winbond W29C020 - BootBlock Lockout

Hot-swapping and Boot-Block flash & Boot block flash and floppy support
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luigi40
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hello all,
mthbrd is MSI 6119 - 440BX
bios was Ami, crossflashed to award, that worked but still couldnt use new 160GB (now realise need windows xp for 160GB)
so i thought flash back to original ami, however when file finished uploading from floppy, packard bell bios program said rom error
since then when pc powered up , the cpu & psu fans spin, the cd rom lights up for 3 secs and that it, i took out the bios (W29C020) , took it to uni and tried to reprogram, however i could not because the bootblock is LOCKED ,reading the data at address 3FFFF it started with AWARD, so i guess when cross flashing the award bios code locked the bootblock or maybe the bootblock is always locked, i dont know, but i could NOT erase, write, etc. reading the datasheet there is no mention of how to DISABLE BOOTBLOCK LOCKOUT, can some one help me pls

ps...ive tried resetting cmos on mthrd, also shorting address pins 15 & 16
sulbert
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luigi40
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Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2004 1:33 pm

the datasheet for my bios says pin 1 is NC, however im willing to try it, have nothing to loose really as i cant do anything else with the chip? can i?

can i program up to the bootblock address 3CFFF ?

upload the award file up to that address, will that work even though the award bin file goes up to 3FFFF

what do you think

im thinking if that works then the bootblock will load the award code as before

ps.. i checked the voltage on pin 1, its 11.94V so my guess is that 12V trick wont work

what do you think sulbert
sulbert
Master Flasher
Posts: 204
Joined: Wed Jul 17, 2002 1:38 pm
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I guess you can flash back the Award image up to the boot block start address. At least I have done that successfully. The programmer will of course give you an error but it doesn't matter.
Another option (?):
Take a look at the Uniflash documentation and see what's written about W29C020 there.
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