Hi,

I have an Asus N550LF laptop and last week it suddenly started to go through a very long POST procedure when starting up , 25 minutes plus sometimes and the fan runs at full speed all the time too.

It's running the last available bios, version 215 and I'd like to try re-flashing that to see it it fixes the problem. Last year, I had the "fan running all the time" error and a re-flash fixed it. I know about the winflash /nodate method, but now it just doesn't flash. Similarly trying to flash from within the bios with Easy Flash fails too. Both Winflash and Easy Flash show a locked padlock symbol, does that mean the bios is write protected somehow?

When the POST is happening, the hard drive light and DVDRW light are both flashing at about one second intervals, I don't know if that's significant or not.

Here's what I've tried so far:

I have an SSD in place of the original hard drive, I have re-seated it's connector. I have removed and re-seated the RAM modules, WLAN board, DVDRW drive. Cleared CMOS by unplugging the little backup battery, remove laptop battery and held down power button for several seconds to dissipate power. Cleaned fan and heatsink. Replaced the SSD with the original hard drive. Edited the Build dates and revision numbers in the bios file with a hex editor, I guess that messes up a checksum as Winflash stops with an "Invalid Bios" error.

Why oh why won't Asus allow you to re-flash the same bios version!!

Anyway, I'd like to know if it's safe to try and re-flash the bios with the AMI tools for the Aptio bios? If so, do I flash all blocks? I love the laptop, best computer I've ever owned so I don't want to brick it.

Many thanks for any suggestions,

Ric