Hi,

I inherited an old PC and decided to try out linux. I've installed the latest version of Ubuntu and all updates. The BIOS on the machine is old so I decided to try and update it using flashrom. However, it said erase failed and to contact you. I should have probably started something easier on my first attempt to use Linux...

I did a backup of the current image.

Here's the output:

daddy@daddy-System-Name:~/Desktop/flashrom-0.9.2$ sudo flashrom -w 1018.004
flashrom v0.9.2-r1028 on Linux 2.6.35-22-generic (i686), built with libpci 3.0.0, GCC 4.4.4, little endian
flashrom is free software, get the source code at http://www.flashrom.org

Calibrating delay loop... OK.
No coreboot table found.
Found chipset "VIA VT8233A", enabling flash write... OK.
This chipset supports the following protocols: Non-SPI.
Found chip "SST SST49LF020" (256 KB, LPC) at physical address 0xfffc0000.
Flash image seems to be a legacy BIOS. Disabling checks.
Writing flash chip... Erasing flash chip... ERASE FAILED at 0x00000000! Expected=0xff, Read=0x00, failed byte count from 0x00000000-0x00000fff: 0xb04
ERASE FAILED!
ERASE FAILED at 0x00000000! Expected=0xff, Read=0x00, failed byte count from 0x00000000-0x00003fff: 0x3ad6
ERASE FAILED!
FAILED!
ERASE FAILED!
FAILED!
Your flash chip is in an unknown state.
Get help on IRC at irc.freenode.net (channel #flashrom) or
mail flashrom@flashrom.org!


I think my machine is an ASUS A7V333

Help!

Thanks,

Matt