HP BIOS unlock tool

[peste]

you were lucky..shuck the chip off the board, put it in the programmer, read it, and put the copy here.

[quidep]

Soldering is not my favorite activity, but desoldering is even a nightmare for me. No chance to get it working in place?

[peste]

Originally Posted by quidep

Soldering is not my favorite activity, but desoldering is even a nightmare for me. No chance to get it working in place?

if you do not remove the chip from the board you will have errors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWWigscuQDY

[RethoricalCheese]

Originally Posted by quidep

Soldering is not my favorite activity, but desoldering is even a nightmare for me. No chance to get it working in place?

Never write anything before you have read AND verified original bios first. If you just read it and dont verify the content, you usually will have problems.

Luckily it seems that writing had problems too because your laptop still works


What programmer and software do you use anyway?


With some programmers you need to do this:
*Remove battery
*Attach charger
*Turn on laptop and go to F1, F10 or wherever you like
*Turn off laptop holding down power button (DO NOT REMOVE CHARGER)
*Attach programmer
*Read bios chip content
*Use verify function or read content one more time and compare using hex editor software
*If all is okay, use HPUnlocker tool on the VERIFIED bios dump
*Write the xxx_unlocked.bin file
*Verify bios content


You must always make sure you verify everything you read/write, I cant stress this enough.
And those few first steps are mandatory with some programmers unless you unsolder the chip.

[quidep]

Hello again,

I desoldered the chip (is a winbond W25Q128FV) and try to read it using am CH341A Programmer and a test clip (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32716202129.html)

I have read the content of the chip 4 times and got 4 different bin files. Under these circumstances I don't want to risk the total destruction and to try to flash the file generated by the removal tool. Can you possibly recognize my problem? The files are partly the same but some areas are completely different.

[RethoricalCheese]

What software do you use?

[quidep]

CH341A Programmer V1.29, see also the screenshot.

[RethoricalCheese]

Try this instead
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...6&postcount=10

[quidep]

Thank you for your advice! I've tried it using AsProgrammer v 2.0 and found by the way many threads in different forums about the same problem as in my case:
Verification Failure CH341a - W25Q128FV Help
W25Q128FV can't be flashed
RE: [Guide] Using CH341A-based programmer to flash SPI EEPROM

I've soldered the chip directly to the programmer now and I've used following versions of the different programmer SW:
CH341A Programmer 1.19
CH341A Programmer 1.29
AsProgrammer 1.4.0
AsProgrammer 1.4.1
AsProgrammer 2.0.0a14

But I have still the same problem, the dumps are not exactly the same. Do you have any other idea?

[RethoricalCheese]

Whats the lenght of your programmer wires?

I have kept them less than 20cm and everything works perfectly. Tho I havent used CH341A for a while now.

Miniprog and such seem unreliable to me aswell. One of my favourites and quite cheap option is using raspberry pi.
Pi Zero being as cheap as CH341A. It is 5€ if you can find any.

I use Zero W or 3B but any of them should work just as well.
Flashrom as the software.

[quidep]

One thing I've recognized is: last dumps, created using desoldered chip and SW except CH341A Programmer 1.29 which is suspected to be buggy, differ only in the area between 00EB6000 and 00EB6FF0. Is it possibly intended to be different for some special purpose like encryption or something else?

[quidep]

Originally Posted by RethoricalCheese

Whats the lenght of your programmer wires?

I have kept them less than 20cm and everything works perfectly. Tho I havent used CH341A for a while now.

No wires at all since I've soldered the chip directly to the programmer PCB which is connected directly to a USB port.

[peste]

ok put the programmer in the laptop use the software from item # 188 and make two copies, without touching the programmer, check them and see what came out .. it must be the same.

[quidep]

I did it, more than one time, using different versions of the SW listed in one of my previous posts. See the screenshot for AsProgrammer v 2.0 mentioned in the topic 188.

[quidep]

So, I did it again... Using Raspberry Pi 4 and flashrom, same problem, differences at 00EB6000. Any other suggestions?

[quidep]

Something new: as mentioned somewhere in web I added a decoupling capacitor between VCC and GND. I used 2.2uF or 10uF. There are still differences in the same range but lesser than without capacitors. A hardware issue?

[RethoricalCheese]

Might be a faulty chip aswell. Rarely happens but still...

[quidep]

But the chip worked well with the laptop, the only problem was the password.
Let's say I would buy a new chip, which data I should flash, as I'm not able to get an appropriate dump? Simply the latest BIOS version from the HP web site?

[peste]

Originally Posted by quidep

But the chip worked well with the laptop, the only problem was the password.
Let's say I would buy a new chip, which data I should flash, as I'm not able to get an appropriate dump? Simply the latest BIOS version from the HP web site?

buy a new chip and try it, the original remains untouched.

here's a bios made from your original + update on the HP site, used only on another bios chip.

[quidep]

OK, thank you, I'll try it! Now I must only figure out, where to buy the new one.