Please help me Backup/Update BIOS! \ VOGONS

Please help me Backup/Update BIOS!

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First post, by aaronkatrini

Posted on 2019-10-25, 12:27

aaronkatrini Offline

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Please forgive me for being such a n00b.

I've got this new board (PC CHIPS M810LMR) because my last board died. It is a cheap board that I got on eBay and works fine with Nvidia and Radeon graphic cards. However, as soon as I put a 3dfx Voodoo Banshee or Voodoo 3 and install the driver, when trying to load the OS it shows a White screen and nothing more.
I've tried 2x Banshee's and 3x Voodoo 3's, all the same result. I read online that another user, on a Slovak forum had same problem.
Apparently there is a new BIOS for this board dated 2003, the Bios it currently has is from 2002.
This is the link I found (not easy to find): http://www.lejabeach.com/M810/M810.htm

This is the Bios I want to put there since it mentions fixes for Agp 4x (hopefully this will fix my problem):
030103s.exe

I can extract the .rom file from this but don't what to do next.

I have some experience with updating the Bios on newer system like socket 775 and up.
I've been thinking of doing a bootable floppy, copying the .rom file in it and then boot from floppy, but what next?

Also, is there a way to backup the original Bios in case something goes wrong?

Thanks in Advance!

Reply 1 of 10, by BloodyCactus

Posted on 2019-10-25, 12:31

BloodyCactus Offline

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you need to know what kind of bios chip it is, and get the flash program for it. most mb makers use same kind of flash chips so generic flash execs from other makes should work fine.

--/\-[ Stu : Bloody Cactus :: [ https://bloodycactus.com :: http://kråketær.com ]-/\--

Reply 2 of 10, by Nemo1985

Posted on 2019-10-25, 13:10

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for such old stuff, I usually use uniflash it's something like universal, it supports a wide range of systems, it's easy and let you backup the actual bios too.

Reply 3 of 10, by aaronkatrini

Posted on 2019-10-26, 05:09

aaronkatrini Offline

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Hi,
I managed to get a photo of the bios chip.

Can I use uniflash with this?

Reply 4 of 10, by Warlord

Posted on 2019-10-26, 07:20

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the picture is so small

Reply 5 of 10, by aaronkatrini

Posted on 2019-10-26, 15:11

aaronkatrini Offline

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Sorry, my bad!
Here is better photo:

Thanks!

PS. Can I update by USB? I think the bios has a boot option "usb fdd"...

Reply 6 of 10, by dionb

Posted on 2019-10-26, 16:23

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There's a sticker in front of the EEPROM text, but in this case that hardly matters as it's a PC Chips motherboard and the EEPROM is almost certainly relabeled with a fantasy name. I'd use Uniflash to extract the current BIOS image. If that goes well, try to flash the new one onto it.

Worst-case you kill it, then you just need to flash the same specs chip (either 1Mbit or 2Mbit, check the size of your image file) elsewhere and stick it into the board to resurrect.

Reply 7 of 10, by aaronkatrini

Posted on 2019-10-26, 17:57

aaronkatrini Offline

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rom file is 256kb!

Reply 8 of 10, by dionb

Posted on 2019-10-26, 18:55

dionb Offline

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aaronkatrini wrote:
rom file is 256kb!

Unlikely. The file is probably 256kB, which is 2Mb.

Reply 9 of 10, by aaronkatrini

Posted on 2019-11-02, 17:13

aaronkatrini Offline

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Thanks all for the suggestions, I managed to create a bootable floppy.
Then I copied the uniflash files into it and after that also placed the new bios file.
Booted from floppy, launched uniflash, made a backup and then flashed the new bios.
Finished ok, now newer bios is flashed and working fine, however it did not solve my problem with some graphics cards for ex the Vooodoo 3000..
Will need to find another motherboard I guess... 🙁

Reply 10 of 10, by Doornkaat

Posted on 2019-11-02, 18:35

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aaronkatrini wrote:
it did not solve my problem with some graphics cards for ex the Vooodoo 3000..
Will need to find another motherboard I guess... 🙁

I found a compatibility list with the V3 on it. 😀
What motherboard revision do you use?
Can you post a picture of the complete board?

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