Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

[Dannyx]

Good day folks. The repair shop for which I previously worked sometimes reaches out to me for help with various issues they cannot fix, so today I got a call about a little chinese laptop which no longer turns on after the owner presumably decided to F about with the BIOS....what else do you call that other than a complete F-up ?! It's a cheap nasty laptop that just works ! Leave it the hell alone and do something else with your life.

Anyway: power light comes on and that's it. When I was told about it, before I actually came around to see the laptop, I searched the web and found a topic here where someone who clearly had WAAY too much time on their hands did some stuff to this laptop to unlock certain features in the BIOS. I couldn't care less about that, because mine wouldn't even turn on, but they did provide some original BIOS ROMs there as well, which is what I was truly interested in.

I grabbed all of those files and proceeded to going to the shop and inspecting the laptop. To my dismay, this wasn't going to work like I expected: the BIOS chips are two flat SMD packages with no legs and one of them is also rated for 1.8v, so here's where I got stuck. First off, I had no idea which of the two to read and write from - there's two chips: a larger 25LB64 and a smaller 25Q80C. Whats more, the datasheet for the 64 chip revealed it's a 1.8v level chip, so I'd fry it with my 3.3v CH341 programmer. The other chip, although rated at 3.3v, was very tricky to even connect because it's smaller than your average SOIC and has no legs either, so using my progammer's clip was out: I had to run small jumper wires from the pads on the board to the programmer. The programmer just came up with a bunch of gibberish that didn't even come close to looking like one of the ROMs I grabbed.....there's just too many variables here:
the chip was not connected properly or does not like being read on the board
the chip is not the correct one to begin with
the chip is correct and was read properly and that's what's supposed to be on it.
Then there's the other chip: not having any way of safely reading it, I gave up....

This got me thinking though: how do we deal with 1.8v SPI chips ? I found these things which presumably do the job: hook up the progammer THROUGH it. What do you guys think ? Has anyone messed with this laptop before by freak accident and if so, what are some of the possible fixes besides ? Also, what do you think of my level shifter idea ? I'll get some anyway.

[piernov]

Re: Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

Any picture would help, also programmer model.

About BIOS ROM itself, when you flash with external programmer you need a *full* dump, which must include the whole content of the ROM, with TXE region for example. (TXE region has to be "clean" as well) Not sure what the ROM in the topic are, didn't check them out, but if they are just the BIOS region it'll not work.

About the chips, "25LB64" must be the BIOS itself. The other one, "25Q80C" may be for EC firmware or some other firmware, depends on which chip it is connected to.

"25LB64" seems to be a BGA chip, you'd probably have to connect it with jumper wires to flash it, I haven't seen an adapter board for those. For 1.8V chips there are some special adapters. Search for "<programmer model> 1.8V adapter". Or use a programmer that supports them natively like TL866II, you'll also have the benefit to be able to select the proper SPI ROM part number in the software (so that it can verify ID correctly).

[R_J]

Re: Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

or one of these https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-8V-adapte...-/202046860676

[khaahk]

Re: Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

Adapter for 1.8V
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32687950653.html

For different package size there are different adapters also available sop8-150mil or similar

[SMDFlea]

Re: Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

EDIT: Missed your link to the techtablets forum .

If the bios is WSON8 you need an adapter https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1pc-...965365977.html

[Dannyx]

Re: Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

Ok, first I'd like to say thanks for the replies everyone.

Let's go over some things: didn't take a picture of the board, but if you scroll down on THIS page, I was lucky to find some shots of the board and the area in question. You can see one of the chips at the top directly above the CPU (the larger one) and the other one is to the left, above the ITE chip. The board itself is an inet-p313r. Laptop is actually a "Myria" brand, but I reckon it's just rebranded and has a different splash screen, so this was the closest I could get (that's why the archive I attached says "Myria")

The programmer I have is a CH341. Apparently those things I linked to don't quite do what I need, since you guys pointed me to something more fancy.

For curiosity, I attached some of the ROMs I grabbed from that site (not all of them, as it wouldn't upload). The chap who posted them says they're "original BIOSes". Don't know if that means they're DUMPS as you call them (I know some of this stuff from all the TVs I've done over the years and I'd always search for a DUMP). If I open one of those ROMs in the AMIBcp utility, it all appears fine - I get some usable info there, stuff which actually looks like a BIOS. They're also all precisely 8Mb in size, which would be the size of the smaller IC, the 25Q80C which I tried reading, so maybe it just got corrupted and I should've pushed on with overwriting it....ALTHOUGH, my programmer did not detect it. I COULD force-select it from the drop-down list there, but usually when that happens it doesn't work - again, did this quite a lot with TVs. The other one, the 25LB64 doesn't appear to be BGA - QFN at most. If anything, the SMALLER chip looks more like BGA to me - the 25Q80C

My original plan was to read the chip and load what I grab from it in AMIBcp to see what version it originally is and which one I should use, since that TechTablets thread I linked to provides multiple ROMs, but of course I failed. Even if I HAD managed to read the chip, it probably got corrupted anyway, so AmiBCP wouldn't open it the same way it opens a "good" BIOS ROM.

[piernov]

Re: Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

The files are 8MB (=64Mb) not 8Mb. They may be that big but actually not contain TXE firmware or the rest of the required stuff. A tool like MEAnalyzer should be able to confirm if it actually contains a valid TXE region at least.


So if I understand correctly, 25Q80C, 8Mb, is the smaller one near EC, so that would probably be EC firmware, and 25LB64, 64Mb (=8MB), is the larger one near SoC, so that would be the BIOS.
On the pictures, 25LB64 looks like it is a WSON8 rather than a BGA8. Looking at the side would confirm the pads are actually soldered onto the chips.
For WSON8, there are indeed adapter boards (to DIP8 so that it inserts into the programmer sockets) that makes your life way easier.

[Dannyx]

Re: Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

The files are 8MB (=64Mb) not 8Mb.

How does this work exactly ? Must admit I haven't faced this issue before. Are those MEBIbytes or something like that ?

So if I understand correctly, 25Q80C, 8Mb, is the smaller one near EC, so that would probably be EC firmware, and 25LB64, 64Mb (=8MB), is the larger one near SoC, so that would be the BIOS.

Correct.

I grabbed myself some WSON adapters and a level shifter....now we wait......patiently

Trouble is I'm not sure the ROMs is what needs to be burned onto that top IC, the 25LB64. The chaps over at TechTablets mention the version/date has to match, which could result in a long and tedious process to test each and every one, hence why I though of reading the original off the laptop, assuming it's still readable enough to at least get its version...not sure.

EDIT: as I was reading the thread on TechTablets, I was under the impression that the small IC is what should be rewritten, as that's what the folks were discussing there, but it's a good thing I read until the very end because the very last post says the chip was not the right one all along and the one WE were talking about here, the 1.8v one is the right one to mess with He mentions the same issue I was facing: the ROM simply wouldn't "fit" on the small chip and would get "cut off" at the end - my software actually lets me know of this in some Chinglish

[piernov]

Re: Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

MB is MegaBytes while Mb is MegaBits. 1MegaBytes = 8 MegaBits.
In fact I should've written MiB and Mib as they're indeed Mebi and not Mega. Mebi means multiples of 1024 while Mega means multiples of 1000. That's why the ROM is 64Mib = 8MiB = 8388608 Bytes.

Yes as always you need to backup the original ROM (2/3 times to make sure it's read correctly).
A string search with the version inside the ROM content may help finding the version. If it's too corrupted... You gonna have to try multiple ones. Pretty much like HP with their multiple BID for the same board...

[Dannyx]

Re: Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

Yes as always you need to backup the original ROM (2/3 times to make sure it's read correctly).

The first step is to actually get in there and see if I can grab any data off that chip, with my new adapter and stuff...if it's useless garbage, no need to back it up - laptop doesn't work anyway

[ala_borbe]

Re: Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

smaller chip that you cannot read is connected to SIO, so you may need to desolder it from board in order to read and write with no errors... sometimes in circuit programming does not work, it has to be removed from board

[Dannyx]

Re: Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

Ok guys, got my step-down adapters in the mail today, so tomorrow I'm heading over to the shop to try them out. I wasn't able to source any GD25LB64 chips, but after doing a bit of searching, I discovered they're identical to W26Q64FW, which also run on 1.8v, so maybe I have a little more luck finding these ones. The idea was to replace the WSON chip with a more familiar SOIC capsule entirely to make the work easier. The board also has a SOIC footprint there, perhaps for different models which don't use a WSON IC but a SOIC one instead...fingers crossed anyhow

[Dannyx]

Re: Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

Ok guys, here's the situation: today I took the 1.8v adapter with me and went to my former workplace where the laptop is to try it out. Since I don't have any blank 1.8v SPI chips like the W25Q64FW which I'm going to get some just for the hell of it, I had no choice but to try to read/write the existing one that was on the laptop. I removed it from the board and since I had forgot those WSON adapters at home I tried to solder it onto one of the regular breakout boards I had lying around there that looks like this and it's normally for SOICs. Ironically it worked - it soldered just fine, the pads being long enough to extend under the chip's flat leads. I need not buy those WSON adapters after all How do I know it soldered fine ? I inserted the breakout board into the clamp of the 1.8v adapter and then stuck the adapter onto the CH341 programmer and THEN plugged this whole contraption into an USB cable.

The software was unable to detect the chip, which is a bad sign right there, especially with such a complex setup, but I decided to press on and attempt a read anyway. The software did pick up something from the IC (see attached file for curiosity) and when I opened it up in HxD editor to view its contents, the gibberish sort-of resembled one of the original BIOS files I grabbed from TechTablets. It also saved to a perfectly round 8MB file, which is what a "MAIN" BIOS is usually like. Things looked promising at this point, so I erased the chip and wrote one of those imaged onto it. This is where it started going downhill though: for starters, I had no idea which version I should try out of all of those. I tried loading the original imagine into AMIBCP hoping it would at least give me some info and while AMIBCP "agreed" to open the file, it didn't actually display any data. I grabbed a random ROM, loaded that into the CH341's software, no complaints about possible "overflow" and burned it to the chip. Removed the chip from my breakout board soldered it back onto the board. No dice: still no signs of life from the laptop....

At this point I'm not sure what could've gone wrong:

1. IC is bad (possibly backed up by the CH341 not detecting it)
2. The Random BIOS file I chose is not compatible (VERY likely. See here)
3. ALL BIOS files are not compatible all together with this model (it being a Myria and the files being for an EZBook - less likely)
4. Small EC IC got corrupted as well (unlikely)
5. Some other fault, completely unrelated to the BIOS, although the chap said it happened when he tried f-ing with the BIOS, so it would be too much of a coincidence, so less likely

I also noticed the wall adapter is not actually putting out any voltage due to a messed up cable, so the only reason why it's even started so far is because it has a bit of juice left in the battery - I noticed the tiny LED next to the DC in jack is not coming on even with a known good adapter I have. The reason I'm mentioning this is because I've seen TABLETS which refuse to turn on OR charge when the battery gets below a certain point and this being almost like a tablet, with the board about the size of my palm and all that, it could be that the laptop is trying to start but can't. Power LED stays on though, so it's not like it's shutting down instantly - it just stays there not doing anything. I'll have to investigate the power issue, maybe measure the battery and charge it externally if need be.

[Dannyx]

Re: Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

In the meantime, since I haven't made any progress on this project so far, the chap called up and said it just so happens he has a friend with an identical laptop, so I was thinking of somehow grabbing the "good" ROM from that one, which he suggested himself. Of course, I'm not going to risk bricking that one as well, so I was thinking of some non-invasive way of reading the BIOS. Turns out there is such an utility: AFU(WIN/DOS). Supposedly it can read the existing BIOS and create a ROM of it. Sounds perfect. The TechTablets forum provides this tool and I first wanted to try it on my own Asus laptop first just to see how it works, since it happens to have an AMI BIOS. I opened a command prompt in the folder where I have AFUWIN on my desktop and tried running the "/o" command, which is supposed to create a backup of the exiting BIOS, but it failed with an "error 46: problem reading flash". People all over the place suggest not doing this under Windows, so maybe it works from a DOS prompt (before the PC actually boots), but I haven't tried that yet....either that or it simply doesn't work on this laptop of mine. I was thinking of calling the chap and asking him to let me try this AFU thing on the functional laptop to hopefully grab the BIOS image which I'd then flash to the IC of the dead laptop with the CH341.

[piernov]

Re: Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

Yes it can be a good idea to try AFUDOS. Also there are different versions depending on if the BIOS is AMIBIOS8, Aptio4 or Aptio5.

Note that some BIOS area may be protected from reading. It's rarely done, but can be.
I like using flashrom under Linux, but it may not be safe. It can tell you which areas are protection from reading or writing though.

[Dannyx]

Re: Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

Also there are different versions depending on if the BIOS is AMIBIOS8, Aptio4 or Aptio5.

For now we just have to assume the version provided by the chap on TechTablets is the right one to use, otherwise it shouldn't have been there. Hopefully the EZbook and the Myria are indeed identical, or at least similar enough that whatever works for one, applies to the other...

[Dannyx]

Re: Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

Couple of days ago, I received the replacement chips I ordered on Ali....I'm not entirely sure they're the right kind however: when I got them out of the package, I noticed it says "Windbond 25q64fwsig" on them, which threw me off a little, because I always assumed 25q64fwsig is 3.3v, since I've encountered them in many TVs before, not to mention I was expecting the 1.8v version to have a W in front (W25q64fwsig).

I talked it over with the chap who sells them and even sent him some pictures of what I got, thinking perhaps they sent the wrong type by mistake, but he told me those are the correct ones that I need. He might be right: ironically, if you search for 25q64fwsig, Google tries to correct you by suggesting that W in front, which returns the datasheet for the 1.8v chip and I've yet to find a 3.3v 25q64fwsig.......have I been frying these chips on TV MBs all these years without even knowing ?

[piernov]

Re: Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

All Winbond chips begin with a "W" in their official part number. Actual markings on the chip itself typically omit it.
The "W" that tells you it is a 1.8V chip is the second one. 3.3V have a "V" instead.
For example W25Q64FWSSIG with markings 25Q64FWSIG is a 1.8V chip, while W25Q64FVSSIG with markings 25Q64FVSIG is a 3.3V chip.

[Dannyx]

Re: Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

So mine is 25q64fwsig which is 1.8v then ? It's rather hard to keep track

[RethoricalCheese]

Re: Jumper EZbook 3 Bricked BIOS (level shifters disucssion)

yes, FW is 1.8V, FV is 3.3V

The W in front of 25Q means Winbond. So if theres already Winbond written in front of it, there doesn't have to be another W, otherwise it's like R.I.P in peace.