[flashrom] Big problem after flash of SST SST25VF016B on HP Compaq 615

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

Hi Parallix,

could you join us on IRC in #flashrom at irc.freenode.net so we can
debug and fix this problem? Email is a bit slow and IRC is so much faster.

On 09.01.2010 18:28, Parallix wrote:
> I've a big problem. Of course, I made a backup of my old bios with flashrom -r oldbios.bin. Then I tried to flash my HP Compaq 615

Ouch. A laptop. Laptops are unsupported because so many things can go
wrong. Anyway, we're determined to fix this and we're pretty good at that.


> with flashrom v0.9.1-r792 and got the following "warning":
>  
> No coreboot table found.
> Found chipset "AMD SB700/SB710/SB750", enabling flash write... OK.
> This chipset supports the following protocols: LPC,FWH,SPI.
> Calibrating delay loop... OK.
> Found chip "SST SST25VF016B" (2048 KB, SPI) at physical address 0xffe00000.
> Flash image seems to be a legacy BIOS. Disabling checks.
> Writing flash chip... 
> Erasing flash before programming... 
> Erasing flash chip... ERASE FAILED at 0x001c0000! Expected=0xff, Read=0xfc, failed byte count from 0x00000000-0x001fffff: 0x37386
> ERASE FAILED!
> FAILED!
>   

Looks like a boot block lock. Can fix.


> After reading the flash contents with flashrom -r newbios.bin I compared the old bios with the new one. They differ. What can I now do?
>   

First of all, don't panic. There's a good chance we can recover.

First step: Copy your good backup to another external medium. Too many
people destroyed their backups by accident.
Second step: Run
flashrom -c SST25VF016B -V
superiotool -deV
lspci -nnvvvxxx
dmidecode
(all commands as root)
and mail the output to flashrom at flashrom.org (just hit reply-all in your
mailer). Then join IRC and chat with us. If you don't have an IRC
client, you can use the webchat:
http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=flashrom

We may need your backup BIOS image later, but please don't send it to
the list for now.

Regards,
Carl-Daniel

-- 
Developer quote of the year:
"We are juggling too many chainsaws and flaming arrows and tigers."