BIOS Update

[Shaver,Zachary J]

Hey,

I'm considering using flashrom to upgrade the bios on a MSI B450M Pro-M2 Motherboard. It's BIOS ROM appears to be a MX25U12873F but I only see MX25U12835F in the supported chips for flashrom. I did a cursory comparison of the datasheets for the two and they look very similar. Is there a chance I could flash the 73 with the 35 profile in flashrom? I am aware that they are 1.8V and will need a 1.8V supply and 1.8V gpio from the programmer (in my case raspberry pi).

Thanks

[Patrick Rogers]

Hello,

There is a very likely chance in your situation that flashrom will be
able to read and write to the chip even if it's not on the supported
chips list. This command simply identifies the chip and tells you if
everything is working.

flashrom -p linux_spi:dev=/dev/spidev0.0,spispeed=2000 -V

You might get some error about how you might not be able to write to the
chip, but from my experience with an ASUS BIOS chip and a Raspberry Pi,
this was still possible.

https://www.rototron.info/recover-bricked-bios-using-flashrom-on-a-raspberry...

On 2019-08-05 4:39 p.m., Shaver,Zachary J wrote:
> Hey,
>
> I'm considering using flashrom to upgrade the bios on a MSI B450M Pro-M2
> Motherboard. It's BIOS ROM appears to be a MX25U12873F but I only see
> MX25U12835F in the supported chips for flashrom. I did a cursory
> comparison of the datasheets for the two and they look very similar. Is
> there a chance I could flash the 73 with the 35 profile in flashrom? I
> am aware that they are 1.8V and will need a 1.8V supply and 1.8V gpio
> from the programmer (in my case raspberry pi).
>
> Thanks
>
> flashrom mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]

[Mike Banon]

Please note that a BIOS upgrade utility provided by your board
manufacturer - might be upgrading more things than just a BIOS. For
example: EC firmware for a controller which i.e. may be adjusting the
fan speeds depending on a temperature. As you see, simply upgrading a
BIOS via flashrom may leave you with the old version of EC firmware,
which could be undesirable.

On Tue, Aug 6, 2019 at 10:11 PM Patrick Rogers
 wrote:
> Hello,
>
> There is a very likely chance in your situation that flashrom will be
> able to read and write to the chip even if it's not on the supported
> chips list. This command simply identifies the chip and tells you if
> everything is working.
>
> flashrom -p linux_spi:dev=/dev/spidev0.0,spispeed=2000 -V
>
> You might get some error about how you might not be able to write to the
> chip, but from my experience with an ASUS BIOS chip and a Raspberry Pi,
> this was still possible.
>
> https://www.rototron.info/recover-bricked-bios-using-flashrom-on-a-raspberry...
>
> On 2019-08-05 4:39 p.m., Shaver,Zachary J wrote:
> > Hey,
> >
> > I'm considering using flashrom to upgrade the bios on a MSI B450M Pro-M2
> > Motherboard. It's BIOS ROM appears to be a MX25U12873F but I only see
> > MX25U12835F in the supported chips for flashrom. I did a cursory
> > comparison of the datasheets for the two and they look very similar. Is
> > there a chance I could flash the 73 with the 35 profile in flashrom? I
> > am aware that they are 1.8V and will need a 1.8V supply and 1.8V gpio
> > from the programmer (in my case raspberry pi).
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > flashrom mailing list -- [e-mail]
> > To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
>
> flashrom mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]

[Patrick Rogers]

I see now, what would be the best case in resolving that issue if that
happens? I didn't have this issue when I re-flashed my BIOS chip with
the latest version.

On 2019-08-15 6:32 a.m., Mike Banon wrote:
> Please note that a BIOS upgrade utility provided by your board
> manufacturer - might be upgrading more things than just a BIOS. For
> example: EC firmware for a controller which i.e. may be adjusting the
> fan speeds depending on a temperature. As you see, simply upgrading a
> BIOS via flashrom may leave you with the old version of EC firmware,
> which could be undesirable.
>
> On Tue, Aug 6, 2019 at 10:11 PM Patrick Rogers
>  wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > There is a very likely chance in your situation that flashrom will be
> > able to read and write to the chip even if it's not on the supported
> > chips list. This command simply identifies the chip and tells you if
> > everything is working.
> >
> > flashrom -p linux_spi:dev=/dev/spidev0.0,spispeed=2000 -V
> >
> > You might get some error about how you might not be able to write to the
> > chip, but from my experience with an ASUS BIOS chip and a Raspberry Pi,
> > this was still possible.
> >
> > https://www.rototron.info/recover-bricked-bios-using-flashrom-on-a-raspberry...
> >
> > On 2019-08-05 4:39 p.m., Shaver,Zachary J wrote:
> > > Hey,
> > >
> > > I'm considering using flashrom to upgrade the bios on a MSI B450M Pro-M2
> > > Motherboard. It's BIOS ROM appears to be a MX25U12873F but I only see
> > > MX25U12835F in the supported chips for flashrom. I did a cursory
> > > comparison of the datasheets for the two and they look very similar. Is
> > > there a chance I could flash the 73 with the 35 profile in flashrom? I
> > > am aware that they are 1.8V and will need a 1.8V supply and 1.8V gpio
> > > from the programmer (in my case raspberry pi).
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > >
> > > flashrom mailing list -- [e-mail]
> > > To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
> >
> > flashrom mailing list -- [e-mail]
> > To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
>
> flashrom mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]