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First post, by CMR779

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Hello everyone, I've got a motherboard I'm trying to fix, and wanted to dump the Bios chip with my mini-pro and maybe update it before trying to power the board on. The problem is the chip is covered with a gold sticker and I didn't want to have to peel it off. I was wondering if anyone on here could help me identify it or a compatible chip. The board is an MTI R539 (https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/m-tech … ti-ris-r539-mig) The chip is a 32pin dip package.

I found some burned and severed traces on the underside of the board beneath the chip. I also have a 133MHz cpu with some dark pins on the bottom of it. I'm kind of wondering if someone tried to swap cpus without the right jumper settings. There is also a rectifier I'm suspicious of, but I need to get it off the board to really test it. Other than that, everything looks good. All the fuses check out and nothing looks burned. None of the electrolytics are bulging or leaking, and the only tantalum on the board looks fine. Hopefully I can get this thing working again. It's a pretty nice board.

Reply 1 of 9, by Horun

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So you want someone else with same board to pull their sticker to read the actual chip ID ? That really is the only way to match it exactly, and it may be a diff chip than your board (the flashers work with many types) as they could be using a few different eeproms.
HINT: If you are careful and gently heat that sticker a lttle (hair dryer, etc) you can lift a corner and peel back enough to read the chip. Then put it back down. If needed use a bit of Super Glue brand "Fix All" using a tooth pick.
Be sure to write the exact eeprom number on that bios chip somewhere (I do it mostly on it's bottom using a super fine point black Sharpie).
Have done it many times though don't really care if a Award or AMI sticker is on the bios chip, it gives no relevent info and no extra value to the board....
added: there is a way with the Xgecu to guess the chip and attempt read it, and then use the ID code returned to figure out what exactly the chip is.

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Reply 2 of 9, by dionb

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What will you be using to flash it?

If using say a TL866 with XGecu software, if you try to read with the incorrect chip type, it will generally give you a Chip ID it detects. That can be checked against the list in post 8 of this forum topic:
http://www.mcumall.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4974

Even if you don't find a complete ID match, just the manufacturer ID can help you in the right direction.

As for the damaged board... I doubt it was a wrong CPU setting - bad settings could potentially bake your CPU, but are not going to kill the board. Moreover a P133 is about as boringly bulletproof as you can get. Looking at this board, I get strong PC Chips vibes (those paired voltage jumpers next to the DIMM slots are a dead giveaway) and their voltage regulating circuitry was often very tightly specced if not simply unfit for purpose. I had an M537 (basically the same board but with Via VPX instead) where the linear regulator had burnt out and taken half the board with it. Something similar may have happened here.

Reply 3 of 9, by Imperious

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The Bios size on the downloads from The Retro Web are 1M bit or 128k bytes, so as the photo shows a Winbond chip, it's likely going to be a w27c010, w27e010, or w29ee010.
My opinion on the sticker is just pull it off and be done with it. That's just my opinion though.

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Reply 4 of 9, by Horun

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dionb wrote on 2024-04-09, 08:09:
What will you be using to flash it? […]
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What will you be using to flash it?

If using say a TL866 with XGecu software, if you try to read with the incorrect chip type, it will generally give you a Chip ID it detects. That can be checked against the list in post 8 of this forum topic:
http://www.mcumall.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4974

Even if you don't find a complete ID match, just the manufacturer ID can help you in the right direction.

Thanks. This person also created a Device ID list: https://ctrl-alt-rees.com/2022-07-03-eprom-de … ce-id-list.html
Also If you have an Xgecu or use their software you can Hex search the InfoIC2Plus.dll in root folder of the Xgecu software for the ID (have done that a few times) it will point to the eeprom model number......
example of 1F D5 shows a Atmel AT29C010A, same as both web lists...

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Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 5 of 9, by CMR779

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Thanks for all the responses, and sorry I haven't gotten back to this yet. I popped the chip out of it's socket and the number was printed on the board under it. It's a '29EE010'. I'm going to try flashing the bios and testing the board again tomorrow. Wish me luck.

@dionb , I'm going to be using a TL866. Thanks for the info.

Reply 6 of 9, by dionb

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CMR779 wrote on 2024-04-17, 01:55:

Thanks for all the responses, and sorry I haven't gotten back to this yet. I popped the chip out of it's socket and the number was printed on the board under it. It's a '29EE010'. I'm going to try flashing the bios and testing the board again tomorrow. Wish me luck.

@dionb , I'm going to be using a TL866. Thanks for the info.

"29EE010" is a model number for a 1Mbit EEPROM. It doesn't tell you which brand chip it is - which is needed input for the flasher. It does narrow down the options though - iirc only SST and Winbond had that particular number and that's assuming that whoever put that chip in there stuck to the EE line and didn't just use a 29010 instead which is more common and should be broadly compatible (same 5V operation). In that case there are a lot more options and you'll need to do what I described in my earlier post to figure out which it is.

Reply 7 of 9, by PcBytes

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From what I can find, it's a SST branded IC.
Winbonds usually have a W preceeding the model, and if I'm not wrong it should ID as W29EE010.

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Reply 8 of 9, by dionb

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True, but we're going based on something on the silkscreen, which almost certainly does not indicate exact brand+type but just generic "a 29EE010 goes here", which could just as easily be the Winbond part.

Reply 9 of 9, by CMR779

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ID matched up with the winbond chip. MiniPro seemed happy with it also. I could read it and dump it just fine, but it wanted to give me errors when I tried to program it. There were large chunks of just FF blocks, but most of the chip programmed. Maybe those FF blocks are supposed to be there. I'm not getting any power from the board, however. The ATX power supply won't switch on at all. It's a good PS. I tested it on another board just to be sure. I'm guessing whichever chip controls the soft on/off is dead. If any of you know something else I can try, let me know. Otherwise, I'm ready to stick a fork in this one. I think it's done.