BIOS Updates forum

I have a motherboard without the bios.
The board is a slot 1 mobo using 38L3456 north bridge and via vt82c596b south bridge and smsc fdc37m813 super I/O.
The PCB was silkscreened 'ibm corp 61h2511' and a label read 'FRU61h2541' and '11S61H2539ZJ1AM2939D8'.
Does anyone can tell anything about this board?
and Where can I download the correct bios?

Thanks, a lot.
georman

Google search for 61H2541 reveals

http://www.impactcomputers.com/61h2541.html

IBM APTIVA 61H2541
IBM APTIVA Part Number: 61H2541
Category: SYSTEM BOARDS
Subcategory: Desktop
Notes: These units are pulls from 100% working systems. Buy with confidence all parts have been tested and have a 90 day warranty.
Compatible Models: Aptiva 2198
Reseller Discount on orders of 5 or more System Boards
Original IBM APTIVA parts. Shipping Calculation

Puuting Aptiva 2198 into IBM support website and asking for download file type BIOS will give you
Aptiva 2178/2198 - Flash BIOS update

Thanks,nick.
I've got the bios file,but when I extracted the file,it makes a bootable disk with a lot of files, I dno't know which one is the image file needed to be falsh to the chip, cause the board have no bios chip (the chip was lost), so I must flash or program it , not upgrade from old bios.
Without the bios, the board can not work, I can not use the disk to update,so this is what I really want someone help me.
I have a blank bios chip, and the bios file only work with old bios,What should I do?

georman

georman wrote:Thanks,nick.
I've got the bios file,but when I extracted the file,it makes a bootable disk with a lot of files, I dno't know which one is the image file needed to be falsh to the chip, cause the board have no bios chip (the chip was lost), so I must flash or program it , not upgrade from old bios.

Yes, I've looked at it and I think the IBM flash disk builds the image file when it runs; there is no single file which looks like the flash image; all the "06xx" files are processor microcode files.

Without the bios, the board can not work, I can not use the disk to update,so this is what I really want someone help me.
I have a blank bios chip, and the bios file only work with old bios,What should I do?
georman

a. Maybe you could email IBM and ask them for an image to put into ROM.
b. Now you know it's an Aptiva 2198 you could ask if anyone else has one and could send you an image. I haven't looked around to see if there are any newsgroups for IBM or Aptiva. Make it clear that you don't want the IBM BIOS download, you need somebody to take an image of the ROM.

What about $IMAGEPJ.USF file? It's 524288 bytes long - will exactly fit 512KB Flash ROM.

Rainbow, wouldn't that file be like original.tmp, meaning that it would get compressed together with the "other" modules to form a new compressed 512KB file?
IIRC, those BIOS updates from Compaq, IBM, HP, etc. do real-time compression of stuff while flashing.

I'm looking at the files again:
The 06?? files are microsode files as NickS said.
The $imagepj.??f files are BIOS image files - the ?? is language code. The main file is $imagepj.usf (language=US), it looks like the other files can be inserted into the main image by using flash utility's command-line options.
Don't know how is the file flashed (compressed/uncompressed) - but 512KB is nice size that will fit the Flash ROM exactly.

I think it's time for another 2198 and an EEPROM programmer that can handle these chips...

Thanks,all.
I agree with ajzchips. The file $imagepj.usf may be the main bios file, but it can not be directly flashed itto the bios chip.
I decided to ask someone else to help me get the original bios.
Thaks again.

georman

I have an EPROM from some IBM system - the date is 1992 and it's M27C4001 - 512KB too. It's possible that they always used huge ROMs.

Yes,I think so.
The brand pc manufacturer usually use huge EEPROMs.
I have a DELL BX board which use INTEL E28F008S5 8Mbit flash chip.
I can make sure This ibm board 61h2541 actually use 4Mbit flash rom.


georman