Hi folks,

I have my mum's laptop with me a Tecra M4 with a corrupted BIOS. I have the hardware equipment to solve the issue but the problem's that Toshiba provides the image in an encoded format so that first I need to decode the file before uploading in the flash.

I googled around but found nothing to decode it so I gave it a shot on my own. I unpacked the repo from the factory file and there were a few dll-s. I tried to write an interface to the "tdecode.dll" but I couldn't find out the correct parameters to the appropriate function. I already messed a few days with it and am also not really into debugging the original function, especially because it's tens of kilobytes.

If I kindly ask somebody with the same working model could make me a dump into a file and send it to my email address? Or if others are also interested upload it onto an ftp server.

My email address is the same as my <email address removed>

Many thanks.

Kind Regards
Tony

Does Toshiba not provide a BIOS with the accompanying tools & instructions to install it? I find that odd.

Sasha

No, unfortunately. It is some kind of vendor-lock-in stuff. Possibly they want to do this sort of repair exclusively.

I know that Dell and IBM provide BIOS flashes via their website. Have you tried the Toshiba site?

I looked myself on the Toshiba site -- there, as well as third party sites, there are plenty of BIOS's available, however they appear to ALL be Windows-Installer type of packages, for this particular machine.

Looks like the OP's kinda right: this qualifies as 'Vendor Lockout' IMO, if a user isn't running Win.

Unfortunately, I feel that this thread/topic *could* be considered contrary to BIOS vendor proprietary interests and/or licensing agreements, so not sure that it should remain open.

Sasha

BIOS...

If you can find a BIOS version that works with DOS, you can use FreeDOS to install it. If you don't find a DOS version on the Tosh support site and the machine is not too old, you might try to contact Toshiba directly.

If you know anyone with a Windows live-cd, it and they could run the Windows BIOS program under the common law doctrine of Fair Use.

Windows LiveCD? Is there such a thing?

The only one I know of is BartPE - for which you need a copy of Windows because you have to build the disk yourself. UBCD has an option to save the current BIOS and can have basic DOS installed to it. Again, specific things need to be installed to the boot disk by hand.

One must choose ones words carefully here -- I'm sure you meant to write, "...for which you need your original Windows disc..."?

heh!

Sasha

Well, sort of. According to the EULA you can only install on one PC at a time, so technically you'd need to buy a new copy to create the live CD.

This thread is being closed due to the possibility of OS vendor proprietary interests and/or licensing agreements.