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PC Chips BIOS upgrade

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Reply 20 of 24, by TimmermanV

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Good news: The ST28F101 is working. Bad news: The system still displays "Unknown Flash Type". Well I guess I won't bother trying again. 😀
For reference I attached pictures of both working flash chips (W27C010 and ST28F101), some pics of the motherboard (507 v1.2) and the boot message.
(I added a pause command to AUTOEXEC.BAT)

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  • unknown_flash_type.jpg
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    unknown_flash_type.jpg
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    328.07 KiB
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    443 views
    File license
    Public domain
  • markings.jpg
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    markings.jpg
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    161.62 KiB
    Views
    443 views
    File license
    Public domain
  • installed.jpg
    Filename
    installed.jpg
    File size
    425.29 KiB
    Views
    443 views
    File license
    Public domain
  • flash_chips.jpg
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    flash_chips.jpg
    File size
    118.69 KiB
    Views
    443 views
    File license
    Public domain

Reply 21 of 24, by TimmermanV

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I downloaded Award BIOS Editor and patched out the message. 😁
I attached the modded bios based on f59_mod.bin.

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  • Filename
    f59_mod2.zip
    File size
    86.99 KiB
    Downloads
    39 downloads
    File license
    Public domain
  • message_removed.jpg
    Filename
    message_removed.jpg
    File size
    320.6 KiB
    Views
    434 views
    File license
    Public domain

Reply 22 of 24, by hyoenmadan

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TimmermanV wrote on 2020-10-28, 21:43:

I downloaded Award BIOS Editor and patched out the message. 😁

Personally I think you did wrong... It actually has a meaning and you just "swept the problem under the carpet" for aesthetic reasons. But whatever...

For the record:
This message means Award PnP core can't update the ESCD data in EEPROM, necessary for ISAPnP operations. Award, some AMI and Phoenix BIOSes store the ESCD data in EEPROM, instead NVRAM. Depending in the board and the BIOS program, this can mean bad news when using ISAPnP cards along PCI ones. Some boards regenerate the data in RAM when they can't retrieve it from EEPROM, so the only issue is slower boot times, and Windows/ICU utilities unable to save resource relocation for ISAPnP cards across cold power cycles (It needs to be reconfigured in each reboot).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_System … figuration_Data

Reply 23 of 24, by TimmermanV

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That's good information, thank you! I incorrectly assumed it would only need to write to the chip if I would ever want to reflash the bios.
I actually would like this to work, so thanks again for the warning. It was fun though to find out it was relatively easy to manipulate the bios itself like that. I think I will look for an Atmel 29C010 now, since people in this thread have reported it to work (and the M506/M507 Bios page saying 'Atmel 29C010 works').

Reply 24 of 24, by TimmermanV

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Success! AT29C010 does indeed work, and allows the ESCD to be updated. Thanks again!

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  • AT29C010.jpg
    Filename
    AT29C010.jpg
    File size
    67.2 KiB
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    397 views
    File license
    Public domain