B24Fox wrote on 2023-10-04, 22:30:

13.New Freq in Setup open : not found.
for skip this step press "s" or any another key for continue...

14.Set "Y" as default on exit:for skip this step press "s" or any another key for continue...s

Speaking of BIOS Patcher, does anyone have backups of all the latest files on rom.by? I tried finding the latest version of BIOS Patcher (6.0a15) but all the links to the new versions were dead, including some necessary files BP expects to be present (such as AMIBCP) before it could run. The worst thing is that even Internet Archive did not have any backup of them. The closest I could find is BNTBTC which has a 6.0a10, although the official link for 6.0a9 is still accessible as well as the full microcode file (reall.cod).

Without all the required files I cannot really try BIOS Patcher, so I could only speculate what it might be. These two options may be optional for most so you're presented the choice to skip them.
- I'm not sure about step 13. Maybe it's trying to add some extra options for frequency which may or may not be valid for your processor architecture. Some architectures have hidden yet valid option values, however.
- For step 14 I think it's to change the default N in "Exit without saving" to Y.

EDIT: Experimented with the 6.0a10 from BNTBTC (which has all the necessary files included). With my BIOS and this version of BP, the steps 13 and 14 are automatically skipped as "Not found" and I only see it trying to add some custom modules (for so-called tweak options), that I don't know about the details. The BIOS file was an Award 6.0 for an i865-based board.

If you're trying to patch AMI BIOS, you can use version 6.0 alpha 15 and there is option to remove this annoying "www. ROM. by..." message. This is from "help": "/l - skip displaying www. ROM. by logo in BIOS (useful for some AMI)". But this doesn't work on Award/Phoenix BIOSes for sure.

And not all links are dead for this version, I've found it through some internet digging a couple of months ago. See the attachment - this is what I use instead of old 4.xx versions.

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-10-05, 16:50:

If you're trying to patch AMI BIOS, you can use version 6.0 alpha 15 and there is option to remove this annoying "www. ROM. by..." message. This is from "help": "/l - skip displaying www. ROM. by logo in BIOS (useful for some AMI)". But this doesn't work on Award/Phoenix BIOSes for sure.

And not all links are dead for this version, I've found it through some internet digging a couple of months ago. See the attachment - this is what I use instead of old 4.xx versions.

Many thanks for sharing. Will take a look to see if it has any improvement from older versions with respect to Award 6.0 BIOSes.

LSS10999 wrote on 2023-10-05, 18:14:

Many thanks for sharing. Will take a look to see if it has any improvement from older versions with respect to Award 6.0 BIOSes.

You're welcome.

I haven't noticed any difference specifically for patching Award/Phoenix BIOSes compared to 4.23 or 4.51 versions, but 6.00 alpha15 works on some AMI BIOSes too. I've already pathced successfully two AMI BIOSes and no problems with them.

The bios that I patched, is AWARD; so if BP6 (that suposedly can patch without adding the text) doesn't do AWARD... then... 🙁

Also, I wasn't referring to step 13. or 14. .. but, to the "inexistent" step that needs confirmation between them 😮

I'll attach here the BiosPatcher files that I used.

B24Fox, maybe it's not non-existing step, but rather some conformation bug using "/m" argument in 4.23 version.

P.S. I've once tried to remove this stupidly annoying message manually by extracting all the modules (the original ones and those added by BIOS Patcher) from patched Award BIOS with CBROM, but I couldn't find the full string in them in plain text using hex-editor. I don't know if CBROM extracts BIOS modules in compressed state, but maybe this it the problem. Finally decided that somehow I'll live with it 😁

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-10-05, 16:50:

If you're trying to patch AMI BIOS, you can use version 6.0 alpha 15 and there is option to remove this annoying "www. ROM. by..." message. This is from "help": "/l - skip displaying www. ROM. by logo in BIOS (useful for some AMI)". But this doesn't work on Award/Phoenix BIOSes for sure.

And not all links are dead for this version, I've found it through some internet digging a couple of months ago. See the attachment - this is what I use instead of old 4.xx versions.

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-10-05, 18:35:

B24Fox, maybe it's not non-existing step, but rather some conformation bug using "/m" argument in 4.23 version.

P.S. I've once tried to remove this stupidly annoying message manually by extracting all the modules (the original ones and those added by BIOS Patcher) from patched Award BIOS with CBROM, but I couldn't find the full string in them in plain text using hex-editor. I don't know if CBROM extracts BIOS modules in compressed state, but maybe this it the problem. Finally decided that somehow I'll live with it 😁

-- So.. i used the version you provided + CBROM v2.08 (many thanks!), re-concocted a bios ROM using the same selective patching, and with the /L argument, flashed it, and the PC hangs at POST, displaying only the most upper, and most lower, lines of text.
Luckily, there's the "-" key option to boot with unmoded bios.
I reflashed the previous ROM, and all is back to normal..

I really liked the "AMD K6/2+ 550mhz Found" displayed on there, instead of now, some half-garbled text.. But between that, and UDMA not working, I'll gladly live with this as well : )

--Also, you might be right about about the "phantom" step that needs confirmation, being just a bug.
I started measuring MD5 checksums for ROMs that I identically patched with BP 4.23 , 4.51 and 6alpha15. And no matter if I accepted or skipped the "phantom" step(s), the checksum was the same.
Also, 4.51, besides adding another module to the ROM (Tweak.tmp), also adds another "phantom" step before the step that asks to implement this new module.
6A15, removes this "phantom" step, though..

P.S. I also checked the MD5 checksum of: with or without the /L argument, and it was the same 🤔

B24Fox wrote on 2023-10-05, 23:28:

-- So.. i used the version you provided + CBROM v2.08 (many thanks!), re-concocted a bios ROM using the same selective patching, and with the /L argument, flashed it, and the PC hangs at POST, displaying only the most upper, and most lower, lines of text.
Luckily, there's the "-" key option to boot with unmoded bios.
I reflashed the previous ROM, and all is back to normal..

There's always a possibility that BIOS image file will be sc**wed with this automated unofficial and universal patcher. It's nice that "-" key/no keyboard option works to fix the messed up situation. I always make two versions of patched BIOS file - one without and one with "/s" argument and flash the latter only if there's no trouble with "-" key option version.

B24Fox wrote on 2023-10-05, 23:28:

--Also, you might be right about about the "phantom" step that needs confirmation, being just a bug. I started measuring MD5 ch […]
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--Also, you might be right about about the "phantom" step that needs confirmation, being just a bug.
I started measuring MD5 checksums for ROMs that I identically patched with BP 4.23 , 4.51 and 6alpha15. And no matter if I accepted or skipped the "phantom" step(s), the checksum was the same.
Also, 4.51, besides adding another module to the ROM (Tweak.tmp), also adds another "phantom" step before the step that asks to implement this new module.
6A15, removes this "phantom" step, though..

P.S. I also checked the MD5 checksum of: with or without the /L argument, and it was the same 🤔

The "/l" argument for BP 6.00 alpha15 seems to do its job with AMI BIOSes . Thanks for this info! I'll continue to use this version instead of 4.xx.

Just to clarify; the "Tweak.tmp" module, is added since v4.51. So versions 6 also have it.
Of what I tested, only v4.21 doesn't have it.

From what I could understand, this module is tasked with unlocking the hidden bios features. (haven't tested though..)
And even if you skip that step (through selective patching /m), and it reports 0.0% on tweak.tmp; it will still be included in the BIOS re-compilation, but it will occupy about 4KB IIRC.. (this can be verified with "CBROM <RomName.bin> /d ")
Just an FYI for anyone having space constraints on their bios chip.