BIOS Updates forum

Hello everybody,

I was given an old pentium-based system where a board with the BIOS ID mentioned above is installed. Using the PcChips Lottery I could find out that it is a PcChips M537 (also known as Amptron PM8400A) Rev. 5.1.
The board recognizes only 8 GByte of the 45 GByte drive I attached; the board is to be run under Windows 98, so the BIOS must recognize the whole disc capacity to operate the dive correctly (I don't like disk managers and the like).
I tried the last BIOS files available for this board at ftp.pcchips.com.tw, but after flashing these files UniFlash issues a "verify error" (the first half of the file seems to mismatch the first half of the BIOS chip).
Is there a BIOS available for this board that supports drives up to 64 GByte (128 GByte would be nice, but 64 are sufficient)?

Thanks,

Aragorn

Be very careful. The M537 BIOS at PCCHIPS really belongs to the M537DMA board, and not the plain M537 which you have.

I patched the latest official 12/1997 BIOS for you (upto 128GB HDD support) and it's here at:
http://wims.rainbow-software.org/ajz/

Don't forget to report results.

Hello,

that also explains why Uniflash told me that the BIOS I got from PcChips didn't match the board I have. Fortunately I made a backup of the original BIOS before trying the "new" one; I wrote this backup back into the BIOS chip after flashing the other BIOS had failed, so I didn't trash the board (it booted without problems after this).
I'll try the patched BIOS as soon as I'm at home this afternoon - and of course you will get the results!

Thanks,

Aragorn

Hello again!

Bad news: After Uniflash didn't work, I tried awdflash to write the patched BIOS into the flash chip. This tool told me that the update was completed successfully, rebooted - and the system doesn't come up any more. Black screen, floppy drive isn't accessed, clearing the CMOS RAM didn't help - I think I have to let the chip be reprogrammed to get the system to work again.

Aragorn

After several consecutive flashes, chances were one could fail. I sent that same file to someone else in your exact same situation and it worked perfectly for him.

ASD chips used on this model too then?

Hi

Edwin: The flash chip is most probably a 1MBit 12V MX.
Aragorn: You have performed a CMOS clear after the last update?

Bye
Thomas

Hello,

Both Uniflash and awdflash identified the chip as a Macronix MX28F1000P (128 kByte / 1 MBit, 12V).
Clearing the CMOS RAM after the last attempt to flash the BIOS didn't help - I had the backup battery removed for about two hours while the system not plugged in.

Aragorn

Hi

ok. FAQ #9 then.

Bye
Thomas

Hi,

and thanks for your support - the methods described in this FAQ article are exactly what I already tried.

Boot-Block BIOS doesn't work (Black screen, even with an ISA graphics card, and the floppy drive isn't accessed during boot-up; and according to http://www.amptron.com/documents/Recover.pdf my BIOPS doesn't have a Boot-Block BIOS because it is only 1 MBit in size).
Hot-Swapping the BIOS chip to reprogram it in another board also didn't work - just because I don't have another board that has it's BIOS chip a socket AND that supports 12V chips (I have a board with a soldered 12V chip, and another board with a socketed chip - but this only supports 5V chips. Damn!).

I'm going to have the chip reprogrammed at my local electronics store tomorrow - or at least I'm going to try it; I don't know if they can program flash chips or if they offer this service.

Aragorn

Hi

>BIOPS doesn't have a Boot-Block BIOS because it is only 1 MBit in size).

1MBit Bioses do have boot blocks as well. But if your chip is damaged or the flash process went wrong, it might have got erased/damaged as well.

Check the board with the 5V chip, what voltage is there on Vpp (Pin#1 IIRC).
Even 5V flashparts can take 12V there, because they simply don't use this Pin at all!

Bye
Thomas

Hello,

I tried booting the "broken" board with the working BIOS taken from the other board (just as described in the FAQ) - it didn't come up; not even to a point where you colud boot DOS from a floppy disk. I think the chipsets are too different (the "broken" board has a VIA VXPro, the other one is an ALi-based board).
I then booted the working board with it's own BIOS into DOS and then replaced the BIOS chip with the one that is to be programmed. None of the flash tools I tried recognized this chip.
As far as I know, this is usually caused by a bad (too low) programming voltage, so I think the "working" board doesn't supply the chip's socket with 12V; I'll check this later today.

Aragorn

Hello,

bad news again: I took the chip to an electronics store to have it programmed with the patched BIOS. Programming went OK, but at home, the BIOS doesn't work - black screen, floppy drive isn't accessed, even with an ISA graphics card that is known to work and after clearing the CMOS RAM. The only difference to the state before reprogramming the chip is that the three LEDs in the keyboard flash twice after powering up the system - before they flashed only once.
I double-checked my motherboard identification - it is correct.
Now I think I'll take the chip to the store again to have it reprogrammed with the original BIOS - this way, the system will at least be usable with smaller drives or with a different operating system that doesn't depend on the BIOS that much.

Or would it help if I sent the BIOS I saved before flashing the patched BIOS to somebody who kows about patching BIOS so he could patch this "original" BIOS to at least 64 GByte?

Thanks to everybody for your help,

Aragorn

You used the BIOS patched using BP? If yes, try powering it up with keyboard disconnected, this can help. Although, I've seen a QDI board where the BP-patched BIOS resulted in totally dead BIOS - hot-flash needed.

Hi,

I don't know which tool was used to modify the BIOS - it is the BIOS ajzchips provided.
Booting without keyboard really did the trick (but isn't much fun in the long run) - the system boots up and keeps running when you connect the keyboard after the graphics card has come up.
But now the system seems to suffer from the 32 GByte bug - it hangs as soon as it tries to detect the 45 GByte drive! When I enter the drive parameters manually the boot process stops after IDE detection.
I can't test it with a smaller drive as I don't have one available at the moment - sorry.

Aragorn