Technical question - Macbook Air BIOS change

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  • Adenitz
    Senior Member
    • Jan 2021
    • 122
    • Congo
    #1

    Technical question - Macbook Air BIOS change

    Hello guys,

    I see here on the form a lot of questions about Macbooks and there are a few very knowledgeable people here too. I would like to know the following.
    I have MBA A1466 year 2015 with 820-00165 board. I suspect the BIOS/SPI ROM is corrupted. I have another, but from year 2017, the same board, but i7 CPU.
    Is it possible to read BIOS from A1466 2017 and write to the chip from A1466 2015? Will this work?

    I have read on many threads about PC laptops, that ME (Intel Management Engine) must be cleaned or pC will not work or work unpredictably.
    Does this also apply to Macbooks?

    Can I use a BIOS file from the internet that corresponds to the production year as my laptop?

    This part is not really clear to me and I would appreciate if someone has time to explain when these operations are possible and recommended.

    Thank you!
    Tags: None
    • RethoricalCheese
      Badcaps Legend
      • Mar 2013
      • 1518
      • Estonia
      #2
      Re: Technical question - Macbook Air BIOS change

      Even on macs, ME would need to be cleaned.

      You could use the 2017 dump but you would need to clean ME and replace VSS region with the one from 2015 (to keep the original SN).

        Comment

        • Adenitz
          Senior Member
          • Jan 2021
          • 122
          • Congo
          #3
          Re: Technical question - Macbook Air BIOS change

          Would I need to do this if I find the board with identical specs (i5 CPU and RAM)?

            Comment

            • RethoricalCheese
              Badcaps Legend
              • Mar 2013
              • 1518
              • Estonia
              #4
              Re: Technical question - Macbook Air BIOS change

              Yes because that other board has different SN and different (let's say dirty) ME.

                Comment

                • 5chematic
                  Senior Member
                  • Jun 2019
                  • 77
                  • USA
                  #5
                  Re: Technical question - Macbook Air BIOS change

                  Originally posted by Adenitz
                  Hello guys,

                  I see here on the form a lot of questions about Macbooks and there are a few very knowledgeable people here too. I would like to know the following.
                  I have MBA A1466 year 2015 with 820-00165 board. I suspect the BIOS/SPI ROM is corrupted. I have another, but from year 2017, the same board, but i7 CPU.
                  Is it possible to read BIOS from A1466 2017 and write to the chip from A1466 2015? Will this work?

                  I have read on many threads about PC laptops, that ME (Intel Management Engine) must be cleaned or pC will not work or work unpredictably.
                  Does this also apply to Macbooks?

                  Can I use a BIOS file from the internet that corresponds to the production year as my laptop?

                  This part is not really clear to me and I would appreciate if someone has time to explain when these operations are possible and recommended.

                  Thank you!
                  Do you still have the bios that you suspect is corrupted? ..post it here I will take a look.

                    Comment

                    • Adenitz
                      Senior Member
                      • Jan 2021
                      • 122
                      • Congo
                      #6
                      Re: Technical question - Macbook Air BIOS change

                      Thank you 5 chematic, I really appreciate it. I already pass the board to another guy that is more experienced with the BIOS programming.

                      He has a few BIOS dumps for each Macbook board, so it is probably fixed by now (if the problem was with BIOS in teh first place)

                      I must admit, this whole thing about BIOS dump, clean ME region etc is not quite clear to me, so I didn't get involve too much.

                        Comment

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