@Lost_N_BIOS

I am getting mad, yesterday I had access to write bios, today i have no access... and my VARs doesnt work anymore..

What is going on?

@Lost_N_BIOS
Please have a look at the attached IFR.txt of my setup area.
I am getting a error 8 when I try to flash a modified bios


I've already FF'd the desc region

Appreciate your thoughts/opinions!

@nikey22 - Can't see the command you entered. This often means you maybe tried to flash some region that does not exist

What is your ME FW version? Are you in DOS? Try FPT v8 instead
What did you want me to see in IFR?

What do you mean FF'd the descriptor region? YOu can't FF the desc region, but you can FF some bytes to unlock descriptor, these two mean very different things when talking hex and FF'n something in a hex edit.
Upload a copy of the BIOS you are trying to flash, and then show me command you are using and error on same screen image.

@Lost_N_BIOS, sorry about that.
command was : fpt –BIOS –f IMAGEA1N.BIN, when the command is issued, it clears the screen to that error code.
using fpt version 7
ME version : 7.1
Yes I'm in DOS using a USB FreeDos startup

My idea was could there be a PRR that is preventing me from writing to the BIOS region. So I uploaded the startup IFR to see if there was a "block" somewhere to remove. However, this is not the typical error code for that. I've done a search of error 8 here on the webiste and I can't see anyone else with it. There are a few reports of Error 7.

desc.bin region, I meant I FF'd the appropriate bytes to allow read/write access to the desc/ME/GBe regions. So I don't think that is what is causing the failure to write to the BIOS region.

I've tried version 8 of fpt
now I get:

ERROR 7 : Software Sequencing failed. Make sure you have access to the target flash area!
It seems that it reads it, but when it tries to erase, it immediately throws this error.

Interestingly, AFUDOS.exe /IMAGEA1N.bin /p /b /k1 /r /sp writes the BIOS image to the region without a problem (This is the command & parameters that Lenovo uses normally when you do a bios upgrade). I just don't know why fpt doesn't.

Try Win98 SE instead. Also, make sure you are not using any odd characters in the command path such as %/ etc.

PRR would give you PRR error, as you mentioned. I did look at the IFR before I replied, and didn't see any lock SMM/SMI/BIOS Lock, nor FPRR/PRR/Protected/Range etc.

Thanks for clarification on the desc FF Asked to be sure Do you get same errors within windows too?

Upload the BIOS file for me to check out, maybe something is wrong at the desc (include stock BIOS or whatever your pre-mod source BIOS is, and your mod you are trying to flash, also dump current BIOS contents with FPT and include too >> FPT -d SPI.BIN)

Can you flash that BIOS region only, if you extract BIOS region from the file and give it only that as the source to flash?

okay will try in windows using fptw instead of fpt.

Here are the files:
desc.bin - the original descriptor region that was dumped using fpt v7 under DOS
descff.bin - my mod to 'ff' the most common regions
I was able to flash descff.bin easily without error with : fpt -desc -f descff.bin

A1BIOS.ROM - is the lenovo latest stock BIOS (no .cap file during this time period) which I'm able to easily flash using AFUDOS (but not fpt). I used flash2.exe which is a Lenovo utility that gives you a chance to preserve UUID/serial#/Machine-type before it activates and runs AFUDOS to do the actually burning of the A1BIOS.ROM file. Its all part of their DOS package for updating your BIOS.

I then dumped the A1BIOS.ROM that I just burned with: fpt -bios -f test.bin
then I modified the test.bin file to allow nvme support by injected the necessary .dxe (It doesn't really matter what the actual mod was)
now its time to flash it back in. That's were I'm stuck, fpt -f -bios test2m.bin gives error code 7 or 8.

test2m.bin - my modded bios.

Actually even trying to burn back in the stock A1BIOS.ROM fails with : fpt -bios -f A1BIOS.ROM

update: I tried fptw with windows 10, still same error 7 shows up, it doesn't want to erase the BIOS region and flash the modded BIOS region. Yet, it will easily work with AFUDOS.

Desc edit is OK
You don't want to flash stock BIOS by FPT anyway, so you shouldn't have been trying that. Is that what you are trying now? If yes, good you couldn't do it then!
Dump your BIOS with FPT, modify that, and then reflash it (Or is this what you did, that's failing?) If yes, then do as mentioned below

Since you can use flash2/AFU, and you only need NVME Mod, mod that BIOS with NVME and reflash it via flash2/AFU as you've already flashed.

Win98SE is just another type of DOS, here's how I suggest using that instead of FreeDOS - Follow steps 1-4 to create bootable USB
<Request> Flagship X470 Gaming 7 Wifi Motherboard BIOS Fix

The reason this is happening I think, is due to this is 8MB BIOS region and FD/ME + Part of BIOS region possibly, on second chip. I'd be able to say for sure if you had flash programmer and could dump both chips so I could compile the BIOS
I can't read desc good enough to see what location it's giving to all the regions, plutomaniac would be able to do that. But, I think maybe one could be wrong, or it's not letting you write BIOS region due to this region is split between the chips which is common in some dual chip BIOS setups.
I'd need full programmer dump from both chips to better answer about this. Best thing for you to do is try flashing via flash2/afu, if that fails get a flash programmer + SOIC8 test clip cable instead of trying to push your luck and end up bricking the BIOS (CH341A + SOIC8 test clip with cable is less than $7 shipped)

Everything is on one chip. I'm able to do a full SPI dump with : fpt -d spi.bin. It is 16Mb in size (can't upload here), it contains desc, bios, Gbe, ME region all there. It is also a 16pin SOIC.

When you told me to try fptw, I used the -verbose setting, this is what I got. What do you think?

It's still may not be on one chip, even if the SOIC16 is 16MB chip, you get FPT Dump of full BIOS size due to that's how this works. Since BIOS region is 8MB, I assume one chip is 8MB and other is 8MB too (may or may not be SOIC16)
Show me an image of the board. And give me the ID off the SOIC16 chip. Also, upload the entire BIOS to some free file host.

FlockDN bit is set, this similar to FPRR, but it's in a BIOS module. I can remove it sometimes, but you'd have to flash that via programmer, or possibly AFU flash would get it in there, and then you could FPT (once unlocked, always use that unlocked BIOS as your base)
Please wait, I will see if I can find that and bypass it for you. This is bypassed/disabled when you use AFU, hopefully it will allow that module itself to be replaced if I can find and bypass it.

* Edit - I can't find safely, you'll have to use AFU only or flash programmer - sorry

@Lost_N_BIOS thank you for trying, which modules were you looking into for the FlockDN bit?
I'll have to do some reading up on it.
Thanks

@nikey22 - Several, powermgmtDXE/powermangmt2 (may be abbreviated differently in your BIOS, not looking at it right now) & PCHInitDXE << This it's usual location.
Here is guide I use to find it usually, from CodeRush here on the forums (See post near bottom if this doesn't link you directly), but doesn't apply exactly to your BIOS, and I can't find anything that look similar to other formats for this I'm familiar with
https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/...comment-1944166

trying to use FTPw.exe to run cmd lines for BIOS region dump. "Error 365: Invalid parameter value specified by user. Use -? to see help."
This is the command window error from the FPT folder. I would like to eventually unlock my BIOS lock and all overclocking settings. How to get BIOS region dump?

@wazgi3 - Sounds like you are entering something wrong in the CMD line. Please show me image of the CMD window, and be sure I can see what you type before you get that error.

I am opening the command with the file location type cmd hit enter.

@wazgi3 - That doesn't help me, that only shows the help file. Please type your command you are trying and let me see command entered you typed and the error
Ohh wait! I see, you only typed FPTw.exe without any commands!! [qunge]

To dump BIOS region you need to >> FPTw.exe -bios -d biosreg.bin

Please do research on what you are trying to do, before you brick your board!!
FPT can brick system with one click, so you have to know what you are doing and be exact, or it will not be good outcome!