amibcp

Good luck.

Read a lot first because it can be a picky bitch

Francois5942 wrote on 2025-05-05, 10:58:

Hello, […]
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Hello,

I have a motherboard MSI MS 6340 ver 1.0 with an AMI BIOS Packard Bell OEM.

When I start the PC I have a splashscreen with Packard Bell logo. If a press escape key, i have the POST screen with all the infos. In the current bios there is no option to desactivate the logo Packard Bell and get by default the POST screen. And furthermore I would like to unlock all options.m of the bios.

I already try to replace OEM AMI bios by a Bios Award (designed for retail MSI version of my board). It works, i have more options but system seems more unstable. Some minor difference should exist between OEM PB and retail version, so I flashed back the packard Bell Bios.

Is this possible to mod the OEM AMI bios file and if yes how to do that?

Thanks for reading me.

one thing i noticed with the stock MSI bios is on MSI's site it mentions AC97 audio for bios version 4.7, on the retroweb it mentions optional CT5880 audio, under the bios section on retroweb versions 1.3-1.6 are labeled CT5880, so versions 2.0 up maybe AC97 only, if the different versions are for different audio that could be the cause of instability also make sure to clear CMOS after flashing, also might be worth trying uniflash, im not sure if others flash the boot block unless you specify it to do so.

the retroweb also mentions faulty caps on these boards, i had to recap one of my MSI boards, so dont rule out that possibility.

myne wrote on 2025-05-05, 11:51:

amibcp

Good luck.

Read a lot first because it can be a picky bitch

Is there a place where I can find reliable documentation? I never modded a BIOS and I have no idea where to begin.
Is there also a reliable site where I can find the software?

DudeFace wrote on 2025-05-05, 12:44:

one thing i noticed with the stock MSI bios is on MSI's site it mentions AC97 audio for bios version 4.7, on the retroweb it mentions optional CT5880 audio, under the bios section on retroweb versions 1.3-1.6 are labeled CT5880, so versions 2.0 up maybe AC97 only, if the different versions are for different audio that could be the cause of instability also make sure to clear CMOS after flashing, also might be worth trying uniflash, im not sure if others flash the boot block unless you specify it to do so.

the retroweb also mentions faulty caps on these boards, i had to recap one of my MSI boards, so dont rule out that possibility.

I replaced a cap which was a little swollen. But the problem I had is that randomly computer didn't boot when I push the power button. Very strange. Sometimes the PC boot normally and sometimes nothing append when I push the power button. When I switched back to AMI BIOS OEM Packard Bell, the problem disappeared. Maybe a little different mapping with the front panel?

Francois5942 wrote on 2025-05-05, 20:30:

DudeFace wrote on 2025-05-05, 12:44:

one thing i noticed with the stock MSI bios is on MSI's site it mentions AC97 audio for bios version 4.7, on the retroweb it mentions optional CT5880 audio, under the bios section on retroweb versions 1.3-1.6 are labeled CT5880, so versions 2.0 up maybe AC97 only, if the different versions are for different audio that could be the cause of instability also make sure to clear CMOS after flashing, also might be worth trying uniflash, im not sure if others flash the boot block unless you specify it to do so.

the retroweb also mentions faulty caps on these boards, i had to recap one of my MSI boards, so dont rule out that possibility.

I replaced a cap which was a little swollen. But the problem I had is that randomly computer didn't boot when I push the power button. Very strange. Sometimes the PC boot normally and sometimes nothing append when I push the power button. When I switched back to AMI BIOS OEM Packard Bell, the problem disappeared. Maybe a little different mapping with the front panel?

the bios wont effect the front panel, its probably the wrong bios version, ive got an msi board and theres 2 different bios versions depending on board revision, at first i used the wrong one, it did work but it was unstable, as soon as i switched to the correct bios it was working fine.

according to retro web your motherboard has one of 2 different audio chips, the pictures show a VIA chip, the manual shows a sigmatel chip with a creative chip underneath.

just found this and it seems you do need a specific bios depending on audio.

SOURCE:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080202150346/www … /faqmmsi.html#5

Does K7MPro (MS-6340M) & K7TM Pro (MS-6340) use the same BIOS?

K7MPro (MS-6340M) & K7TM Pro (MS-6340) uses the same BIOS. BIOS can auto-detect if the board contains on-board graphic or not However, there are some small numbers of early version MS-6340 that comes with hardware audio which requires different BIOS version. Please check your current BIOS version (you can see it on top left screen during POST) BIOS version 2.X or 4.X - download the 4.6 BIOS BIOS version 1.X - download the 1.X BIOS http://www.msi.com.tw/support/bios/bios.php?model=MS-6340

so if you have a creative chip use bios version 1.3-1.6
if theres no creative chip then bios 2.0-4.7

if the system is still unstable its most likely bad caps, if you've already replaced one bad cap there is probably more thats bad, you cant always tell just by looking at it.
you might want to check this link as well.
https://fvue.nl/wiki/Motherboard_MS-634 ... responding

When I flashed an award bios, i remember it was version 4.7. But the OEM bios is not an Award bios but an AMI bios so I don t know which version of Bios Award I should use. Can I see somewhere on the board if I have a creative chip?

Francois5942 wrote on 2025-05-08, 04:06:

When I flashed an award bios, i remember it was version 4.7. But the OEM bios is not an Award bios but an AMI bios so I don t know which version of Bios Award I should use. Can I see somewhere on the board if I have a creative chip?

Those chips are usually clearly labelled. Look next to the upper PCI slots, where the Via VT1611A chip is located in this layout. There might be differences between revisions, but the audio chip will be reasonably close to the audio connector/gameport no matter what.

Francois5942 wrote on 2025-05-08, 04:06:

I replaced a cap which was a little swollen.

You replaced only one cap? If one of the VRM smoothing caps (the large ones close to the CPU socket) was swollen, you can safely assume that the others are bad as well, just not visibly so. Their values are probably completely off. Replace all of them.