Playing with zbook 15u g3 bios

[p738442]

Looking for help fixing a bios image (16Mb) to flash in the Winbond w25q128fv chip. Also looking for a 1Mb image for the w25q80dv chip (Is this the EC controller?).

I grabbed corrupted images, perhaps the clip was not well hooked. When I emptied the chips and flashed over, the laptop bricked. Start + B doesn't seem to work. The diagnostics light indicate either bios failure or EC firmware issue.

Vendor's page
https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/sel...on/8693764

PS: How come SureStart could not recover? Is it within the w25q128fv chip?

[p738442]

Can someone help me understand how the bin bios images are made? 
How can I verify that the dump of the bios chip is ok? Can I detect any missing pieces and fill them in from stock bios image?

[Lost_N_BIOS]

Yes, 1MB is probably the EC - here, last post - https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=60220

See also - https://vinafix.com/threads/hp-zbook-15-...ion.23501/ (Paid site I believe), but there is dumps people posted in the 4 thread pages underneath that you can download/

Yes, some BIOS modules or regions can be replaced by the stock region/modules, but you need to make sure you locate your serial, UUID, LAN MAC IC etc and place into final files before you program it in.

Do not write anything to any chip, until you've uploaded a copy of all three chips dumped and someone tells you they are valid files, otherwise if you don't check them and you write to the BIOS then you could loose all important info if your uncheck dumps are not valid (ie all FF or all 00' etc)

[p738442]

Thank you very much lost_n_bios! You mention 3 chips but I was able to locate only 2. 

• Is there a hidden replica of the big one? What type of chip am I looking for? 
  

The dumps I have, have some data in them, so not only FF or 00. I found these dumps but they are different size (perhaps difference between model 15 vs 15u that I have). I also noticed that they refer to N81 while mine is N75. I will read the whole thread as it seems some folks talk about it later on. Thanks for the tip!

• Besides hex editors, is there any other tool that can help me validate that the dump I have are valid? 
  

I think I have all the info you mention (serial, uuid, lan mac) and I am trying to understand the art of bios modding.

• Do you know if the bios is signed or anything like that or I can just modify the binary and be ok?
  

I saw in ebay that they sell pre-flushed bios chip. I was thinking that perhaps I can take one of them, read the image, modify it to add my info and flash it in the existing chips. Any experiences with that?

[Lost_N_BIOS]

I only said three chips due to the VinaFix page, it shows the file name = similar to chip name if not exact. But, maybe I was confused due to how they posted that, and the first one is the BIOS file (Update, or stock BIOS etc) and then the other two chip dumps as expected.

You need dumps from your same model, or fix your dumps, don't use that other system dump.

Send me your dumps, maybe I can fix from stock BIOS. Yes, many tools can likely open and work with the files, but I can't tell you which until I have the dumps to inspect. Fixing your board is not the ideal time to learn BIOS editing/modifying, but you can start once you have a corrected BIOS file and know what all tools work with your BIOS and how/where to edit what

I can't tell you anything about the BIOS until you send me copies of your dumps. Pre-flashed chip in ebay may or may not work, lots of negative feedback from all those sellers. When they do work, you will get your system running but serial, UUID, LAN MAC ID, and possibly windows activation all will be lost until you fix the BIOS and reprogram it, so ideally do that now yourself instead of purchasing some chip you have to replace and then still do the same work on it to