Vaio VGN-AR840e - Phoenix R2090J8 - 02/26/2008

[AHMED HOSSAM]

you should only insert the 2GB usb in your notebook , run crisis.exe then it will format the usb and copy MINIDOS.SYS , PHLASH.EXE and BIOS.WPH ( copy bios.wph if it`s not copied )

then make sure only 3 files are found inside the USB flash drive.

shut down your notebook , remove battery and AC , hold FN and B while connecting the AC , press power button , keep holding FN and B , then you should find the USB LED turning on and off , in this case leave the FN and B buttons , you should see the USB flashing for about 5 to 10 minutes ( if the USB LED turned on and of for a while then stopped , the usb won`t flash the bios because of wrong phlash.exe version or wrong key combination )..............then the flash should continue for about 10 minutes ( during this 10 minutes you should see the USB LED turning on and off )............and the notebook would restart automatically after flashing .

NOTE THAT THE SCREEN WILL BE BLANK DURING ALL THIS PROCESS AND THE ONLY WAY TO KNEW IF THE BIOS IS BEING FLASHED IS THAT YOU SHOULD SEE THE USB LED TURNING ON AND OFF.

[nesnfsn]

Screen from starting Phoenix Crisis Application.

WHICH ONE DO I USE? There are no instructions.
Options at Top of Screen:

Writing on Floppy
File Extraction
Image File

WHAT LOCATION SHOULD BE INSERTED FOR THE FILE EXTRACTION OPTION IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SCREEN FOR?

WHAT LOCATION SHOULD BE INSERTED FOR WRITING IMAGE FILE OPTION TOWARD THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN- AN EXISTING FILE OR TO WRITE A NEW FILE?

[AHMED HOSSAM]

here is the crisis disk with your modified bios.wph and bios.rom files .


  Phoenix_Crisys_Disk.rar (Size: 1.61 MB / Downloads: 66)

i don`t knew the right phlash.exe version for your notebook , so the tool will automatically format the drive , copy MINIDOS.SYS , PHLASH16.EXE , BIOS.WPH to the USB drive .
then follow the last steps ( in my last post ) and if the bios didn`t flash , just replace the phlash16.exe with another version ( you will find in the attachment all phlash.exe version , the tool would automatically copy the named phlash16.exe so , if this version didn`t work just rename phlash1A.exe to phlash16.exe then the tool would copy it )

here is a pic for the wincris.exe tool , you have only to click start then it will do it automatically .

[nesnfsn]

Tried this method with both Function and B Keys, as well as with Windows and B Keys. No luck either way. USB Flash Drive not recognized. I held both combinations of keys for nearly 10 minutes each attempt. At no time did USB flash drive light up. I suspect that is because the existing BIOS as modded by your prior efforts, does not have a setting to ENABLE External Devices.

UPDATE: Gone through all of the PHLASH installers. NO DIFFERENCE. Computer does not read USB Flash Drive while going through Boot Up process. Can read it fine after booting into either Windows 7 Ultimate 64 or Ultimate Linux 2.9 64 bit OS.

AHMED:

HOW ABOUT CREATING AN ISO IMAGE OF THE FLASH DRIVE AND THEN BURNING THE ISO IMAGE TO A CD-ROM. The BIOS did show that it could boot from either an Internal Optical Drive or an Internal Hard Drive. Your Thoughts???????

[AHMED HOSSAM]

HI RICHARD ,

this a link for ISO for a dos bootable CD .
http://www.mediafire.com/?bc90n18uwbiva65
just insert the flash utility and the BIOS.WPH file inside it and boot from cd .
then flash the bios .

THANKS FOR KIZWAN WHO GAVE ME THE LINK TO THIS CD

i will be away for about 4 or 5 days from tomorrow , so try this method and i will reply to your posts tomorrow or after i`m back again

[nesnfsn]

HI RICHARD ,

this a link for ISO for a dos bootable CD .
http://www.mediafire.com/?bc90n18uwbiva65
just insert the flash utility and the BIOS.WPH file inside it and boot from cd .
then flash the bios .

THANKS FOR KIZWAN WHO GAVE ME THE LINK TO THIS CD

i will be away for about 4 or 5 days from tomorrow , so try this method and i will reply to your posts tomorrow or after i`m back again

Ahmed - Good to hear from you. Thought perhaps you had given up on me and my Vaio.

I have opened the ISO up with MagicISO, copied BIOS.WPH, and PHLASH16.exe into the directory, then saved as a new ISO named dosbootphlash.iso.
Reboot with CD in drive, boots up to 3 options, Start with CD-Rom Drivers, Start without CD-Rom Drivers, Help File. Tried all 3, and computer only finds Drive A, which is the CD. It does not read any hard drives or other drives.

Problem - Only lists Win98Dos files from Boot.IMG file, not PHLASH16.exe or BIOS.WPH. I will keep trying. Do I have to modify the autoexec.bat file within the Boot.IMG file? Not sure. I will try.

[kizwan]

When boot with "Start with CD-Rom Drivers", at the end of the verbose message, it should tell you the drive letter the CD-ROM drive is assigned to. Usually D:

Another alternative is modify the ISO boot file. UltraISO able to dump the boot file from the ISO. You can open the boot file using UltraISO. Put the BIOS image & BIOS flash utility in it. Save the boot file & using UltraISO, load the new boot file to the ISO.

[nesnfsn]

When boot with "Start with CD-Rom Drivers", at the end of the verbose message, it should tell you the drive letter the CD-ROM drive is assigned to. Usually D:

Another alternative is modify the ISO boot file. UltraISO able to dump the boot file from the ISO. You can open the boot file using UltraISO. Put the BIOS image & BIOS flash utility in it. Save the boot file & using UltraISO, load the new boot file to the ISO.

Hello Kizwan, and thanks for your thoughts. I have burnt about 10 cds already in Ultimate Linux trying to do this. Inside the boot file is an IMG file. The IMG file is located within [BOOT] inside the ISO file. All of the WIN98DOS files are located within the IMG file. It is there that I need to add the BIOS.WPH, PHLASH16.EXE and probably just rename the Autoexec.bat to RUNPHLASH.BAT.

I have extracted and renamed the IMG file to ISO, and the inserted the BIOS.WPH file inside and saved the modded ISO file, and renamed it to an IMG file. Then added the IMG file within the [BOOT] directory inside the dosboot.iso file you had shared with Ahmed. NO MATTER WHAT I DO, NO GO.

Please advise if you can help. I am attaching my BIOS.WPH file to help you help me (PLEASE). I would prefer if you could tell me step by step how to do this. I have been to far too many websites trying to learn workarounds these past few days, and they are all starting to look alike. Unfortunately, Ahmed had inadvertently disabled the External Device Option for USB booting. Would appreciate your knowledge as well, as I hope that through CD-Rom, this can be fixed with the latest ROM (WPH) file.to my USB External Devices being inadvertantly disabled by Ahmed in his prior mod. he

[kizwan]

I will try to help you. First, please answer these questions:-
1) When boot with "Start with CD-Rom Drivers", can you cd to D:?
2) Can you boot with "Start with CD-Rom Drivers", wait it to finish loading & take a picture of the screen? If you can, post the picture here.

[nesnfsn]

I will try to help you. First, please answer these questions:-
1) When boot with "Start with CD-Rom Drivers", can you cd to D:?

NO, only the A: prompt.

2) Can you boot with "Start with CD-Rom Drivers", wait it to finish loading & take a picture of the screen? If you can, post the picture here.

JUST A BLACK DOS SCREEN WITH THE A: prompt.
Do you want a picture of a black dos screen???

What software do you use to add the BIOS.WPH and the PLASH16.EXE to the ISO with the embedded IMG file (containing the Win98DOS files)???

UPDATE - Opened CD-Rom successfully, with DOS black screen with two (2) bios files and PLASH16.EXE. However, get the following message from dosbootdisk.isp

Richard