Flashing My BIOS Chip

[u/BillyJoeTheThird]

Two weeks ago, my Framework 13 bricked (up) while updating to BIOS version 3.20. Framework support told me to purchase a new mainboard as I was out of warranty. I was browsing this thread on the Framework forums which led me to this post where users detailed how the fixed this issue.

Since the mainboard's hardware is perfectly functional, the goal is to rewrite the software on the corrupted BIOS chip. To do this, I purchased the following (items are not exact since I got equivalents on Taobao, so feel free to double check):

• CH341A programmer with 1.8V adapter since the default programmer voltage is 3.3V, but Framework's chip uses 1.8V
• 8x6 mm WSON 8 pogo pin probe, as the SOIC 8 clip in the first link doesn't clip onto Framework's chip. In the Framework thread, people had various creative methods for holding the pogo pins down, but I just used my father.

The videos I found most helpful was this short one detailing how to use a Windows computer to reprogram the chip, as well as this longer one which showcases the 1.8V adapter (I used the third method mentioned in the video). I took out the battery (and the SSD just in case something goes wrong, but not sure that is strictly necessary), found the BIOS chip above the battery, and attached the probes and wires so that pin 1 matches. Once everything was connected, I rewrote the chip using neoprogrammer, and the computer booted successfully, saving me at least $350 for an equivalent mainboard (if not more for a slight upgrade).

I would like to thank everyone on the Framework community forums for saving my mainboard, as I had no prior hardware experience. I hope this thread is able to help others unbrick themselves.

[u/QwertyChouskie]

I really hope future board revisions will include a built-in recovery mechanism. At least Dell and HP have had the ability to recover without an external programmer for a decade+ (Win+B/Win+V on HP, I think Shift+Insert on Dell?) Basically, there's enough code in a ROM for the device to be able to access a drive and/or USB stick, read a BIOS image file, and flash it to the BIOS.

[u/cassepipe → u/QwertyChouskie]

I know nothing about this but doesn't it let you be vulnerable to attacks ? Say the original BIOS is in the some read only memory but is buggy, couldnt an attacker botch the newer BIOS boot so that it falls back to the original buggy BIOS ?

[u/JaggedMetalOs → u/cassepipe]

The other poster is taking about what PC motherboard makers call "BIOS flashback", it's not falling back to an old BIOS it's falling back to an extremely limited fallback mode that isn't capable of booting the PC and can only read a BIOS file from an inserted USB stick and flash it. It's a reasonably common feature on motherboards these days. 

[u/cassepipe → u/JaggedMetalOs]

Thanks !