VOGONS


First post, by Pogromist_su

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Have got this "new old stock" IBM 19K3582 (rev.2.1), a.k.a Gigabyte GA-6WMMC7, motherboard from 1999 which was, let's say, dualbiosable: from IBM and Award vendors.

IBM version\revision has Intel N82802AB (Firmware Hub) BIOS chip

The attachment BIOS chip.jpg is no longer available

and surprisingly, Uniflasher can't identify that BIOS chip automatically, though Uniflasher manual does say that almost exact the same mobo (but Gigabyte's one) is 100% supported and was tested.

The attachment MB.png is no longer available

All Right, let's RTFM. Therefore UNIFLASH.EXE should be executed from pure (Free)DOS with these parameters:

firstly,

-CHIPLIST

- to get our unknown chip ID -

The attachment BIOS chip V2.jpg is no longer available

and afterwards - with

-FORCE 89AD

- that's our chip ID.

Now in theory any compatible BIOS image can be flashed but the progress bar is partially turning into red segments while flashing (by the way, does this mean some flash errors or what?) and will give a "Flash data verification error" message in the end.
Have tried reflash it again by different Uniflash versions (1.40, 2.00) and with different BIOS images (older and newer) and every time got the same error.

The attachment Uniflash BIOS chip V.jpg is no longer available

So here's a thing: default Gigabyte BIOS flasher (Universal Flash Utility) shows that chip does need 12V for reflashing/operating, Uniflash on that IBM mobo (see images above) - only 3,3V.

I assume, it's impossible to flash Award BIOS into IBM-branded motherboard and vice versa due to the incompatible chips voltage and\or differences in partitions they have?

The attachment BIOS chip V1.jpg is no longer available