I decided to read the BIOS chip on my ELI6-II board with my USB programmer. The upper 64K of the chip contains the standard BIOS routines, however the lower 64K of the chip contains a VGA BIOS for "Cirrus Logic L-GD542X". Is there a reason it's in the motherboard BIOS despite no onboard graphics? Doesn't make much sense to me.
One possibility is that the same BIOS was also used in a similar model that actually had a Cirrus Logic CL-GD542X chipset on-board.
In the case of your motherboard, that part of the BIOS setup menu is perhaps just disabled, since there isn't an on-board VGA graphics card.
That could make sense. I was also thinking that since it had VESA ports on the last 2 EISA ports it might have something to do with that.
wackoreese wrote on 2020-05-02, 22:47:I decided to read the BIOS chip on my ELI6-II board with my USB programmer. The upper 64K of the chip contains the standard BIOS routines, however the lower 64K of the chip contains a VGA BIOS for "Cirrus Logic L-GD542X". Is there a reason it's in the motherboard BIOS despite no onboard graphics? Doesn't make much sense to me.
I have one of those boards too. Will have to check the BIOS and check it. Curious if you got yours as a complete computer ? I did and it has a Cirrus GD5428 VLB card in it made by FIC who also made the ELI6-II board for Unisys Corp for their ELI 46665 desktop computers. You can see the BIOS I saved here: Re: 80486 BIOS image collection
edit: Also I added some info to another thread a while ago, about same board here: Re: Does anybody recognize this Socket 3 motherboard?
Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun
Horun wrote on 2020-05-02, 23:09:I have one of those boards too. Will have to check the BIOS and check it. Curious if you got yours as a complete computer ? I did and it has a Cirrus GD5428 VLB card in it made by FIC who also made the ELI6-II board for Unisys Corp for their ELI 46665 desktop computers. You can see the BIOS I saved here: Re: 80486 BIOS image collection
edit: Also I added some info to another thread a while ago, about same board here: Re: Does anybody recognize this Socket 3 motherboard?
I had gotten this board off of ebay a year or two ago, so I don't remember if it came with a card or not. Though I just looked at the VGA card on there and it happens to be the same one in the picture with a chip that matches the BIOS version string! It has its own BIOS chip thought so I might read it real quick and see if the flash ends up being identical.
Checked and the BIOS I have does not have an integrated Cirrus VGA BIOS in it. Curious what the BIOS String and date of yours is ?
Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun
Horun wrote on 2020-05-03, 03:37:Checked and the BIOS I have does not have an integrated Cirrus VGA BIOS in it. Curious what the BIOS String and date of yours is ?
NUNISYS ELI6-II VERSION U569.BIN (08/27/1994)
according to the BIOS file
wackoreese wrote on 2020-05-03, 21:34:according to the BIOS file […]
Horun wrote on 2020-05-03, 03:37:Checked and the BIOS I have does not have an integrated Cirrus VGA BIOS in it. Curious what the BIOS String and date of yours is ?
NUNISYS ELI6-II VERSION U569.BIN (08/27/1994)according to the BIOS file
Ahh mine is Version U573.BIN (03/14/1995)
download/file.php?id=80232&mode=view
Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun
Horun wrote on 2020-05-03, 21:46:wackoreese wrote on 2020-05-03, 21:34:according to the BIOS file […]
Horun wrote on 2020-05-03, 03:37:Checked and the BIOS I have does not have an integrated Cirrus VGA BIOS in it. Curious what the BIOS String and date of yours is ?
NUNISYS ELI6-II VERSION U569.BIN (08/27/1994)according to the BIOS file
Ahh mine is Version U573.BIN (03/14/1995)
download/file.php?id=80232&mode=view
I tried to update my board to it however awdflash.exe absolutely refuses to flash it even with the /py switch. Flashing is also enabled in BIOS but all it tells me is some broken english about the "file's part number does not match your system".
Hmmm maybe NISSI did not save it proper or your board is a different revision than mine. Between last ISA and first VLB slot has "Model: ELI6-II and DOC: 13230" silkscreened on the board. On top of the BIOS Award stick on mine it has an added sticker that says "EL 16-U555" and on the corner of the board near the cache is another white sticker with bar code with an E number and "486 ELI-6-II and B4609-A 06/'94" on it. My old eprom reader/programmer is dead so cannot do another direct read on the bios contents.
Added: because it is an OEM bios you may have to use a specific Awd flash version. Will check thru the FIC web archives to see if I can find any references.
Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun