[flashrom] Winbond W39V040A seems working

[Stefan Tauner]

On Sat, 28 Apr 2012 13:39:54 +0200
István Rétallér <istvan.retaller at gmail.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> 2012-04-27 21:03 keltezéssel, Stefan Tauner írta: hello again! so basically flashrom works as intended on the abit nf7? you have used the wrong file the first time, but were able to recover it with hot flashing. which file did you use then? the backup, the content of the flash chip of the second board or some other file? do you know the exact revision of the board? there should be a sticker near the pci slots with that information on it. Hi,
> yes, flashrom works correctly. My problem was caused due to my misinterpretation: I supposed the file named nf7_28.bin providing users to flash motherboard BIOS is a simple binary dump. However its structure didn't match my actual BIOS i have read back, I still suppused it must be good. This wrong idea was supported by two facts:
> 1.  I found from 3 different sources with the same binary content (nf7_28.bin)
> 2.  On my computer I found an old and forgotten file named Nf72_15.bin - int was kept in a directory named bios.
> 
> Examining these files I found at 0x7E000 in both file a string: Award BootBlock BIOS and what is strange, my actual bios - read back from the chip - also consisted this string at the same address. So against of the different page0, I said myself it must be a good BIOS.
> But it was a killer....
> 
> Then we recovered my computer as follows:
> - from another NF7 motherboard inserted a BIOS chip into my motherboard and booted.
> - usind flashrom, saved the BIOS content into a file called abit.bin
> - Without shitching power off, removed the good BIOS chip and inserted mine.
> - usind flashrom again, wrote the chip with the abit.bin file
> - verifyed - it was ok
> - after rebooting my motherboard was operating
> 
> It means flasrom was verified for correct reading, writing and even verify was proven. To let you to examine my theory I have attached 3 files:
> Nf72_15.bin is an old bios, found on my computer. Probably it was even used in the old times, but on classic way, i.e. booting from floppy and using the suggested exe file to download this binary dump.
> nf7_28.bin is probably an appropriate BIOS, but you MUST use the suggested exe file for fresh up the chip.
> If I am right, it means the *.bin files are NOT a straighforward binary dumps, bot are somehow mixed up to be coded. Meanwhile, the suggested exe file acts not only a programmer but it even decodes the scrambled file.
> The attached abit.bin is my actual bios, which was read by flasrom from another chip and was written back to my chip.
> 
> So my conclusion is: users should be careful downloading *.bin files found on the internet, because they seem to be coded and your innocent flashrom will be suspected if somebody kills his motherboard - as I did. Flashrom is correct, but if it fed by stupidity, it writes stupidity - so simple.
> 
> The revision code is NF7-S v2.0
> Cheers, Istvan
> 
> Non-text attachments have been stripped:
> nf7_28.bin at http://paste.flashrom.org/view.php?id=1177
> Nf72_15.bin at http://paste.flashrom.org/view.php?id=1178
> abit.bin at http://paste.flashrom.org/view.php?id=1179

ok, everything's clear now. it is very important to use the correct
binary for any mainboard respectively.

i have archived the files for the nf7-s 2.0. the last published
revision "NF7D_27.BIN" is contained in a file named "nf7d27.exe" and
has a md5sum of 55b29d54d8095c3ac94c8d25fa1772fe.

-- 
Kind regards/Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Stefan Tauner