Changing AMI logo and copyright on the left side of POST?

Only for programmers and BIOS gurus with technical questions.
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bizzybody
BIOS Rookie
Posts: 59
Joined: Sat Oct 20, 2007 1:30 pm

I have my ECS K7S5A (nee PC-Chips 830LM) fullscreen boot logo 'taken over' by Aperture Laboratories...

[big AL logo]

Press <tab> to hide evidence
Press <del> to enter Enrichment Center
Press <crtl> <alt> <shift> <F12> to detonate

And I've changed the BIOS version line below the AMI logo and copyright to

Aperture Science Test Simulation Unit

But that AMI logo and copyright line totally spoils things. I want another AL logo there and GLaDOS (C) 1986-2007 below it.

Of course AMI's own BIOS editing tools aren't going to allow me to change those two things! :roll: Must find 3rd party tool or find out a way to hex edit the copyright line without breaking things. I used to do that with COMMAND.COM Changed the DEL command to DIE, among other things.
edwin
The Hardware Archivist
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I think if you open the bios file with a Hex editor you can actually see that line in clear text. Shouldn't be too much trouble to change that.
edwin/evasive

Do not assume anything

System error, strike any user to continue...
bizzybody
BIOS Rookie
Posts: 59
Joined: Sat Oct 20, 2007 1:30 pm

edwin wrote:I think if you open the bios file with a Hex editor you can actually see that line in clear text. Shouldn't be too much trouble to change that.
Nope, it's in module 02, which is compressed. I found it by searching for the line of text AMIBCP will allow the user to edit.

Would have to extract it and decompress it (done that) hex edit it, then recompress it and put it back into the BIOS perfectly so that it won't brick the board when flashed. (Like changing your cat's blanket without waking up the cat sleeping on it...)

Module 02 is 41K uncompressed. Seems likely the small AMI logo image data is somewhere in it. Apparently nobody has bothered to make a utility to change this logo.
edwin
The Hardware Archivist
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well no as it is probably violating each and every bit of the ami copyright :lol:
edwin/evasive

Do not assume anything

System error, strike any user to continue...
kotarak
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Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2009 6:35 am

On my Asus P6T Deluxe, module ID 1A is the AMI Bios logo. It's named "Small Logo(s)" and the file is a raw image format with a header.

The file is 9890 bytes long. You can load it into Photoshop CS4 as a raw image (earlier versions should work too), and account for an 86 byte header, with a width of 129 pixels and 76 pixels tall. Be sure to tick the checkbox on the raw image dialog when opening it that tells Photoshop to retain the header when resaving.

It's just a grayscale image and the bytes in the file represent gray values. You should be able to edit it in Photoshop using this method and resave it. If not, you can always hex edit it by hand, which would be kind of a pain. :P

Here's a shot of basically what you should see when you load it in photoshop (This image has been scaled down from 1920x1200 and Photoshop is zoomed in 400%):

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/8081/amips.jpg

(I don't have 10 posts yet so I had to break that link in order to post. Sorry.)


(Note - Fixed link for the OP. KW)
kotarak
New visitors - please read the rules.
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2009 6:35 am

Double posting so this doesn't get missed. Thank you for fixing the link KW.

I just wanted to add that it seems that all images in my bios (except for the fullscreen boot image) are at 50% width, including the AMI bios logo. Basically, the bios stretches the image to double width, so if you make a replacement, be sure to compensate for this by halving the width, if your motherboard does what mine does.
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