American Megatrends (AMI) BIOS [AMIBIOS8] Recovery: Recover Bricked PC With No Floppy Disk Drive Showing Nothing On Screen While Powered On

American Megatrends (AMI) BIOS [AMIBIOS8] Recovery: Recover Bricked PC With No Floppy Disk Drive Showing Nothing On Screen While Powered On:

NOTE: This guide is for legacy non-UEFI AMI BIOS. UEFI BIOS (AMI Aptio) has a different recovery procedure as the file name is not necessarily AMIBOOT.ROM.

Another version of this guide is available for UEFI AMI BIOS (AMI Aptio) here.

You will need:

1. USB flash drive (preferably an older one with <= 4 GB capacity and with access indicator light)
2. BIOS ROM file from your device manufacturer
3. Working computer to prepare recovery flash drive

Important Note: Please back up all files on the USB flash drive you will be using to recover the BIOS. All files will be erased when you format the flash drive.
There are multiple guides on the internet that step you through recovering the BIOS on an AMIBIOS-based PC. However, most of them only have detailed steps for recovering from a floppy disk or CD, and are mostly outdated. For instance, bricked all-in-one PCs typically will not issue any beep codes or beep during BIOS recovery.

There are several important things you should be aware of when using a USB flash drive for BIOS recovery:
1. This may not work at all on your bricked PC if its BIOS does not contain a boot block or it is corrupted/overwritten, or if it does not support USB flash drive recovery.
2. Your USB drive must be connected to one of the ports on the PC, not via a USB hub. Some PCs require you to connect the USB drive to a specific USB port - you may have to try each one and find out.
3. A USB flash drive with an access indicator light is recommended. Often, a bricked computer will not show anything on screen while the BIOS recovery is happening. The light on the USB will tell you whether the BIOS recovery is occurring.

Steps to follow:

1. Prepare the USB flash drive. First, format the drive as FAT16 (as FAT32 will not always work) using this guide (if your drive capacity is 4 GB or less, you don't have to resize the partition and can proceed straight to formatting as FAT16 - this is a different option from FAT32). All data on the USB drive will be erased.
2. Extract and copy the BIOS ROM file to the root of the USB flash drive from the device manufacturer's support page.
3. Rename the file to AMIBOOT.ROM (you may have to show all file extensions in Folder Options).
   - (For HP computers only: Make a copy of this file in the same directory. Rename it as HPBIOS.ROM).
4. Make sure the bricked PC is plugged in and powered off. Insert the USB flash drive into one of the USB ports.
5. Attach a USB or PS/2 keyboard to the PC. PS/2 keyboard is preferred as it will be recognized sooner by the BIOS.
6. Press and hold the CTRL and HOME keys on the keyboard as you press the power button on the PC.
7. Keep holding down these keys until the USB drive indicator light has started flashing for several seconds (or for at least 5 seconds if your USB drive has no indicator light).
8. Wait up to 3 minutes. The computer will program the BIOS chip and automatically restart once recovery is complete. You may hear beeps while the BIOS is being recovered, but this is not always the case.
9. The computer will restart automatically and start up if recovery is successful.

Troubleshooting:

- Did you format the USB drive as FAT16?
- Did you try different ports on the computer?
- Did you try older USB drives?
- Is your USB drive USB 2.0 and older?
- Did you clear the CMOS on the computer by unplugging the computer, removing the CMOS battery and pressing power button for 5 seconds?
- Did you disconnect all other peripherals and drives?
- Is your monitor working properly?
- Did you download the correct version BIOS from your manufacturer?
- Did you extract the BIOS ROM file only and rename it correctly (showed all file extensions to be sure)?

The above procedure worked correctly on Sony VGC-JS290J and HP TouchSmart 610-1020a all-in-one PCs.

Did you find the above guide useful? If so, share it with your friends. Comments on how to improve the guide are welcome below.

Sources (for ISO-9660 CD/Floppy Disk BIOS recovery methods and methods for recovering other brand BIOSes):

https://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/support/faq_content.php?S_ID=392
https://forum-en.msi.com/faq/article/how-to-recover-the-bios
https://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f15/bad-bios-checksum-need-hpbios-rom-62613.html