GeForce 9600M GT and how restore from a BIOS flash failure? - 2009/12/19 12:10Hi there, I got an Acer 7520g notebook which I did upgrade one year ago with a GeForce 9600M GT MXM module which has 512MB of GDDR3 memory. As many of us know this lappy BIOS has no support for such a card, this is going to manifest with an ugly and 30 secs long post at boot time stating to update motherboards BIOS in order to let the card work as needed. One year ago I did the performance table modification to my GeForce 9600M card in order to let it work at full speed and worked great...no way however to remove the 30 secs error message at boot time.
So recently I did something I should not have done. I flashed the card with a GeForce 9700M BIOS out of curiosity and the result now is that I have a blank screen whenever I switch on my notebook. I was tired of the 30 secs message and nothing helped me to hack the motherboard BIOS in order to skip such a trap. Before doing that desperade action I tried to uncompress BIOS modules, this however did not give me any chance to understand which module was the one to hack...yep..telling the truth I was not able to extract modules at all...no thyrd party software worked during this task.
Now apart from the fact I will never buy again a computer equipped with a Phoenix BIOS I am in a bad situation. I tried yesterday the tweezer method, the one which involves shortdutting pin 1 and 4 of the firmware to force the BIOS flashing with a black screen but my USB flash drive is not recognized and no activity is coming out of my notebook with those two pins shorted. So guys what do I have to do? Should I desolder the firmware chip and to flash it with my firmware programmer? Many thanks.
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 9600M GT and how restore from a BIOS flash failure? - 2009/12/19 13:22First of all, I don't get the whole idea about upgrade any laptop with a new graphics device if you are not completely certain it will really work. And in you case I believe several did try before you and didn't get around that stupid 30 secs long post. Now even, I simply don't understand why anyone would even upgrade their laptop with a new graphics device at all, but that is my own opinion, but I tend to be right that it more often gives more burden than that it actually does work with a new faster graphics device.
In yoru case now that you are stuck with a blank screen due to what I would call a foolish BIOS flash, you have to first check what firware chip you have got before you can just decide that you need to tweezer pin 1 and 4 and just think it will work. Each firmware has a different layout and some require that you tweezer other pins to get the hardware reset done on the firmware to allow it to be flashed again. So have you checked what firmware you have and looked at the datasheet to know what you have to do?
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mikmak
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Re:GeForce 9600M GT and how restore from a BIOS flash failure? - 2009/12/19 14:00Oh I really wanted it was so, I mean the pins to shortcut were different. The Macronix MX25L512 has the common layout, and that is you need to tweezer pins 1 and 4 to reset. The story seems to end with the firmware chip desoldering and hard flash. Yikes!
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 9600M GT and how restore from a BIOS flash failure? - 2009/12/20 16:19mikmak wrote: Oh I really wanted it was so, I mean the pins to shortcut were different. The Macronix MX25L512 has the common layout, and that is you need to tweezer pins 1 and 4 to reset. The story seems to end with the firmware chip desoldering and hard flash. Yikes! Okay, normally the tweezer if done as it should will reset the firmware and make it that you can flash it afterwards, after removing the tweezer. And I doubt somehow that if that doesn't work or made a difference that trying to desolder and flash using a firmware programmer will solve the issue, but that is indeed your last chance to solve it.
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mikmak
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Re:GeForce 9600M GT and how restore from a BIOS flash failure? - 2009/12/20 22:21I thought I had to leave the two pins shortcutted in order to make such a black screen firmware restore procedure. I did leave the tweezer on at every attempt I made. You say I need to remove the tweezer and let it give a try? Just made one more try, no way. I got to make a hard flash with my firmware programmer.
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 9600M GT and how restore from a BIOS flash failure? - 2009/12/21 12:45mikmak wrote: I did leave the tweezer on at every attempt I made. You say I need to remove the tweezer and let it give a try? Just made one more try, no way. I got to make a hard flash with my firmware programmer. You have to do what you have to do, but the method is very simple you apply the tweezer, startup the computer and let it boot in DOS, so from the according bootable media and once you are at the prompt you remove the tweezer. Than you try to flash and normally that should work.
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mikmak
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Re:GeForce 9600M GT and how restore from a BIOS flash failure? - 2009/12/21 15:13Well it is not the first time I am going to measure my patience in front of this kind of irony. I tried and tried again but no post is coming out from this damned Acer notebook. There is no way to let the notebook pass the boot procedure, it hangs whenever I am tweezering the two pins or not. Unplugging the card and replacing it with an old Mobility X1400 it starts and lites on. I appreciate your help but I can not do anything more to proove my good intent and work. You surely do not live near Rome, if else we could go for a beer and then let it give a try togheter. Many thanks, I will post some comments after the hard flash...
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 9600M GT and how restore from a BIOS flash failure? - 2009/12/21 15:41mikmak wrote: I tried and tried again but no post is coming out from this damned Acer notebook. There is no way to let the notebook pass the boot procedure, it hangs whenever I am tweezering the two pins or not. I appreciate your help but I can not do anything more to proove my good intent and work. You surely do not live near Rome, if else we could go for a beer and then let it give a try togheter. And I surely do believe you, though I also know what I know from my own experience with the tweezer method and for me each time it did work. But yeah, I did notice that for some even after several tries it just didn't make a difference. Well, I have been in Rome several times though I don't live there, but if you are in Belgium we could still go for that beer. Good luck!
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mikmak
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Re:GeForce 9600M GT and how restore from a BIOS flash failure? - 2010/01/30 13:34Hi, I know you are still there and hope you are well. It took me two months but at the end I did my mobile card revival. As I just told you in our previous conversation I had to hard flash the firmware chip. At first I had to order a sop8 adaptor and when it came to my hands I had then to modify it and to build an adapter for it too. This was needed cause I had no chances to flash it on the zif socket but that is another story. I did some pictures in order to some day write a guide for those as me that tried with no luck to flash a more compatible BIOS for their limited notebooks. Okay, let me do some homework otherwise my wife will catch me out. Ciao!
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 9600M GT and how restore from a BIOS flash failure? - 2010/01/30 15:57mikmak wrote: It took me two months but at the end I did my mobile card revival. As I just told you in our previous conversation I had to hard flash the firmware chip. At first I had to order a sop8 adaptor and when it came to my hands I had then to modify it and to build an adapter for it too. Well done, and glad you got that working as you wanted. It took though quite some time but in the end if that is what it takes, it is okay. Good stuff, and yeah indeed now do some homework. Hehe, just kidding.
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