Asrock x470 Master SLI/AC bricked after BIOS update

[VVictoria]

The board became bricked after a BIOS update. I got a flashcat classic and have been successful in programming the BIOS chip. My only issue is that it still doesn't POST, so presumably I need to modify the BIOS files or I need different BIOS files to make it work. Does anyone have any advice or links for that? I have tried every single BIOS file from the Asrock page for my board, even the beta ones. I have also tried using UEFI Tool to convert it to a .bin and .rom file, neither made a difference.

The chip appears to be a Winbond w25q256fv (the last two letters may be incorrect). It is 32 megabytes, 256 Mbits.
Thank you for reading.

[Lost_N_BIOS]

Did you dump the BIOS before you wrote anything to it? If yes, please attach.

BIOS rom download from Asrock is already rom/bin, nothing needs done to that before programming with programmer. Unless your programmer software will only open/use .bin or .rom, if that's the case simply rename .90 to .bin or .rom. However, without a stock dump to compare to, I cannot tell you if this is a complete BIOS or only partial update. Hopefully you made a backup with programmer before you wrote anything to the board.

Did you read and do what the warnings say before using latest BIOS? In case this is the issue

* Please install "AMD all in 1 with VGA driver ver:18.10.20_NHDA" or a later version before updating to this BIOS.
* If you updated the BIOS before updating the AMD all in one driver, please refer to the Display recovery SOP to recover your system.

[VVictoria]

I didn't install the latest version and I don't have an AMD card or APU, so I assume that isn't necessary. Unfortunately, I only backed up the flash after writing to the BIOS chip. I will try to upload that. I saved the BIOS via the windows tool, but unfortunately I only did that immediately after flashing it with that tool. I'm also not sure how to get that data back as I don't have any other m.2 reader. The other backup I made was with the flashcat after it didn't boot up.

I have tried every version of the BIOS, including the instant flash BIOS and windows BIOS versions via my flashcat but they still haven't worked. Do you have any advice for that or maybe some modified BIOS which might work better? Thank you

[Lost_N_BIOS]

Yes, that may not matter then. Backup after you wrote to the BIOS is no help, unless you meant you only have backup after the bad flash, that is OK, I wanted to check that. But, I did not want backup after you tried to fix it later with programmer or other methods. Flashcat backup would be ideal too, if that was made before you wrote anything to the chip (I mean wrote to the chip trying to recover, not when it was bad flash)

Instant flash is the BIOS you want (rename to .bin or .rom and see if that helps with your programmer). Find an actual full BIOS dump from someone with Asrock X470 any model and link me to it or upload, so I can compare with the BIOS they put online to see if it's full or only partial. And go ahead and upload those backups you have

[VVictoria]

Did you dump the BIOS before you wrote anything to it?  If yes, please attach.

BIOS rom download from Asrock is already rom/bin, nothing needs done to that before programming with programmer.  Unless your programmer software will only open/use .bin or .rom, if that's the case simply rename .90 to .bin or .rom.  However, without a stock dump to compare to, I cannot tell you if this is a complete BIOS or only partial update.  Hopefully you made a backup with programmer before you wrote anything to the board.

Did you read and do what the warnings say before using latest BIOS?  In case this is the issue

* Please install "AMD all in 1 with VGA driver ver:18.10.20_NHDA" or a later version before updating to this BIOS.
* If you updated the BIOS before updating the AMD all in one driver, please refer to the Display recovery SOP to recover your system.

This should be a copy from before I wrote to it using my flashcat, but unfortunately after the bios write I did from windows.

[VVictoria]

Yes, that may not matter then.  Backup after you wrote to the BIOS is no help, unless you meant you only have backup after the bad flash, that is OK, I wanted to check that.  But, I did not want backup after you tried to fix it later with programmer or other methods.  Flashcat backup would be ideal too, if that was made before you wrote anything to the chip (I mean wrote to the chip trying to recover, not when it was bad flash)

Instant flash is the BIOS you want (rename to .bin or .rom and see if that helps with your programmer).  Find an actual full BIOS dump from someone with Asrock X470 any model and link me to it or upload, so I can compare with the BIOS they put online to see if it's full or only partial.  And go ahead and upload those backups you have

okay I have uploaded what should be a pure read from my flashcat, before modifying it with the flashcat. This was before I figured out how to properly do it. Oh, I think it's invalid. Here is another one but I can't recall if I already made modifications by then or not. It should have the name of my BIOS chip. I also now have a BIOS clip, which should make this whole process a lot easier.

[Lost_N_BIOS]

Post #5 file = 100% 00 or FF (junk)
Post #6 - looks like stock (I mean similar) BIOS, but has dual NVRAM volumes so I can tell this has been used on a board before.
The end of the BIOS is missing on this dump. Make sure you are writing entire file to chip with the programmer.

Is that w25q256fv the chip that was on the board originally? BIOS is only 16MB, wonder why they would use 32MB chip if it is?
I checked out a BIOS I know is full BIOS, Gigabyte X470 and it looks same as yours provided by Asrock, so I think that is complete BIOS they give online, minus your secondary NVRAM volume and other board details probably missing too (Serial, UUID, LAN MAC ID).

Give me a minute, I will make BIOS for you to try.

[VVictoria]

Post #5 file = 100% 00 or FF (junk)
Post #6 - looks like stock (I mean similar) BIOS, but has dual NVRAM volumes so I can tell this has been used on a board before.
The end of the BIOS is missing on this dump.  Make sure you are writing entire file to chip with the programmer.

Is that w25q256fv the chip that was on the board originally?  BIOS is only 16MB, wonder why they would use 32MB chip if it is?
I checked out a BIOS I know is full BIOS, Gigabyte X470 and it looks same as yours provided by Asrock, so I think that is complete BIOS they give online, minus your secondary NVRAM volume and other board details probably missing too (Serial, UUID, LAN MAC ID).

Give me a minute, I will make BIOS for you to try.

Thank you so much!! Yes, it is the same board. I checked the website specifications for my model and it says 256 Mbits, so 32 megabytes. I also thought it was strange small. I assume that the missing end would cause problems. I am using the flashcat programming software and to my knowledge, it writes the whole file. I even compared it to the ROM file and it reported it as being identical. Maybe there is a setting somewhere I need to enable for it to write empty spaces? I am not sure how to do that. Do you have any ideas? I'll email the flashcat manufacturer.

[Lost_N_BIOS]

Here, please test with programmer. I put back both NVRAM volumes from dump #6 above, into stock BIOS (37000h-77000h)
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fil...3940192783

The end is there, I missed it previously, sorry about that! I have not used flashcat, but one thing you need to make sure of, which it can surely do, is before you write, erase entire chip then check to make sure it's blank, then write/verify.

[VVictoria]

Here, please test with programmer.  I put back both NVRAM volumes from dump #6 above, into stock BIOS (37000h-77000h)
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fil...3940192783

The end is there, I missed it previously, sorry about that!  I have not used flashcat, but one thing you need to make sure of, which it can surely do, is before you write, erase entire chip then check to make sure it's blank, then write/verify.

Okay, I'll do that now. On a side note, the software allows me to specify where to start and stop the read/write operations. Usually, I leave it at default, which is like 0 to 32 megabytes or something, I think it's automatic based on the file size.