I'm sure somebody already asked this but i can't find it.

[Sarajlija]

I'm trying to learn how to change the energy star logo in my bios.
Until now all I found is for Award bios but "my luck" is that I have AMI bios so I don't know if those programs will work for me too.

My mainboard is Gigabyte model 7VTXH with dual bios

Flash memory type : SST 39SF020 /5V
Flash memory size : 2M Bits (00000-3FFFF)
Bios Model version : AMI BIOS GA-7VTXH F4
Bios version : 062710 (I didn't upgrade it until now. Works fine for me)

Now I have been thinking, what a hell let's try and see if I can do it mainly because I have dual bios feature so even if something goes wrong the mainboard will keep on working.

BUT

In theory this should be true. Simply I just don't have guts to test my luck.

So to finish.
Will award util work for ami bios too?
Because I have dual bios is it possible that backup bios understand changes as malfunction of primary bios? (in that case he will restore primary bios)
If award tools can't be used for AMI is there any other that can.
And finally is there a way to have full screen logo in AMI bios?

I know I ask a lot.

Thank you.

[Rainbow]

No you can't use Award tools.
The full screen logo is possible with AMI BIOS. You need the AMIBCP utility.

Dual BIOS is not good thing - it can be easily killed and both chips are often soldered to the board

[Sarajlija]

Wowww
Thank you for such a quick reply.

Yes you are right, the bios chips are soldered on board.

Anyway what I noticed is that when you are flashing your bios you flash only first one. The second bios is there just as backup.

I did it few times and backup bios always contained the initial version of bios in it. But I trust you when you said that both could be easily killed. Anyway to kill both of them you have to do that intentionally. Isn't that right?

So, one more time thank you for your fast reply.

I will let you know the result.

Prey for my mainboard (I like it too much. Rock solid, overclockable, fastttt)

[Rainbow]

The problem is that the switching between the two BIOSes is automatic. For example - the new BIOS starts OK, but hangs during POST. It does not switch automatically to the backup and you can't do it manually because you can't even enter the SETUP.
This one is not only an example - it's real story from this forum.

P.S. Maybe it can be forced to boot from the backup BIOS if you short the top address lines of the first chip - but it's possible that the address lines are connected to the second chip too...

[Sarajlija]

Yes I know that. I read about it in toms hardware I guess. They managed to destroy the board by applying the wrong bios. Later on Gigabyte changed his flash prog so now the program is checking if bios update is correct one. But this still doesnt solve the problem.
I really wonder why they didn't made it with jumper on board.
Much easier and much much safer. After all Novice users usually don't mess with bios and secondly people that buy mainboards with dual bios buys it because they intend to play with bios so they want some extra safety.

As I remember I read somewhere how to bypass first bios in gigabyte mainboards so if I remember where I will post it here.

Now I have one more question (last one I hope)
I'm wondering is there any user guide for amibcp program.

I found two. (one in which is explained how to change energy star logo) and another from AMI in Word format. But this user manual from AMI is corrupted and as I can see (using WordPad) it's more like rough explanation of bios than explanation of amibcp program.
I found one part where it says "See the AMIBCP User's Guide for detailed information....."

So is there any way to find this guide?

P.S. If my english is sometime bad sorry. Can't compete with native american (english too)

[Rainbow]

Found this http://209.207.131.149/guides/bios_logo ... ndex.shtml.

To force a dualbios board from the backup chip, breaking a connection to one pin of the primary chip might work (maybe the topmost address pin) - but you need to know which chip is primary and make it carefully so it can be fixed later (and maybe connect the pin through a switch).