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    Asus N76VJ Corrupted BIOS Recovery

    Discussion in 'Asus' started by RChadwick, Oct 22, 2015.

  1. RChadwick

    RChadwick Newbie

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    I bought a broken N76VJ. It powers on, but no text pops up on the screen, and I can't get into the BIOS. Based on the fact the POST card shows nothing, yet it powers on, and if I hold down CTRL-HOME while booting, it reads USB drives, I'm guessing the BIOS is corrupted. I removed the chip and read it. It's an 8MB. Although I'm an experienced Technician, I have zero experience doing anything unusual with a Computer BIOS. I assumed I could just flash the downloaded BIOS over the old chip, but the BIOS I downloaded is about 6MB. Reading around, it seems that the factory BIOS file maybe needs to be put in the chip at an offset. So:

    1) What would the offset be for this BIOS?
    2) Can I do this with the BIOS image, or am I better off trying to do a Hot Flash? Another method? Will the DOS utility even work on this laptop?
    3) My Hex editor is not very helpful at comparing the two BIOS files (The one from the chip, and the one I downloaded). Can anyone recommend a good Hex Editor for this?
    4) Are there any utilities that will specifically do this?

    If it helps, the BIOS file I recovered from the chip looks OK, as in it's not blank, and the end of it does appear to be the same as the BIOS file I downloaded from Asus. It appears to be version 202, so I downloaded 202 as well.

    Thanks for any help you can offer!
     
    RChadwick, Oct 22, 2015
    #1
  2. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    That 2mb is likely not blank either, it's just never usually updated you will need a full image.

    I would contact asus or your reseller as they may be able to advise you further.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Oct 22, 2015
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  3. RChadwick

    RChadwick Newbie

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    Thanks for the reply.
    You're right, that 2MB isn't blank. I'm suspecting it's got Windows keys, MAC addresses, etc, which is why I'd like to figure out what normally gets flashed, and what stays. I saw someone on Ebay selling BIOS chips, but I'll wind up with someone else's MAC, maybe Windows 8 won't activate any more, and I might have other weirdness in the future. The reseller isn't an option, as they sold it broken. I suspect if they had a BIOS, they would have fixed it instead of selling it. I knew it was broken when I bought it. Definitely an As-Is sale.
     
    RChadwick, Oct 22, 2015
    #3
  4. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    Maybe another faulty board with the bios intact if you can find it? If you you swap the chip rather than clone it there should not be any activation issues. If it's windows 7 they used generic oem keys anyway.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Oct 23, 2015
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  5. Prostar Computer

    Prostar Computer Company Representative

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    That's true. The SLIC used in 7 may be a moot issue in this scenario as opposed to OA 3.0 with Win 8+.
     
    Prostar Computer, Oct 23, 2015
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