Thanks so much, I'll take a look... also what's the "2 point" cmos reset... I haven't read about that in my searching for a fix. edit... removed Wifi card, don't see anything there... just small resistors/caps/etc.
Sometimes if the unit has a true BIOS rom then there is 2 small silver points when touched with a wire or a small srewdriver to make continuity between both points. That resets cmos to default. It is the same as taking out the battery. Some lappys have that feature and it is usually located at same access where wireless card is. you maybe able to see even with the wireless card still in place. If you have old eyes like me get out the magnifying glass to see when you bridge the two silver points.
I've already removed the BIOS battery which hasn't helped a thing. Keep in mind that the BIOS was fully flashed with the BIOS for another model laptop/motherboard. The only small hope I have is the BIOS recovery methods, but if those will only work if they're based on some "backup chip" or "recovery chip" on the motherboard vs a "recovery partition" if you will on the correct BIOS.... unless that "partition" remains untouched during a flash and it can still be accessed by basic I/O commands on power up??
I'll try to post a pic a bit later, but I'm not seeing anything that I'd consider a JTAG being exposed at this point. If it does have one it appears it will be under the case some where and I'll need to remove it to find it.
You're the second person to say that... It says... "K181 G966-25" I'm still trying to confirm... why do you say that one and not the one just above the battery holder just to the right of the black "100"?? Well... so far I've only been able to find one place online that lists "Phoenix tech" as a distributor of a G966-25 chip, but that's very little to go on if I'm going to try and re-write a chip. If we're wrong that's the BIOS chip then I'll be messing up an unknown chip and making things much worse.
ha the crisis disk creator did create a crisis with your disk! have u tried the last posts links ? recovery method
Yes it did, lol. I haven't been able to try yet since the laptop is currently in about 150 parts on my counter so I could access the BIOS chip... now that I know which chip it is... I guess I can put it back together since the chip is of course available just by removing a door on the case... figures.
laptop back together, but none of the recovery methods worked... oh well. Now I just have to figure out if I can reprogram the BIOS chip with my programmer or if I need to order a new chip from somewhere.
Hi, Thanks for the reply. I just got my hands on a 512mb flash drive, and started the recovery process using it and it does not work, there flash drive is never accessed (the LED on the flash drive is never turned on), so I think the damage is beyond repair (tried phlash16 v1.7.0.18 and v1.7.0.21). I finally decided to open up the laptop so at least I can see the bios, I confirmed it was a DIP8 WINBOND chip. Given the solutions available, the cheapest would be to buy a bios/eeprom programmer. I used a hex editor to convert the 5.2mb WPH bios file to a 512kb BIN file (required for the programmer). I will be buying the Willem programmer. Would it be possible to do the procedure without desoldering ?
I have a GQ-4X... Not the greatest, but my only chance.... I've also got TopWin2048, but I've found the GQ to be much better over the years.
I also use the GQ-4X. I certainly rate this programmer from others that i have used. MCUmall do sell various clips for on board programming. Unfortuntly i have have had mixed experinces with this method. Usually the other components on the motherboard will effect the programming of the on board chip. Best results are always to de-solder the chip and then program and re-solder. Then again on the last motherboard i did the clip programmed the chip without any errors and without removing the chip.