820-3437 No Serial # showing

tlough75

Member
So I found clean BIOS, cleaned ME, reset PRAM, Tried to fix checksum with MEDUSA but it still tells me Fsys not found. I plugged the Medusa into 5 other machines and it shows the Fsys but this one is still not showing it. I'm wondering if the SPI ROM is no good.
 

tlough75

Member
if I wanted to replaced the ROM, can I use one from a 820-00165 if this is an 820-3437? I have donors coming but I have 00165 boards on hand now.
 

2informaticos

Administrator
Staff member
You can take entire Fsys area form donor board and then change the serial number.
Should be from 3437 board of course...
 

tlough75

Member
It would be easier for me to just replace the whole BIOS and Change the serial #. is there ANY difference? I'm still a little new at this and am not sure where to copy the Fsys block to.
 

JohnB8812

New member
Yes there is a huge difference! You cannot just swap the chip lol the ME region has to be good and the FSYS block. If you are unable to do so, I'm sure people on here would be more than happy to help you fix the BIOS dump
 

2informaticos

Administrator
Staff member
You said to have working BIOS dumpped from other board, with correct Fsys area.
Upload that file and post the serial number which you want to put in.
 

tlough75

Member
So I got a copy of a BIOS from a working machine, copied it to my Medusa 2, wrote it to the machine missing the serial without changing the serial number and the machiine worked. Then I took the same dump, change the password to the password of the "broken" machine, then had the medusa fix the checksum and clean the ME. The damned computer would turn on but the screen would not come on. I could see the fan spin and how much current it was drawing but no "bong" and no image. So just to check that I didn't brick the computer I put the original BIOS back on and the machine is now back to working as normal without a serial number. So weird how by putting a BIOS copy from a known working machine into this machine would make it work and show a serial number, yet all I did was change the serial number from the same dump and fix the checksum and it stopped working. I also must note that I did a PRAM reset too.
 
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tlough75

Member
I just don't get it. I can copy the BIOS from another machine to the broken one and it will work. But if I try to change the serial number on the same dump, fix the Fsys and clean the ME the computer will come on but the screen will not fire up. I am obviously missing something or a step.
 
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