[GUIDE] Fix Winflash "cannot allocate buffer" error

[aphextwin]

HOW TO DOWNGRADE BIOS ON ASUS TRANSFORMER BOOK T100 TA with avoiding "cannot allocate buffer..." problem

1. first you must follow "seewhy" tutorial to create EFI/ASUS/Firmware folder on the 100MB partition with cmd.exe opened with admin permission
2. after that DO NOT CLOSE cmd.exe window
3. open in other window: my computer-system-program files-asus-win flash
4. click on winflash.exe and drag it into the cmd.exe window. You will get : "C:\Program Files\ASUS\WinFlash\WinFlash.exe"
5. On the same line write: "/nodate" with space in front. So now you will have : "C:\Program Files\ASUS\WinFlash\WinFlash.exe" /nodate
6. hit Enter
7. you will get WinFlash attention window. Hit ok and WinFlash will start and after selecting older BIOS version, install button will be active.
8. Now you can flash older BIOS version!!

WARNING: Perform this at your own risks!!
For me it worked!

GOOD LUCK!

ur the best!
best regards from Russia!
ty a lot!

[Ryanmt]

After you have done all of the original steps

run cmd.exe as administrator, Right click "run as administrator". Then type all of this:

driveletter:     drive letter of the system drive with a colon after it and hitting enter
cd EFI            EFI should already exist, if not you can use the command mkdir EFI then cd EFI
mkdir ASUS
cd ASUS
mkdir Firmware
exit

You cannot normally access the folder via explorer and nor do you need to by doing this.

Registered just to comment this was the key bit that sorted it out for me. That and the partition was 300mb not 100mb

[igor.vysoky]

I tried what @stackdaddy suggested and it still says the "cannot allocate the buffer..." error. Any ideas?

[alfaromeo]

register for this. Thank you so much! And also many thanks to the tip of running cmd as administrator, I have hard time to create that firmware folder via other regular method. The administrator in cmd screen is the only way work for me. The funny thing is that my user account itself has administrator permission already, but only explicitly running cmd "run as administrator" can do the trick.

In my experience, no safe mode is needed though.

[vzsolt]

So like many of you, I have been plagued by this error ever since the 224/225 Bios was released.
Strangely, I did not have this problem when I upgraded from 214 to 220 follow by 223 on the same hardware.
I tried to compare what had changed and a little debugging using process monitor, I finally found the answer.

I did a fresh 8.1 install and wipe the original partition clean, that is when I encounter the Bios error.
Using process monitor while filtering winflash.exe, there was an error message saying it cannot access \Device\Harddiskvol2\EFI\Asus\Firmware\T100Ta.bin.

I assigned a drive letter to the EFI partition, access it using administrator and created EFI-ASUS-Firmware folder structure. Viola, the winflash ran like a charm.

Instructions
WARNING: Perform this at your own risks, modifying the EFI partition can render your system unbootable

• Launch cmd with admin permission
• type the following command
• Diskpart
• select disk 0
• List part
• Note the 100MB partition - mine is part 2
• select part 2
• Assign
• Exit
• taskkill /im explorer.exe /f
• Explorer

Explorer should launch and you can access the 100MB EFI partition and create the folder structure
driveletter:\EFI\ASUS\Firmware

Launch Winflash and flash away.

Cheers

----
I use an upgraded win 10 pro from win 8.1
The sympthom was the same: "cannot allocate buffer" error message always appeared when winflash v2.4.2 (Asus website - T100TA - Win8.1 bios utilities) used.
There is no bios utilities if Win 10 filtered.

I did not used the instructions what Seewhy wrote us.
My trick was that I browsed for a newer notebook on the Asus website (e.g. ASUSPRO B9440UA), then Win10-64 bit filtered, and latest Winflash v3.2.2 selected at Bios Utilities. This version was successfully installed, and latest 314 bios binary file (for T100TA) downloaded and selected in Winflash. There was no "allocation problem".

I hope this process will also help.

[germie]

I was having the same problem with flashing the BIOS on my Asus T100TA as described by SEEWHY. The CMD prompt method described so well by SEEWHY worked almost perfectly in January 2021. I was trying to update the BIOS to version 314 from 313 I think. The only hiccup came at the end when trying to create the directories in Explorer. I could not gain access to what was the D: drive in Explorer. It gave an error of no permission for D: and to use the security tab. I couldn't figure out how to get that access as there was no security tab associated with that drive. I was able to create the necessary directories using the DOS command prompt and then using the simple "md" (make directory) command. After the directory path was created the WinFlash associated with a Windows 8.1 64 bit OS from the Asus support page for the T100TA worked flawlessly. After flashing the BIOS, the Windows 10 features that I was looking for that didn't work previously worked perfectly. Namely this was switching from desktop to tablet mode by detaching the keyboard (and vice versa) and providing a touch keyboard automatically while in a text box in any apps.

FYI, the alternative process did not work for me in January 2021. I tried installing the winflash version associated with the AsusPro B9449UA but it would not flash the BIOS and gave an error.