AMIbios Asus K95VM write protect error

[claus232]

Hi

I have an Asus K95VM with an AMIbios that is almost bricked. Just before Christmas, I downloaded the newest bios-ver from Asus support homepage and flashed it with winflash (a tool that flashes bios directly from windows). The flashing looked fine with check and everything, but when I rebooted the computer it did not start - only light in the power button, but nothing on the screen.

I've been lucky to discover that if I remove the bios battery for some hours and but it back in, I can get the computer to boot and reboot, but power off once and it's dead again!

So I have tried to reflash the bios during one of the succesfull boot sequences.

If I use the Asus Easy Flash tool directly from the bios menu, I get an error saying "build date is too old" - assuming that it's a protection not to flash the bios with old sw(?).

If I use a bootable USB-stick with AFUDOS, regardless of what command I try, the AFUDOS says "Error - bios is write protected".

I have also tried to do the Ctrl+Home button + AMIBIOS.ROM on a usb-stick, but nothing happens.

Can someone please help me? - I assume that if I could get some bios-sw with a never build date, it would work? - Asus support has been friendly, but they can not provide me with a bios-sw that has a never build date. The bios-sw that I have used from the asus homepage is called K45VM-AS.230.


Thanks in advance.
Claus

[claus232]

And update with my lates discoveries.


1. It's not the bios-battery-power-recycle that makes my notebook book again - it's changes in the RAM configuration. So I can boot it as long as I change RAM sockets for every power recycle.

2. I tried opening the bios.rom file from Asus with Emacs. Was able to see the release date and version number serval places. Edited these numbers (increasing them) and saved the file.
Tried to flash the bios with this modified file and it passes the "Build date is to old" test/error, but the following check of the file fails. Probably some cheksum or similar(?). Any one with good ideas on how to modify the file without destroying the checksum?

Thanks in advance.
Claus