I've question directed to whydothis1001. I've been reading your geocities website in regards to adding the SiI3112 RAID BIOS to the Amberine-M. I would dearly like to add RAID capability to my motherboard. I have a number of questions and I aim to be as thorough as possible.
First, I'd like to say that I'd like to learn a little more about modding BIOSes in general. I've a solid background in PC computers mostly Windows Administration/Domain design, website/graphic design, and physically building/troubleshooting PC hardware. I don't have a lot of programming experience, but I am familiar with drivers/inf files. I've attempted many times to grasp C++ programming to little avail. Unfortunately it is a subject which I cannot teach myself using books (I learn best by reading and doing) and I have a 600 dollar icon editor to show for it. I didn't find VS 2005 particularly great for web design, for that I prefer Dreamweaver. I prefer Apache/PHP/PostGRESQL over IIS/ASP/MSSQL, but I digress.
Second, I've found all of the requisite software to perform the BIOS Modifications, Specifically cbrom606, modbin6(2.01.02), mmtool 3.1.2 (for extracting RAID BIOS from MSI), bit.exe, check8, ida pro, and hdtune. I have the BIOSes from DFI, ECS, MSI, and SiI as outlined at your website as well as HP BIOS version 3.14 and 3.15. Are these programs correct versions? Am I missing anything?
Third, my hardware specs:
HP Pavilion a1253w (Amberine-M v1.03)
Chipset: RS480 Rev.10
Current BIOS: v3.14
Any other info you need?
Fourth, I've read and reread your instructions many times over now and I'm able to modify the HP BIOS to unhide/enable SATA/IDE/RAID mode selction in the BIOS (pretty straight forward). I've come to realize that when you say:
You mean:The catch here is the mods necessary to have it match the PCI ID of the ATI SB400.
SiI3112A: 1095:3112
SB400: 1002:4379
Code: Select all
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Here's where my lack of assembly language come in. I've tried to open the RAID BIOS with IDA pro, but I'm not entirely clear what settings to select when opening the file. In the end, is forcing the RAID mode neccessary?The next step was to examine the SiI bios to learn why it was not presenting the choice for entering the bios. It seems the SiI code checks a few things, the PCI Device ID=6112, nope on the SB400 (=4379). It then looks at the Base Class/Subclass Code for a 104h, nope on that (=101=IDE). So I changed the jump after the check for 6112 to nop's so it would force Raid mode. Everything I found said the mode was a software construct and would make no differences to the operation of the hardware.
And when I can successfully edit the RAID BIOS file correctly, do I just add it into the HP BIOS so it appears at the bottom of the list? I somewhat understand the check8 program, but I haven't gotten to the point to say I've got a problem with it.
I know I have a ways to go yet and I feel like saying "please Mr. dothis1001 can you mod the bios for me?", but that wouldn't be much fun, would it? At the same time I don't have a spare board or spare cash should I do something wrong, so I need to be |absolutely| correct here. To me though, the prospect of RAID-0 is very appealing so I'll do whatever is neccessary to make it happen.
If anyone else here in the forum is following me, by all means feel free to chime in.
Thank You for your help,
Bri