copied the N53SVAS.215 file 3 times and renamed it to ASUS.BIN, ASUS.DAT, AMIBOOT.ROM. Then while holding FN+B plugged in AC and nothing. Unplugged AC and then held CTRL+DELETE(it has insert on it too) and plugged in AC and nothing. Unplugged AC and then held CTRL+NUM0(it has insert) and plugged in AC and nothing. As I said my computer turns on as soon as i plug in the AC and I'm not sure what the guy meant with "ctrl+ins , FN + B while in off state" exactly. Did he mean the laptop has to be connected to AC and powered off and then I should press ctrl+ins and then release the keys and then press fn+b and release?
1.) Plug in in the FAT32 USB Stick 2.) make sure your battery and the powercord is unplugged 3.) hold FN (=Function Key/left from Windows Key) plus B Key at once 4.) (still hold and) plugin in the AC powercord. Keep holding one of those key-combos until the Laptop starts to read from USB. It's important to hold the key-combo from powered-off state until powered-on state with only AC-power connected to force the recovery mode starting. Just imagine the FN+B combo is triggering ACPI functions like vol up/vol down, touchpad on/touchpad off but in this case it should trigger the recovery mode. You should see the activity leds on your stick blink while the ROM is read.
Tried CTRL+HOME, but same - no reaction. Also I would understand it would be the file problem if the usb was actually flashing, but it's not flashing other than just the current going into it when the laptop boots up and that's all. I disassembled the laptop before and I didn't plug back the hdd or dvd-rom so that's already tested. Didn't find any black buttons under memory door (you meant where ram is located right?). But also as I said previously the cmos battery was out for night so cmos was reset. As I said also I made two backups with aflash2 before I flashed (aflash showed verification error for both) and they are not identical when I checked with hex editor. You can download them here if you want to check: mega.co.nz/#!SMkigaiC!WX5H-D1R73XoYjENjsRh40F1z1JAzJ2G2k9svMFL7yw So I guess the only solution would be to re-program it with SPI programmer? Is there something specific I should look for in the spi programmer or any spi programmer will do? Or should I choose the EZP2010 better? Perhaps I could just order bios chip from here (what you think?): www . ebay.com/itm/BIOS-CHIP-ASUS-N53SV-N53DA-N53SN-/260876657637 and replace it with the existing. P.S. I took photo of the motherboard, can you tell me if the chip I specified is the bios chip? - img11.imageshack.us/img11/2263/k1xk.jpg (this place says its above the ram slots - members.home.nl/mr-lee/Asus%20N53SN%20N53SV.jpg)
Actually I tried before all the possible names and file extensions (.fd, .rom) and I doubt it's reading from USB, because I tried 3 other USB flash drives (all 3 kingston with different capacities) and neither of them were showing any signs of life. This red one is just blinking cause current got into it I believe, not because it was being read and I guess it was cheaply made opposed to kingston which would only blink when something was reading it for real. P.S. the aflash2 version was 3.04, but asus provides only 3.12 for N53SV model - i found the older one on other asus page, so I guess the older one wasn't meant for this perhaps and that's why it read differently? - did you check the 2 files by the way? Also the laptop has 2 different ram (one stock and one bought - 4gb + 8gb) and they seemed to be working fine (i tried to do the recovery with both separately too), since I formatted the hdd and reinstalled windows 7 on it and only then flashed the bios. The name matches motherboard not laptop model I believe. Oh and about USB ports - as I said before I disassembled the laptop and I also removed the attached other 2 usb ports, so there are 2 integrated usb ports on the left side and those 2 were the ones I tried.
Received my bios chip from ebay (biosdepot) and then took my laptop to professional who then soldered it and my laptop now works perfectly. Thank you all for your help!
i would make a backup of the chip with SPI progrmmer and flash old chip.. so if it happens again u can swap bios chip or reprogram new again.
Great thread! Hi I know this thread was a year or so ago but it was really interesting. I have the same issue and wondered what the alternative is to buying a bios chip. Can I actually program the chip myself? Did I read that correctly? Thanks