Award Modular BIOS v6.0 - BIOSVIEW & Modbin does not wor

[Borg Number One]

Hi.



More and more users send me "Award Modular BIOS v6.0" bios files which have to be modify. (unhide BIOS-Setup-Utility menus)


Modbin and Modbin6 and BIOSVIEW are able to open and modify following BIOS cores:
-"Phoenix-Award BIOS v6.00PG"
-"Award Modular BIOS v4.51PG"
...

...but the mentioned programs are not able to open many BIOS files correctly which use
the core: "Award Modular BIOS v6.0"

I tried all versions of ModBin / ModBin6 and BIOSVIEW I have....without success.

Here is one example of a mainboard / BIOSfile which uses:
"Award Modular BIOS v6.0" and which don't work with the current versions of ModBin/BIOSVIEW in the BNOBTC ( BIOS Tool collection ).


Asus A7V600-X

->in Modbin 4.5.xx ->checksum error
->in Modbin6 2.00.00 -> !! BIOS version not 6.0 !!

It is really curious and weird, but there are BIOSes
(they use core: "Award Modular BIOS v6.0") from Asus
(for example: "K7V(T)")
they can be opened with Modbin (V4.50.88 (10/16))
...but I cannot switch on the BIOS setup Preview [F2]-key and I cannot edit the BIOS Setup menus.


Could someone help changing/unhiding menus in this "special" BIOS core and in the:
Asus A7V600-X?

[Denniss]

Modbin 4.50.88 ?
Modbin 2.00.00 ?

Did you try 4.50.82a or modbin 1.00.38 or 1.00.48 ?

But this Bios sounds like Award Medaillon 6 Bios - a mixture of 6.00PG with Phoenix Bios

[Borg Number One]

Hi.

I wrote:

[...]I tried all versions of ModBin / ModBin6 and BIOSVIEW I have....without success.[...]

[...]Here is one example of a mainboard / BIOSfile which uses:
"Award Modular BIOS v6.0" and which don't work with the current versions of ModBin/BIOSVIEW in the BNOBTC ( BIOS Tool collection )[...]

...that means I also tried the versions you mentioned, without success.

[NickS]

Is Asus one of the companies that do "special" things with the BIOS layout? I think apple_rom knows about this.

[KURIAKI]

Editing the latest BIOS file with Awardeco:

ASUS A7V600-X ACPI BIOS Revision 1007 Beta 002
12/03/2004-VT8377/VT8237-A7V600-X

Awardeco creates some files:
6420R231.ROM
A7V
ACPITBL.BIN
AUDIODJ.BIN
AWARDEPA.EPA
CPUCODE.EXE
ENGLISHP
GROUP2.ROM
GROUP21.ROM
GROUP3.ROM
GROUP4.ROM
MAINBIOS.BIN
PXE.LOM
R00F8000.DEC

[Borg Number One]

@KURIAKI


Thanks for the information, but I already know this.

It would be the same if you would write:
"The sun shines." or "Water boils at 373.15 K" or "A day takes 24 hours" or "1+2=3" or.....

You wrote generally facts which does not help to solve the problem.


I would like to unhide BIOS-Menus/options and not just unpack modules.


Well, here is a further "Award Modular BIOS v6.0"/Mainboard which cannot be opened with Modbin6:

Asus P4T-E

[apple_rom]

All (nearly) ASUS-bioses after P2-mainboards (from P3B-F) do not working with modbin. He have another format for packing bios-files (have one byte CRC after each in different one byte CRC only after original.tmp).

[Borg Number One]

Hi Apple_Rom.

1.)
Could you tell me more about this Asus CRC/packing system/standard?

How to modify the mentioned BIOSes (Asus A7V600-X, Asus P4T-E) that they can be opened by Modbin6 ?

After modification in Modbin6, do we have / do I have to modify the BIOSes back to the "Asus CRC/packing system/standard" (with the special "ASUS CRC")???

If yes, how do we do it?



2.)
What is about the phoenix compression stuff, you told about via icq?
(You does not seem to be in ICQ anymore???!!???)

[apple_rom]

Could you tell me more about this Asus CRC/packing system/standard?

Each file in bios ending with one byte CRC - like original.tmp in Award BIOS. (But in Award BIOS with CRC-byte ending only original.tmp).

How to modify the mentioned BIOSes (Asus A7V600-X, Asus P4T-E) that they can be opened by Modbin6 ?

Theoretical - if you remove all CRC-bytes, exclude CRC-byte after original.tmp - modbin can use this file. /But in practice - i don`t use modbin and do all manually /

After modification in Modbin6, do we have / do I have to modify the BIOSes back to the "Asus CRC/packing system/standard" (with the special "ASUS CRC")???

Yes - you must recalculated (or save before) CRC-bytes for each file and insert in the end.

If yes, how do we do it?

CRC-byte calculated like CRC-byte for original.tmp

What is about the phoenix compression stuff, you told about via icq?

I try say, that i found simply way to compress files for phoenix bioses - AMIBIOS have identical LZINT-algoritm - therefore we can make this procedure by amibcp, only with rewriting file-header.

[Borg Number One]

Thank you very much for that/(this?) really important information!!!


I will try to modify the mentioned BIOSes
(
-extracting the modules
-removing the CRCs from the extracted modules
-building new BIOS with CBROM from the modified modules
-open and modify the BIOS in Modbin6
-use CBROM to extract the modules again
-add CRCs to the modules
-build new "Asus-like" BIOS.
)


Well, you said we would do a netmeeting- & BIOS session with desktop-remote-view/controll on weekend.
What is happened?

[apple_rom]

p.s.p.s. 2 Borg Number One
Warning by using Phoenix-decompressors! I`m discovered, that they are ("phnxdeco.exe" from Anthony Borisow and "phoedeco.com" from Veit.Kannegieser) can`t correctly understand fragmented files in bioses!

[sunbirds]

HI BORG :
you can try this tool named acbrom from asus which can mod asus bios just like cbrom .
http://www.biosdiy.net/down_view.asp?id=131

HI APPLE_ROM :
do you know some phoenix bios crc ?

[Borg Number One]

Thanks for this really seldom tool.
It is nearly impossible to find information about this special AsusTek CBROM release.

And it seems to be impossible to download it anywhere. (Except your page.)

Well, I could find this:
http://17908.com/down/soft/944.html

...but:
the redirected download links are death:

http://xxsj.net/Mainboard/tools/acb.zip
http://xxsj.net/Mainboard/tools/acbrom.zip

I will try to get in contact with the site administrator via "whois".


Do you have:
"CBROM ASUSTeK COMPUTER 1.01" too?

[sulbert]

Thanks for this really seldom tool.

Will it be included in the next release on BIOS tool collection?

[Borg Number One]

yes.