I guess the K7VM2 has a AMI Core 6.xx BIOS - therefore you have to use AMIBCP 7.60. If you're lucky there are options to activate. The tool is self-explanatory, so you don't need any tutorial. BTW this is a DOS tool, you can't run it successfully within Windows - unlike the AMIBCP tools for the later AMI Core 7/8 BIOSes, which are Windows tools . You can also try the BIOS Patcher from rom.by for additional tuning.

kind regards
soggi

soggi wrote on 2021-11-30, 03:13:

I guess the K7VM2 has a AMI Core 6.xx BIOS - therefore you have to use AMIBCP 7.60. If you're lucky there are options to activate. The tool is self-explanatory, so you don't need any tutorial. BTW this is a DOS tool, you can't run it successfully within Windows - unlike the AMIBCP tools for the later AMI Core 7/8 BIOSes, which are Windows tools . You can also try the BIOS Patcher from rom.by for additional tuning.

kind regards
soggi

After looking through a dozen or so versions of AMIBCP the only one I found to actually open the BIOS file was 7.00B12, but when I do this in DOSBOX it looks.. weird. I guess the columns on the left and right should not be empty? Should I try this in true DOS?

Argh, this looks strange... Maybe this version is too early for this BIOS image!? Didn't ever try AMIBCP in DOSBox, only in Win98SE DOS (as mentioned: not in command on Windows) and it worked perfectly.

AMIBCP 7.60.04 can't open the image or didn't you found a source (here is one)!?

Actually I don't have a working Win98SE system, else I would test it on my own...I have to build one...I have to build a 3dfx system...I have to build...I have to do all the things on my to-do list...sorry, I digress! 😉

kind regards
soggi

I did not have 7.5 or 7.6 but still same issue with both. I'm thinking it may be a DOSBOX problem, I'll try it in native DOS.

Looks like your error is well known:
https://www.wimsbios.com/forum/post35948.html#p35948

It is caused by AMIBCP for DOS not being able to extract, load and use "Module 50", which is the module for language strings in last Core 070010 BIOSes. I'm not aware of any AMIBCP for DOS with this capability, but Core 0800 and later WinBCPs had it natively. I just couldn't find one which would work with Core 070010 BIOSes. I suspect WinBCPs from the v2.xx series can do it, but I couldn't made v2.25 BETA to work in my configuration (when opening the file, i get no error message, just an empty window with only the load and save buttons typical of MFC apps). And v2.42 is too new to open it.

You still can unhide certain options using AMIBCP for DOS v7.60, but you will have to do it "blind mode". The language strings for the setup options and messages are in "Module 50" which you can extract with the same tool, and try to match the strings with the empty options displayed by the tool.

You would like to have rom programmer just in case the tool corrupts the bios file on saving.

hyoenmadan wrote on 2021-12-01, 21:58:

Looks like your error is well known: https://www.wimsbios.com/forum/post35948.html#p35948 […]
Show full quote

Looks like your error is well known:
https://www.wimsbios.com/forum/post35948.html#p35948

It is caused by AMIBCP for DOS not being able to extract, load and use "Module 50", which is the module for language strings in last Core 070010 BIOSes. I'm not aware of any AMIBCP for DOS with this capability, but Core 0800 and later WinBCPs had it natively. I just couldn't find one which would work with Core 070010 BIOSes. I suspect WinBCPs from the v2.xx series can do it, but I couldn't made v2.25 BETA to work in my configuration (when opening the file, i get no error message, just an empty window with only the load and save buttons typical of MFC apps). And v2.42 is too new to open it.

You still can unhide certain options using AMIBCP for DOS v7.60, but you will have to do it "blind mode". The language strings for the setup options and messages are in "Module 50" which you can extract with the same tool, and try to match the strings with the empty options displayed by the tool.

You would like to have rom programmer just in case the tool corrupts the bios file on saving.

Oh wow, that is so inconvenient.. I tried quite a few Win BCPs but they either can't open the file or report IO errors..

Could you possibly post the 2.24 and 2.45 versions of WinBCP here, I can't locate them online 🙁 Here are what I've been able to find so far, and none work - though BCP 7+ open the ROM but BIOS options are invisible, yet changeable.

BCP621.EXE
BCP624.EXE
BCP624T.EXE
BCP7B12.EXE
BCP751.EXE
BCP760.exe
WBCP301.exe
WBCP313.exe
WBCP346.EXE
WBCP351.exe
WBCP453.exe
WBCP455.exe
WBCP501.exe
WBCP502.exe

Also is the file supposed to have a certain name or extension for WinBCP?

I have a TL-866II so I guess I could do the EEPROM programming myself if I get the adapter for the package type.. But one thing at a time, let me figure out this BCP stuff first.

As far as I know all these 2.xx and later Win versions only work correctly with AMI Core 7/8/Aptio BIOS images. For the previous AMI BIOSes up to Core 6.31 there were only DOS versions of AMIBCP.

ASRock has been founded as the cheap brand of ASUS back then and ASUS was well known for hindering from editing their BIOS images by adding obstacles starting in ~2000. ASRock could have adopt this behavior and if I remember correctly, this was the case.

kind regards
soggi

soggi wrote on 2021-12-02, 02:45:

As far as I know all these 2.xx and later Win versions only work correctly with AMI Core 7/8/Aptio BIOS images. For the previous […]
Show full quote

As far as I know all these 2.xx and later Win versions only work correctly with AMI Core 7/8/Aptio BIOS images. For the previous AMI BIOSes up to Core 6.31 there were only DOS versions of AMIBCP.

ASRock has been founded as the cheap brand of ASUS back then and ASUS was well known for hindering from editing their BIOS images by adding obstacles starting in ~2000. ASRock could have adopt this behavior and if I remember correctly, this was the case.

kind regards
soggi

I think this is a Core 7 image, could you confirm? Also, could you post 2.xx versions of the WinBCP if you have them?

I just tried every 7.x version of AMIBCP for DOS in real DOS and still the same issue - I can edit the BIOS but I can't see what I am changing. Is there a way to actually know which item is what? Maybe open the BIOS of another KM266 board's AMI BIOS and hope everything is in the same order or something?

If anyone haz 2.x version of AMIBCP for Windows and can post it here I'd be most grateful..

You probably have 2.42, but if not, here it is

I checked the executable with the provided AMIBCP 2.42... I only got the "Multilanguage Module not found!" error message, as described by other users.
I tried to open a proper AMIBIOS8 romfile with it, taken from an ECS board and distinguishable by the presence of the SLAB module (single link arch BIOS), and both AMIBCP 2.42 and 3.13 work properly with it.
So checked between the multilanguage files from both the provided KV7_VM rom, and the ECS AMIv8 rom, both extracted with MMTool for Windows v2.21 :

KV7_VM language file (tagged in rom as "Module 50")

ECS AMIv8 language file (tagged in rom as "Module 21")

It has a very different header structure, but the strings still are uncompressed later in the file...

As you can see, totally different format. As additional detail, supposedly "Module 21" is the official ID for language files in both AMIBIOS v7 and 8. If I try to insert a "Module 50" with AMIBCP v7.60 for DOS (as the supposed version to work with the KV7_VM rom), I get a "Module ID not valid", but still it gets totally recognized as "Default Language Module" by it.

KV7_VM rom uses v3.36 "Setup Client Module", as many proper v8 bios files from other boards. BIOSes based on the final v7 codebase seem like a rare mix from v7 and v8 binary code. I wonder if there is a tool at all which can manipulated the structures and separated language string files generated from these mixes. I tried to use AMIBCP for Windows 2.25BETA, but it doesn't seem to work correctly with XP. As I said before, with KV7_VM rom i get no response from the app, and with the ECS v8 rom, I get an AppCrash, on a WinXP SP3 VM... Probably this app only works correctly in Win2k or Win98SE, who knows...

I can try 2.25Beta in Win9x if you post it here..

appiah4 wrote on 2021-12-05, 19:50:

I can try 2.25Beta in Win9x if you post it here..

It is in Borg Number One BIOS Tool Collection along with some other 7.xxx dos versions.
Here is the old website....http://web.archive.org/web/20050419210329/htt … pix-art.com/en/

added: I uploaded the BNOBTCv5 to archive org, not sure if they remove it or not...just search software for bnobtcv5
oh well the new "beta" uploader put it up twice 😒

Just stumbled upon this again because it BORGed me...

Hey Horun,

there were just four (4! if I counted correctly...I think I did, else it were 5) posts containing "BORG" AND concerning BIOS tools on VOGONS (until I wrote this one) AND all of them have been written by you...you are really BORGed! Is this a conspiracy? It really, really BORGed me... 🤣

1. Re: AMIBIOS Modding (Looking for AMIBCP for Windows 2.x)
2. Re: Where can I find "AMIBCP" (for DOS) ?
3. Re: Earliest version of MODBIN4
4. Re: Is it possible to add microcodes on a Intel BI440ZX motherboard?

That's poor. No one else is BORGed. ~15 years ago it was a big thing for me to get a copy of the BNOBTC v5 (this was also the time when the legendary Rebels Haven forums still existed) and I found out that Borg Number One got lost in the nirvana of the WWW (or even the Internet)...but fortunately Borg Number Two turned up and released BNTBTC v6.10.00.00 and v6.11.00.00...so I got three copies of this stuff after searching a lot for working mirrors back then. The latest version is also available at archive.org (https://archive.org/services/collection-rss.p … cdbasedsoftware, at the moment not reachable as you know).

There should be a Borg Number Three (maybe a Borg collective) who puts all this together because tools from v5 were deleted in v6 (like several versions of the Intel Integrator Toolkit) and new versions (f.e. of AMIBCP) came in years after these two Borgs made the collection.

Maybe I also have some tools laying around which aren't in the collection already, f.e. some of the latest flash tools on my website (-> https://soggi.org/motherboards/bios-update-fl … h-utilities.htm) aren't part of the collection.

kind regards
soggi

Hmm funny 😀 Yes I have borg 5, got it long ago but had some issues with my archive so went and re-found it (archive from 2006). Also have Borg 6.00.01 (Build 20071026), and Version 6.11.00.00 (Build 20080920) by Borg #2.
Nice to know someone else is keeping track of it and praise to Borg #3. All in all have some 2.4Gb (12,200+ files) in my "Bios Stuff" archive so far but is far from complete.
As you might have found: wayback came up tonight but is slow and search is bad. If you have saved direct links those seem to work just fine but a bit slow.
Thanks for pointing to https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:73dpznbu4wqwtcyurwbiulov ...seems 5 days ago they linked this: https://blog.archive.org/2024/10/08/vanishing … g-the-receipts/
and 3 days ago they were DDOS. I do not believe it a coincidence as certain leaders have again called for sensorship/control of media and wiping history is one of their agenda's... 🙁