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Reflash using universal programmer?
Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 7:45 am
by shortCircuit
Hi, I killed my Abit SA6R motherboard after messing with the content in the bios. I just get a long periodic beeps now, with no attempt to boot from the floppy. I popped off the Award bios thinking it's just a flash prom, but found Intel 82802AB Firmware Hub underneath the Award bios sticker.
I also found another Atmel flash. So I'm confused.
1) Where is the bios image kept? The firmware hub has enough storage space for the image, but I'm not sure if the bios is stored there.
2) Can I reflash the Firmware Hub, if the bios is stored there? I'm thinking of just programming it with the bios image file as one giant binary file.
Thanks for any insight.
Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 10:03 am
by cp
please post what is written on the atmel flash eeprom. if it's socketed it's the bios chip for sure.
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/sa6r/images/3.jpg
remove the chip from its socket and flash it in your stand-alone eeprom programmer. use the .bin file that ABit supplies.
but maybe your problem can be solved by clearing the cmos which stores the user's bios settings. there's a jumper right next to the socketed chip that will do the trick.
Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 2:53 am
by shortCircuit
Atmel's "flash" is ATF16V8C soldered on to the board. From description, it seems to be a PLD with flash based memory.
cp wrote:remove the chip from its socket and flash it in your stand-alone eeprom programmer. use the .bin file that ABit supplies.
Thanks. Will do that. I wasn't sure if the bios provided by Abit requires special offset start address or something. I was planning to program the device from address 0 until the end of the file is reached.
cp wrote:but maybe your problem can be solved by clearing the cmos which stores the user's bios settings. there's a jumper right next to the socketed chip that will do the trick.
No, I actually corrupted the bios including the boot block. I've already tried clearing the CMOS configuration.
Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 10:27 am
by cp
You're right: the Atmel chip is an EEPLD. My guess: the mainboard manufacturer uses it as a glue logic to control some things on the board via the bios (bios->multi i/o's GPI/Os->PLD->function).
So we're back at the Intel chip. The N82802 has a build-in compatibility mode that lets it act like a Flash EEPROM (thank you, Intel :)). So you might even hot-flash it in any other board (also via plcc->dip adapter). General rule: no offset for bios files. good luck!
Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2006 11:02 pm
by shortCircuit
Thanks for your help. Will try it on Monday.