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I've a Supermicro server, out of warranty, and it suicided in the last month. Yes, exactly. During a AMIBIOS update process the BIOS Watchdog has been tripped and the motherboard reseted during the flash. We ended up with a non functional motherboard.

Since the BIOS chip isn't socketed, I've got a SOIC8 clip adapter and a TL866 EEPROM programmer to fix the motherboard, but problems started here.

When I try to flash the BIOS chip it complains about over-voltage protection and it can't even read from the chip. I've got a working board and tried the same: read the EEPROM chip, and the same problem happens.

The question is: someone managed to reflash a Supermicro BIOS chip? There are circuit lockouts the blocks custom programmers to write on the chip without removing the chip from the board?

Thanks in advance,

Vinícius Ferrão
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    Maybe ask at hackaday or some electronics forum? – StanTastic Jun 12 '15 at 06:32
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    Just an idea, try pulling out the CMOS battery and then read it after letting it sit for 30 seconds or so. The battery may be supplying some voltage to the chip that the programmer doesn't like. There may be a capacitor that holds charge for a period of time, keep that in mind also. – TriadicTech Jun 29 '15 at 06:28

2 Answers2

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You don't say what kind of Supermicro motherboard it is, or how old. Some motherboards have a last-ditch failsafe BIOS update method; often it involves hooking up a floppy drive, putting in a disk with the new BIOS, and then setting a jumper or hitting a key combination on power-up. That may be your best bet, if it's available.

On Sun workstations we used to deal with this type of problem by installing a known-good chip, booting the machine, then pulling the chip with the power on and socketing in the bad one for reprogramming. Obviously this is a super scary procedure. There are a lot of risks and you can end up frying the chip, the motherboard, or both. I've never tried it on a PC, so I can't recommend it with a clear conscience. I will say I did about half a dozen Sparcstation SLCs and they all survived, though.

David Brodbeck
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  • Not sure why this was down voted. Some Supermicro servers can recover from a corrupted BIOS by having it on a USB flash drive (or older servers a floppy disk). Ex. http://www.supermicro.com/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=16115 – Brian Aug 24 '15 at 19:11
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Recovering Supermicro (or any other) bios Motherboard

I made this write up For those of you that were unable to recover the bios of a supermicro board with the SUPER.ROM recovery procedure and have been unable to flash it via IPMI either, this should be a great help a if the only alternative you have is an RMA.

In order to do this you will need a chip programmer, and a soic clip or chip holder. And a soldering iron as well as flux.

The items I’ve specifically used are:

Revelprog-IS Programmer

SOIC ZIF Adapter SOIC-8/DIL-8 200mil ZIF

MG Chemicals Flux Paste Syringe

Weller WE55 Solder Station with screwdriver tip

I used the ‘wave solder’ method to remove the bios chip from the motherboard. The bios chip is usually near the CMOS battery and has 8 pins.

Once removed I cleaned the pins of excess solder and inserted the chip into my zif adapter and then into my programmer. Programming Chip

In order to read and write the chip you will need to read off the model number of the chip. it will be tiny, and likely covered with a sticker. In the case of the Supermicro X10SLM+-LN4F I was working on, the chip model was a Micron N25Q128A13

chip selection in programmer Once selecting the chip type in the programming software I read the data from the chip to confirm if it was corrupted and that the model of chip was correctly selected.

In my case the chip was entirely blank. (likely it failed to write the bios after erasing it, during a bios flashing) you know it’s blank as the text seen is all ‘FF’ or ‘00’

At this point I downloaded the latest bios update from supermicros website and opened the file in the programming tool bios in programming tool

At this point I pressed ‘write buffer to memory’ this is the save icon superimposed ontop of the chip.

The programmer flashed the bios onto the chip and verified it burned properly.

I then re-soldered the chip onto the board and everything started working as it was previously.

Chip on MB Before.

Before

Chip on MB After After

Hopefully this helps someone out.

Tal
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