What is the file size of tr551024.a24? Given the lack of clear documentation and the fact that the site you link to is generic, not specific to your board, I'd not automatically assume your BIOS is modular and missing modules. It could just be a single, monolithic, image of 128kB (regular size for BIOS in the mid 1996).

If it's exactly 128kB I'd say it's worth a try - at least if you have an EEPROM flasher or the opportunity to hot-flash, i.e. if you can easily fix things if it doesn't work. I'd recommend flashing on to a different EEPROM so you can roll back simply by sticking the original one back in again.

One further tip if it doesn't work: the TR5510-AIO is an ECS board. ECS and PC-Chips (and Amptron and quite a few more) were different brand names for devices from the same factory. So if you could find the corresponding PC-Chips model number, you could possibly find more info and BIOS bins under that number.

Oh valuable points there. I have a standard cheap USB Rom-read/write device (thanks china) - its a good point, that I should take out the chip first, dump it, before making any experiments with the other software.

The BIOS file i have is 128kb or "around that size" (I think it registers online as 131.6kb - which is probably 128kb exact) - I will check when I get to the computer.

The bios should be the top DIP32 chip on the top of this image: https://tinyurl.com/yc5ss3f8 - fun fact, the image here has BIOS 4.51PG installed. If everything else fails, maybe I can convince computer-retro.de to send me a dump (if still available). 😀

rocksolid_1997 wrote:

Oh valuable points there. I have a standard cheap USB Rom-read/write device (thanks china) - its a good point, that I should take out the chip first, dump it, before making any experiments with the other software.

Dumping it is good, using a different EEPROM for the new BIOS is better. That way you can just plug in whichever you want. Old EEPROMs can die when you flash them, so not touching a working one is a good idea.

The BIOS file i have is 128kb or "around that size" (I think it registers online as 131.6kb - which is probably 128kb exact) - I will check when I get to the computer.

That sounds like a 128kB image.

The bios should be the top DIP32 chip on the top of this image: https://tinyurl.com/yc5ss3f8 - fun fact, the image here has BIOS 4.51PG installed. If everything else fails, maybe I can convince computer-retro.de to send me a dump (if still available). 😀

Er, take another look at that screenshot. It's Award BIOS software version 4.51PG, but that's not the motherboard BIOS version number. If you're running 2.2 now, I don't think you'd be so happy with "ECS TR5510 A10 Rev1.1A"

You are absolute right, that was a brainfart from my part - Im posting from work, where I do not have access to the machine, and just found out that 2.2 "should have" 4.50 - whereas 2.4 "should have" 4.51pg - but I have no way of verifying that my 2.2 actually IS 4.5.

However, now im back, and I've found that my bios is a P28F001BX-B150 - which I will try to dump and/or find a replacement IC for 😀

Quick update: using my EPROM programmer, I flashed the PROM with the latest version of the BIOS i found, since the dump and the .a24 file I found had the same headers as well as general content and looks - it worked out just fine; i now have a slightly never BIOS, and learned something in the process 😀 Thank you dionb !

My AwardBIOS was 4.50PG with TR5510 AIO Ver2.2 - 02/02/1996. Now its 4.51PG with TR5510 AIO Ver2.4 😀 (and im told theres a mythical 2.4d thats Y2K compatible, somewhere out there 😳 )

rocksolid_1997 wrote:

You are absolute right, that was a brainfart from my part - Im posting from work, where I do not have access to the machine, and just found out that 2.2 "should have" 4.50 - whereas 2.4 "should have" 4.51pg - but I have no way of verifying that my 2.2 actually IS 4.5.

However, now im back, and I've found that my bios is a P28F001BX-B150 - which I will try to dump and/or find a replacement IC for 😀

Boards usually aren't too choosy about their BIOS EEPROMs. If the number of pins matches, it will usually read with no problems. Writing can be an issue with more exotic ones, but you'll be doing that on your USB thing anyway.

Edit:
Congratulations!

Just goes to show it usually doesn't pay to over-think stuff. If you have absolutely no way to recover a mis-flash, you can't be too careful, but if you do, don't worry, be flashy 😉