D54250WYKH/D54250WYB - Need firmware image for SPI flash

[EBorn]

Hi,

I need your help: Can someone _please_ provide me a capture of the flash chip from a working D54250WYB with a current firmware version? I mean a direct capture of the 8MB chip.

A D54250WYB system (amazing little thing) ran reliably in the back-office for years. It should now be repurposed and needs a firmware update to address some issues. Some of them surely security related. Problem: Device seems to be be running a very old firmware version (from 2012). I tried every possible method of recovery (security jumper, Power menu, F7, DOS), but every time the device is rebooting to start the update, it just spins up the CPU fan for a second, then turns off again. This goes on forever. I have access to a SPI flash programmer. So I hope that writing a new image directly to the chip directly might resolve this. Unfortunately i found no way to extract a usable image from the official firmware updates (UEFI Capsules). Nor did i find anything on the web. It would be highly appreciated if you could help me reviving this nice piece of transistors.

Thank you in advance ! Highly appreciated.

-Eli

[AlHill]

Sorry, but Intel does not provide bios firmware in this manner.

Doc

[LeonWaksman]

Hi Eli,

In order to recover bios, the USB stick with the new bios should be fully formatted. I suggest that you should try the following procedure to recover your bios:

1. Prepare USB stick fully formatted to FAT32 (disable quick format option during format). Format your USB on Windows machine (rather than Linux or MAC). Save the Bios file WY0048.bio (https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27936/NUCs-BIOS-Update-WYLPT10H-86A-?product=76977 Download BIOS Update [WYLPT10H.86A] ) on this stick and insert it into USB slot (NUC shall be OFF). If you have older type USB 2.0 stick, use it instead the new typy USB 3.0
2. Press Power Button for about 3 seconds. The system will emit three short beeps from the PC speaker or headphones, if connected, then stop. If you hear the beeps, release the Power Button - NUC shall reboot into Power Button Menu.
3. Press F4 and the recovery shall start (it can take up to 30 seconds for messages to appear on the screen).
4. When the recovery finishes, pull out the power cord.
5. Replace the power cord and press Power Button to switch the computer to ON.
6. Enter Bios setting by pressing F2 during boot process.
7. Press F9(followed by "Y"), to set Bios to default settings. Press F10 (followed by "Y"), to save the settings and exit to O.S. Let the NUC fully reboot.
8. If before update, you have customized bios settings, you can enter again to Bios setting to change the necessary settings.

Note:

If for some reason you have difficulty to boot into Power Button Menu, you shall recover your Bios using Security Jumper method https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005532/mini-pcs.html https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005532/mini-pcs.html

Hope it will work for you

Leon

[EBorn]

Thank you. But like said these recovery mechanisms do not work. The device might have an hardware issue. Direct SPI flash is the only option. Can imagine Intel doesn't provide this officially. Looking for help from the community here...

[LeonWaksman]

Eli,

I was aware that you are professional, and you know how to do recovery for bios. However, in this forum I saw, that many times the recovery didn't work as result that the USB was formatted in Linux or MAC.

One more thing. If you power ON your NUC with security jumper removed, but without USN stick containing bios file inserted, the NUC should boot into Configuration Menu. Can you see this menu?

Leon

[AlHill]

eborn, read post number 2 here regarding why the bios is not delivered the way you want:

Doc

[EBorn]

Leon, don't get my reply to your explanation the wrong way; I surely appreciate your precise and good instructions. And I have to confirm that the power menu process specifically is not sufficiently documented by Intel. I learned this a while ago when i recovered another NUC (ME update issues). Found the process documented in this forum better and successfully recovered it this way. It is indeed not that easy to release the power button at the right moment. The beep-verification with attached headphones indeed helps. {Side note and warning to others: very high volume level!}

The current NUC behaves completely different. I actually suspect an issue with the VRM. AFAIK the older gen5 NUCs had general issues with this.

>If you power ON your NUC with security jumper removed, but without USN stick containing bios file inserted, the NUC should boot into Configuration Menu. Can you see this menu?

Nope. I then get this: Blue LED turning on - Fan spinning very high - then system turns off after a second. Pause. Continues to turn on an off. All without video output.

Current status (after testing and swearing a lot): the only way to get video out is to disconnect the CMOS battery and boot.

Thanks again.

[EBorn]

Doc, thanks. I am aware that there are issues with this process. But at the moment i have a brick here i would like to revive. Since this system will probably never connect to a network again, i would be ok with caveats. I don't like nice nonfunctional hardware and have a heart for "old" technology. But guess i have to let go then :-/ ^^

[n_scott_pearson]

The problem is that it is not just you living with the caveats; it is also the person who has allowed their F/W Hub to be copied. They have facilitated another NUC having the same UUID, the same serial number, the same MAC address, etc. as their NUC has. You can claim all you want that this NUC won't be connected to the internet, but, well, stuff happens. I won't let you have a copy of my F/W Hub and I have to recommend that no one else does so either. I am sorry that you have a NUC that is in this boat. It shouldn't happen, but it does.

...S

[EBorn]

Since this is an Intel forum this is probably the right reply. I am aware of that. And as a side-effect of many "researchers" looking at ME at the moment, I got more info to proceed elsewhere. Potential help and good reads for others in a similar situation: http://www.google.com/search?q= Intel ME System Tools, http://www.google.com/search?q=intel+flash+image+tool&oq=intel+flash+image+tool Intel Flash Image Tool, https://github.com/theopolis/uefi-firmware-parser UEFI-Firmware-Parser, https://github.com/ReFirmLabs/binwalk Binwalk, https://github.com/platomav/MEAnalyzer ME-Analyzer. Warning - powerful tools can break things. But with direct access to the flash and a brick - worth a try. Post probably will be deleted (?)