VOGONS


Reply 60 of 87, by Tiido

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It has been great reading these posts, thänk you very much for all this work ~

T-04YBSC, a new YMF71x based sound card & Official VOGONS thread about it
Newly made 4MB 60ns 30pin SIMMs ~
mida sa loed ? nagunii aru ei saa 😜

Reply 61 of 87, by Chkcpu

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Sphere478 wrote on 2022-06-15, 21:31:

Sweet!

Suggest uploading txt files as quoted code so if the attachments ever go dark wayback machine will have it

Sphere478, thanks for the tip.
I've also thought about safekeeping and I will upload the completed guide as pdf document later on.

Jan

CPU Identification utility
The Unofficial K6-2+ / K6-III+ page

Reply 62 of 87, by Chkcpu

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Tiido wrote on 2022-06-16, 07:57:

It has been great reading these posts, thänk you very much for all this work ~

You are welcome.

Greetings from Holland,
Jan

CPU Identification utility
The Unofficial K6-2+ / K6-III+ page

Reply 63 of 87, by Sphere478

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Btw, Jan. I’ve tested your j3 tyan s1564 bios as much as I can with the drives that I have. It seems identical as far as I can tell to the j2 bios. Plenty stable.

I just don’t have the drives above 120gb needed to test it on for you atm. (My understanding is the latest patch is for the larger than 128gb drives)

But it seems stable enough to release it to the public. Ultimate retro and the thread in my signature would be good places to post it also btw.

Sphere's PCB projects.
-
Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
-
SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
-
Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 64 of 87, by Chkcpu

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Sphere478 wrote on 2022-07-03, 21:03:

Btw, Jan. I’ve tested your j3 tyan s1564 bios as much as I can with the drives that I have. It seems identical as far as I can tell to the j2 bios. Plenty stable.

I just don’t have the drives above 120gb needed to test it on for you atm. (My understanding is the latest patch is for the larger than 128gb drives)

But it seems stable enough to release it to the public. Ultimate retro and the thread in my signature would be good places to post it also btw.

Sphere478, thanks for thoroughly testing the Tyan S1564 patch J.3 BIOS.
Yes, you can send this J.3 BIOS to UR and post it in your S1564 thread.
I will put it up on my k6plus page as well, at the next update.

For everybody who is wondering why I changed the previous S1564 patch J.2 BIOS into this J.3 patch version: the J.2 BIOS would hang on > 128GiB drives and I’ve fixed this by improving the 32GiB bugfix code.

Although this J.3 patch allows drives larger than 128GiB to be used, the BIOS is still limited to 128GiB due to its LBA28 support. But when all code and data to boot the OS is placed in a partition below the 128GiB limit, the whole drive can be accessed by a 48-bit LBA capable OS after bootup! (Like Win2000 with SP3 or higher, WinXP with SP1 or higher, Vista or later, or Linux with kernel 2.4.19 or later.)
This workaround allows the use of drives up to 640GiB on this J.3 BIOS.

This workaround also works on all Award 2000-2003 BIOSes because Award put the same improved 32GiB bugfix in these BIOS versions.
Note that to fully break the 128GiB barrier, you need a BIOS with 48-bit LBA support but these came later in 2004, after the ATA-6 specification was published in 2003.
In addition, you have to use a 48-bit LBA capable OS.

Jan

CPU Identification utility
The Unofficial K6-2+ / K6-III+ page

Reply 65 of 87, by Sphere478

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Chkcpu wrote on 2022-07-07, 17:09:
Sphere478, thanks for thoroughly testing the Tyan S1564 patch J.3 BIOS. Yes, you can send this J.3 BIOS to UR and post it in you […]
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Sphere478 wrote on 2022-07-03, 21:03:

Btw, Jan. I’ve tested your j3 tyan s1564 bios as much as I can with the drives that I have. It seems identical as far as I can tell to the j2 bios. Plenty stable.

I just don’t have the drives above 120gb needed to test it on for you atm. (My understanding is the latest patch is for the larger than 128gb drives)

But it seems stable enough to release it to the public. Ultimate retro and the thread in my signature would be good places to post it also btw.

Sphere478, thanks for thoroughly testing the Tyan S1564 patch J.3 BIOS.
Yes, you can send this J.3 BIOS to UR and post it in your S1564 thread.
I will put it up on my k6plus page as well, at the next update.

For everybody who is wondering why I changed the previous S1564 patch J.2 BIOS into this J.3 patch version: the J.2 BIOS would hang on > 128GiB drives and I’ve fixed this by improving the 32GiB bugfix code.

Although this J.3 patch allows drives larger than 128GiB to be used, the BIOS is still limited to 128GiB due to its LBA28 support. But when all code and data to boot the OS is placed in a partition below the 128GiB limit, the whole drive can be accessed by a 48-bit LBA capable OS after bootup! (Like Win2000 with SP3 or higher, WinXP with SP1 or higher, Vista or later, or Linux with kernel 2.4.19 or later.)
This workaround allows the use of drives up to 640GiB on this J.3 BIOS.

This workaround also works on all Award 2000-2003 BIOSes because Award put the same improved 32GiB bugfix in these BIOS versions.
Note that to fully break the 128GiB barrier, you need a BIOS with 48-bit LBA support but these came later in 2004, after the ATA-6 specification was published in 2003.
In addition, you have to use a 48-bit LBA capable OS.

Jan

Thanks Jan, here it is for those interested.

Attachments

  • Filename
    hx669_j3.zip
    File size
    98.16 KiB
    Downloads
    42 downloads
    File license
    Public domain

Sphere's PCB projects.
-
Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
-
SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
-
Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 66 of 87, by Sphere478

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Hey Jan,

There are an infinite amount of bioses out there needing patched and only so much time.

Is it possible to add cpu support to something like a xt-ide? So instead of patching the the bios people could just install a rom chip in a network card and get 128 gb support and k6-3+ Support?

Sphere's PCB projects.
-
Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
-
SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
-
Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 67 of 87, by TrashPanda

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Sphere478 wrote on 2022-08-08, 07:19:

Hey Jan,

There are an infinite amount of bioses out there needing patched and only so much time.

Is it possible to add cpu support to something like a xt-ide? So instead of patching the the bios people could just install a rom chip in a network card and get 128 gb support and k6-3+ Support?

The question here is, is the XT-IDE ROM posting the system before the mainboard BIOS or is the main BIOS posting and then handing control to the XT-IDE Rom ?

If not then I doubt that the XT-IDE being patched would do much as by the point the XT-IDE takes control the mainboard BIOS has already identified the CPU and other core system components, for such a patch to work the XT-IDE ROM needs to be doing the primary post to be able to identify the patched CPU correctly.

Might possibly work ok for the HDD however.

Reply 68 of 87, by Sphere478

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That crossed my mind. Could add it to the video bios? Or figure out how the system decides to use the video bios first. And try and make it load before or after video bios. Then main system bios

Maybe it would be enough that there could be a bios rom that edited (patched) the bios shadow memory on every boot to include the new microcodes?

Sphere's PCB projects.
-
Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
-
SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
-
Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 69 of 87, by TrashPanda

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Sphere478 wrote on 2022-08-08, 08:26:

That crossed my mind. Could add it to the video bios? Or figure out how the system decides to use the video bios first. And try and make it load before or after video bios. Then main system bios

Maybe it would be enough that there could be a bios rom that edited (patched) the bios shadow memory on every boot to include the new microcodes?

I'm guessing that depends on the board, some might be ok with it other might throw fits at it and refuse to post.

Also .. I ran across one of your old posts over at K6Plus .. never been to that forum before but google threw it at me in my search results.

https://www.k6plus.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=18129#p18129

did you ever get this build running the way you wanted?

Is it still alive . .as in one piece or has it been .. turned into another build 😜

Reply 70 of 87, by Sphere478

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Oh that was many builds ago

Vogons link

Craziest socket 7 build on a 430tx chipset

Sphere's PCB projects.
-
Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
-
SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
-
Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 72 of 87, by Sphere478

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TrashPanda wrote on 2022-08-08, 16:21:
Sphere478 wrote on 2022-08-08, 15:06:

Oh that was many builds ago

Vogons link

Craziest socket 7 build on a 430tx chipset

🤣, looked like a fun build to me.

A mongrel build one might say 😁

Yeah I was bummed the m.2 didn’t work out. I mean I got it to work on debian jessie but it was loading so slowly that I canceled the installation after a while.

Sphere's PCB projects.
-
Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
-
SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
-
Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 73 of 87, by Chkcpu

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Sphere478 wrote on 2022-08-08, 08:26:

Maybe it would be enough that there could be a bios rom that edited (patched) the bios shadow memory on every boot to include the new microcodes?

@Sphere478 that is a great idea and exactly what developer “apple_rom” did with its BIOS Patcher tool.
Member soggi wrote about this tool in Re: Modding support for AMD K6-2 into a Socket 5 Award BIOS? and member Scorp did a video about it in his Necroware YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwZT40sRMzM

The latest stable version 4.23 works only on compressed Award BIOSes v4.5x and v6.x and usually works well. But there have been several cases where it bricked a system, but luckily the developer(s) have put in a fall-back feature that allows you to boot with the original BIOS. Just hold down the “–“ (minus) key on the numeric keypad during boot.

There are several posts on Vogons where you can download BIOS Patcher and it is on archive.org as well. Just give it a try. 😉

My BIOS patching method of directly editing the BIOS firmware is indeed more time consuming but works on both compressed and uncompressed BIOSes.
Because my target audience for these patched BIOSes was, and still is, the (less tech savvy) “average” user, I had them tested on real hardware before publishing on my k6plus webpage. These “ready to go” BIOSes then work like downloading and flashing a BIOS update from the board manufacturer. 😉

When my DIY modding guide is finished, I hope more people can start patching using my method. 😊

Cheers, Jan

CPU Identification utility
The Unofficial K6-2+ / K6-III+ page

Reply 74 of 87, by Sphere478

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Hey Jan. Have you ever looked into adding m.2 booting support to mobos with pcie but no m.2 slots so the slot adapters will work? Like 775 and am2 stuff?

Sphere's PCB projects.
-
Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
-
SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
-
Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 76 of 87, by BurnedPinguin

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After you finish posting your entire experience with AwardBIOS, do you mind documenting all your experience with AMIBIOS? I read in this thread that you've tinkered with it a little bit as well, and I'd love it if you can document that sometime in the future.

Thanks.

Reply 77 of 87, by Chkcpu

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BurnedPinguin wrote on 2022-08-21, 11:42:

After you finish posting your entire experience with AwardBIOS, do you mind documenting all your experience with AMIBIOS? I read in this thread that you've tinkered with it a little bit as well, and I'd love it if you can document that sometime in the future.

Thanks.

Yes, that’s the plan. Although I have only a little experience patching the socket 7 AMI BIOS, I will tell what I know. 😉

The past few months I have been busy tinkering with a lot of Award socket 7 BIOSes and last night I update my “Unofficial K6-2+ / K6-III+ page”. At the beginning of the page, I added information about the Award 32GB HDD limit bug and the fixes I use in my patched BIOSes.

I developed an improved 32GB bugfix that doesn’t hang the BIOS anymore when a > 128GB drive is attached and I updated the patched BIOS for these boards with this new fix:
• Asus P55T2P4
• Asus TX97-X
• Asus TXP4
• PCChips M577
• Tyan S1564

I’ve also put newly patched BIOSes for these boards on-line. As usual, these BIOSes have both K6plus and 128GB HDD support:
• Biostar MB-8500TTD
• Chaintech 5VLM
• DFI 586ITBD
• ECS P5SD-AS
• ECS P5VX-Be
• Gigabyte GA-586T2
• PCChips M520
• PCChips M550

Then I have patched BIOSes ready for testing for these boards:
• Asus P55TP4XE(G)
• BCM FR550
• ECS P5SD-A
• Iwill XA100
• Zaapa ZP-5V
Just drop me line if you want to test one of these patched BIOSes. The link to my page is in my signature below.

A lot of people here on Vogons helped by testing a patched BIOS on their board, so thank you all for making this update possible! 😀

Jan

CPU Identification utility
The Unofficial K6-2+ / K6-III+ page

Reply 78 of 87, by bofh.fromhell

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Chkcpu wrote on 2022-08-21, 19:17:

I developed an improved 32GB bugfix that doesn’t hang the BIOS anymore when a > 128GB drive is attached and I updated the patched BIOS for these boards with this new fix:
• Asus P55T2P4

If someone told me in 1997 that my new and amazing T2P4 would still be getting BIOS updates more then 25 years later i would have smiled then slowly back away.
Its still a fun board to play with, thanks a lot for the work =)

Reply 79 of 87, by Sphere478

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I know you are working on chkcpu right now but don’t forget about the episodes :p

Btw, I am stumped with this, I know phoenix bioses aren’t your thing. if anyone you know might be able to help please let me know. The project is kinda dead in the water at this point without non intel support.

I was really hoping to put a k6-3+ in it

Zeos motherboard project

Sphere's PCB projects.
-
Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
-
SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
-
Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)