Article on hacking original.tmp

maman · Sun May 09, 2004 6:36 am

I have made an article on how to hack original.tmp a.k.a system bios in my website here: http://www.geocities.com/mamanzip/Artic ... cking.html. Hopefully can be useful for some of you who might need it. I know that the some of us think this is just an easy hack, but I think some "newbie" might found it useful somehow

. Thx

Borg Number One · Sun May 09, 2004 6:50 pm

Greetings,

Your hacking guide is more than interesting, but I have some questions about the mentioned tools.

1.)

maman wrote:Modbin. I'm using the version 4.50.80C

Modbin 4.50.80c is not the latest.
Please look at this page

2.)

maman wrote:Cbrom. I'm using the version 2.80.

Does CBROM 2.80 really exists? If yes, where does it exist?
I am sure you mean 2.08.
Well CBROM 215 is really new, but look this page too and you will find CBROM217a.

maman · Sun May 16, 2004 3:40 am

Borg Number One wrote:Greetings,

Your hacking guide is more than interesting, but I have some questions about the mentioned tools.

1.)
maman wrote:Modbin. I'm using the version 4.50.80C
Modbin 4.50.80c is not the latest.
Please look at this page

2.)
maman wrote:Cbrom. I'm using the version 2.80.
Does CBROM 2.80 really exists? If yes, where does it exist?
I am sure you mean 2.08.
Well CBROM 215 is really new, but look this page too and you will find CBROM217a.

yup you are right, I've mistyped the CBROM version, it should be 2.08

. I'll fix it. As for the modbin version, I think that's the latest for the Award version 4.51 PGNM, after that Modbin only works for award version 6.oPG or newer award bios.

maman · Sun May 16, 2004 4:02 am

I've also updated the article, I've found some bug pertaining to the method I've explained there

Sun May 16, 2004 12:30 pm

4.50.82 is the latest modbin2 for award 4.5x bioses.

ModBin6 1.00.48 is the latest for 6.00 bioses. There's a ModBin6 Beta 2.0 as well which sometimes works better on newer releases but it still has some major flaws (crashing and all that).

Sun May 16, 2004 12:46 pm

Ah, and it wouldn't hurt to tell people you are replacing your EPA logo with this routine. At least, that is what it looks to be to my untrained brain.

maman · Tue May 18, 2004 10:20 am

edwin wrote:Ah, and it wouldn't hurt to tell people you are replacing your EPA logo with this routine. At least, that is what it looks to be to my untrained brain.

No, not the EPA logo, but the routine to display it. The EPA logo itself is in a different file such as the epa file displayed when you are seeing your bios component using cbrom. Btw, I've updated the article slightly, due to some more "new" discoveries I made in this last few days

.

Tue May 18, 2004 8:25 pm

OK, could you please explain what you can do with this routine? I have seen some modifications in bioses, but I'm failing to see what you can achieve with this one.

maman · Thu May 20, 2004 5:14 am

My routine (that replaces the "EPA procedure") actually patch my chipset's memory controller in the Hostbridge (VIA 693A). It sets the IOQ (In Order Que Depth) to 4 level , sets the DRAM bank interleaving to 4-way, activates the fast TLB (Translation Lookaside Buffer) lookup, and activates "allow pages of different banks to be active" in the DRAM controller. That's all about it. Actually we can "inject" more code in the "EPA procedure" area, and if that's not enough, just make call to our "additional procedure" in the "empty" area (which contais padding bytes) in the last 4 kbytes of the first 64 kbytes (E000h segment).

maman · Mon May 24, 2004 3:36 pm

moderator, if you don't mind, please add link to my bios hacking tutorial in the collected wisdom. I just think there might be some people who might need it. I didn't meant to be "famous" here, I just want to help others

. It is if you don't mind at all. Thx