Bricked BIOS recovery - hyopthetical

[flyingfishfinger]

Hi,
I've made some modifications to a BIOS I'd like to try out on the X61. Before I do (and potentially brick the board) I wanted to try out recovery method.
I've attempted several variations on the WinCrisis method, but haven't been able to get the machine into BIOS recovery mode.
Question: Does this work on an X61 at all, or is it too old? The tool is from 2008 so I'm thinking it should work. Two, does this method of BIOS flashing work if the machine isn't bricked yet, or is it something that only works once there is a corrupted BIOS?

R

[Hans Gruber]

The term bricked is most likely a certainty if you do not know what you are doing in bios modification. I would suggest using a beater computer. A mule of sorts on it's last leg for testing purposes.

[axur-delmeria]

An external flasher like a Buspirate (or even a Raspberry Pi) would go far in saving one's behind when a BIOS flash goes bad.

[FryPpy]

An external flasher like a Buspirate (or even a Raspberry Pi) would go far in saving one's behind when a BIOS flash goes bad.

+150.
I am doing the same thing but on T60 with power fail problem. And yes SPI programmer must be. The best thing that can help is SOP8 clip to do ISP (in system programming). First of all read flash 3 times and check that 3 dumps are the same (md5sum). Then you can rock and roll and know that you can get back to the starting point without any problem.

Bad thing that i discovered - bios read by winphlash and by SPI programmer is slightly different in size and contents. BIOS in FL1 file (in Lenovo BIOS Update package) absolutely different from first two. I have all tools that Zender made for us and try to unpack and find what is changed in this BIOSes.

[flyingfishfinger]

Interesting. The BIOS I modified came out to be smaller than the original .FL1 file (Middleton) because I removed an option ROM.
So you're suggesting I should take a BIOS dump using the SPI tool (RPI, in my case) and use that as a backup in case my experiments go wrong? Sounds reasonable.
Thanks for the tips!

R

EDIT: Tried reading it out with an Arduino (supported by flashrom) but it didn't recognize the connected chip. I'll try later this week with a Raspberry Pi, but am also happy to look for a sacrificial X61 (see my post in the Marketplace) to test with...

EDIT2: FryPy, can you elaborate on your method of reading out the BIOS externally? What did you use to get it to work?

[FryPpy]

EDIT2: FryPy, can you elaborate on your method of reading out the BIOS externally? What did you use to get it to work?

I forgot to say AND THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. To read BIOS with external programmer you need connect AC adapter! I don't know if battery will be sufficient. Without AC (battery??) programmer will power all 3v peripherals in Thinkpad and said that your flash (ThinkPad) eats to much current.

Initially i've worked with BusPirate but this is very uncomfortably to connect it's clips to sop8 legs. So i've got to the ebay and taken SOP clip... in conjunction with TL866 programmer;)

[flyingfishfinger]

Seems like the Arduino isn't the best tool. I was able to extract an image from my old (fried) mobo using a Raspberry Pi. You're right, it's not identical to the .FL1 file at all, but I don't really care for this experiment (I should be able to use the image to reflash the chip to it's working state, that's all I need for recovery).

Bibin has offered a bricked X61 that I can use to try this out, with luck he'll get back a working machine at the end of it as well!

R