Using an RT809F Programmer to Unbrick a Mobo - LFC 

This was my motherboard. Many thanks to Adamant IT for fixing it after Asus refused the RMA. Background: The motherboard went into the "flashing zero zero" after a trivial BIOS change. It had been functioning perfectly up until that point. Each component in the system was tested independently to prove it was a motherboard issue. The USB flashback method did not work. The fixed motherboard is now back in a case and working as expected. Top Job. The world needs Adamant IT to fix more things.

Just noticed you hit 100K, congrats dude!

Thanks, that is a great intro into the programmer, the HDMI ISP flashing looks like a really game changer for bad monitor flash repairs (assuming its reasonably universally supported).

These videos of yours are great! I learn something new and useful every single time, and the way you deliver the information is perfect. Don't. Ever. Stop.

Excellent Video Adamant!: Very concisely explained and executed. I found this very helpful. We use motherboards on our analyzers and this gives me tools to recover a board that has been corrupted. More options at our disposal now. Thank you!

Thanks. That was fun to watch for someone who does not do this for a living. I enjoy the process you go through and the way you explain it. Thanks again.

Yaaay man, freaking awesome! I knew this was a thing but I have never seen it before. So cool you do all these videos man. Totally underrated channel.

You explain everything so easily, nice job, my progress in understanding laptop repair basically came from watching one of your videos, tell you the truth, I had a headache all day after watching that video cos I had been trying for over 6 months to understand what I was learning but couldn’t, then I stumbled on that video, your video was an eye opener and sent headache straight into my brain, took a long sleep after that, woke up and my eyes were open to see things I’ve been missing all along, need I say it was a good headache (wheeew) Thank you so very much 🙏🙏🙏🙏

Just perfect as always 👌🏻 thank you for your hard work!! You really deserve more from youtube!!! Your info is pure gold for electronics! 👏🏼🏅🏅🏅

As usual, very interesting and useful. Thanks for sharing!

Very nice video ! Great job and nice Demonstration of rt809f !!!

I have owned an RT809F for some time but didn't have a clue how to use it. Thanks to your superb video, I have been able to revive an ASUS B85M-G motherboard. The symptoms were a POST message indicating that CMOS settings needed to be recovered. After pressing the key indicated, a blank screen would appear and the system would be completely unresponsive. In this case, the chip was in a socketed DIP-8 package so removal and reinstallation were easy. In fact, no adapters were necessary - the chip plugged straight into the device! It seems that sporadic BIOS corruption can occur, since I know the owner of this computer wouldn't have tried to update his BIOS. He found it working one day and not the next.

Thanks for the demo!

Gorgeous video Thank you so much

Very nice product Graham! Dutch regards, Nico.

Very useful information, as usual. Thank you !

Thanks for sharing this kind of content.

VGA IN is for passthrough so that you can test monitors there are test tools under the tool menu, great video, when getting into laptop bios it get very interesting, where you would need to copy serial numbers , board numbers and windows keys 👍

Very helpful man...thank you so much for going in-depth about these. I do have a EVC2 from Elmorlabs and a clip...thankfully I never had to use it (although I tested it and works) :)

Good demonstration. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you so very much, I have couple PC's that need reprogramming and had a lot of doubts about the process

one of my favorite channel, you can realy learn something...

Fabulous 👌 👏, The beauty of this video is lovely, descriptive and very informative , Thanks Brother..Your efforts to create such videos from you is👌 Fantastic , Keep it always up

Perfect review!

Great video!! thanks for sharing

very handy vid mate. cheers

Very well done. Good job.

Great video. Thank you for sharing. I have a couple of the CH341A programmers that came with the SOP8 clips and I haven't had any problems using them on most devices that support ISCP. The motherboards that do have a JTAG like connector probably has a pin that tells the IC, that is connected to the SPI Flash chip, to stay in a tri-state/high impedance mode. This allows for the ability for ISCP to work. I am also in the retro computer area and I know some hardware people that use some FPGA devices that use a SPI flash to hold the firmware as well and they have a jumper so you can use the clip on the 25Q80BV SOP8 chip to program it. In the cases where you can't find pinouts for the JTAG like port to program the flash chip then it is probably easier to just go ahead and desolder the chip then backup the chip and reprogram it with current BIOS image. I have one of the newer CH341A v1.7 programmers on its way, but I think I will go ahead and order one of these as well. The extra adapters that come with the RT809F look like they could be very useful.

Jumper cables for bread boards will fit on the pins. One side female and the other male. Buzz it out with a multi meter for pinout. This would be handy if you dont have a soldering iron.

Absolutely brilliant video,graham thankyou so mych indeed,very helpfull indeed,

I've also found a pencil eraser does a great job at cleaning contacts in a pinch.

This video is so satisfying

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the info. It helps alot.

That is a very standard pinout on that header by the looks of it. I am very surprised to even see it actually, they usually don't include the JTAG header in the final release of the board. The programmer that I used was a Dediprog, I do not recommend it unless you are willing to lay down serious money. You can indeed find the inexpensive model (Ee100) for $100 or less (I used the SF100 for BIOS programming), which isn't a bad price, but this is only for the programmer. The company does not give away the software even if you have the hardware. There are full levels of different types of software at their own price points. Definitely a case of getting what you pay for though. Their products are capable of programming pretty much everything that ever existed or will exist, but you have to purchase the hardware/software for it, they do not have a hobby grade or even "partially pro" kit the last time I checked. Times change though so who knows? If you want a "good" clip (as good as they ever get anyway) check into 3M, Pomona, or Mueller brands and do NOT get these off amazon or ebay, there are far to many fakes to know if you are getting what you want. Go straight to whatever passes for an industrial electronics supplier in your country. I personally use Digikey or Mouser in the US, I don't purchase from the cheap suppliers for electronic components when it matters to me.

you are so amazing man thank u

good info, good video, thank you

wow wow wow Admant what a wonerful video you are a great it i s very helpful thank you very much really appriciate !

that was really good well explained

I have done an Alienware MS-7862 motherboard in-situ via the header port. Worked ok.

Good work getting the board to chooch again

Very interesting stuff :D

28:16 thats what we all like to see. Thank you for this video. I am finally go to repair bios.

Awesome video fair play :)

I use the same device to program keys to VW, Audi, Mercedes, Porsche, because in those cars you have to do it via eeprom. I'm a professional locksmith by the way and also an electronics and computers enthusiast big time.

Cool info, thanks :)

Hello there buddy ,, great video as usual ... only think is that when connecting to the chip trough VGA ISP ,, the monitor should be OFF :) but in the main outlet.

Nice video, The last time I had a bricked MB, we could use a chip puller to get the bios chip out :)

excellent vid, subscribed! what are you using as to magnify the board? can you do a vid on what tool you use?

Me watching in awe with my CH341a

Afternoon!

Thanks!

Thanks!!

Brilliant!

Excellent

Please try the HDMI port on a TV next. It'd be really helpful to know if you can "trick" a TV into cooperating like this as well.

👍Brilliant!

that was awesome .. 👌👏😎

hi love all your work on RU-vid please keep it up , but can i be a nuisance ask where you downloaded the RT809F software to run it as i just get the run round

I also had pretty much no luck with the clips, but then one time I realised you actually must turn on the system in order for the clip to work! This is because the power supply in the programmer can't power the chip plus whatever is connected to it on the motherboard! (In my case I get overcurrent error) For power cycling boards like this though, you need a paper clip to jump-start the psu so the psu never shuts off

Genius !!

Might wanna use some Kapton tape on the plastic parts.

I would advise you buy a buspirate v3 or a busblaster as a tool for reprogramming, both handle spi chips as well as lpc bios and jtag for router recovery. both have well documented tools for this as well as special tools for doing recovery work from some chips(emmc, sd cards) . They also double up as serial interface. the buspirate will also act as many other devices (uart,spi,i2c,jtag,sdcard & more), open source software is well supported and windows/linux gui/non-gui versions of many programs exist. bonus is both devices also compatible with sigrok logic analyzer.

THE SAVIOUR 🙇

Amazing, ive got one ordered with a bunch of adapters, hope I can unbrick my asrock ab350m pro4 :D

I just unlocked my ransom firmware locked mac mini, this at first did not remedy the problem, it was no longer firmware locked but the ransom page was still showing after each boot - clearing the Reset NVRAM or PRAM solved that issue. Option, Command, P, and R. I used the ch341a isp/ICSP with the 3.3v fix and flashed it using flashrom. the device comes bare skin i would recommand conformal coating - i already shorted out one of them.

6:23 gotta love me some basic input/output system system

Hi Graham if you búy adapter you can also flash SIO chips or KBC CHIP like the ENE chip. Just to inform you. I like your channel. Keep up the good work Regards Steve from Belgium

The IPS. Since it is made in China is a spelling mistake. They mean to have The Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) . They just spell it backwards. But this is a great video. Good Job man!!!

My X79 Ranger VII did the old 00 Boot loop, I did everything, I wish I just ordered a new Bios Chip and reprogrammed it. bought a replacement mobo in the end jus to save the headache.

Nice, adapter ception

The video port contains I²C bus for DDC. You can actually use the I²C bus for anything else I²C other than DDC. I have experimented about getting I²C from my laptop and be able to use raspberry pi/arduino I²C stuff directly with my laptop, like GPIO Extender and else.. maybe it explains why we can read/flash rom chip inside the monitor via the video cable? If you run Linux and type "sudo ii2cdetect -L" it might shows your monitor's i2c address and bus

BTW, i dont know if any1 ever told you or commented here but pin 1 is actually marked with that white trace next to the solder pad, also, most of the times u have a dot on the bord or a larget white trace on the side pad

thanks buddy~! have you ever used CH341A? is this better than it you think?

One question. Have you ever successfully read bios chip but not be able to write it? I wonder if the chip is faulty. Thanks.

You can easily beep out the pin header against the pins of the chip. IDK if ordinary Dupont (Arduino style) cables will fit on the pins, I suspect the pins are too small. But when you have that pin header sitting there, it's almost a shame not to use it. Of course if your programmer is not able to drive the chip while it's in circuit, it wont help. But if the programmer is any good, I suppose it should work?

The Pin 1 WAS indeed marked on the motherboard... there was a 1cm or so thicker line on the pin 1 position...

10:09 Wow that BIOS just came of so smooth!

Hi adam could you let me know where you got your programer from or which one. thanks 😊

Polyimide tape protect the components agains heat during soldering.

The asus x 299 XE gaming motherboard from looking at the PDF manual has a bios flashback to Reset the bios?

"i will have an ordinary download please" is that an IT Crowd reference when Moss is on the game show?

Good to see you again! Have you tried rebuilding a laptop battery before?🤔 Thanks 🤓 also, have you tried replacing the BIOS chip on a chromebook?🤔

Just thought I would also add... One of those adapters has a 7 pin header that would have plugged directly into the JTAG on the motherboard. Just an 8 pin ribbon cable would've got the job done. Of course you have to own the cable with connectors on it heh

Hi Adamant, I have an old bios chip (Dip8, PDIP - 300mil - MX 25L8005PC-15G) from a 2008 asus motherboard, can I insert it directly on the programmer (without an additional adapter) ?

Would the HDMI cable work on a bricked gfx card? If not can you remove a bios chip on a gfx Card?

The programmer has a red led indicating the is a read error apart from the app and if the led blinks green is reading ok in the status adapter ;)

This is very interesting, although I would not dare to solder on the motherboard, when accidentality a few chips fall off it is so definitive the end.

The contents of the chip is not encrypted :-) it´s a binary .I recommend to clean the pins with flux and soldering iron, to get the best contact in the spring socket. Btw i am going to test XGecu TL866II to read the TSOP48 NANDs

i just purchased the vivo book 17 the keys on the key board are impossible to see unless under direct light gray with thin black lettering ..the strain on the eyes is getting very hard to deal with. very disappointed by ASUS not fixing this problem before retailing this computer. is there a fix?

nice

I've always wondered why board makers moved away from socket-able bios chips. I've personally never bricked a mobo and I regularly flash bios updates when many people suggest not doing it. I want to believe they do it to increase money from service like you've done here but with flashback, is this really that common of a problem in 2021? I'd like to get some of the tools you used but my luck would be spending ~$50-100 bucks on all the supplies to do this kind of work and I might do it once and then the tools would all sit in a drawer until they are obsolete. :\ Nice video!

RT809F Programmer new speed

Got a cheap one and a clip on the way to see if it can erase a password protect - it must be in the BIOS flash as it survives CMOS clear

In your opinion is RT809F better or the TL866II plus?

In my country, a bricked mobo is just thrown away because nobody knows how to fix it. Thank you very much.

can you help me please what to buy svod 4 or vertyanov?

can you add the original purchase link please...im not sure which is original or fake on of the RF809F

You videos are very inspiring! I would like to ask (or anybody experienced enough here) where can be the problem: I have a board MSI 970A-G43 (AM3+ equpped with Winbond 25Q64FVSIG bios chip). The board is running but is unable to retain the UEFI (BIOS) setting. When good CR2032 battery is installed the clock and date is ticking OK but after any kind of restart/reset/saving bios attempt I am prompted to "press F2" and set the bios again. Reflashing the bios in an ordinary way did not help. It seems to have the latest version flashed. Is there any chance to save the board? It the chip saving the setting as well? It is an old board but I wish to use it for a PC to donate my friends childern. Thank you! Best.

I'm a technician for you. and I have a sony vaio which posts normally the voltages are ok 19v & 5v3.2v on the monitor connector (I tested the monitor on the same machine and it is ok) and the monitor does not turn on. any idea what could be wrong. also I have the same machine which opens win normally and stays on the desktop and does not listen to any device (usb mouse, keyboard, network, etc.) could it be the bios? Thank you in advance for the nice videos