Bad flash on someone elses BIOS....

[loady]

Hi Everyone, my name is Kev and i am new here, i thought i could google my way out this problem but not so, so here i am.

My problem, i have updated many bioses without problem before so this is relatively a new blow to me!!. The mobo is a chaintech ES676M (with LAN), i downloaded the correct bios as per thier website but it would seem for no apparent reason the flash has gone bad...i have had several successes in moving forward, no video which i remedied by putting in an agp card, i have read quite a lot of info on this topic, the pc will boot to "Award Bootlock BIOS v1.0
Copyright (c)2000,Award Software, Inc.

BIOS ROM checksum error

Detecting floppy drive A media...
INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"

With the bios update to hand and using uniflash i keep getting this error..."file size does not match flash rom chip size", further reading seems to point to the size of the flash being a 1mb or 2mb flash, however, chaintechs website only provides 2 bios for my board, one with LAN and one without as mine has LAN then the choice is obvious. Both files are 256kb though, i really dont think this board has taken its last breath yet and i have read also about hot flashing although i am not keen to do this, if it will work i will try it....i have an abit UL8 board to hand and having looked at the phoenix D686 chip it is the same as on the chaintech except for the number underneath, the boards chip with the damaged bios reads "phoenix award D686 190762712" and the abit UL* board i own has one identical that reads "phoenix award D686 196757816"

ADDITIONAL INFO FROM UNIFLASH:
flash rom chip:SST 39SF 040/5V
organisation: sectored: 128x4k (512k)
PCI chipset: VT8751+VT8325+ITE IT8700F/05F
last write status: Not available
Info at bottom of screen reads.... "ROM base:FFF80000, memory dump at FFF80000-->(4D492444) Memory: XMSPos=00200000, XMSLeft=266338304.

I have no tool to remove the chip but it looks like it may be removeable with a suitable implement.

If anyone can help me along with this i will be eternally greatfull and please let me know if i can furnish you with any other info with regards to this. In a bizarre way i am quite looking forward to this as with all the reading i have done i have also seen that a bios can be modded, now i am drooling !!!

Cheers.

[Denniss]

Hmmm - Bios flashrom is 512KB but your Bios is 256KB. May it possible be out of an OEM PC system like Dell, HP or another system builder ?

[loady]

Hi Denniss, thanks for your interest....the system looks like a home build, though the wires are neatly tied down which is IMO unusual for a home build, there are no serial numbers on case or other markings to suggest that is is a dell or other branded pc...i would guess that someone just bought the parts and put it together...perhaps a pc shop maybe, however, there should surely still be a bios for it some where ??

[loady]

i know the bios is the correct file.....how though can i get uniflash to force flash it and ignore the size of the file, i cant hotflash with other board as the voltage of chip is lower.

[loady]

anyone ? is there any other bios forums anyone know of i can paste this thread in, i really need to get this board going.

thanks.

[cp]

take your fav. hexeditor and attach a copy of the bios to the bios itself (256kb+256kb = 512kb)...although i wouldn't recommend it. be sure to make a backup copy of the chip's contents first.

[loady]

Good idea-ish.....worth a try as i have nothing else to try...is it worth backing up the bios as it is corrupted anyway and i believe the bootblock i am getting is part of the bios that cant be overwritten anyway ?

[edwin]

Carrefour supermarkets system maybe? They were using these boards...

[loady]

Its uk based

[edwin]

you would be surprised how many miles some loads of systems travel sometimes... I'll try and find out who has been OEMing these boards, maybe Advent or Viglen have used them as well...

[tomw]

Loady, I think I saw a similar problem posted on the FAQs at the ECS site:
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ when I was searching there. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's worth a shot.
tom

I just checked. the "General FAQ" question #4 has a possible solution, though I don't know where you get the .exe they specify...
tom

[loady]

The mobo is a chaintech ES676M

Thanks, but i cant see that is relevant to me.

[tomw]

When I posted, I hadn't read and digested.... I'd add a 1/4M of binary zeroes to the known good bios file. If not that, then the NO-OP instruction hex equivalent. Couldn't hurt to spin wheels for a while, eh? Given that the BIOS is supposed to occupy the lower half of the eeprom/flash memory.
Will uniflash perhaps accept a 'short' size bios file?
tom

[loady]

Thanks Tom, shit man, how do i paste a quarter of a million 0's ?!!!....i dont follow/know what the NO-OP thing you talk of is. Isnt the BIOS file already to short for the chip ?? my chip is being reported as 512k yet the correct bios file on crap website is 256k.....i have since replaced this board with another model but would still like to get it going, i however have no chip to use in it anymore, unless i can pick up a cheap p4 from somewhere, maybe someone would like to play with this board and i would be happy to pay postage both ways?

[tomw]

No OP is computerese for 'do nothing'. There are actual machine instructions that tell the machine to just twiddle its thumbs. They are used when you need a short delay, or when you want to pad out hand written code to get particular spacing for branches, etc, in the code. You might want to jump 20 bytes past where you are if a condition is met, so you fill the space after the active code with 'do nothings', and place the 'jumped to' code specifically at a point 20 bytes away. I haven't done machine language coding for a bunch of years...
To do the pasting, you'd make one line of 00s, then yank it and paste it. Then yank the two lines, paste. Yank the 4 lines, paste. It goes VERY quickly.
P4s should not be a lot of $$... Though I am using a Celeron 400, so I'm way behind the times.
tom