Mobile Pascal TDP Tweaker Update and Feedback Thread

Indeed this is a very strange version of the CH341A, usually it's nearly plug and play.
As for knowing which eeprom correspond to which device, you can compare rom size by checking part number (RTX card need like 512KB eeprom while regular bios need at least 16MB), you can also read a little bit inside the bios and check for "Nvidia related stuff" in the decoded text part (like "VGA", "NVIDIA", or sometime the vbios starts by "NVGI").

 

Should I just go for the regular black one lol

EDIT: Yeah I just went ahead and got the black one. In the CH341A program all I need to do is attach the clip, blank/erase the vbios, and load the modified bios in the same program with "file-open" correct? Then hit program? I noticed the only supported files are .bin and .hex, do I need to change the modified .rom to .bin?

 

Your missing a vital step.

You need to save your current vbios 3 times and checksum check it to make sure you have a good connection and to save your rear if you mess up with the flashing afterwards.

Sent from my SNE-LX1 using Tapatalk

 

The software is the only thing you need, select the right chip then save the content of it and finnally press on "auto"

 

If your system does indeed use a dedicated vbios chip rather than an oprom embedded in the bios and this is the only other '25***' SOIC8 chip on the board then this is the vbios eeprom. The '25' means SPI btw; Serial Peripheral Interface, one of the communication protocols for eeproms.

Other embedded hardware devices such as LAN and Bluetooth also need a bit of firmware somewhere and these too can either be stored on a similar-sized eeprom or embedded in an oprom. You won't know which is which until you've read out their contents. Well ... that is, unless the chips on the board are labeled and clearly state 'BIOS' or, at the least, 'U4' or something which you can then look up in the schematics, provided these can be found somewhere.

The '80' in the part number should really be read as '08' and designates its size; 8 Mbit. Mind that an AMD vbios is padded to the full 1MB, but Nvidia doesn't do this, so software dumps (and system-reseller provided updates) are always a fair bit smaller than that. This is something to take into account when flashing a modified vbios; if you flash it without padding first then the programmer will write only the data you provide, leaving the remainder of data on the chip untouched. Not a problem if the mod is larger, but if it is smaller then this will mean a brick. Easiest and safest is therefor to simply erase first.

That is your bios; 128 Mbit.

Yes. Though that can also require flashing the full bios if it is indeed really an oprom.

Not really 'best', but more like 'only', give or take a few minor deviations:

1. Desolder or use clip (I prefer desoldering to rule out the write-protect or the board's circuit layout getting in the way).
2. Read out current data twice (or thrice).
3. Compare to your NVFLASH dump; they should match, except for the hardware dump being larger.
4. Erase entire chip.
5. Write back the backup.
6. Resolder, if applicable.

Once fixed you may consider buying a 150mil SOIC8 test socket. These can be soldered to the board and after that the eeprom can simply be removed and replaced at leisure. With MXMs it may need some extra work if the heatsink gets in the way, but with motherboards that isn't really an issue.

 

Wow t456, thank you so much for the detailed reply and information.

The CH341a programmer will take a couple of weeks to arrive .
Will I have to pad out my vbios dump (from Nvflash) before I try flashing it? The file size of stock rom was 1023kb from memory. (The vbios on the techpowerup vga bios collection site also seems to be 1023k if I am looking at the correct one https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/220482/220482).

 

Not need to pad the vbios if you wipe the eeprom first, but it is a good precaution if you ever forget that step.

The exact size of a padded vbios should match the size of the eeprom, so 1,024*1,204=1,048,576 bytes for an 8 Mbit eeprom. The TPU dump is indeed padded, but not to the correct size. Also, it isn't the proper file to flash directly to the eeprom as it is; it starts with an extra header and this would never be written to the chip. You could remove that bit up until '55 AA' and hope for the best.

Not sure where they got that file from. They claim 'Gigabyte AERO 15' as the donor system, yet the full-sized bios file from Gigabyte's driver site only includes an oprom for the Intel HD. That means that whatever software tool was used to extract it isn't of much help if it was intended as a hardware backup file. Could be that the header and end-padding are indeed necessary for using with nvflash, though that is doubtful. At any rate, if your own nvflash dump and that of the Asus ROG are similarly padded then they are not much good to use on an eeprom. Could upload them somewhere and we can take a look.

Hmm ... also, it looks like your system is dGPU only? If so then you cannot flash a vbios from an Optimus system (or vice versa). Either will result in a black screen.

 

Thanks for the reply. Yes, the system is dGPU only and doesn't have Optimus. That was a huge mistake I made to flash an Optimus bios .

I have uploaded my nvflash dump of my stock vbios here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y7odQw2yGDc8hEgftRKEfMhYfhSHbcgY/view?usp=sharing

Thanks for any advice

 

Could give this a try:
Gigabyte Aorus 15 - RTX 2060, possible fix, stock.7z

But wait until you have the dump from the programmer. That should show us how the vbios ought to look like once written to the chip.

Might modify the file above just in case; if it is indeed correct then you can have your 90W version at the ready as well.

 

Thank you very much for this. I have spent the last couple of days trying to get a working programmer and finally have been able to read the chip directly from the board using test clip. (Read 3 times in a row).

This is the read from the bios as it is currently on the motherboard: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Pgt5NqYoif_-a7Y-iW41RzKuScvzZXXY/view?usp=sharing

I noticed the nvflash dump file is 1023kb and the programmer dump file is 1024kb.