No luck with the programming tools, they're the same ones that Asrock has on their website.
I did make the alterations to NODEID in the config files and/or tried entering manually.
The MAC address did change but on reboot it reverts back again. ASUS must've done something different to ASROCK / MSI / etc.
EEupdate didn't recognise it - must be Intel only.

I'll see if a neighbour who owns a soldering iron can work some magic with the old chip.
It only has to last long enough to get a single read off it.
It's missing a leg or two; could possibly solder some bits of wire on there or something.
Intricate work though.

I should've been a bit more careful with the original chip.
I never realised that the board makers stick the MAC address in there with the BIOS.
Seems like a really stupid place to put it - should be a dedicated chip.
I thought I'd just drop a cheap replacement chip in and have no problem...

Do they still do put the MAC in there now even with new UEFI boards?
I've also noticed that few modern boards have BIOS flashback features. Only high end Crosshair boards from ASUS and Gigabyte with their dual bios. Standard feature on Supermicro boards. Used to be on most of the ASUS boards not too long ago.

Worst case scenario - I buy a cheap PCI card off ebay i.e. Realtek 8111E (£3) or use Linux.
All the new boards have Intel Ethernet built in - no point in buying an expensive card.

I was looking at all the chips I ordered today from a seller in China with the CH341A programmer.
> 2 are the correct chip (MX25L8005, 1024 KB)
> 2 are the wrong chip but branded as the above - I can't see the difference (MX25L3205, 4096KB + MX25L4005, 512KB)
> 1 chip was dead!

2 of 5. Still can't really complain for £2 including P&P though! Did take about 3 weeks to arrive though =P

Damn, you killed it! Yes, someone that can solder could solder in some thin wires to each failed leg and then a thin metal clip or tin the other end of the wire and put into programmer in correct position.
Missing leg doesn't matter, as long as there is good connection to each output leg area and no shorts between then, you'll get a good backup.

Yes, even now MAC is still stored in BIOS. All manufacturer tools like ez-flash, qflash, ect built into the BIOS or send with BIOS downloads from manufacturers all ignore or preserve the MAC when updating so this doesn't happen when using those type of BIOS update methods (usually)
Cheap LAN card will do it, but it would be nice if we could fix!

I have a M4A78LT-M/CM1730/DP board here, I'm going to dig it out and see if I can gather anything from it's BIOS tonight. Wish me luck!
Quick look at the BIOS Dump I have from it, before I find the board to get it's mac, I see same in PCI Option Rom 4 in this BIOS as all the others, so this can't be where it should be stored


* Edit - pulled out the board from storage, got the MAC from label and compared with dump I have above, instantly found 2 instances in raw hex of dump without having to extract anything.
So now I know where it should be, and around what stuff around it should look like.

I don't even see some stock "To be filled by OEM" in this BIOS you dumped, which I see in all BIOS. Maybe this is the problem, the dump is corrupted or not exact same as what's on the BIOS?
Did you verify it when saving? Can you now dump with another version of software, or had you tried them all already before finding one that works? If only one version works for your programmer, can you try a few other dump methods for me, and send those over.

Dump/backup with BIOS itself, or built in flasher in BIOS (EZ Flash), if you can. I don't remember if boards this old had backup option or flashing option in BIOS or not.

If not, can you do backup with AFU using this command - afuwin.exe backupBIOSname.bin /0
You may need to use older versions of AFU, like 2.xx or 3.xx - here's a few DOS versions - http://www.filedropper.com/afu
Wait, here is AFUDos from Asus page for your board, so this one should work no problem! - http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/utils/AFUDOS241.zip
There is also many AFUWin versions you could try too, google will get you some downloads if you end up having to try other versions.

Also, install this and save a backup too. As many different backups as you can generate using different methods would be good. I think the original dump you sent might be either partially messed up, or missing some stuff maybe?
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/ut...Updt_V71803.zip

Never mind, I found it, it's uncompressed in the other BIOS, but compressed in your backup BIOS, all sorted on that!
Well, that BIOS didn't help me much I need dump from this exact model, real dump from working board.

08:30 here. I'll pop round in a hour or two.
Hopefully we can get a useful read off the chip.
I'll connect it up to the programmer and do sudo flashrom - r backup.rom got an old Dell D630 that runs Linux for that purpose.

I don't think the contents will be all that useful for the most part - it bricked the board after all.
I tried to add the latest AMD CPU microcode updates using MC Extractor and MMTools.
The modded BIOS passed all the checks including the EZ Flash 2 safety check but still took out the board =\

I'll backup the contents of the broken chip as is.
I might even try writing the latest BIOS to it and taking a second backup with a different name.

Hopefully we can spot some references to the proper MAC address, as you have on your board.

When it comes to modding the BIOS on the working chip - AFUDOS should give a complete dump shouldn't it? Make the changes in a Hex Editor and flash normally through EZ Flash / AFUDOS?
I've flashed the working chip back to the initial BIOS version.

If DDR4 was a bit cheaper I might make the switch to something newer. The alternative is an old FX chip or Haswell chip (4790) and keeping my DDR3. Intel chips have all been hit by Meltdown though =X
Even old AMD chips like mine only got hit by Spectre.

Don't write to the broken chip!! Not until we're 100% sure backup is verified OK, really no reason to write to it at all, until maybe we're done and you want to play around.

So, you got it soldered into a useable state? I don't need a dump on the new working chip, it has nothing we need in it anymore, only the broken original BIOS chip.

Yes, method you mention about hex editing is correct. Some files will need extracted with MMTool and hex edited, or no extraction for some data, depending on where the info is located

How did you flash your modified BIOS that killed the board? And what was the source BIOS you edited, a dump, or a download from Asus etc?

I've not touched the broken chip yet.
I won't write anything too it until you give the green light.

For the BIOS that killed the board I edited the latest file from the ASUS site.
I took the microcode updates from here I believe: https://github.com/platomav/CPUMicrocodes/tree/master/AMD
I used a HEX editor to replace the appropriate sections.
The modded file passed all the checks with MC_Extractor_v1.20.0_r69 and the EZ FLASH checks.

I wouldn't want to flash that dump again.

Darn, I thought you got lucky and found someone to solder it, the way you was talking up there, confused me

How did you flash that into the board? If using EZ Flash the MAC and serial locations all that would be preserved still. Not sure if AFU would leave things in right places or not, but any Asus tool would.

I just flashed it straight through EZ Flash 2 via the BIOS menu.

So much for their safety checks =D

In retrospect I should've taken a copy of the working BIOS before I made any alterations.

I think there's a decent chance of repairing the broken chip. The neighbour is an electrician.

That's good, then all the board details should still be in tact! Probably wrong microcode used caused it to fail, or wrong way of editing. Send me your edited BIOS later when you get a chance, and I will update all the microcodes for that same BIOS myself too, then compare our files and see if I notice what the problem was.

Hopefully he can solder something up for you. I could do that, so anyone that can solder should be able to, once they're assured it doesn't need to be in full use or anything long term, just for a short dump is all that's needed.

Hallelujah!

We actually managed to jury rig some legs onto the chip.
I had to get the hacksaw out to expose more of the metal to solder onto.
The soldering iron tip was too large and leg #4 (GROUND) fell off again as I put it in the programmer...

...but I got a read on it.

I've uploaded them to my Google Drive - DEADCHIP.ROM (and duplicate file)

I can see my MAC address at the location in the picture.

Fingers crossed.

EDIT: I'll take a picture of the "repaired chip" for your amusement later =D

EDIT: Comparing against the v2105 dump with no working ethernet - it looks like the missing GbE references should be in sections:

> 000DC000 --> 000DC1B0
> 000F9790 --> 000F9930

I don't see any references to Serial Number or DTS Key.
It's possible I could've made of mess of the updated CPU microcode or maybe the board + Phenom 2 isn't compatible with those updates?
There is a toggle-able CPU microcode setting in the BIOS menus though =S

Awesome you guys got it!! I see from the image your correct Serial number is there too, I had wrong for this board and it uses part of the long white sticker instead of the other serial sticker on PCI slot - MT7099K04200511

I'll get a copy of the deadchip now and tonight hopefully will have a BIOS for you later! Toggle-able microcodes? You mean in some app like MMTool?

What is 2015 no Ethernet reference to? Do you mean the original dump you sent initially?

No there's an option in the BIOS for CPU microcode updates: https://drive.google.com/open?id=15Fb71_...HtjPWM3dJohG0Hi

Yes 2105 is the latest BIOS version for the board. That's the original dump I made but with non working ethernet.

I've flashed back to 0211 so we don't get any weird update issues: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PIiN62...f9A3qPp5zOTTnBn

Here's some pictures of the "repaired" chip:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vvi5L5...Uw4hgaCszNDwxm0
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NosUT-...CGU7isMn8dMaMZQ

I had to cut through the plastic in places for the solder to grip to something! I was amazed when it still worked =D

I've attached a picture of the microcode updates I modded into the deadchip.rom.
MCExtractor claims everything is OK.

EDIT:

Just before I go to sleep I did some hex editing.
I'm curious to see if I've gone wrong somewhere before, maybe some old code in the old chip broke something?
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1t8pw24...QxAWPalCJiR3BOk

I also want to see if your files match mine. I could be doing something wrong.
I've used HxD to copy - paste write, no other tools.

2105_FIXED_GBE.ROM - Latest BIOS with Ethernet Fix ONLY
I've taken the latest BIOS file straight from the ASUS website: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/sock...O-ASUS-2105.zip
And hex edited the appropriate sections

2105_FIXED_GBE_CPU.ROM - As above and with updated CPU Microcode
I've replaced the outdated microcode sections with the new sections. It passes a MC Extractor check.

I see, yes, maybe always leave that option enabled in the BIOS. That way when flashing it's enabled, in case disabled causes any issues.

Wow, that's one tore up BIOS chip!! I expected wires soldered on leading to pins, cool to see you guys were able to get those pins in right on the chip and able to make it still fit into the programmer and board!

I wanted a copy of your original modified BIOS, that caused the bricking incident, just to check it over. You are correct, mc extractor can show everything is OK when it's not, so that's not always a good check.
Sometimes it will tell you if it's badly packed (1/2 a code on top of another, or ran into start of another etc) But it wont tell you if any are missing, or if the file itself is bad (ie wrong size, wrong checksum etc).
You had to verify with other tools on that. Straight hex editing the BIOS file itself to add codes isn't really a reliable way to do this, which may be the problem.

I assumed you'd be working away while I was gone, and have everything all fixed when I got back pretty close to what happened I see
I will check your files, did you test program them yet? Editing one myself now and we'll see how they all compare once I'm done. If this was edited same way you did last time, it will likely fail same way, seems like that isn't good method for this BIOS probably.

I'll use MMTool to do the microcode updates, probably 3.19 since 3.22 and 3.26 had issues extraction a few different modules for me when 3.19 didn't.
Ended up using 3.26, 3.19 had some issues with certain microcodes even if leaving the end blank in place or removing and putting back later.
No matter what it would add data to each code, without error in MC Extractor too, it was adding to the end and beginning of each code. Probably MMTool version issue, but I got similar in 3-4 versions, oh well.

And all had certain issues when using the CPU microcode tab as mentioned, so I used extract P6 module method, then hex edit each one by one, then reinsert P6 module.
Probably very similar to your straight hex edit method, but without a module rebuild that happens on re-insertion of P6

I'll also use Hex to do LAN MAC, UUID and Serial transfers and AMIBCP 3.51 for serial secondary, in SMBIOS uncompressed

*Edit - here is BIOS, all fixed I think! Should be OK to program in. And yes, please program this in with your programmer, no flashing this time around

All info added and corrected based on the murdered original flash rom contents


1. Actual serial MT7099K04200511 (based on long white CM Sticker first 12 digits + leading MT7)
2. Corrected valid MAC Address = 002618F327C8
3. System UUID 20 06 + DTS key from sticker on board = 2006001E8C00002985F1

+ Updated microcodes x 6

https://www.sendspace.com/file/6vt5om

Now, I will look over your modified files. Please when you remember, if you still have, post that original BIOS that killed the board so I can try and see what was wrong so you can try to avoid in the future.
Looks good to me, is that how you edited it before? If yes, then maybe it was just random bad flash? Or the method used to flash?

I'll give your file a try with the ch341a programmer.
Your file is likely better than mine =D

The deadchip.rom is the dump that killed the board.
I made it just by using HxD and replacing the equivalent sections of cpu microcode.
Likewise for the files in the post above.
I won't flash that again file or the files I made in the post above as I see some differences with yours.

I had issues when using MMTools v3.26 to edit the CPU microcode (CPU PATCH) section directly - it kept crashing.
That's why I tried doing it manually using HxD.

Testing it now =D

EDIT:
Working perfectly. Ethernet back. Everything up to date. Minor improvements in the AIDA64 benchmarks thanks to the microcode updates.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1whMGjX...i_ciLhTcsCi3KBo

Nice to have this speed back: 50->130Mb is quite normal.
Clever chap ;)
Thank you indeed.

Is the deadchip.rom byte match to the BIOS you flashed in?

When you have time, if you wanted since you have a programmer now, you could program in your original BIOS edit and see if it's OK. Could have just been a bad BIOS flash.
Same for yesterdays edits you made, they could be OK too.

Cool it's all working good now!! I'm glad you guys were able to get that dead chip connected, that was a life-saver! I was going to edit in similar info in similar places before you got that backup, but it wasn't exactly the same and may not have worked.

I want your internet!