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Phoenix BIOS Recovery

This procedure should work for most laptops and desktops that have a conventional Phoenix BIOS. If you have an older system, you should be able to follow the same procedure with a floppy drive.

  1. Download CRISIS Recovery Disk Tool (WINCRISIS). The version in our repository is 1.0.0.4, but your OEM may have a newer or older version if they provide their own recovery tools.
  2. Format your USB flashdrive as FAT. Do not put anything on the drive after formatting.
  3. Run WINCRIS.EXE in XP SP3 compatibility mode. Select your USB flashdrive and click start. Do as the prompt instructs when it asks you to disconnect and reconnect your USB flashdrive. Click “yes” at the next prompt if it asks you to format another disk and then re-select the start button. When this is done, close the program and disconnect the USB flashdrive.
  4. Reconnect the USB flashdrive and copy over MINIDOS.SYS, PHLASH16.EXE, and BIOS.WPH to the root directory. In some cases, BIOS.WPH may not be the correct name. You can verify this by following the steps mentioned in this third paragraph. If the tool comes back with a different recovery name, make a COPY of your BIOS image and rename it to what the recovery tool specifies. That way, your drive has these contents: MINIDOS.SYS, PHLASH16.EXE, BIOS.WPH, and [returned recovery name].WPH. Make sure that all of these files are in the root directory and that you do not have any other files or folders on the drive.
  5. If you are unsure of how to get your .WPH BIOS image, chances are you need to download the latest BIOS update from the manufacturer and extract the .EXE upgrade archive they provide (use 7-zip or similar). Then, look for a .WPH, .ROM, or similar file that is typically a standard file size of 1024KB, 2048KB, etc. This will be the file you make copies of and rename to BIOS.WPH and the custom recovery name reported by the tool mentioned in step 4 (if any).
  6. Remove the battery from the laptop and unplug the AC power cord. Then, plug in your USB floppy drive (with the CRISIS Recovery Disk in it and ready to go). Next, with the AC still unplugged, press and hold the Fn (Function) and B buttons. While still holding them, plug the AC power in, then press the power button.
  7. The system should power on, but there should be no LEDs lit up, and the fan should not slow down like it normally does. If that is not what happens, and you get LEDs that light up, and the fan slows like normal, unplug the AC power and try using the Win and B keys instead. Once the system has booted into the BIOS recovery mode, the floppy light will flash as it reads the BIOS file from the disk. You can then release the Fn+B keys (or Win+B). After a minute or two, the floppy light will stop flashing.
  8. DO NOT shut the computer off, as the process is only half complete. The system is now flashing the BIOS.
  9. After the USB or floppy light goes off, leave the computer on for two or three minutes; more if you want to be sure, and if the system does not reboot itself (mine did not), unplug the AC power. I let mine go for five minutes or so and pulled the plug (the power button would not shut the system off no matter how long I held it; I suspect this is normal). Five minutes should be plenty; however long you wait, try to be patient. My five minutes of waiting seemed to take forever, but paid off. Better to be without the laptop an extra minute or two than two weeks while it’s back to wherever it came from having a new chip installed or the old chip re-flashed. Plug the AC power back into the laptop and fire it up.
  10. If all goes well, you’ll have made a very expensive paperweight into something useful again.
  11. It seems this works for most newer models of laptops with Phoenix BIOSes (from what I’ve seen). Forums I’ve read have said that it may be either Fn+B or Win+B to boot into BIOS recovery mode.
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41 Responses to “Phoenix BIOS Recovery”

  • Mave Rick:
    October 30, 2012 at 6:17 pm

    Hi,

    Im having a “105-Unsupported wireless broadband device detected. System Halted.” problem. i did some research and i think it will require a bios recovery like you explain.

    I bought the usb floppy drive and done all the step like you explain.I got it from other forum.Its the same step but very few people knows how to do things like this.

    The problem is after plug in the power cable, holding the win+b key with the floppy drive and the floppy all ready in, the notebook come out with a 1 second loud beep continuously. same thing happen with out the floppy drive in.

    It seams like nothing happening.Please help.

    The lappy is Compaq Presario V3000
    Phoenix Bios f.26
    Intel dual core processor

    Please help. im working on this for two weeks now.

    Your help is very much appreciated

    Reply
    • TheWiz:
      November 17, 2012 at 8:01 pm

      Hi Mave,

      Normally this error message is a result of adding an unsupported wireless card, however the BIOS itself shouldn’t be corrupt. If this is the case, simply put the old wireless card back in and look for a custom modification in our forums to see if support for your custom wireless card can be added into your BIOS.

      Reply
      • Mave Rick:
        November 22, 2012 at 5:30 pm

        Hi TheWiz,

        Thank you for your reply.I think the problem caused by a 3g mobile broadband modem.It got something to do with the compaq whitelist i think.However the bios is not corrupted because i still can enter the bios setup page.

        It’s just that it wont boot any media at all.The 105 error comes up just after the compaq logo.

        Is there any way that i can get rid of the old bios and install a new one coz the current bios wont boot anything at all.Just like the method mentioned in this thread.I’ve tried doing it with floppy drive,flash drive, hdd drive, but all wont work. It give me a loud one long beep + two short beep after i hit the win + B key.still nothing,also it wont read the floppy.

        Please help me.I’ve been stuck with this problem for quite sometimes now.

        Your Kind help and guidance are very much appreciated.

        Thank you

        Reply
  • Guillermo Ojea Quintana:
    November 28, 2012 at 2:44 am

    Hello,

    I have an Ultra 40M2 Workstation from Sun and the Phoenix BIOS was corrupted.

    Do you think that this procedure will work also for this system?

    I will need to look for a windows keyboard because Sun’s do not have the win key 🙂

    Thanks.

    Reply
  • mi2zi:
    December 3, 2012 at 10:51 pm

    hi,i’m facing similar prob i have Satellite A500 and i do the bios update thing and it seems to be corrupted now (black screen) nothing work.
    i read the upper issue but i still don’t know to replace the BIOS.WPH (with what file) , reply plz

    Reply
  • wexler:
    February 7, 2013 at 3:52 pm

    Hi
    I’m having a Toshiba Satellite U400 laptop with a BIOS Phoenix crashed after a failed update. Now, after I tried to start it I’ve got only the black screen and a long and two short beeps (from time to time).
    I followed the steps you showed above, but nothing. I tried even without the hard disk and the same result – nothing.
    Have you got any clue what I can do to rewrite the BIOS on chip ( I have the original BIOS.wph)
    Thanx

    Reply
    • TheWiz:
      April 29, 2013 at 1:04 am

      There might be a different recovery name associated with your BIOS. Please try Andy’s Phoenix SLIC tool to see if it provides an alternative recovery name.

      Reply
  • skavee:
    February 13, 2013 at 7:13 pm

    hello, I just wanted to ask if this also works with a bootable USB.

    Reply
    • TheWiz:
      May 23, 2013 at 11:51 pm

      It is recommended the USB be completely formatted and empty except for the files – but it “should” be alright if it is bootable.

      Reply
  • Ryan:
    May 13, 2013 at 4:21 pm

    The crisis tool download link is broken. Please update.

    Reply
  • Kajikoffo:
    May 16, 2013 at 1:34 pm

    Hey guys,

    having trouble with Samsung R519, dead BIOS (can’t get in, can’t boot). Although it reacts on F2 to enter (by writing Please wait..), all I get is black screen. I got myself a crisis disk mentioned before, but the problem is the original BIOS file is ~1,56MB and won’t fit into FDD. I can’t find smaller file (like older BIOS) anywhere, spent almost 1 whole day searching.. No matter what BIOS, any BIOS is better than this dead one.

    Any suggestions?? Thanks anyone with some idea :)..

    Reply
  • Ben:
    September 14, 2013 at 7:09 pm

    So I have a Dell Studio 1535 (model number PP33L) that I accidentally flashed with the 1555’s BIOS. :-[ Now I’m stuck on an error screen that doesn’t even go into BIOS. Is there a way I can save this laptop short of replacing the mobo? I don’t think my mobo has a removable BIOS chip as far as I can tell and I’ve searched the internet without luck of fixing the BIOS. I’ve tried the Crisis Recovery but the laptop doesn’t display anything pass the error screen

    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18588361/2013-08-29%2012.02.35.jpg

    Reply
  • nic:
    October 4, 2013 at 12:27 am

    Hi,
    I have an Acer 7551 that suddenly would not turn on, all I get is a blank screen and a spinning HDD, but no seeking. I tried the recovery procedure; Wincris gets the flash drive created and I replace the BIOS file with the correct one. Plug the drive in the unpowered laptop, push & hold Fn+ESC (tried all the other combos too), plug the power cord in and push the power button, but nothing different happens.

    I’m thinking the motherboard is dead, fair enough I can get one on ebay for a decent price, but it’s for a Gateway. The problem with that is that the current Windows won’t work anymore (VLK thing linked to the mfg BIOS string).

    I should be able to flash an Acer BIOS onto it and have it working, I’m just not sure what tools to use for that. Would the Wincris disc allow flashing the “wrong” BIOS?

    Reply
  • Frenchdavy83:
    October 6, 2013 at 11:37 am

    Hya, i just bricked my daughter satellite C600 i updated from the Toshiba support center the bios and while doing it, the machine stopped and impossible to restart nothing at all black screen just the fan are turning but after 2 minutes of doing it goes off again. Please i cant afford a new one and if someone could show me the way, i would be so greatfull.
    I just made a bootable usb drive but after that its all a bit confusing.
    Thanks for helping me!!
    Frenchdavy83

    Reply
  • Jeff:
    November 30, 2013 at 3:12 pm

    Hi! I’m new one here and i have a question to you guys. I change my wi-fi card in laptop HP dv6000 and i have a problem with it. When i want to turn on the computer it says me that: 104 – unsaported wi-fi dewice detected. what can i do with that .

    Reply
  • IT I Need Thee:
    May 5, 2014 at 4:48 pm

    Hello,
    Trying to flash the bios on an Acer AO 721 that black screened.

    I am having trouble creating the crisis recovery tool.

    I am using a XP pro machine. I have a FAT formatted USB stick. When I try to run the WINCRIS.EXE it launches and lets me select “removable disk” but do not have the ability to select the browse button or type a path.

    If I try the start button, I get a pop up that informs I need to choose my drive but still have no ability to do so and if I hit OK to the pop-up the entire program closes.

    I have tried to run both as my user account and as admin but still no luck.

    Any thoughts or advice on what I may be wrong would be greatly appreciated!

    Reply
  • alex:
    May 13, 2014 at 7:22 am

    my samsung lap np 300 e5x at last i installed phoenix p07rac….i installed debian 7….which corrupted my bios then my bios not enter in to bios settings….now the pblm is my lap doesn booting and also not detcting harddisk….

    Reply
  • rommel:
    May 26, 2014 at 3:50 pm

    Could you please provide me with Lenovo z580 BIOS

    Reply
  • alex:
    May 29, 2014 at 9:13 am

    my bios doesn detect hdd,not booting,usb..but odd indicating signal….actually bios corrupted…..model samsung np300e5x-s01in ,lastly phoenix installed version is P07RAC….i need bin to flash…help me ..and 1 doubt what is .rom extension file

    Reply
    • Ashinu:
      August 21, 2014 at 6:32 am

      Hey, I have the exact same model and BIOS version as your’s. And I’ve the exact same problem. The only difference is, I bricked it installing Ubuntu and not Debian.
      Did you solve your problem? If yes, would you please be kind enough to send me an Email to “ashinu77@gmail.com”?

      Reply
  • d3n7s:
    August 18, 2014 at 3:14 pm

    Hi, honestly if some one can help me i would be deeply in debt.
    My Dell Inspiron 14z 5423 is bricked, so i need to know if i can rename the .rom file that i have extracted from the 5423A13.exe bios update file provided by DEll official site (using /writeromfile command) to BIOS.wph and use it to do all the process explained in the top of this page.. Thanks

    Reply
  • rocket:
    August 25, 2014 at 11:31 pm

    how to update Phoenix BIOS in windows Safe mode ? cuz not allow me , and windows not work at any mood else of safe mode ?

    Reply
  • Federico:
    November 10, 2014 at 8:41 am

    LOVE YOU! 🙂
    TOSHIBA P200-PSPB3E back to life with this procedure
    THNX a lot!

    Reply
  • mohmed:
    November 14, 2014 at 8:08 pm

    please help me i have lenovo g580 i installed windows 8.1 one day i have restart my pc and it came up with problrm screen and wirte in it inacsesable boot device .

    when i press f2 to load bios its write please wait and dont do any thing else . i think its need to reflash bios so i just need to know how i can do this with usb thanks much

    Reply
  • jozuë Martineau:
    January 2, 2015 at 8:01 pm

    Thank you verymuch, you saved my computer. easy to understand instruction. 10/10

    Reply
  • Shane Ekstrom:
    January 24, 2015 at 8:29 pm

    I can confirm this worked on a Toshiba A215-S4697 that had locked up during an attempt to update the BIOS in Vista. I should have known not to attempt updates while in Windows!

    Reply
  • Vernam7:
    February 21, 2015 at 12:19 am

    i fixed it!!

    here is how and maybe you wish to share that.

    well i did played with the display settings so the laptop was not showing anything. But that doesn’t mean it was nto actually booting at least was trying but was propably geting a bsod, since the display was “disabled”.

    i tried the HDMI hours ago maybe i would get a tv out but nop.
    after waiting 2 hours for the bios t clear as you said it doesn’t because its in ROM that keep power for hours,
    this is what i did.

    -i download your new modified bios,
    -i copied in my msdos bootable usb
    -also in the usb i create the autoexec.bat and edit it inside to call the flash.bat automatically the next time the usb boots
    -i opened my laptop and disconected the SSD so i made sure the bios will boot only from my usb
    -i pluged the usb and power on the laptop WITH all battaries Connected! (because it check for battery state while flashing!)
    -i left the laptop to power on, and i noticed that the usb was indeed LED flashing, showing some sort of activity,
    -i remember now that your flash update asked 1-2 times “are you sure” “press any key to continue flashing” so i simple pressed 2-3 times then “Enter” key.
    -usb started to flash even more now showing that the bios was indeed flashing!
    -i waited exactly 1 min, it doesnt take longer and to make sure it finished i pressed 1-2 time more Enter, i saw none activity on the usb flash led.
    -then i thought if the flash is over and needs a restart, lets make sure that its indeed over by forcing a command on the msdos to show some short off activity, and i tried to type “dir”, and boom flash led activity. everytiem i typed in the blind DIR and enter the USB was flashing, which means my bios flash should be finished and now was waiting for a restart!
    -i pressed the power button 3sec to shutdown and then press again to boot
    -BOOM the screen comes to life and i have your bios installed.

    i turn the laptop back off, and connected my SSD, and then power up to setup my bios, without touching any other crazy settings this time 😛

    now i type you from my babe!

    Reply
    • John:
      February 25, 2015 at 4:18 am

      Any more tips on this? I’ve got the same problem… what modified bios did you use? and the autorun dos, so far haven’t been able to get any USB activity 🙁 May have to phone lenovo up for that talk if I can’t fix this soon…

      Reply
  • Brian D:
    February 27, 2015 at 7:34 pm

    Seems as though this does not work on a Samsung NP700Z7C S01US machine. I followed the instructions and the machine just goes into boot loop. It does try to access the USB Flash Drive, but nothing happens. I got the BIOS file from Samsung but it is not .ROM or .WPH, it is .CAB. After running WINCRIS, I copied the PO3ASB.CAB file to the Flash Drive and renamed it BIOS.WPH. But that did not matter because the machine is always in boot loop regardless of any key combination. Battery and HDD are out of the circuit so that is not an issue.

    Any thoughts as to what I might be doing wrong or why keyboard combinations do not work to reflash the BIOS?

    Reply
  • DC7700 SFF – No Beep with no ram, CPU Hot, Chipset Hot, GPU Hot – NO POST | Tech360i Tech Support:
    May 18, 2015 at 6:00 pm

    […] corrupted will need to perform standard BIOS Recovery I’m Guessing Via USB AND BIOS.WPH RIGHT?https://www.bios-mods.com/bios-recovery/phoenix-bios-recovery/ Trying to get Xeon L5320 to work as I got this message…  Anyway This DC7700 […]

    Reply
  • Alex:
    December 26, 2016 at 12:45 am

    Lenovo G50-45, I had a misfortune with a BIOS update. I’d like to recover it but my battery is not recognized(it stay strucks at 0% but works), the keyboard doesn’t work either(only touchpad et numeric pad). So the usual way doesn’t works since it require a valid battery/AC power. And the wincris method neither cause even if I plug an external keyboard I still have to hold “fn”+ R/B but I don’t have “fn” on the keyboard. If someone is able to help it’ll be a life saver!

    Reply
  • Michael:
    January 1, 2017 at 7:43 am

    please guys my boot priority order is empty and because of that my laptop cant boot windows guys am really stocked in here and need help urgently

    Reply
  • Luis Restrepo:
    January 3, 2017 at 8:01 pm

    Hi, I’m having a problem with a Lenovo laptop g480 model 20156, the BIOS doesn’t enter setup or boot device menu, when I pressed F2 to enter setup it displays a message that says “please wait …” and then it boot into Windows normally, I’ve tried to recover from BIOS but all I get when I press Fn + R is the camera light steady on and a black screen, any idea on how to recover this laptop BIOS? Thanks in advance

    Reply
  • Luis:
    April 3, 2017 at 12:43 am

    Hi. I have a Satellite P205-S8811. A while ago it died when i was updating the BIOS. First, I tried the steps above with no luck. I knew I was pressing the correct keys because the power light would turn orange (or something similar) when pressing the Fn+B keys and the Fans won’t stop. After some reading, I decided to buy an USB External Floppy Disk Drive to make a bootable floppy disk (old school), and it worked for me!!!. I can not assure these steps would work for you, but they made a difference and I wanted to share.

    1. Use a USB External Floppy Disk Drive and obviously a floppy Disk to make the bootable disk. I had to buy these two things online since nobody uses floppies anymore.
    2. Connect the external drive on the left side USB ports of the computer.
    3. I downloaded the older ACPI Flash BIOS from http://support.toshiba.com/drivers
    4. This is step 5 above: Locate the file that you have downloaded (it is an executable file), and extract it into a folder. There should be an “iso” file that you also need to extract in another folder. Then, there should be a folder called “Boot”. It contains another folder called “Boot-1.44M”. In this folder would will find a “rom” file. In my case it was called sraa120a.rom (1,029 KB). This is the file i renamed to “bios.wph” (lower case). See step 5.

    best wishes!

    Reply
  • mad:
    April 13, 2017 at 5:06 pm

    I updated a t430 using the system update now i get 5 beeps and nothing. downloaded this utility and i get an error about path to files the browse button is grayed out. this is so bad cantbelieve how much trouble system update has caused

    Reply
  • scott petrack:
    April 19, 2017 at 3:13 pm

    [Note to moderator — please REPLACE previous message with this one. thanks. The previous message is incomplete and erroneous]

    These questions are about a Dell XPS 13 L322x notebook

    1. I got the Bios update file from the Dell website, but when i extract the files from the .exe, the complete file list is
    BIOS.cap
    default.rsp
    DosFlash.exe
    SctWinFlash32.exe
    TdkLib.sys
    TdkLib64.sys
    WinFlash32.exe
    WinFlash64.exe

    so there is no .wph file at all, only a .cap file. Do I rename this .cap file .wph? I get the impression from other searches that the two files might be very different.

    2. I understood from other searches that to flash the .CAP file, i do a procedure with the “end” key, not a Fn key. Basically, i put the above files on to a usb drive, insert the drive, take out the power cord, press “end”, put power cord back in, wait one second, release “end”. WHat is the difference betweeen that procedure and the one outlined above (as far the end result goes, obviously:)? I can tell myself what differences in procedure there is!

    3. This laptop has a battery which is not meant to be removed, it is inside the machine. DO i still need to take it out to do recovery? That is possible to do, it is just not an entirely trivial affair.

    4. The BIOS had a password before the machine bricked, will recovery blank out the password as well?

    WHat worries me most is the fact that the Dell bios update .exe doesn’t contain a .wph file — does this mean it’s NOT a Phoenix Bios?

    Reply

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