AMIBIOS issues..

[xchris]

Hi

I tried to unlock the BIOS of a toughpad, the device is bricked now.

Before I started anything I took a backup of the BIOS via afuwingui v3.09.03.1462 (as it was suggested on some sites), alas the size of the backup was only 5,767,168 bytes, not the full 16,777,216 bytes , I kept that backup in anycase.

After that I tried to re-flash the BIOS using a (3.3v mod) CH341A (B in fact) , I also took a full backup of the BIOS before the operation, it was the correct 16.8MB.

Well, power on after the 1st re-flash (using the 16.8MB modded (clean passwd) image) was only a black screen (power LED steady green), no matter how long it was powered on there was nothing on screen, then I tried to 
reflash with the 1st backup of BIOS (the smaller one) , now the tablet's power led is blinking , at that point I tried to reflash/erase the IC, using Asprogrammer 2.1.0 and CH314A Programmer v1.0.3 on a ancient XP - the only windows system I have, all of my previous attempts were on linux using flashrom v 1.6.0-devel , even there that IC is partially supported. I also have IMSProg v1.5.2, alas that IC is not even on their db.

so, sort of stuck now, I hope I got good BIOS backups, at least the 1st one from afuwingui could be ok, but it not the full size, is there any tool that can expand it to full 16MB , maybe I am wrong here because there are parts of the BIOS that are missing there.

You may wonder why I m not sure about my backups, as both no-name soic8 clips (both brand new) were totally unreliable, one of them failed to correctly grip the pins after the 4-5 attempts, really low quality, on the second one two wires were disconnected from the test-clip in less than 30min... 

Anyway I also found some BIOS backups from others (on another forum) one of them seems to have the same specs like me, down to the same m/b revision, I assume I can use that BIOS if mine's are bad dumps , I understand that I have to change their serial nr to match my tablet's, is there a tool that can do this or just manual change via hexed ? I managed to find the (multiple) locations of the serial nr there.

Now I m waiting a new (better) soic8 clip (a pomona 5250) and a replacement (blank) BIOS IC (MCIX 25L12873F) just in case the chip is damaged, I put de/soldering last on my list.

if any ideas , thank you in advance!