Insyde BIOS bootblock recovery- some new info - some queries

[stripwax]

My zip file downloads fine for me and I can confirm the files are not corrupt. There are two files, insydeco.exe and readme.txt (these are the original ones as previously downloaded from the biosgfx site). Please try again.

http://www.beermex.com/insydeco.0.1.zip

Alternatively if this still doesn't work for you, you may try the link labelled DOS in my above post from Feb24 2009, which links directly to the archive.org mirror

[stripwax]

Actually, the Acer 1300 and Acer 1310 Crisis bios sections look equivalent to the one in my Benq, but the Acer 2010/2020/Extensa images additionally have reference to CREXT.CHB [as well as the BIOS.ROM stuff]. That rings a bell, some other bios recovery procedures use that name? However the Crisis image seems to just check the existence of CREXT.CHB on the floppy, and if it exists, fails out. As if it's trying to say "no, the floppy should not have CREXT.CHB on it, it should only have BIOS.ROM". The BIOS.ROM handling still seems to want to execute the floppy bootblock at address 0x7c80 like all the others... the CREXT.CHB thing must be a sanity check against the 'wrong kind' of recovery disk.

Edit - I've updated the list of laptops with identical-looking bios CRISIS sections (i.e. execute floppy bootblock @ 0x7c80). If anyone has any info on bios recovery for those models, that info should be equally applicable to all the others (incl. my dead Benq!)

[kocoman]

Patching a floppy disk boot sector so that the entry point is at 7c80 actually works - I tried it with a Caldera DR-DOS floppy image. My Benq laptop (joybook 5000u, insyde MobilePro bios version 4, intel ICH4 mobo) gets as far as the "Loading Caldera DR-DOS" message (indicating the floppy boot sector has been executed and loaded the system from floppy!) - but then it stalls. So my next guess is that a lot of BIOS services are not yet available when getting here from the bios bootblock crisis recovery mode. Not a regular BIOS boot so programs that rely on regular BIOS services might not work

So what I think I *really* need is a 16-bit bios flasher that doesn't need any bios services other than Int13h and Int10h, and doesn't need any DOS services either

I think if you can debug where it hangs it would be helpful. Maybe a 'debug print/symbol/with backtrace? version of the open source dos with source code?'.

I think it hangs because it tries to load the CLOCK (Date and Time).

When I worked with pre-y2k systems, systems that did not set their clock correctly, ie: cmos is set to 1995. the boot would 'freeze' like what you have. while if I fixed the cmos back to 2002 or something then it boots fine.

Maybe linux is the way to go? at least be able to load grub/lilo(?) first would be best...

[stripwax]

Is it possible to use grub on fat12? I had assumed it was not. If you have some pointers/tips for investigating this approach that would be great. If it is possible, the floppy bootsector will still need to be patched to have a different entry point.
(The floppy disk must be formatted in fat12, with the bootsector and a regular fat table containing (at least) an entry for BIOS.ROM, in order for the bios bootblock to recognise it as a valid recovery disk, load+apply the vga bios from the disk, and then execute the bootsector)