Motherboard had a dead (corrupted) BIOS. Found an SPI header just below BIOS chip (SST25VF016). Time to use that to CPR the board back.
Board was flashed using Winflash, which didn't verify correctly after the write (and just frooze), post restart it won't boot up properly anymore. Winflash is bloody risky, I've used it a couple of times on my DFI NF4-Ultra-D without issues, but it seems like it doesn't like this board.
You can get SPIPGM2 from here
You're also gonna need CWSDPMI7 (Host process needed by SPIPGM) http://homer.rice.edu...csdpmi7b.zip
Just copy the contents inside the BIN folder into the same folder where SPIPGM2 resides.
Before using that app, gotta make sure LPT is on address 378h in the BIOS. I've experimentally found EPP to be the most jitter/glitch free mode on this laptop. Yes I'm using a super old Pentium 3 IBM to do this (only thing I had around with an LPT port).
Your mileage may vary, give the different modes a try and then verify after each write to make sure the data on the SPI FLASH is corruption free.
|NTFS For DOS|
|Corrupted BIOS Read|
After dumping I prep it for the write. SPIPGM2 /i Verifys that the system can recognize the correct type of SPI FLASH hooked up (25VF016).
SPIPGM2 /u and /e prepare the IC for writing.
At this stage you may want to call it good, but I read the data back out so that I can verify it against the original later and ensure the write was 100% bit for bit good. Here's the read process.
And here's me comparing it using HexCMP. Load both hexes up and then this will tell you instantly if there's a difference, as you can see, no problems here at all. 0 bit differences.
Next would be to unhook everything and boot up the board. Glad to say that the board now works fine. xD