On Thu, 20 Oct 2011 23:39:47 +0100
Chris <mindzeebeez@me.com> wrote:

> By the way I have contacted ASUS about the problem, but no answer.
> I would be only too willing to make a donation to the project if we can
> get this sorted out!

hello!

i am not sure why, but we have not received your first mail. we had
some maintenance yesterday so...

> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: error message: flashrom
> Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2011 23:34:52 +0100
> From: Chris <mindzeebeez@me.com>
> To: flashrom@flashrom.org
>
>
>
> Hi,
> Please help me, I get the message below when I try and flash the bios
> with flashrom.
>
> I have the new ROM file on my desktop waiting to install. It may have a
> compatibility issue because although it is the correct one, it is for
> motherboard ASUS P5L-VM-1394 and I have the P5L-VM-1394 (V-P5945G).
> Which is why the built in system BIOS updater wouldn't work.

this reads a bit like this
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20090425024409002&board_id=1&model=P5L-VM+1394&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

maybe this is just an error in the flash programs or the image... i
cant find a barebone pc with the name V-P5945G... did the mainboard
come with a barebone pc from asus like this one
http://www.asus.com/Barebone_PC/V_Series_2530L/V2P5945G/
or did you buy the board alone?

> I also tried AFUDOS (didn't have motherboard DVD) and the proprietory
> ASUS updater ((which runs in Windows partition)- same problem re: new
> BIOS "compatibility").
>
> Thanks in advance for any assistance!

you did not mention which version of flashrom you were using, please
provide the full verbose log (flashrom -V).

>
> Calibrating delay loop... OK.
> ========================================================================
> WARNING! You may be running flashrom on an unsupported laptop. We could
> not detect this for sure because your vendor has not setup the SMBIOS
> tables correctly. You can enforce execution by adding
> '-p internal:laptop=force_I_want_a_brick' to the command line, but
> please read the following warning if you are not sure.
>
> Laptops, notebooks and netbooks are difficult to support and we
> recommend to use the vendor flashing utility. The embedded controller
> (EC) in these machines often interacts badly with flashing.
> See http://www.flashrom.org/Laptops for details.
>
> If flash is shared with the EC, erase is guaranteed to brick your laptop
> and write may brick your laptop.
> Read and probe may irritate your EC and cause fan failure, backlight
> failure and sudden poweroff.
> You have been warned.
> ========================================================================

obviously you are not using a laptop here, so there is no problem. just
use the additional parameter as described above please.

--
Kind regards/Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Stefan Tauner