BIOS Recovery

The chance for BIOS corruption is a readily understood risk. An improperly coded BIOS file, a bad flash routine, a power failure, and a variety of other problems can occur during the update.

Even after a failed flash, a potentially dead motherboard can possibly still be recovered. Most BIOS manufacturers (Award, Phoenix, AMI, and Insyde) now include an option known as Boot Block protection. The Boot Block sector is write protected, thus it can only be damaged if the flash utility is explicitly directed by a command line switch to overwrite this EEPROM memory range. The Boot Block can load the most basic BIOS functions for the simple I/O operation of ISA video, floppy drive transfers, and keyboard   input. Luckily these features are all that is generally required to rebuild the entire working BIOS.

The instructions below specify using arbitrary names (like bios.fd) for the recovery information. In most cases you can determine the correct file recovery name for your machine by using Andy P’s SLIC tool from My Digital Life. This will help you determine the correct recovery name for your BIOS when you load it into the tool and will also help you make sure you correctly identify your BIOS type (Award, AMI, Phoenix, Insyde, etc.)

Download: Award/AMI Tool
Download: Phoenix/Insyde Tool
—Credit for these tools goes to Andy P and My Digital Life.

24 Responses to “BIOS Recovery”

  • hi

    i have two pga 470 motherboards. the bios on both have crashed.
    one board is a HP MS-6577.
    the other is a mercury board with ami bios.
    please help.

  • admin:

    For further support, please create a thread in our user forums at http://bios-mods.com/forum/

  • klodtn:

    Hello Admin,
    I want to ask you if there is a solution how to recover dell vostro 1310 after a failed update of Bios from A10 to A15
    Thanks,

  • J_Hack92:

    klodtn,

    First of all you should do a BIOS update one version to another dont hop around. (i.e. A02-A03) Each BIOS is like a patch, its not a software bundle.
    You can reflash the bios via .bin files by extracting them from the .exe files using 7-zip.
    You are going to need a heatgun to remove the BIOS chip and a SF-100 to program the bios.

  • ljdunham:

    Hi,

    Link above for Phoenix/Insyde Tool is for v.2.50 =>> “phoenixtool v.2.52” is the newest. Update from original forum:
    http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/13194-Tool-to-Insert-Replace-SLIC-in-Phoenix-Insyde-Dell-EFI-BIOSes

  • Rakesh N:

    I have recently bricked a lenovo z500 and have tried to restore bios using the Insyde Bios recovery method. I have noticed that my laptop fails to read from the pen-drives.
    Or the Cd drive or HDD. THey just power up and start spinning but I’m guessing the data lines are damaged.
    Please help.

    • Do you see any flashing activity on the USB drive? Make sure you use the Phoenix SLIC tool to verify the BIOS recovery filename.

      • rakesh:

        Hello, Yes, The pen drives starts blinking after 3-4 minutes, blink for sometime and then stop again.
        I used Phoenix tool and got the recovery file name to be VIWZ1.bin. However, no matter what endless combinations of file names I use, I get the same Lights blinking, stopping cycle.

  • Andrew:

    Hi i have a Dell Vostro 1720 the somebody have meybe problem with this model i have crash bios and i need help to repair please pw.

  • equex:

    Hi.
    I have a Packard Bell Easynote, but i’m not entirely sure what model it is. Which is why it’s bricked in the first place. It says EasyNote R0355, which would make it an EasyNote R series? I, downloaded the second one from here ftp://ftp.download.packardbell.com/NOTEBOOK/EasyNote%20R0%20series/Bios/ and flashed enr3bios107.exe. This bricked the BIOS. So it’s either totally the wrong model, or i flashed the wrong revision (seems to be rev0 and rev3?) IDK 🙁
    Can anyone help me figure out how to recover? The laptop blinks with the CD tray light and it’s like its trying to load a BIOS file. Ive tried extracting the BIOS’s files from the PB exe files but it wont load them. Andys’s tools says its not anything it recognizes. (tried both) Please help! It seems to me that the USB bus is not powered anymore. (doesnt light up USB sticks or USB floppy).

  • Carlos:

    Hello.

    Thank God I found this site!

    I am currently trying to save a Toshiba NB300-10K (PLL3FE-00700MSP) using the procedure shown here.

    I have identified my memory type, which is DDR2. This is vital in order to use the correct bios.wph file from Toshiba. I now have it.

    My bios type is Phoenix SecureCore(tm), version 1.40.

    I would like to know what should be the filename to use for the bios image when creating the rescue usb. I tried to use the method given in phoenixtool250.zip, but did not work.

    Thanks very much.

  • Chillyz12:

    The file linked to the phoenixtool250 is infected with W32/Heuristic-300!Eldorado

  • longbeacher:

    Hi! can anyone explain to me how this tool works and how can i find the the correct file recovery name for my lenovo 3000 N200 who is bricked because of a bios failed update? or just send me a tutorial!

  • joe:

    when i open the tool,it has a popup
    1.INSYDE20 BIOS
    2.TOSINVTOSINVOO
    under that it has header, pubkey,and marker…which of these is the correct name for my bios,
    http://cdgenp01.csd.toshiba.com/content/support/downloads/ska8v670.exe

  • roxton:

    Hello everyone!

    I bricked a Colorfly i898a tablet when I was trying to change its bios from the one that works for x64 android to the one that should have allowed me to install Windows on the tablet.
    I bricked it with this (flashing tool and bios): mega.nz/#!Q1Y3zAxI!iVpugZ7d2PdH7BS6j7wDzBf7_6yMmJWk1v6siiMSVQs
    Here is a link to the newest original firmware for this tablet: mega.nz/#!M9pnAYzB!n1miXJwY69ZWZP_LqAZM8NURpr6HIQM08xYoCyUjCqg

    It’s got an Insyde UEFI firmware. I tried recover it using a USB key (FAT32) with the following files on it: BYTC.BIN, BYTCHW.BIN, PA03.BIN, PA03HW.BIN, BYTC.FD, BYTCHW.FD, PA03.FD, PA03HW.FD, BYTC.ROM, BYTCHW.ROM, PA03.ROM, PA03HW.ROM, BYTC.WPH, BYTCHW.WPH, PA03.WPH, PA03HW.WPH (PA03 is first 4 letters from the name of the bios that actually bricked the tablet, BYTC is a first part of the name of .bin files that can be found in the archive with latest firmware).

    I did not disassemble this tablet yet so I don’t have access to its battery.

    Can anyone help me to recover this tablet?

  • Daniel:

    Resolution which I use for the Dell Vostro 3500 ?. It is not possible to extract the bios file(.Exe) for z-zip.

  • Ke:

    I have a Toshiba S55t-B5273NR that I bricked. Official BIOS are at http://support.toshiba.com/support/modelHome?freeText=1200008312&osId=26 and the earliest one is http://cdgenp01.csd.toshiba.com/content/support/downloads/sprdv140.exe. I unpacked it and feed the PheonixTool with bln140.bin, it doesn’t tell me what I should rename to. I am so desperate now. Any suggestion would be great. Thank you.

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