Reply 40 of 46, by Robert B
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- Oldbie
Well, I was unsuccessful, again 😁
I tried to trick the flasher, using the /RESET attribute and I made a file SAVE.ROM from a good BIOS image, which I made READ ONLY using the DOS ATTRIB comand, so it wouldnt be overwritten by flash.exe, but this led to nothing. In two instances I received EEPROM successfully programmed but there was no change. A blind dumpbios returned a file that was unreadable by the bios editor. This procedure was suggested by Class Rahden the creator of the site: https://3dfxbios.cl-rahden.de/index.php?title=Voodoo4 when I told him I tried to trick the flasher with the /RESET attribute but the flasher always overwritten the SAVE.ROM, he suggested the READ ONLY approach.
Sometimes the flasher would try to write something but the operation didnt start and I was returned to the DOS console. Sometimes there was a message saying Cannot Program a Napalm/Napalm2 with not Napalm/Napalm2 BIOS!!! - nice chinglish YEAH BABY!!! ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US, again 😁
I also tried another BIOS file but without results.
http://web.csulb.edu/~murdock/attrib.html
After these attempts, the flasher wouldn't recognize the BIOS chip and returned the Error: Unknown flash EEPROM manufacturer. (Man. ID: FFh, Dev. ID: FFh) again, instead of the Error: EEPROM could not be written. A valid image should still exist in ROM.
A blind dumpbios returned a file that cant be open by the BIOS editor. Sometimes the file recovered was 40KB sometimes 64KB.
The V4-L is still recognized by the PC and PCI.EXE 😁 - this lobotomy is quite tricky 😁 Now it is A LEXICON VooDoo 4 😁 WOW!!!
I did my absolute best even if I knew my chances of success were extremely low.
The BIOS chip is BAD and it was BAD ever since I got the card that is for sure. I can rest now. there isnt anything more to try. I'm sure the card will be revived sometime in the future. When that will happen you will be notified 😁 If only the VGA BIOS was corrupted I should've been able to do something.
The SOLUTION: NEW BIOS CHIP with a PLCC 32 socket fo easy replacement, programmed with a good VGA BIOS FILE.
The information in this thread might help somebody save their card. NEVER GIVE UP!!! 😁
The UNIFLASH 1.40 path TOBOR suggested is a difficult one and I'll look into it just for research.
Thanks for everyone that tried to help or posted their thoughts.
(goes to try HOLY water on the powered V4-L card.....j u s t - k i d d i ng...😁 )
The END?