HELP! I'm currently at a stand-still. Since I wasn't having any luck with the NIC ROM's, I went ahead and flashed SSTV2's BIOS.
Flashed_OK.jpg
The system reports that the Asus AIC-7880's firmware is v1.32. Unfortunately, the system hangs here:
Hangs_at_SCSI_HDD_detection.jpg
I've waited several minutes, but it doesn't find a hard drive. I've tried disconnecting the hard drive, but it still hangs here. The problem now is that I cannot boot from a floppy disk to get the original v14 BIOS back on because the system must pass up the AIC-7880 firmware before it will boot from a floppy diskette. And the only way to disable the AIC-7880 is by using the EISA Configuration Utility, which must be access via floppy disk.
I didn't see any mention of a BIOS Recovery Mode jumper sheet. Is there not one? Attached is a list of jumper options. Also, nothing to disable the SCSI controller.
Z-SERVER_WL_Jumpers.pdf
Only idea I have currently to fix the issue would be if I had another motherboard. I could set it up such that the AIC-7880 was disabled, then move the RTC module into the injured motherboard. Does it work this way? Unfortunately I only have one of these boards. Another option is to desolder the EEPROM and program it in an external programmer. This would be a pain. Would this even work though? Didn't SSTV2 mention that part of the firmware was compressed? Perhaps I can set some pin on the AIC-7880 chip to ground to force it disabled? Or perhaps there is a way to trick the RTC's NVRAM into thinking the AIC-7880 is disabled? I'm at a loss here.
In better news, before I bricked the BIOS I ran some tests on the IDE port. It works with both hard drives and CD-ROM drives, which certainly increases options CD-ROM drives. Unfortunately, hard drive size is limited to 8455 MB. W2K had no problem using the full size of the HDD though.
IDE_HDD.jpg
IDE_HDD_W2K.jpg
Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.