Help! I bricked my G73 with vBIOS

So I'm studying the vBIOS threads and became interested when the Overdrive was enabled along with ziddy's voltage adjustment. I ran into a few hurdles when using RBE and the boot usb drive and that should have been enough to make me stop, but it didn't.

I made a backup of my original vBIOS and saved on another computer. All I did was try to change the voltage on my original vBIOS and flash using RBE and Winflash (I know, we can discuss how boneheaded it was to flash in windows later). The flash process started (corrected: 3/4 ways finished), but it promted "Fail", the damage was already done I guess.

Now when I boot, lights come on like normal, but no display and then keyboard lights go out like normal when you wait for windows to load. If I hit CTRL-ALT-DELETE while in this state, there is a little action by the keyboard lights coming on and the optical drive spinning. It's like it's stuck on a DOS error message and the C-A-D is a reboot.

Can anyone help a blind man through this...Please

Thanks.
--------------------------------------------------

Update #1: I'm at my wits end, I am passing the torch to Ken@GenTechPC for some hands on mojo. If it's going to get properly done, he's the man to do it.

Summary: I had WinFlash crash 3/4 way through with a Fail prompt. Frozen screen leading to a forced shutdown. Many bootable USB and CD attempts using great advice from the community and a lot of video conference help from premudriy, it is very stubborn in it's behavior.

Ken came to 2 great points on pg7:

to which I added:

I also add 3) the user isn't doing it right. Hands on Ken will nulify #3.

I'll keep this OP updated and maybe we can have a line ready to get someone out of this rabbit hole.

--------------------------------------------------

Update #2 Ken has gone above & beyond working with my G73, but premudriy and I were doing it right. It simply will not boot from anything.

Not So Fun Fact: The 5870m in the G73 has less PCB layers and is wider, so it will not fit into a Xfire Clevo to flash while viewing with the other card. Way to non-conform Asus. At this point, a G73 5870m only fits in a G73.

It is hanging on an error (most notible reason is having to hold down the power button to turn off). Ken feels that maybe the vBIOS got so corrupt that an ID can't even be seen.

Ken put a MSI 5870m in my G73 and he got into system BIOS, no problem. He then put my 5870m in a different G73 and it exibited the same malfunction mine does. Everything points back to what was expected (VGA only FUBAR), but not being able to put it into a diff Xfire rig to flash was a major blow. Maybe a Xfire G73 or a special Asus tech bench can be the only option for that.

I called Asus support and told them what happened. They issued a RMA number and Ken will direct ship it to them. As of now, the rabbit hole is deep and dark, and could get worse, so use CAUTION in a vBIOS flash and stay tuned for what Asus is going to say.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Ken, premudriy and the rest of NBR for the assistance.

--------------------------------------------------

Update #3 After being "in repair" since 7/6/10, I finally have a tracking number for it to arrive on 8/26/10. Hopefully, this thread OP only has one update left and it's "all is well"

--------------------------------------------------

Update #4 (So much for #4 being the last) A positively horrendous return from Indiana repair center. Tech states that VGA passed all tests, but yet I find with 80F ambient that my idle temps are:
DispIO 65C
MemIO 95C
Shader 82C
It actually gets worse leading to hours worth of a BSOD debacle. There is even another layer of "worse" after that.

The good news is ziddy123 (and Chastity ) pointed me in the direction of Gary Key an Asus rep, and Gary as expedited some class A repair service with a tech in CA.

I have direct contact with my tech and he states he will keep me fully informed. We'll see how this goes, but the promised expedited service is starting off on a very good foot. Update #5 to come.

--------------------------------------------------

Update #5 Read Here. Thank you Gary

Here's an "I'm Back" vid.

<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BW66iLovLUc?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;color2=0x999999"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BW66iLovLUc?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width='640' height="385"></embed>

Q

 

Sorry to hear that Q. It would be interesting to see how you can get out of the bricked without RMA/Recovery disk.

 

Thanks. Someone with a magical knowledge of how to do a blind vBIOS flash with a USB stick would be a godsend.

 

Pray to the ASUS gods for help becuase this is way beyond my expertise without looking at it.Sometimes it's best to leave things as they be.

Good Luck!

 

No VGA or HDMI. I remember my usb drive was 3 down. I didn't rename the vBIOS original, the name RBE gave it is:

2D 500, 1000, 0.95 3D - 400, 1000, 0.95.rom
So I boot, pressing ESC for the menu, arrow key down 3 steps and enter, wait 1 seconds and type:

atiflash -p 0 -f 2D 500, 1000, 0.95 3D - 400, 1000, 0.95 and hit enter.

Am I doing it right? I have a clean USB stick formatted using the HP tool and bootme according to zFactors thread . It shows the 3 hidden files that are supposed to be on it and then I have my vBIOS file.
Is this all correct, is my n00b showing.

 

Hello and sorry to hear that Quag. I think it is not going to be easy to flash old vbios back but its possible. First obstacle here is to get your flash media to load automatically if I remember correctly on g73jh you have to hit ESC button during startup to choose which media to load.


Sorry I see you are allready in progress here.

 

What did you used to backup your original vbios?

 

Thanks jmhdj. One of the problems is I have no confidence in my USB stick. Whn I made it, it boots to DOS fine, but I couldn't make a backup of the vBIOS with it. Maybe I should burn a dedicated CD with the vBIOS. I'll have to google for this unless someone can step me through it as to the files I need.
Without the USB stick in there, my optical is 3rd down from ESC at boot.

If I RMAd this, how would Asus fix it? What miracle do they have to reflash a bios blind, or would they just replace the VGA?

Man this sucks so bad, damn my curosity as I broke every rule I had by doing this.

Q

 

RBE 10char...

Do I have all I need on the flash drive: 3 hidden files (boot) and the rom file which I renamed newbios.rom?

I feel so helpless right now, we can save the slamming on me for later.

Q

 

Hello. I flashed my vbios using the WinFlash also.

I am not sure how to do it blind, but I have uploaded 2 vbios. The default Asus vBios and the AsusV2 Bios I'm using.
Free File Hosting Made Simple - MediaFire

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/482491-gsod-fix-g73-owners-vbios-update-guide.html
- See if Dkillzone or Xeven can help you.