VOGONS


First post, by mbannick

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I'm going to edit this down so it's more coherent and to the point.

Long story short is I bricked my bios with a bad flash. Now I'm looking to reprogram it with a universal programmer and have a few questions as someone who hasn't flashed a rom before but is willing to do the work.*edit* after doing some research I've solved most of my questions about which programmer to use. I'm going to go with the mini pro usb universal programmer to re-flash the bios since it has my chip in the compatibility list. I am still looking for the most recent verified working bios for this board since the one I was using failed (but may have been user error 😜). More specifically I'm looking for the latest bios to add k6-2 and 3 + support. If anyone can point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated.

Reply 1 of 3, by iFXBR

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You'll need:

- IC flash code/model
- BIOS binary file
- Universal Programmer

I recommend a TL866II Plus (http://www.xgecu.com/en/TL866_MAIN.html) - It is compatible with +15000 ICs. I have one of these and I can say that is very handy.
If you don't have a programmer, but you have two motherboard with the same BIOS IC, you can do a kamikaze process, that worked for me in the past:

1 - Boot the functional system and configure all BIOS shadow on the setup.
2 - Shutdown the functional system
3 - Loose the IC BIOS from the IC socket a little bit to make it easily removable
4 - Boot again the functional system
5 - With the system turned ON, remove functional BIOS IC and connect the non-functional BIOS IC
6 - Using flash utility tool, write the correct binary file to this IC - Ensure that the process finish with success!
7 - Shutdown system and swap the ICs
8 - Test if it's everything OK with the functional system
9 - Install the recent-written IC to the motherboard
10 - Test if it's everything OK

I know how dangerous is this process, but at lease it helped me. Remove any PCI/ISA card to make clean access to the IC. Be careful and avoid touching IC pins.
But remember, the right thing is to use a external programmer.

iFXBR - Vintage Computer Lover

Reply 2 of 3, by quicknick

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Here you'll find the BIOS from my board, dated 10/15/1999. If you read further, you'll see that BIOSes released in 2000 and 2003 didn't work for PcBytes.

I'm sure the TL866II Plus will prove useful to you, I have the older variant and can't imagine life without it anymore 😀

Reply 3 of 3, by mbannick

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Interesting that the updated bios files aren't working for this board. Were these legit from azza or patched by a 3rd party back in the day? Anyway, these little cheapo programmers that are available now are like way ahead of even the nice ones you could get probably 10 -15 years ago so that's nice to see something worthwhile popping up in the $50 range.

If anyone is curious the chip on this board is a winbond w29c011A-15 which is a 128 x 8 (1mbit?) nor flash that uses just the 5v for erasing and programming.
According to the data sheet it needs nothing else so no +12v +15v, +20v, etc. which seemed like kind of an off chip for these programmers but it is "listed" and "compatible" so I'll go with the mini pro as it's the only one that had it listed in the specs sheet.

If anyone has owned this board before what are there experiences with the k6-2 and 3+ processors? Can I just set the multiplier to 3x and go through software to clock it up or is it more of a pain than that? kind of a bummer that there are official updates that don't seem to work for the board 😜