I was running this board on the 2aa2 bios but needed to upgrade in order to get the hpt366 controller to work under 2k.
Soyo site said to use awdflash and I downloaded 2ba5 bios. Awdflash wouldn't recognize flash type so I contacted Soyo who sent me 6ba4beta.bin, a beta bios of some sort. Using this bios, the flasher would recognize flash type until I hit "Y" to program whereupon it would revert to unknown flash type warning and stop.
Contacted Soyo again and they sent me awd735.exe. Flashed the beta bios again, this time everything started working OK. Got the block diagram showing progress and success of flash. First row went fine but from address 21000 up to but not including 2FFFF all showed up as "write fail".
The board will boot into bootblock bios and warns about a bios ROM checksum error, then goes to A: prompt. Tried flashing from there but get a message "System was not new AWARD bios version. Please update ROM bios first". Tried flashing with awdflash and awd735, and tried saved 2aa2 bios, 2ba5 bios and 6ba4beta - nothing worked.
I contacted Soyo again asking what was up and was told to RMA the board. I got no information from them about what was going on that would require a beta bios to upgrade the ATA controller given that any of two or three on their site would have done it according to the descriptions. Considering the age of the board, I'm not convinced the $50 the RMA will cost me is worth it, and I'm not sure I trust these guys after this little episode.
So now I would appreciate any advice on what to do or try next, and any information on any problems the 6BA boards might have that could have caused this.
Soyo 6ba+IV flash gone bad
Try to flash it using UniFlash.
Patched and tested BIOSes are at http://wims.rainbow-software.org
UniFlash - Flash anything anywhere
UniFlash - Flash anything anywhere
Rainbow wrote:Try to flash it using UniFlash.
Thanks for the suggestion. Tried it and got unknown flash type and a warning about write protection. I had disabled write protection in the bios prior to the original bad flash but have no way to access the bios to confirm it now. Next, having noted the flash type returned by awd735, I forced the flash but no success. First time, I got write verification failure for about the third quadrant, very similar to the failed flash that started the problem. Tried the other various bios' including the saved original and actually got a larger write verification failure. Also, uniflash said it could not log the process so no info forthcoming there. Unfortunately, that means I'm still stuck at Award Boot Block Bios V 1.0 and looking for any advice or possible explanation of the problem. Bad chip? Bad operator? Bad flasher? Bad bios? If I can learn something from this, it won't be a total loss.
One side note: I was using an agp card during the bad flash and the boot block bios afterwards gave me visuals on that. Is that normal? I'd always understood that a vga card was neccessary.
Looks like the bootblock is smart enough to initialize AGP graphics card but not smart enough to disable the write protection 
We have seen this on many boards - the protection is enabled after power-on but the bootblock does not know how to disable it (someone forgot to program that). You can try the hotflash to fix it.
We have seen this on many boards - the protection is enabled after power-on but the bootblock does not know how to disable it (someone forgot to program that). You can try the hotflash to fix it.
Patched and tested BIOSes are at http://wims.rainbow-software.org
UniFlash - Flash anything anywhere
UniFlash - Flash anything anywhere
Oh good! An opportunity to do something really stupidRainbow wrote:Looks like the bootblock is smart enough to initialize AGP graphics card but not smart enough to disable the write protection
We have seen this on many boards - the protection is enabled after power-on but the bootblock does not know how to disable it (someone forgot to program that). You can try the hotflash to fix it.
. Maybe I should wait until I get a third setup for backup!I am currently running on an old BP6 which if memory serves me correctly, runs that same award 4.51 based bios. I have started the bp6 with the soyo boot hard drive and it booted up quite well with no need to add files or drivers. Both have that lousy hpt366 controller on board. Do you suppose that there is a chance I could hotflash on it with out buggering it up, or should I look for a closer match?
Thanks for the file. The boards don't even have to match chipsetwise to perform a hotflash, nor BIOS-brandwise.
Before buying an EPROM burner, I used to use my old TXPRO (ALi chipset and AMI BIOS) to hotflash just about anything, including 2Mbit BIOSes, for any chipset and any BIOS brand.
Before buying an EPROM burner, I used to use my old TXPRO (ALi chipset and AMI BIOS) to hotflash just about anything, including 2Mbit BIOSes, for any chipset and any BIOS brand.
Finally had a chance to try a hot flash on the BP6 board using Uniflash.
Unfortunately, it didn't work - got the same third quadrant write error. I assume this means the EEPROM is buggered up and needs replacing.
Do I need to match the chip precisely (Macronix 29F002(N)T/5V) or is close good enough? I'm thinking the local electronics supplier may be able to order one that I can hot flash, but I'm not sure if they will be able to precisely match. An alternative is a similar chip from a dead board available through the local computer recycler.
BTW, thanks for the help to date!
Edit: Or have I got it wrong about the chip being dead and there is something else going on?
Unfortunately, it didn't work - got the same third quadrant write error. I assume this means the EEPROM is buggered up and needs replacing.
Do I need to match the chip precisely (Macronix 29F002(N)T/5V) or is close good enough? I'm thinking the local electronics supplier may be able to order one that I can hot flash, but I'm not sure if they will be able to precisely match. An alternative is a similar chip from a dead board available through the local computer recycler.
BTW, thanks for the help to date!
Edit: Or have I got it wrong about the chip being dead and there is something else going on?
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KachiWachi
- The New Guy
- Posts: 1451
- Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2002 10:32 pm
- Location: Pennsylvania, USA
Maybe not the place for this but...
Has anyone here thought of making a "chip test" BIOS file...basically one that won't work, but will write a "1010" or "0101" test pattern to the entire chip to look for errors?
It would only work for a hotflash test ...2 files would be required to test each bit with a 1 and a 0...
Could this be done successfully and be a worthwhile thing to do??
Has anyone here thought of making a "chip test" BIOS file...basically one that won't work, but will write a "1010" or "0101" test pattern to the entire chip to look for errors?
It would only work for a hotflash test ...2 files would be required to test each bit with a 1 and a 0...
Could this be done successfully and be a worthwhile thing to do??
CPU - DFI 586IPVG, K6-2/+ 450 (Cyrix MII 433), i430VX, 128MB EDO.
BIOS patched by BiosMan (Jan Steunebrink).
BIOS patched by BiosMan (Jan Steunebrink).
absolon: You don't need to match the chip type exactly. It must be the same size (256KB = 2Mbit) and must be supported by the BIOS that will be inside (so it will know how to write DMI and ESCD data there) - that's the biggest problem. One of the most common chips is Winbond W29C020(C) which should work on many boards and also Atmel chips (AT29C020 or AT49F002T).
Patched and tested BIOSes are at http://wims.rainbow-software.org
UniFlash - Flash anything anywhere
UniFlash - Flash anything anywhere
Thanks Rainbow. I've asked the local electronics supply house to look into eeprom availability.The local recycler keeps all their chips for their own use so no luck there. I could purchase a pre-flashed chip and will if I have to, but I'd prefer to gain some understanding of the problem. I appreciate everyone's patience with what must seem like an endless supply of dumb questions in pursuit of that end.
Uniflash returned some comments about chip organization; mine was 3 blocks of 64k and another 64k broken up into smaller blocks. Is this the root of chip compatabiliy with the bios, or is compatability dependent on what chip info is actually coded in the bios? If the latter, is there some way of determining which chips are supported?
I've also asked Soyo for some explanation of why the beta bios was required, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for a response. The BP6 I am using now has the same onboard controller and works fine with the HPT V1.22 bios under 2K where Soyo specifies the V1.25 bios is required. Better engineering implementation from Abit? Or maybe its just that the HPT366 bios resided in that corrupt quadrant and that is why the controller would wouldn't let me into Windows when I tried using it?
Anyway, thanks again to yourself and AJ.
Uniflash returned some comments about chip organization; mine was 3 blocks of 64k and another 64k broken up into smaller blocks. Is this the root of chip compatabiliy with the bios, or is compatability dependent on what chip info is actually coded in the bios? If the latter, is there some way of determining which chips are supported?
I've also asked Soyo for some explanation of why the beta bios was required, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for a response. The BP6 I am using now has the same onboard controller and works fine with the HPT V1.22 bios under 2K where Soyo specifies the V1.25 bios is required. Better engineering implementation from Abit? Or maybe its just that the HPT366 bios resided in that corrupt quadrant and that is why the controller would wouldn't let me into Windows when I tried using it?
Anyway, thanks again to yourself and AJ.
An update:
Finally managed to obtain a new SST29EE020 dipp chip and flashed it with the Soyo 2ba5 bios on my BP6 using Uniflash. Chip organization was different (256 individual bytes on SST vs 64K,64K,64K,32K and remainder in smaller segments on original Macronix) but flash worked without forcing and Soyo board fired up with a little tinkering when the chip was installed. Never did hear from Soyo again even though I sent another inquiry about whether reflash with the beta bios or the 2ba5 version.
Have a problem with the video though. After a successful boot to 2K Pro, there is no video on restart unless the power cable is disconnected for about 5 seconds prior to restarting after which it starts fine and retains all bios settings. I'm using a 512K ISA VGA card for now and wondering if that might be the problem. Anyone have any suggestions about possible causes or cures?
Finally managed to obtain a new SST29EE020 dipp chip and flashed it with the Soyo 2ba5 bios on my BP6 using Uniflash. Chip organization was different (256 individual bytes on SST vs 64K,64K,64K,32K and remainder in smaller segments on original Macronix) but flash worked without forcing and Soyo board fired up with a little tinkering when the chip was installed. Never did hear from Soyo again even though I sent another inquiry about whether reflash with the beta bios or the 2ba5 version.
Have a problem with the video though. After a successful boot to 2K Pro, there is no video on restart unless the power cable is disconnected for about 5 seconds prior to restarting after which it starts fine and retains all bios settings. I'm using a 512K ISA VGA card for now and wondering if that might be the problem. Anyone have any suggestions about possible causes or cures?
