Maybe the EEPROM itself is going bad? I know some people here try putting the BIOS chip on a network card and flashing it from there.

386SX wrote:

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Hello,

I'm working with old socket 7 hardware and actually with a Chaintech 5AGM2 motherboard. Unfortunately during a bios update (restoring the saved one with the usual awd utility) it seems it flashed ok but black screen at boot.
I've seen that with a good ISA video card it start with Bootblock loader but when I launch again the awd utility with an original good bios it gives me the "Unknown flash memory" error like it can't read the type of eeprom.
I've tried many awdflash versions and different bios. I've tried also uniflash without success.
Any last minute trick to flash again the bios?
Thank

What's the flash chip?
I had similar experience with a SOYO 6VBA133 motherboard. First flash failure then chip not recognized by any flash utility, no matter on a network card or hot-swapped motherboard.

Chip is a MX 28F1000PPC. I didn't use any parameters for the flasher during update. My error was probably to upload the same one saved by the utility in a previous update (Where it ask "Do you want to save the old one....").

Uniflash supports 28F1000PPC but Flashrom doesn't. You may try Uniflash. If it doesn't recognize the chip, try using -force xxxx parameter where xxxx is the chip id which can be found by -chiplist parameter.
If flash fails again you may try network adapter or hot swap.
But! This is a 12V chip, and it needs 12V at PIN1 to erase and write. 12V chips are quite common on 430TX and earlier boards, but replaced with 5V chips afterwards. You need to find a board that supports 12V chips, such as T2P4, TXP4, to perform the flash. Many network cards only support 5V chips. If you can take the risk you may hard wire 12V to PIN1 on the chip, but again, risk on your own.

I try using only Uniflash then even if my first try with the latest version failed. I never tried hotswapping the eeprom or using the NIC card I've a NE2000 compatible isa card but I need to check for a eeprom socket if present and after that I need to understand what program to use to upload the bin file.
By the way I am going to try the uniflash way. 😀

386SX wrote:

I try using only Uniflash then even if my first try with the latest version failed. I never tried hotswapping the eeprom or using the NIC card I've a NE2000 compatible isa card but I need to check for a eeprom socket if present and after that I need to understand what program to use to upload the bin file.
By the way I am going to try the uniflash way. 😀

Can Uniflash recognize the flash chip and motherboard chipset?

Update: I've tried Uniflash V.1.18 and v.1.40. With 1.18 using -force I actually can set the specific 1000PPC 12v version but after starting it gave me a FLASH VERIFICATION ERROR.
With 1.40 the 1000PPC code is not present and only the 1000P 12v code is there. I've tried it anyway and it gives me the same flash verification error. Rebooting give me the same Bootblock bot with cmos checksum error and starting the floppy.

Do I need to include the Bootblock flash advanced mode?

386SX wrote:

Update: I've tried Uniflash V.1.18 and v.1.40. With 1.18 using -force I actually can set the specific 1000PPC 12v version but after starting it gave me a FLASH VERIFICATION ERROR.
With 1.40 the 1000PPC code is not present and only the 1000P 12v code is there. I've tried it anyway and it gives me the same flash verification error. Rebooting give me the same Bootblock bot with cmos checksum error and starting the floppy.

Do I need to include the Bootblock flash advanced mode?

I think the flash chip is highly likely dead. Less likely Uniflash doesn't work on your motherboard. You can buy a 1Mbit flash chip for about $5 on ebay. A flash-utility-friendly example would be W29EE011/W29C011A chip. Or look around and see if you can locate a similar chip on one of your SCSI/RAID cards or even motherboards in your to-be-thrown-out repository.

lazibayer wrote:

I think the flash chip is highly likely dead. Less likely Uniflash doesn't work on your motherboard. You can buy a 1Mbit flash chip for about $5 on ebay. A flash-utility-friendly example would be W29EE011/W29C011A chip. Or look around and see if you can locate a similar chip on one of your SCSI/RAID cards or even motherboards in your to-be-thrown-out repository.

Just remember to set the jumpers on the motherboard according to the flash chip's voltage

http://web.archive.org/web/19980513201015/htt … OS/BIOSUPD8.htm

here you find the bios file you need for you 5AGM2. Lasted file need to be 5AGM2309.EXE

http://www.elhvb.com/mobokive/archive/chaintech/bios/5agm2/

I will recommend to buy a new fresh chip and use a fresh new rom image.

alexanrs wrote:

lazibayer wrote:

I think the flash chip is highly likely dead. Less likely Uniflash doesn't work on your motherboard. You can buy a 1Mbit flash chip for about $5 on ebay. A flash-utility-friendly example would be W29EE011/W29C011A chip. Or look around and see if you can locate a similar chip on one of your SCSI/RAID cards or even motherboards in your to-be-thrown-out repository.

Just remember to set the jumpers on the motherboard according to the flash chip's voltage

It seems that Chaintech 5AGM2 doesn't have a voltage jumper for flash chip. I checked the data sheets and I think W29EE011 should be pin compatible with 28F1000P. Although being a 12V programmable chip, the VCC applied on PIN32 of 28F1000P is also 5V. W29EE011 has NC on PIN1 where 12V is supplied by the motherboard, so theoretically it shouldn't be fried. To be safe you can isolate PIN1 from contacting the socket.

Too bad I hoped I could solve it without searching for another eeprom. I don't think I have the same eeprom on another motherboard so I need to find another chip I think. 😵
To use another brand/eeprom means that I only need to check pins configuration and voltage?

Strange update:

I searched and found in an older motherboard the same (!) functional MX eeprom. 😲
So I bootblocked with the older and hotswapped the new to upload the flash. Resulted the same flash verification error. I begin to suspect it's not a dead eeprom problem.

SOLVED:

This is how: i used another old Biostar socket 7 mainboard that had the same mx eprom and booted in Dos. Then hotswapped the Chaintech eprom into it and launched Uniflash. Older versions couldn't but 1.40 (latest) did the job without forcing the routine and this time (finally) did recognize the memory as 1000P (not PPC) and finally flashed it in 10 seconds of terror. 🤣
Now it boots with a powerful K62 500. Old times...
By the way THANK you all, I never had so many problems with flashed bios in all these years and thank to the ISA always needed video card (TVGA 9000B 512Kbyte 😎 ).

386SX wrote:

SOLVED: […]
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SOLVED:

This is how: i used another old Biostar socket 7 mainboard that had the same mx eprom and booted in Dos. Then hotswapped the Chaintech eprom into it and launched Uniflash. Older versions couldn't but 1.40 (latest) did the job without forcing the routine and this time (finally) did recognize the memory as 1000P (not PPC) and finally flashed it in 10 seconds of terror. 🤣
Now it boots with a powerful K62 500. Old times...
By the way THANK you all, I never had so many problems with flashed bios in all these years and thank to the ISA always needed video card (TVGA 9000B 512Kbyte 😎 ).

Congrats! It looks like Uniflash doesn't support 5AGM2 that well.

Thank you!
By the way I am also trying to update a Winbond W29C020-090 (5V I think) eeprom that probably need a refresh.. 😀 I put it in the same Biostar mainboard that has 12V pin but bending it outside and powered with the 5V of the power supply. Incredibly uniflash 1.40 see it without forcing and start flashing. During update I see some steps red some green... at the end it verify and give me the d@mn Flash verification error in both Bootblock with or without mode. This time it seems that this happens after a "right" long flash stage not immediately like the Macronix.
I am going to try awflash (not aflash cause I can't boot the original motherboard now) and try different bin.

386SX wrote:

Thank you!
By the way I am also trying to update a Winbond W29C020-090 (5V I think) eeprom that probably need a refresh.. 😀 I put it in the same Biostar mainboard that has 12V pin but bending it outside and powered with the 5V of the power supply. Incredibly uniflash 1.40 see it without forcing and start flashing. During update I see some steps red some green... at the end it verify and give me the d@mn Flash verification error in both Bootblock with or without mode. This time it seems that this happens after a "right" long flash stage not immediately like the Macronix.
I am going to try awflash (not aflash cause I can't boot the original motherboard now) and try different bin.

W29C020 is a 2Mbit chip and the Biostar board might not support that. I flashed two W29C020s on GA-5SMM with Uniflash without problems.