MODBIN & MD8000 (MoBo: Medion MD5000 aka MSI MS-6701)

Only for programmers and BIOS gurus with technical questions.
mittern8
BIOS Newbie
Posts: 25
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2003 11:28 am
Location: Netherlands/Germany

Well, got stuck! (again) :oops:

This is what I got

Code: Select all

CBROM V2.15 (C)Award Software 2001 All Rights Reserved.

              ********  md5k11b.bin BIOS component ********

 No. Item-Name         Original-Size   Compressed-Size Original-File-Name 
================================================================================
  0. System BIOS       20000h(128.00K) 1303Ah(76.06K)  6A7I0M4B.BIN
  1. XGROUP CODE       0B5F0h(45.48K)  07CB8h(31.18K)  awardext.rom
  2. CPU micro code    03000h(12.00K)  02FB5h(11.93K)  CPUCODE.BIN
  3. ACPI table        039B7h(14.43K)  015AAh(5.42K)   ACPITBL.BIN
  4. EPA LOGO          0168Ch(5.64K)   0030Dh(0.76K)   AwardBmp.bmp
  5. YGROUP ROM        04910h(18.27K)  02EE6h(11.72K)  awardeyt.rom
  6. GROUP ROM[ 0]     03830h(14.05K)  01ACAh(6.70K)   _EN_CODE.BIN
  7. PCI ROM[A]        10000h(64.00K)  08D5Ch(35.34K)  PXERPL.ROM

  Total compress code space  = 35000h(212.00K)
  Total compressed code size = 2CC6Ah(179.10K)
  Remain compress code space = 08396h(32.90K)

                          ** Micro Code Information **
Update ID  CPUID |  Update ID  CPUID |  Update ID  CPUID |  Update ID  CPUID
-----------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------
 SLOT2  12  0F0A  |  SLOT2  28  0F12  |  SLOT2  01  0F21  |  SLOT2  08  0F23
 SLOT2  0B  0F24  |  SLOT2  03  0F13  |  SLOT2  24  0F27  |  
Followed the instructions as given by Nick in his answer to zhang yunhong and extracted all the modules and then release them.

For testing I recompressed the unchanged 6A7I0M4B.BIN (using lha255) to rebuild the BIOS image.
This gives a filesize of 77881 bytes instead of 77882 in the original BIOS image.

Cutted off those 77881 bytes from the stripped BIOS image and flipped the first remaining byte (value should be 0x54) to 0xFF to retain the necessary length of 184263 bytes.

Next I copied the parts together with
  • copy /b 6A7I0M4B.lzh+MD5k11B.bin neubios.bin
And at this point things get messed up. :evil:

Code: Select all

CBROM V2.15 (C)Award Software 2001 All Rights Reserved.

              ********  neubios.bin BIOS component ********

 No. Item-Name         Original-Size   Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
================================================================================
  0. System BIOS       FFFFFFFFh(-0.00K10000h(64.00K)                           
                 0
  1. Other(A69D:8BF6)  20000h(128.00K) 13039h(76.06K)  6A7I0M4B.BIN

  Total compress code space  = 30000h(192.00K)
  Total compressed code size = 23039h(140.06K)
  Remain compress code space = 0CFC7h(51.94K)

                          ** Micro Code Information **
Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID
------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------------
SLOT2  12   0F0A  |
Any idea?
Anyone can give me a hand and crosscheck that?

There is no need to do any changes to original.tmp.
Just decompress and recompress it using lha255, fix the size of the stripped BIOS image and put the parts together again.

Another thing I noticed was the following:
I used splitawd to extract all the modules (incl. 6A7I0M4B.BIN) from the original BIOS image.
This prog gives as well the compressed and the decompressed modules.
No prob to put the compressed 6A7I0M4B.BIN (00000000.BIN) back into the stripped BIOS again (though without the need to recompress it).

Do they probably keep some kind of (length) check sum in the very beginning of the BIOS so it gets messed up after a change?


Thanks ahead.

Manfred
no blood for oil!
stop the bushfire!
mittern8
BIOS Newbie
Posts: 25
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2003 11:28 am
Location: Netherlands/Germany

NickS wrote:Uniflash reports boot block problem with patched BIOS
I then used MODBIN 4.50.80C to make a minor change to the startup string and updated the file. Now CBROM showed only one (BIOS) module in NEWBIOS.BIN.


Is this the missing link?
Just looks like!

Code: Select all

CBROM V2.15 (C)Award Software 2001 All Rights Reserved.

              ******** 6a7i0m4b.bin BIOS component ********

 No. Item-Name         Original-Size   Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
================================================================================
  0. System BIOS       20000h(128.00K) 1314Dh(76.33K)  6A7I0M4B.BIN

  Total compress code space  = 35000h(212.00K)
  Total compressed code size = 1314Dh(76.33K)
  Remain compress code space = 21EB3h(135.67K)

                          ** Micro Code Information **
Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID
------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------------
SLOT2  12   0F0A  |

So, now I can go back to where it all began:
What patches need to be done to make the setup entires visible :lol:
But, guys, you teached me a lot! Just like BIOS 4 Dummies!

Manfred

P.S.:
During my extensive search for information on my problem I found some interesting tools on the net that seem to be not very wide spread - things like BIOS Update Utilities to patch microcode and stuff like that (Intel related stuff). Is it of any interest?
Guess not for me (at the moment).
no blood for oil!
stop the bushfire!
NickS
BIOS Bodhisattva
Posts: 3145
Joined: Fri May 03, 2002 10:34 am
Location: Thames Valley, UK

Aha, it looks as though I compressed two steps into one in my description you linked to above - I will go back and correct it. Thanks. Good luck!
apple_rom
Use my patch at your own risk!!
Posts: 125
Joined: Tue Jan 07, 2003 11:39 am
Location: Minsk
Contact:

>During my extensive search for information on my problem I found some interesting tools on the net that seem to be not very wide spread - things like BIOS Update Utilities to patch microcode and stuff like that (Intel related stuff). Is it of any interest?
Patcher long ago already does this - for all P6-CPUs: from PPRO to P4... ;)
mittern8
BIOS Newbie
Posts: 25
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2003 11:28 am
Location: Netherlands/Germany

@ apple_rom
apple_rom wrote:Patcher long ago already does this - for all P6-CPUs: from PPRO to P4... ;)
As I said (and you might see from this thread, I'm a bloody newbie to all of this :roll:
But all of you teached me a lot in this thread, thanx again!
(Apple, I just sent you a PM)


@ NickS
NickS wrote:Aha, it looks as though I compressed two steps into one in my description you linked to above - I will go back and correct it. Thanks. Good luck!
No prob, learned by doing.
Maybe it is also inflicted from my inpatience, should have read better.
Wouldn't it be a good idea to put all that knowledge together and to make a sticky out of it.
Noticed that some more had similar problems.
To bad that my English is restricted, no one would understand me :)


@ Edwin
Well, some greets to Edwin (evasive?) too:
The monkey tries to use tools to get the banana :D
Oops BTW, you know where I can find a flashing service in the Rdam area?

Good night,
Manfred
no blood for oil!
stop the bushfire!
mittern8
BIOS Newbie
Posts: 25
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2003 11:28 am
Location: Netherlands/Germany

Back to work again

Well, it took some time till I was able to flash the BIOS.
Just had to wait for the RD1 to arrive to be on the safe side. 8)

Flashed the new BIOS and - nothing but the BIOS Message has changed :(
apple_rom wrote: xor cx,cx
mov di,015CF;it`s offset of offsets_for_disable_"timings"-menus (CAS Latency, tRAS, tRP etc)
call 00001259C
retn

Skip this subroutine with changing "xor cx,cx" to "ret"...
Apple, can you verify this, please?

And, wouldn't it be a good idea to change the routine at 1259Ch to just RET?

Oh, BTW, can you take a look at 0x17A1D - seen a call of this address many times in the source. Any idea what happens there?

THANKS ahead,
Manfred
no blood for oil!
stop the bushfire!
mittern8
BIOS Newbie
Posts: 25
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2003 11:28 am
Location: Netherlands/Germany

no suggestions anymore?

Manfred
no blood for oil!
stop the bushfire!
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