BIOS Updates forum

Hi,

It's my first posting here <nervous ... just kidding>.

So, I have a Soyo SY-6BA+ IV motherboard with a Macronix MX29F002NTPC-120 bios chip. As it is written on winsbios.com this chip seems not to be of best qualitiy (to say it politely). To make it short: flashing failed and also re-programming it with a flasher failed with writing errors at random addresses.

I have a defective motherboard with a Winbond W29C020-90 bios chip. Can I use this chip in the Soyo board? I downloaded the specs but I'm still not sure, the pinout is the same but e.g. the where the MX29Fxxx has a reset pin, this pin is just not connected by the W29Cxxx.

Also, I don't know the difference between a 29Fxxx and 29Cxxx chip. Can someone exlpain it to me? I already have asked Arthur from flashbios.org but was suprised by his answer:

> The 29Fxxx are flashable more then once.
> The 29Cxxx are one-time programmable only.

He told me that I can use the Winbond chip for the above board, I just wanted to be sure and get a second expert opinion.

Almost forgot: Both chips have the same 32-pin DIL layout, that would fit

Specs:
Winbond W29C020 Datasheet (PDF - 267kB)
Macronix MF29F002 Datasheet (PDF - 238kB)

Cheers,

lazyboy

It should work. Both 29Fxxx and 29Cxxx chips are flashable. The W29C020 is one of the most common chips, so the Soyo BIOS should know how to write ESCD and DMI data there.

Rainbow wrote:It should work. Both 29Fxxx and 29Cxxx chips are flashable. The W29C020 is one of the most common chips, so the Soyo BIOS should know how to write ESCD and DMI data there.

We gonna try it out this week, thanks for your help.

It worked! Unbelievable!!

The Soyo is working as if there was never a problem, thanks again for your help.

Thomas