BIOS Check (It's back to haunt me!)

Questions that don't belong in the other forums.
Ritchie
BIOS Guru
Posts: 761
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 5:17 am

The PC Partner board I have discussed in other topics (MB520NH) I now have back in my possession, at least temporarily.

Suspiciouns that the board runs slower with the BIOS upgrade may be just imagination, as I have verified that the CD-ROM detection works fine. Zapped a different CD-ROM into the board and the description came up next to "Found CDROM:". Zapped the CD-ROM from the MB520NH into another board and there was no description. So that appears to solve that issue.

In a second board, which I wanted to setup for someone with a printer as it seemed to be a noticeable faster system, despite the same CPU speed, I discovered the board did not recognise an add-on USB card. So I thought, set it up on the MB520NH. This detects the card but sometimes the BIOS and screen do not intialise during power on and reboots.

So both boards have compatibility issues with this USB card, and the MB520HN is already at the latest BIOS.


So a couple of avenues to explore. One is to try updating the other board to it's latest BIOS. Could I get the following ID on the board verified please:

8/25/97
430VX
2A59GJ1DC-00
(on BIOS screen)

J656VXD
(printed on-board)

Wim's BIOS ID:
VX Chipset (Chipset match)
Jetway J-656 VXD (Model match)

Jetway Web Site:
V.656 (from BIOS screen - another Model match)
M3.4 08-25-1997 (from BIOS screen - Match for M series, option 2, SMC 669 I/O Chip, VXD-M50.BIN Download)


Once I have confirmation of this match, I will download and update the board and see if this gives me the compatibilty required to operate the USB card on this system.

Otherwise I will have to see if I can find ribbon cables and backplate ports for the on-board USB ports.
Ritchie
BIOS Guru
Posts: 761
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 5:17 am

I think I written too much and people have so far missed what I am after.

I was wondering if someone could verify the ID information I posted on the board, and tell me if I had ID'd my board correctly and if I had located the correct BIOS upgrade.

I would very much appreciate this - would help me to be double sure before I apply any flash. Thanks.
ajzchips
El cheapo dude
Posts: 3048
Joined: Sat Mar 23, 2002 12:41 pm
Location: Madrid, Spain

You already seem to have dug up all of the info you need. What is it exactly you need us to verify?
Ritchie
BIOS Guru
Posts: 761
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 5:17 am

Hi AJZ

Thanks for the reply.

If you think I have already made a thorough attempt to correctly ID my board, that is what I think too.

I am only asking for someone to check and confirm that I have ID'd my board correctly, so I can be double sure that I am not attempting to flash the wrong BIOS image to my board. I am hoping this will be yourself or one of the other moderators as these seem to be the people with the best experience in this area.

If someone doesn't mind taking a few mins to use the info I provided to check this for me, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks
ajzchips
El cheapo dude
Posts: 3048
Joined: Sat Mar 23, 2002 12:41 pm
Location: Madrid, Spain

I used your info, step by step, and ended up with the same file you mentioned.

If I were in your situation, I'd flash the BIOS you downloaded, if this helps.
Ritchie
BIOS Guru
Posts: 761
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 5:17 am

Thanks AJZ

I will soon try flashing the file, and probably report back on whether it improves on or solves the incompatbility issue with the USB card.
Ritchie
BIOS Guru
Posts: 761
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 5:17 am

BAD BIOS!

I said I would report back and the above is my conclusion. That the following update available from Jetway's web site is a BAD and BUGGY BIOS.

Jetway Web Site:
V.656 (from BIOS screen - another Model match)
M3.4 08-25-1997 (from BIOS screen - Match for M series, option 2, SMC 669 I/O Chip, VXD-M50.BIN Download)


To try and make this short, everything went smooth until half way through the update, with a UPS running the system. Then there was a series of beeps as if a video card was not present, although I continued to have a display (PCI VGA at this stage). Then floppy disk read and AWDFLASH continued. When complete I rebooted and had no display. When I eventually got sick of no display and swapped to an old spare ISA VGA (glad I still have kept a few of those around!!!) I discovered the bootblock BIOS was automatically loading the floppy disk, with no alternative, because, if I remember, a "BIOS ROM Checksum Error" or a similar error dictating a checksum error (I should have wrote this down). I used the FAQ on Wim's BIOS to learn how to use BootBlock to my advantage, and then decided to gain some further control by renaming AWDFLASH.EXE to FLASH.EXE and copying COMMAND.COM to AWDFLASH.EXE, which gave me Command Prompt control.

What I discovered after a half hour or so was that I could sucessfully flash to the backup (glad I made one of those!) and regain full control of the machine. But no matter what I did I could not gain proper control after flashing the new BIOS (I did a few seperate downloads, file copies, disk copies and compared copies of the new BIOS against each other and also a copy downloaded a few days earlier to see if I could detect file corruption (using FC (File Compare)).). Also, the video card type beep did not occur under flashes using the ISA VGA, but I still got the Checksum Error which I had no option to try and correct by resetting any defaults after a flash, and I tried combinations using /CC, /CD, /CP, and /LD. On the original flash I was loading HIMEM.SYS in CONFIG.SYS; I later expanded CONFIG.SYS to include "DOS=HIGH,UMB". I used the AWDFLASH version of Jetway's site for the 656VX boards as seemed to be appropriate.

Now, what I suspect is wrong.

I am unsure if this is normal but when flashing the new BIOS I noticed that all blocks in the progress bar showed an update except for a few at the end. Which meant that blocks at or near the start of the bar were also updated, and I am unsure if this is meant to occurr because I would have thought the BootBlock is at or near the start of the BIOS which I thought should not normally be updated. I did mean to check what the progress bar showed for the old BIOS in comparison as I flashed it back for the last time but I forgotten to take notice. However, this is part of the reason, if my reasoning is correct, as to why I suspect the new BIOS available is corrupt.

The flash options I used were /cc /cd /cp /ld. I experimented with these a little to see if they would effect the outcome of a flash of the new BIOS. They did not.
ajzchips
El cheapo dude
Posts: 3048
Joined: Sat Mar 23, 2002 12:41 pm
Location: Madrid, Spain

Could you tell us the brand and model of your BIOS chip? I've had a couple of Jetway VX boards that used a strange 27xxxx chip, which is supposedly NOT flashable, but did flash as a 28xxxx. Only one of the two flashes survived.
Ritchie
BIOS Guru
Posts: 761
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 5:17 am

The BIOS sticker amoungst other information and a serial number has got:

AWARD SOFTWARE INC 1995
PCI/PNP 586


If I peel off the BIOS sticker I find no brand name but:

A larger "i" (so maybe Intel)
The word "FLASH" in some kind of italic looking font
P28F001
BXT158
U71195J2
1990 to 1993 (next to a M in a circle and and C in a circle)

Hope this is what you were after. Does this mean the chip is a 28xxxx, series, as in the P28F001?
Denniss
BIOS Guru
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Joined: Thu Mar 21, 2002 8:16 pm
Location: Near Hannover (CEBIT) Germany
Contact:

Yep - Intel Flashrom
ajzchips
El cheapo dude
Posts: 3048
Joined: Sat Mar 23, 2002 12:41 pm
Location: Madrid, Spain

The Intel BIOS chips are usually one of the more complex to flash. IIRC, they require a combined 5V and 12V source for flashing.
I've usually had bad experiences with them, but mostly when flashing them on the mobo, unlike when I flash them with an EEPROM programmer because they then do quite well.
Ritchie
BIOS Guru
Posts: 761
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 5:17 am

So basically if I do not want to go beyond the use and capabilities of the mobo for the flashing, then I am likely running into a limitation of this mobo to provide the correct voltage combination for the flashing to be sucessfull. Might be safest to leave alone anyway - or I may overvolt something.

Although with the ISA VGA and the use of HIMEM.SYS and DOS=HIGH,UMB in CONFIG.SYS, flashing appeared to be sucessfull, but after rebooting there was a BIOS ROM error and only booting available through the bootblock with a floppy disk. Does this really mean that the image is buggy or that there were unreported problems encountered during the flashing process?


Afterthought: If I tried with UNIFLASH, any reason why it may not be more sucessful. Or if I tried with the latest version of AWARD FLASH instead of the one the Jetway site indicated.



So the www.egzo.com.tw site that the BIOS utilities point to is not available at present, as per my browser indicates?
Denniss
BIOS Guru
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Do not use memry managers like Himem/Emm386/Quemm for a bootdisk if you want to flash anything !!!
Ritchie
BIOS Guru
Posts: 761
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 5:17 am

If not using memory managers, I might consider trying again in that case. But I have run out of memory in the past when not loading at least HIMEM, and the old version flashed back OK with HIMEM loaded.

The update to the new BIOS did not show any errors; just mostly updated and a few non-updated areas.
Ritchie
BIOS Guru
Posts: 761
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 5:17 am

Well was just searching for a manual - but there appears to be none on the site for download. I was hoping to see what it had to say about voltage jumpers as per what AJZ was saying.

However meanwhile, taking the use of the memory manager into consideration as a possible cause of failure, I am thinking I might make one more attempt at flashing with no memory management, since I am confident I know how to reverse the flash. If I go ahead with this attempt, I will report back. I may also email Jetway and see if they have a manual they can email me for the board.

Any suggestions on whether to use Uniflash or AWDFLASH, or any particular version of AWDFLASH? Or are all equally likely to generate the same result?
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