Uniwill N258SAx Motherboard Manual Required to clear CMOS

Request help finding jumper settings or a motherboard manual.
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Fezar
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Hi all
I am looking for a manual/or just info for the jumper settings on the board to clear the CMOS battery for a OEM modified uniwill 257SA0 situated inside a Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo D 1845
Thanks to NickS for the info

I recently tried to flash a bios from the above link which appears to be incompatible with the board, or just didn't successfully complete.

I appear to get power on my motherboard (power led comes on when press power button), does this indicate that the KeyBoard Controller firmware has not been updated (my logic is that the KBC controlls power, so if the bad flash included this update no power would be available)? If so this would allow me to remove the socketed bios chip and send it away for reprogramming...

Does anyone have any info about this board?
Tom
Last edited by Fezar on Mon Aug 27, 2007 7:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
edwin
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When will people learn only to use the OEM bioses for their laptops? Most likely you need to send in both the main bios and the KBC bios to get them programmed with the Fjt-Smns bioses.
edwin/evasive

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Fezar
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It was just too good to be true I had to try it out, the thought of better thermal control did it for me, the chance to hold laptop without asbestos gloves... Hmmm

I believe bios is in socket, so can be removed and reprogrammed, but how can I tell if the KBC has been changed - I still get power i.e. Fan starts and power led comes on when I start the laptop, so could this only have affected the bios chip, or is there no way of telling? :?:

I guess the way forward would be to reprogram bios chip and see what happens?
NickS
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In a PM, Fezar wrote:
I only have a USB floppy drive for the machine, followed instructions and no led lights up on floppy and does not work for USB drive either.

So:
*Bios does not support boot block recovery? | I Believe it should so that can't be it...
*Manufacturer may have used different key combinations which are invaliable in this elusive manual !
*File is a .109 not in .ROM format | I think this may be the problem. But can't find a file in .ROM format !

But then again, no read indication of floppy or USB drive, so i guess its a different key combination... Testing others now...
For AMIBIOS recovery, the file has to be renamed from 258SA5US.109 or whatever to AMIBOOT.ROM, but if the BIOS is not looking at your USB FDD I guess that won't help much. Also, if 258SA5US.109 is the one that messed up the machine, I think that I'd be looking to use the last Fujitsu-Siemens OEM BIOS instead of a Uniwill one.
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NickS
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Fezar wrote:It was just too good to be true I had to try it out, the thought of better thermal control did it for me, the chance to hold laptop without asbestos gloves... Hmmm
Remember, it has to be operated on a hard surface - carry a wooden board with you at all times. :wink:
I believe bios is in socket, so can be removed and reprogrammed, but how can I tell if the KBC has been changed - I still get power i.e. Fan starts and power led comes on when I start the laptop, so could this only have affected the bios chip, or is there no way of telling? :?:
Possibly, I don't know how to tell. Anyone else?
I guess the way forward would be to reprogram bios chip and see what happens?
Well, if we can't get a handle on clearing CMOS or find out how to force a bootblock recovery, that would be the best next step. I have a request out for a service manual; I'll see what happens.
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NickS
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Well, I got the manual - not a lot of help, as it does not list jumper settings. It states that the BIOS is a 32-pin PLCC, 4 Mbit device. A block diagram shows that the BIOS is accessed through the keyboard controller.
The CMOS is incorporated in the Sis963 Southbridge and I can't find a reference to clearing it. There's no mainboard layout, just pin assignments for the major ICs and connectors. :(
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Fezar
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Thanks for that info, I had a look and the AMIBIOS chip is indeed in socket, and is a 32 pin 4Mbit PLCC, it is also an EON model that is supported by at least one reprogrammer I priced up. bootbloack recovery (renaming an OEM bios to AMIBOOT.ROM) still does not work as it does not look for my disk when I press Ctrl+Home keys on boot.

But without a way to clear the CMOS (no visible jumpers on mobo, but then again I did not remove any components) it appears then that I will need to send it off to FSC to be reprogrammed. A new board will cost be £261 plus VAT and Handling 8O No idea how much it will cost to have mine reprogrammed. Does anyone know of anyway to return it to a manufacturers original state, i.e. how to clear the CMOS unorthodoxly? Can't I just remove the battery and the memory will be erased?

Tom
NickS
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Hi Tom, I guess you probably tried removing the battery by now....if not, I don't think you have much to lose. Have you checked whether BIOS recovery looks at the CD at all?
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NickS
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Just for the record, a user at www.Amilo-Forums.com says that the 258SAx service manual shows there are 6 screws holding the CPU heatsink on but there are actually only 5 on the Amilo D1845.

Tom, any news? I didn't realise the BIOS ROM was so accessible - just take the bottom plate off and there it is.
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Fezar
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removed CMOS battery battery and left out overnight,
I am not entirely competent at hardware dissassembly, and CMOS battery was under WLAN PCI card so I wanted to try areas that I was confident in first...
No POST, beeps, or boot block recovery when replaced: Still no reading from USB HDD, CD ISO or CD with AMIBOOT.ROM, nor from USB Floppy drive. Cradle for HDD came, the manual on my laptop HDD was for the wrong MOBO all along (the SA1). But I have accumulated a bit of info about the mobo, chip, etc if anyone is interested. I have a dissassembly guide for a 257SA0, the exact model of the Amilo D 1845 (not a 258SA0 but there may be a few different releases of this laptop), one of the few differences is the existence of five screws holding the heatsink, not six, as you said.

plan of action is to: get new compatible chip (about £15) (can't wait any longer to have chip reprogrammed :)) , remove CMOS battery and short the terminals with screwdriver as there are no visible jumpers or switches and no documentation I could find had no evidence of jumpers. Then see what happens. I'll keep you posted

Tom
Fezar
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8) Fixed it! 8)
Chip came from badflash.com yesterday, removed old one, with a PLCC extractor tool and it was simply a case of inserting the new one, and clearing the CMOS battery by removing it, shorting the terminals and VOILA!

Thanks for your support everyone!

Tom
NickS
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Congraulations to you; and how sensible of Uniwill to use a socketed, easily accessible BIOS chip.
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