Boot screen.

Bios:

(C) American Megatrends Inc.,
30-0201-ZZ1347-00101111-050591-M320-F

Very interesting, that this M321 board has a bios that has M320 in it's bios string.

I have a Rev 2.6 board with bios datecode of 06/06/92.

I've been trying to make sense of the chipset itself for quite a while: Chipset datasheet for M321 (PC Chips) [Found chipset! OPTi 82C391]

If you want I can run tests.
I wouldn't be surprised if the same BIOS worked for a bunch of m/b. PCChips were cheap bastards 😀

If you can test these BIOSes on your board and attest they work 100% ... 😁 Re: Chipset datasheet for M321 (PC Chips)

Most 286 and 386 BIOSes actually work on any motherboards, regardless of chipset.
Often there are side effects like worsened performance and/or cache not recognized and/or limited RAM, like the first 1Mb only and/or IDE does not boot (workaround with SCSI), but technically things work.
So same chipset + different BIOS versions + same brand mobo will be juuust fine.

Deksor wrote on 2020-11-28, 02:47:

If you can test these BIOSes on your board and attest they work 100% ... 😁 Re: Chipset datasheet for M321 (PC Chips)

I'm still waiting for proper eeproms to arrive. I will definitely try out all the mr bios-es on my M321 rev 2.6. (Y)

pshipkov wrote on 2020-11-28, 06:37:

Most 286 and 386 BIOSes actually work on any motherboards, regardless of chipset.
Often there are side effects like worsened performance and/or cache not recognized and/or limited RAM, like the first 1Mb only and/or IDE does not boot (workaround with SCSI), but technically things work.
So same chipset + different BIOS versions + same brand mobo will be juuust fine.

Adrian's digital basement has a few vids where he troubleshoots a 286, CF to IDE not working.
Solution? He just flashed the latest 286 Bios he could find and the mobo recognized the CF correctly, as he stated that all 286 are clones of each other.

Don't know where he got that but it makes sense to me. So 386 being on the same boat doesn't come as a surprise now.

I'd like to flash my 286 to go beyond 1MB of ram. But I'm waiting to buy a new TL866.

Not exactly, he flashed the latest 286 bios designed for an IBM AT, since that's what 286 clones tend to be ^^
Also I said "100%" because I think some of these 386 BIOS let you already tweak some settings which are chipset specific, so if you can tweak setting X without crashing it'd be a great indication of what could be under the hood.

Deksor wrote on 2020-11-28, 15:17:

Not exactly, he flashed the latest 286 bios designed for an IBM AT, since that's what 286 clones tend to be ^^
Also I said "100%" because I think some of these 386 BIOS let you already tweak some settings which are chipset specific, so if you can tweak setting X without crashing it'd be a great indication of what could be under the hood.

Yep, IBM AT. You know your lesson pretty well 😀 20/20

I need to abduct a few of you here to "peacefully extract" information and learn all the stuff there's around.

GigAHerZ wrote on 2020-11-28, 11:52:

Deksor wrote on 2020-11-28, 02:47:

If you can test these BIOSes on your board and attest they work 100% ... 😁 Re: Chipset datasheet for M321 (PC Chips)

I'm still waiting for proper eeproms to arrive. I will definitely try out all the mr bios-es on my M321 rev 2.6. (Y)

Could you PM me the models I need to buy to test those BIOSes?
Thanks

Nexxen wrote on 2020-11-28, 15:27:

GigAHerZ wrote on 2020-11-28, 11:52:

Deksor wrote on 2020-11-28, 02:47:

If you can test these BIOSes on your board and attest they work 100% ... 😁 Re: Chipset datasheet for M321 (PC Chips)

I'm still waiting for proper eeproms to arrive. I will definitely try out all the mr bios-es on my M321 rev 2.6. (Y)

Could you PM me the models I need to buy to test those BIOSes?
Thanks

It may be useful for others too.

It should be 27C512 type. I ordered W27C512 chips specifically.

Re: Chipset datasheet for M321 (PC Chips)

Tried Bios for Rev 2.x and it worked both perfectly.

Main difference between rev 3 and 2.x is that rev 3 has a soldered QFP with an AMD 386 40mhz.