feipoa wrote on 2022-07-22, 22:33:

I never found an update. Best I can do would be to copy my existing BIOS. However, I'm knee deep in digging up my foundation and water proofing it. This will go on for a month. When I'm ready for a break, I'll try to pull out my Acer system and image the BIOS for ya if you are still interested?

Thank you very much for your kind help, much appreciated! As of now I have no BIOS for it at all and all my searches have been in vain... In the meantime I'll be busy procuring an Intel ROM for it to be flashed on

OK. Give me up to a week to pull the system out. I will have a 3 week "dry curing" period coming up for which there isn't much I can do on the foundation job.

OFF-Topic Question:
Anyone here use Xypex to waterproof their foundation? I don't fully trust it on its own, so I am doing Xypex (3 days damp curing followed by 21 days dry during), then going over it with traditional foundation tar. I am finding the Xypex instructions of not letting the product dry too fast doing those first 3 days rather challenging, even in 21-25 C weather. Seems like I need to have some misting bots to mist the foundation every 30 minutes, rather than the "3-times per day" mentioned in the Xypex literature.

That would be great if you could post the V12P bios.

OT: I have never used Xypex but do know that the asphalt-emulsion stuff worked very good in the past. Yes would go over it with foundation tar.
For tar based: You want something made with Chevron AR4000 asphaltic emulsion or similar (like DS4000 plus sealer). Made more for roads but works great on subterrain concrete walls as a water seal on the outside.
Long ago we used AR4000 heated hot to 200f+ and sprayed foundations for a coating before backfill. It set quick so no days of waiting and still have some scars from it splattering ;p

edit: my bad

Attached is my BIOS image from the Acer V12P with revision V1.2R1.6. I used NSSI to write the image.

I noticed my system is having some issue reading and writing to floppy disks. It sometimes works, others not. The issue doesn't appear to be the floppy drive or cable. I wonder if the Super I/O is on the fritz or has as bad solder joint. I was considering replacing the MB with an Intel one, but I'm using one of these Acer specific cases and case modifications would be needed to get the Intel installed.

Is your V12P in an Acer case and if so do you have a photo of it?

If you are wanting to use a newer disk controller, I had trouble finding one which worked in this motherboard. The Promise SATA150TX2 Plus worked though.

Horun, by the way, I will be continuing with the Xypex as I've already put it on half the house. I'm just waiting for the heat dome to leave to do the other half. The forcast says Monday will be back down to 21-22 C, which is good enough. I'll probably Xypex late Sunday evening when the temps fall below 20 C. Then wake up and mist it every hour or so. After 25 days, I'm just going to use whatever Home Depot sells for their foundation tar, which is but one product. "Knight" something or another was the brand. Half the house is already with this combination. What I found most frustrating, and something I do not understand about home constructions, was why under the front porch (which is over ground) was the whole 3' down to the perimeter drain just sand. The 4' wide porch, down 3', and 20' long all just sand? The rest of the home had clay surrounding the foundation, except for this one face. Why? It is a pain to deal with because of the pavers that go over the sand. When I dug the trench, you cannot walk on any pavers with 1' of the trench, or the whole face will go falling into the trench. I'm trying to avoid digging out the whole 4'x3'x20'. That's a lot of sand.

feipoa wrote on 2022-07-29, 08:11:

Attached is my BIOS image from the Acer V12P with revision V1.2R1.6. I used NSSI to write the image. […]
Show full quote

Attached is my BIOS image from the Acer V12P with revision V1.2R1.6. I used NSSI to write the image.

I noticed my system is having some issue reading and writing to floppy disks. It sometimes works, others not. The issue doesn't appear to be the floppy drive or cable. I wonder if the Super I/O is on the fritz or has as bad solder joint. I was considering replacing the MB with an Intel one, but I'm using one of these Acer specific cases and case modifications would be needed to get the Intel installed.

Is your V12P in an Acer case and if so do you have a photo of it?

If you are wanting to use a newer disk controller, I had trouble finding one which worked in this motherboard. The Promise SATA150TX2 Plus worked though.

Thank you very much! Sadly it came without a case (and without BIOS and keyboard controller) so I still have ways to go before making it operational...

I've come across this though: https://www.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/ … _first_pentium/

Nice find photo-wise. That looks like my case, except instead of "Acer" it has written "Compudyne". There was a sticker over the "Compudyne", but I remember it looking quite unfitting, so I removed it. Best of luck with your board. Let me know if you run into any other trouble. I remember this board being rather fussy with which expansion cards it would work with.

feipoa wrote on 2022-07-29, 08:11:

Attached is my BIOS image from the Acer V12P with revision V1.2R1.6. I used NSSI to write the image. […]
Show full quote

Attached is my BIOS image from the Acer V12P with revision V1.2R1.6. I used NSSI to write the image.

I noticed my system is having some issue reading and writing to floppy disks. It sometimes works, others not. The issue doesn't appear to be the floppy drive or cable. I wonder if the Super I/O is on the fritz or has as bad solder joint. I was considering replacing the MB with an Intel one, but I'm using one of these Acer specific cases and case modifications would be needed to get the Intel installed.

Is your V12P in an Acer case and if so do you have a photo of it?

If you are wanting to use a newer disk controller, I had trouble finding one which worked in this motherboard. The Promise SATA150TX2 Plus worked though.

Finally, my flash chips have arrived however, I was told that the BIOS image saved with the use of NSSI is regrettably... flawed. I was advised by the BIOS specialists I was in touch with to kindly ask you for a re-dump of the BIOS by using the "UNIFLASH" tool:
https://theretroweb.com/drivers/75
Thank you very much in advance, and my apologies for the inconvenience!

The link you sent does not contain a downloadable item. However, I already have uniflash 1.4 stored. I'll try to find time this evening to pull all the junk out of my closet and re-flash that BIOS. Who are you getting this BIOS advice from? Do you recall if the BIOS is socketed? If so, perhaps I should just use the EEPROM programmer.

feipoa wrote on 2022-09-21, 18:31:

The link you sent does not contain a downloadable item. However, I already have uniflash 1.4 stored. I'll try to find time this evening to pull all the junk out of my closet and re-flash that BIOS. Who are you getting this BIOS advice from? Do you recall if the BIOS is socketed? If so, perhaps I should just use the EEPROM programmer.

Thank you very much! I have gotten the advice from BurnedPenguin over at TRW. Yes, the BIOS is socketed:

Photo by 매몰군

Oops, it totally slipped my mind to get another image of this BIOS. I’ll try to remember tonight. If I forget again, send me a message.

Is the BIOS on this board an Acer in-house job?

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2022-09-27, 01:25:

Is the BIOS on this board an Acer in-house job?

Yeah interesting. I have seen Acer bios stickers before but not cut to show the chip ID like that, the few seen are long-wise with the chip like an Award or AMI or some P.Bell stickers.

Are old 486/Pentium Acer computers sought after? There's more interest in this than I thought there'd be.

I've attached the BIOS as written with my external programmer.

Added an original Intel Pentium sticker to the case.

The case is a little odd in that the HDD is mounted above the PSU

Here are some images of the BIOS and available options. It doesn't look like an Award or AMI BIOS. Sort of looks like Phoenix, but not quite. Did Acer make their own?

Here's the rest of the BIOS options.

I also have this odd socket 3 motherboard made by Acer which was also sold in the same PC tower. It has, both, PCI and VLB, however as I recall it, the board wasn't all that fast. Chipset is ALi M1429G and ALi M1435.

Well that's certainly unique. It seems that M1435 must be a VLB-PCI bridge chip like the one OPTi had. Bridge aside, I wouldn't expect to much from what is essentially a 386 chipset.

Pretty sure Acer did their own BIOS. I checked mine in a hex editor, and it had no copyrights from the usual suspects.

I find Acer stuff from the early-mid 90s to be made to a reasonably high standard. Some of their OEM stuff from the later 90s was good too.

feipoa wrote on 2022-09-27, 06:55:

Are old 486/Pentium Acer computers sought after? There's more interest in this than I thought there'd be. […]
Show full quote

Are old 486/Pentium Acer computers sought after? There's more interest in this than I thought there'd be.

I've attached the BIOS as written with my external programmer.
Acer_V12P_socket4_BIOS_v1.2R1.6_written_with_external_programmer.rar
BIOS_revision.JPG

Added an original Intel Pentium sticker to the case.
case1.JPG

The case is a little odd in that the HDD is mounted above the PSU
case2.JPG
case3.JPG

Yes, this one seems fine - thank you again for your help, it is most appreciated!

feipoa wrote on 2022-09-27, 06:55:

Are old 486/Pentium Acer computers sought after? There's more interest in this than I thought there'd be. […]
Show full quote

Are old 486/Pentium Acer computers sought after? There's more interest in this than I thought there'd be.

I've attached the BIOS as written with my external programmer.
Acer_V12P_socket4_BIOS_v1.2R1.6_written_with_external_programmer.rar
BIOS_revision.JPG

Added an original Intel Pentium sticker to the case.
case1.JPG

The case is a little odd in that the HDD is mounted above the PSU
case2.JPG
case3.JPG

Thank you very much - finally, I got to burn the BIOS, got an Acer keyboard controller and the board lives =D
Though there will be issues to sort, like the Dallas, but that is a trivial issue.
This would not have been possible without your kind help, I appreciate it greatly!

Cool!

80X87(SX) coprocessor mismatch. This somehow related to the CMOS battery being dead, I take it?