I have an IBM Aptiva that I've upgraded with a K6-2 and it boots and runs fine I just get an annoying "127 System Board Error" each boot that I have to acknowledge. How difficult might it be to remove this error? Anyone able to look into it? I can supply the BIOS file.
Is the BIOS uncompressed and do you see the string inside the BIOS-dump?
If yes: Easy
If no: more Difficult as you have to find a way to decompress, modify and compress again
This is what’s on the floppy for the most recent BIOS update from IBM, digging around now. Would there be a tool or app I should attempt to open these with?
So this one?
IBM Aptiva 2159 S76, any love for these “Stealth” setups?
There seem to be two BIOS variations (ST and FL) in your screenshot, any idea which one of these is used?
For taking a quick look any old hex editor will do, in a pinch.
I don't know about native Windows tools (I'm a Linux guy) but "binwalk -E" is the quickest way to see which parts of the file are compressed and which are not. On Linux, xxd and strings are also helpful.
Most probably there is some compression, perhaps something lha/lzh-based (that's apparently what AMI and Award use). The devil is in the details, though...the headers will be different than what is used with the standard compression tools.
Yes that is the machine, and I found a way to power it up! I had an Evergreen Spectra with a 400Mhz K6-2 and thought I’d test it out in this machine. So far the performance gain is questionable but I need to do more testing. I have a K6-3 coming that I’m hoping will work in the same adapter, we’ll see.
Looks like ST is the correct version. I can copy these files elsewhere to have a look with a hex editor.
Here are the files if anyone is interested. I'm poking around. $IMAGEST.USF is likely the file we need to edit given it's 256KB size and "ST" designation.
If you have not already read this: http://aptivasupport.com/uas/cpu/
"you will get post 127 if you go >166Mhz for 2144/2168 and >200Mhz for 2134/2176/2159)."
Yours is a 2176 xxxx so try setting the speed to no more than 200Mhz and see what happens just for the sake of testing....
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
Okay, I tried booting at 166 and 200 with the K6-2 with same results, 127 error. I can confirm booting with an Intel Pentium at 200 does not trigger the error code.
I think it might also be that an Intel CPU is not present is tripping the code. But the BIOS menu is def pointing out that a speed of 0 MHz detected is an issue. See pics .
