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Home / Other I-Appliances / Gateway/AOL Connected Touch Pad BIOS Sub-Forum BIOS FUN!

BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) wordsmith Profile Ok, I have tried my different wireless keyboards: WebSurfer WebPlayer WebTV & GCT None let me into the BIOS. All of my units have the BIOS # *39SF020 * With a sticker that reads "IA2B" Any other info, stick in this thread so we can keep organized. * WordsmitH 05-10-2001 22:20:39

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) wordsmith Profile OK this type of BIOS is a: FLASH 39SF020 SST39SF020-90-4C-NH PLCC SST 2000 2664 I remember this chip in a I-Opener I once worked on. Its 2Mbit EEPROM chip and AWDFLASH 6.31 supports this chip. But since I don't see any PS/2 ports/pads we could always throw it into another IOp if all else fails. Please correct anything that may be wrong, but Im sure thats all right. * WordsmitH 05-10-2001 22:37:30

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) ckbone Profile I think I've got this BIOS thing figured....I don't have one to look at so I could be all wrong....But, you don't have an esc key on your keyboards, right? I-Openers need the esc key to get into the BIOS. This thing is made by the same company (Quanta), about the same mfg date, practically everything else is the same, why not the esc key thing? I wonder if it has USB keyboard support enabled in the BIOS? If so you might try the I-Opener trick using a std USB keyboard. Hit ctrl+alt+esc upon startup to access the BIOS. If this won't work, you might have to solder in a ps2 port (if possible) to access the BIOS. This GTC thing is getting less and less attractive. 05-11-2001 03:31:40

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) 02U2 Profile No luck with the CTRL ALT ESC... You guys got my curiosity going and I opened my box this morning. No IDE, The floppy header is intact. Luckly for some of you guys all the Resistor packs are installed...(Websurfer veteran) I have an A-Open (Silitek 7100)IR Keyboard, practically identical to the Gateway keyboard. It HAS ESC key. I tried all options many times. No luck. May be bios issue(Locked out?) Keyboard funtions fine during initial AOL setup screen. (No, I did not sign up) Ctrl Alt Del to try and reboot does not respond either. I noted that the IR receiver is REAL sensitive! I bounced signals all over the room and still received commands. 05-11-2001 05:45:03

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) wordsmith Profile Ok, I yanked the SanDisk and booted. You get a couple chars. that show up in red and thats it. When you press a key, it prints that line on the next. These keys dont have a response. Disabled in startup? Instant AOL Help Ctrl Shift Buddy List Address Book Favorite Places AOL Channels Notes Caps Lock Maybe playing with those might do something. One more thing, when you yank that SanDisk during Boot, it hangs, and ditto during the actually AOL program. * WordsmitH 05-11-2001 22:19:34

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) ckbone Profile More thinking on this subject......The compaq desktop I have to use at work uses a unique method to access the BIOS. You use a startup disk, then run another program on another floppy. This computer could have been setup this way. Imaging pulling the CF, inserting your special boot disk/ BIOS program which is on a special CF disk, doing your trouble shooting, BIOS changes or whatever....then you put the stock CF disk back in. A perfect setup for the manufacurer to avoid any BIOS tampering....and an easy way for their tech department to do maintainence. With the CF being so easily removable, I can see this being their setup. Perhaps some E-Mails to Quanta could check this out. I managed to get the special prog from Compaq without any trouble. 05-12-2001 09:56:45

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) wireless Profile sounds like a very reasonable assessment ckbone. 05-12-2001 11:56:04

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) wireless Profile Two notes on the BIOS entry front... I have a PC Concepts Express Remote Pro IR keyboard which looks very similar to the GCT's keyboard... None of the usual ways of BIOS entry worked for me. BUT I did not that while using other Linux distros the ALT key gave an unknown scan code error... In MS DOS the ALT key did work though. 05-12-2001 11:56:09

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email Found more info on the bios, http://www.idg.net/english/crd_bios_131979.html states that the bios was provided by Phoenix and from the Phoenix website, they have a link regarding bios for internt appliances http://www.phoenix.com/PlatSS/infoapps/iapbios.html Well after continue reading, it could be an Award bios too!! http://www.phoenix.com/PlatSS/infoapps/iaabios.html Anyone found anything else? 05-12-2001 15:45:41

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email What key is the ALT key on GTC wireless keyboard ?? 05-12-2001 16:13:38

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email After reading about Phoenix being the supplier for the bios, I searched for bios setup key sequences on the web and found the following keystrokes that Phoenix has used in the past to gain access to bios setup: F1 F2 ALT-CTRL-S CTL-ALT-ESC CTL-ALT-INS ALT-S CTLR-S As I am not sure of all the true key's indentification, I tried these but I am not sure if I was using the right ones. GTC KEY = REAL KEY -------------------- Instant AOL = ESC ?? ESC = ALT ?? CTRL = CTRL ?? Any input on this ?? 05-13-2001 06:52:20

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) GWIZAH Profile | Email Well according to the gct tour page, The keys were mapped as Instant aol=ESC Then the icons left to right F1-F12 till you get to the heart. I dunno what the rest are....Anybody seen an earlier GCT keyboard? 05-13-2001 15:10:32

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) wireless Profile On the PC Concepts Express Remote Pro IR keyboard all the normal keys exist and there are a bunch of Internet short cut buttons at the top. I am going to try the mentioned BIOS entry methods: F1 F2 ALT-CTRL-S CTL-ALT-ESC CTL-ALT-INS ALT-S CTL-S (??) 05-13-2001 15:34:05

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email What key on the GTC keyboard is really the ALT key ?? 05-13-2001 17:36:57

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) 02U2 Profile Big dog, I don't have the original Gateway keyboard with me at the moment, But on the A-Open/Silitek SK7100 it the first key on the right and left side of the spacebar <FN¦Ctrl¦Win¦Alt¦Spacebar¦Alt¦Win¦etc> Don't know if this helps? I'm not sure if it's mapped the same? I'm away from the shop at the moment.... 05-13-2001 18:25:34

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) wireless Profile I have been unable to find an "ALT" key equivalent on the original GCT keyboard... 05-15-2001 14:47:44

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) wireless Profile I found this reference in http://www.phoenix.com/PlatSS/pcplatforms/desktop/PBFeatures.pdf It may be time to replace that GATEWAY Logo... Now where to find BMP2BIN.COM Phoenix QuietBoot As the computer industry turns toward serving customers with less computer experience, QuietBoot 600 replaces the customary technical messages during POST with a more visually pleasing and comfortable display (OEM screen). During POST, right after the initialization of VGA, QuietBoot displays an illustration called the OEM screen during system boot instead of the traditional POST screen that displays the normal diagnostic messages. The OEM screen has these features: " A default illustration which the OEM can replace by using the bit-mapped-logo conversion utility distributed with QuietBoot 600, BMP2BIN.COM " Optional Fade-in and Fade out. " An optional prompt for switching to the POST screen or Setup. " Provision for optional screen updating. " An optional and customizable Progress Meter, that indicates the progress of POST. " A new option, VSA Logo, supports a 256-color OEM screen 05-15-2001 15:29:05

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) yellow1 Profile | Email about the "esc", it's supposed to be the "instant aol" key from previous posts, but neither of my 2 gwcp's recognizes it, for what it's worth. i saw that oem keyboard at fry's the other day and while the look is similar, the bottom row was completely redesigned for the gwcp. 05-15-2001 16:49:11

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email I found this suggestion, anyone brave enough to try it on the GTC?? I tried on one a Intel motherboard at work that had a Phoenix bios and it worked http://www.firmware.com/support/bios/cmosclr.htm Part of the page from there: When CMOS RAM loses power, a bit is set to indicate this, which should cause the BIOS to detect that the CMOS RAM is invalid and will normally result in the loading of default values. The same results can be obtained by using a simple DEBUG script to invalidate CMOS RAM. This may be much more convenient than shorting pins on a chip in cases where it is possible to boot to a DOS prompt to run DEBUG. Here is a DEBUG script to invalidate CMOS RAM. This should work on all AT motherboards. (XT systems do not have CMOS RAM). A:\>DEBUG - o 70 2E - o 71 FF - q (Quits to DOS) After clearing CMOS RAM we would usually get some kind of error message on bootup such as CMOS Battery Dead, Clock Chip Lost Power, or maybe just CMOS Checksum Invalid, and default values should be loaded. The loading of default values after invalidating CMOS RAM is usually more thorough than the loading of default values by choosing the option to load default values in CMOS setup. 05-16-2001 03:12:49

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) yellow1 Profile | Email Didn't you already post that somewhere else ? I'd try it, but I don't see what getting into the BIOS would help us with really. In my previous post I mentionned the "ESC", key. I was actually referring to the "ALT" key. 05-16-2001 08:35:44

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) GWIZAH Profile | Email eh? Getting into the BIOS wont be helpful??? I think it would be extremely helpful. -wheee!- 05-16-2001 08:43:49

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email Getting into the bios setup is the most important item at hand for hacking the GTC, the version of Phoenix BIOS used on this box is awesome, there is user control over just about every aspect of the computer. If the bios is really Phoenix BIOS 4.0 Release 6.0.3 as posted in another thread, getting into bios would turn this box into a awesome hack, floppy drive boot could be enabled, the drive boot order might be able to be changed so you could leave the CF in and not boot on it, USB device boot could be enabled, the vga out could be enabled which the LinuxEM+ chip has some very nice feature support for dual displays...... And yes yellow, I posted that on another thread. What are related to Starfish? 05-16-2001 10:21:48

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) yellow1 Profile | Email What's that about Starfish ? Well if you think getting into the BIOS is that important than go ahead and try that trick. There's a pretty big risk involved if like those who got the BIOS screen hitting the windows key, you can't activate the F1 or F2 keys as prompted on the screen. If that happens you're SOL. In my situation, I'm perfectly happy with the current setup I've been running on for two weeks: CF removed, HD in, winme installed, touchscreen activated, wireless USB network, speakers hooked up (alhtought that's not as necessary as for the webplayer). Getting into the BIOS to be able to boot from the floppy wouldn't do me (or most average users) any good. Leaving the CF might be of *some* use, but since you can't take it out or put it in without pulling the whole thing apart... Anyway good luck with ! 05-16-2001 11:01:51

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) * StarFish * Profile OK, I give up. What are related to Starfish? 05-16-2001 11:31:36

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) bloinkster Profile | Email I tried that DEBUG thing, but it didn't do anything... how come yellow1 always criticizes others when they say something dumb, but he says just as many dumb things 05-16-2001 11:43:28

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email Sorry Starfish, I was just giving yellow a hard time & I meant to type "What, are you related to Starfish?" in regards to your well placed concern over excessive posting and redundant content as I am guilty sometimes of contributing to the excess messages that plague this message board. Ok, back on topic; Even in worse case if the CMOS get's trashed, a reboot will clear the checksum error and if you read the section from the web site that I quoted, the debug command only resets a bit that the bios checks on POST to determine if the CMOS checksum is valid. It will not harm the bios and it will reset the CMOS values to their default values. 05-16-2001 12:26:28

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) yellow1 Profile | Email Don't see what "dumb" thing I've said but, bloinkster, I would keep quiet if I were you... http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowPost&Board=bnews&Post=410&Idle=0&Sort=0&Order=Descend&Page=0&Session= 05-16-2001 12:58:52

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) vagitizer Profile | Email Just got mine about 20 min abo.... here's what I tried, and what I think. I hit the #### out of the welcome, read, food&kitchen, family - along with the esc&shift keys just as soon as I turned on the unit. The GCTP hangs on the gateway screen. Now, a few posts up there is a mention of the version 6 enhancements, one of them is the ability to add a splash screen on boot. What looks like here is that it's looking for a blind password!! I could be wrong, but why would it hang, on this screen???? The damn things looking for something!! Alex Vagitizer Scratch and Sniff... 05-16-2001 13:08:56

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email Uh... What key was that ? (####) 05-16-2001 13:13:37

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) BubbaDog56 Profile BigDog, Isn't that the # key struck 4 times in rapid succession, hehehe? Yeah, yellow1 sees no need to be able to get into the BIOS, let him be happy with his crippled little toy with a hard drive and his non-standard benchmarks. I really think that if we can crack the BIOS we can make this puppy do a lot more than Gateway ever intended, above and beyond the HD & OS. Custom bootups, CF support, multiple drives, extended memory, yadayadayada.... yellow1, Hacking is about risks, not safety. If something goes south, can always get the BIOS chip reflashed to a known good status and start over again (and again and again).... bloinkster, We thought you were AWOL, you left someone SOL on their WPs.... And just for giggles and grins, the TradeOut seller still has 890 GTC units available but has never responded to our queries. Hmmm, maybe he's watching.... "Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends. We're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside...." - Emerson, Lake & Palmer B'Dog 05-16-2001 13:43:04

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) wireless Profile For those who wonder why getting into the GCT BIOS (or any BIOS) is a good thing: 1) In general the BIOS allows fundamental configuration of the hardware components of the computer... boot sequence, PCI settings, interrupts, power saving, peripheral configuration, video, sound, USB, etc. 2) The Phoenix Bios 4 Release 6.0.3 is a very sophisticated (neato!) BIOS see http://www.phoenix.com/PlatSS/pcplatforms/desktop/PBFeatures.pdf Of its very many COOL features, the ability to boot from an external mass-storage device allows for a) eaiser development- Instead on continuously opening up the GCT (or leaving it open) to load the CF, you could boot externally and then copy the OS image to the CF. b) Immediate use of the GCT- since it would elliminate the need of _having_ to solder in an IDE connector onto the GCT MoBo to allow large OS use. You could load up your favorite OS onto a supported external device and off you go! c) Net Boot- Another desire may be utilizing the GCT as a Xterminal device ala LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project) Usually the Appliance manufactures disable many features of the BIOS since it would hamper the type of developement that is talked about on this board. They want to force the use of the device as an appliance and not as a general purpose computer. For reference from the manual... The BIOS may be required to boot an operating system from any one of the following mass-storage devices: " Floppy Drives " IDE and SCSI fixed disks " ATAPI CD-ROMs " Network cards (remote boot) " PC Cards (PCMCIA) " USB storage media (floppy, hard disk, and CD ROM) " Iomega Zip and other high-capacity floppies " IEEE 1394 (FireWire) storage media 05-16-2001 14:20:11

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) wordsmith Profile PLEASE DONT MAKE THIS THREAD A FLAME WAR! PLEASE DONT MAKE THIS THREAD A FLAME WAR! PLEASE DONT MAKE THIS THREAD A FLAME WAR! I NEED THIS AREA AS MUCH AS THE NEXT GUY!! This Has Been A Public Service Announcement. * WordsmitH 05-16-2001 19:43:26

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) vagitizer Profile | Email My progress: NONE!! I've tried every key combination known to this universe. The only thing I can get the machine to do is to stop on the gateway screen, and hang there. I've just formatted a toshiba 6 gig drive to drop in there. Once I get that done, I'm going to continue to screw with the bios keycombinations and see what happens. 05-16-2001 20:48:10

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) LD37 Profile not really BIOS related but it got me thinking: This is kinda neat actually This is interesting as well what i was thinking is that there is probably a key combo...in other words not something out of the ordinary like the two shift keys or something...at the OS level they are sending commands...it could be similar at the BIOS level...i did call gateway, just for fun...and asked the guy if there was a way to access the phoenix BIOS in the touchpad...he said the feature has been completely disabled in that device...now i don't know how true that is, but he seemed like a cool enough guy anyway, it's late, i'm rambling, and not really adding anything new to the discussion 05-16-2001 22:21:16

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email I found a old version of Checkit and checked all the keyboard scan codes, the following keys are missing from the GTC keyboard: Print Screen key Scroll Lock key Pause key Insert key Left & Right ALT key 05-16-2001 23:10:43

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) wordsmith Profile Since this is the same BIOS as the ones in the IOp's, would someone be willing to pop it out and swap it with another IOp, and see if the setting can be changed that way? I wont dare it, Once was enough for me. And, well, the socket was broken from the person I bought it from on eBay. I REALLY dont want to make it worse. Thanks guys. * WordsmitH 05-16-2001 23:25:54

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) bystander Profile Have you explored methods used to get into BIOS on laptops. Example: IBM ThinkPad 770 To get into the BIOS 1)Powerdown the machine 2)press and hold F1 3)Turn the power on while holding F1 pressed down Also Sony laptops with Transmeta chip use F2 at init screen. 05-16-2001 23:43:49

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email Ok, I believe the keyboard is not going to let us in. I have erased the CMOS values to default and still can't get in. I am thinking that there must be an extra programmable EPROM on the board that is being referenced on boot and after doing a little research I believe I have found the chip. The GAL22LV10C chip is a programmable "Low Voltage E2 CMOS PLD" and I believe that the regular bios is loading this as a user scanned area on boot to disable the setup function and display the Gateway logo and lord knows what else. This would make sense because every attempt to erase the cmos and set certain items such as the floppy drive is always reset to after boot, this chip could also be re-programming the keyboard scan codes to disable certain keys like the ALT key. FYI - I found a couple of free programs that let up set certain cmos simple values such as time, date, drive type but as stated, every time the unit is reset, these values are reset to the default. Is there any one who knows anything about this chip and it's function ? Any have any ideas how to disable this chip and/or is it safe to just remove it? If physically removed I believe it can be easy to solder it back on if necessary. Here is a technical info on the chip: http://www.infotech.tu-chemnitz.de/~schalt/schalt/gal20v10.pdf Page 13 of this PDF is interesting, as it refers to the "security cell" in each chip that prevents unauthorized copying of the array patterns and that once programmed and the orginal configuation can not be examined once the cell is programmed and can only be re-programmed. This is why I think that removing this chip may be the only way to get into the cmos setup. 05-17-2001 18:44:37

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email Well I got brave and decided to try lifting pin 3 of the chip, which is the Vcc. No good, just a blank screen however the power button did turn the unit off. I placed the pin back in place and powered back up and the unit came on ok but nothing new. Someone help me out here, What does the abreviation CT stand for? Next to the GAL22LV10C chip is a pad labeled CT47 which goes from the 3.5 volt of pin 3 on one side to ground on the other, could this be a switch for "setup" mode?. I am not a electronics major, I know the main other labels printed on circuit boards such as R for resister, C is for capicitar and JP is for a jumper, but what CT mean ?? I know my Intel motherboard has a jumper for config mode and it too has a Phoenix 4.0 release 6.0 bios and perhaps it's like the MSN Companion which it too has a jumper to to get into setup. I have had enough risk for tonight, some electronics whiz needs to tell what they think is going to happen if I short the 3.5 volt on the chip to ground. Under most situations I understand this is not a desirable operation as it may let more smoke out of the beasty eletronics and not to mention those wild electrons that got out when I shorted out my hard drive adapter a few week ago (which are still running around wild in to woods behind my house). 05-17-2001 20:12:48

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email Another chip to to look at containing flash on the GTC is the Winbond W78E52BF-24 chip that's above the mini-pci slot. it too has flashable code apparently and contains security measures to keep the code from being read from the chip. http://www.winbond-usa.com/products/winbond_products/pdfs/8-bit/w78e52b.pdf 05-18-2001 04:04:41

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email Did everyone give up already on the bios? I called Gateway to ask how to enter the bios setup since my ""Other" Gateway computer let me into the bios setup and the GTC wouldn't (I didn't give them my name or serial number), I was transferred to the Connected Touch Pad support section and the person I spoke with was very honest, she thought that sounded like it was great idea but they had no technical data of that nature on the GTC and in case of warrenty work they ship the units to a Gateway service depot in Irving TX. I asked if there was any one there I could contact and she gave me the address. Turns out the "Gateway service depot" is a company called Cyclix Engineering Corporation http://www.cyclix.com that does "component-level repair, remanufacturing, and refurbishing of PCs, notebooks, LCDs, and peripheralsrepairs on PC hardware", this is were Gateway sends all their notebook and GTC's for repair. The company is in Irving TX (2800 West Story Rd. Suite 200). are there any i-Appliance BBS members in that area that might be able to check them out or even know anyone that works there ?? They have a FTP site but it appears to be restricted. ALSO I was browsing the extracted bios (transferred to a file) and found some interesting labels here and there, including the phrases: "Network boot" and the most interesting was at the end, "IA2 Q1B17 Q1B SOLO XXXX01.01.17 11/22/00", Does this have a modified Solo bios in it? I can make available the bios file if anyone can do anything to it that will help.... (I know, the bios thing has become an obsession with me !! BUT I MUST GET INTO IT!!! 05-19-2001 09:26:56

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) geekgranny Profile I live in the Dallas area. Irving is a bit away from me but may be able to take a drive over that way some time next week. "Ah crapola....sorry for the multiple posts..." (Greenspark) THEGeekGranny-epodsgranny@hotmail.com 05-19-2001 16:53:52

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) jim52 Profile | Email Wireless - are you still looking for BMP2BIN? http://www.designtechengineering.com/tech.html -jim 05-19-2001 18:15:01

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) yellow1 Profile | Email Found that the other day but didn't post because it seemed unrelated. Have you tried it ? 05-19-2001 18:46:20

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) jim52 Profile | Email Nope, not yet. I just got my GCT the other day and haven't the skills nor free time to solder on an IDE header, so I will be taking BigDog up on his offer of soldering. Since I do have a couple of small CF laying around, I have been trying to get one working from the DOS prompt, but haven't had any success yet. 05-19-2001 18:55:46

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) jim52 Profile | Email Don't know if this program will help or not: http://www.11a.nu/ibios.htm 05-19-2001 19:00:57

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) wireless Profile Thanks for the BMP2BIN link Jim! 05-21-2001 08:55:01

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) phantasm Profile | Email Ok, I see you are trying to get into the BIOS of the beast. I am not sure if the box I am in possession of differs from the ones you all use, but here are some things I noticed. Instant AOL key = Alt, if you Ctrl-Instant AOL-DEL during BIOS load, the system reboots. Not much help when the system itself loads, it appears they use a modified key map when the linux system boots up, so any Ctrl-Alt-X mappings happen, they go unnoticed. The BIOS, well for me, it was as easy as holding esc while the system loaded. That would bring up a menu to choose what boot method you wanted, OR to enter setup, go to setup and there is the pretty BIOS to play with. I have seen other questions around the board, so I will be floating around answering questions that I know about, while in search on how to get the device to drop me into a native shell. ~Phantasm 05-24-2001 20:53:52

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) yellow1 Profile | Email huh ! Could you give us dates of manufacturing/serial number for your device ? Strange thing is that BigDork1 (where are you BTW) had a beta version and was able to get into the BIOS by hitting F2 (if memory serves). The exact info is under the huge Gateway thread in the News/Breaking News section. 05-24-2001 21:27:08

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) wordsmith Profile Yes, more info please. I have tried these combos, and none worked: - Ctrl-Instant AOL-DEL (system reboot) - holding esc while the system loaded(BIOS) - Pressing F2(BIOS) Thanks! * WordsmitH 05-24-2001 23:01:46

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) yellow1 Profile | Email No go here either, even after pulling the thing apart and dropping in the original CF. Interestingly enough on my version (with IDE connector) the Instant Aol key doesn't get recognized as ALT. I tried the keyboard of a more recent version and still no go. Does anyone have ALT working apart from these early/beta versions ? 05-24-2001 23:22:21

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) ckbone Profile Look..who knows what they changed when the final version was released. The key combination to get into the BIOS could be almost anything, maybe nothing... I use a computer at work with a touchscreen that uses the screen to get into the BIOS. You hold two fingers on the upper right and upper left of the screen when you power the thing up to get into the BIOS. To figure this out, I bet you're going to need some inside information. One more thing....the two computers at work that primarily use a touchscreen, started getting scratches and dulled areas of the screen within a few months of operation...I would not want this to happen to my computer. 05-25-2001 03:40:05

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email If phantasm really got into the bios setup with a early version on the bios, we need a copy of his bios, Badflash can flash the older bios program on a new one if we can get him an image to burn. phantasm email me please! BigDog 05-25-2001 04:40:03

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) BubbaDog56 Profile BigDog, Excellent idea! Even though BigDork1 hasn't been posting, I have his personal email from when we started communicating about his beta unit capabilities. I'll drop him a line and see if he might be receptive to the same idea.... B'Dog 05-25-2001 06:10:16

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) Steve Profile | Email if we can compare the two and figure out the differences maybe we can patch the latest bios to give us entry without losing any bug fixes. 05-25-2001 07:24:42

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) phantasm Profile | Email Again, I am not that big into hardware, so with some prompting I am kinda at a loss, especially when it comes to the technicalities of the BIOS. I cant give out the Serial/Model #'s. The device isn't mine, and I really do not want to facilitate some way that AOL/Gateway can track back to the owner of it. As for Using Esc, that did the trick for me, so I gather there is a difference between units and key maps. I am in contact with BigDog now, and maybe some how we can find a way to seperate the differences. I sent him some details reguarding BIOS information, Version 4.0 Revision 6.0.3 If there is any specific info you want, feel free to ask, I will try to get it here if I can access it. I would be glad to dump my BIOS for you to take a look at, but again, my limited HW/BIOS ability kinda takes away from that, along with my lack of external devices to save the dump to. ~Phantasm 05-25-2001 15:32:57

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) jim52 Profile | Email FWIW, I went to Phoenix's website and downloaded a version of their BIOS dumping utility that they have you use for customer support - it worked like a charm and dumped an image without any problems. All you had to do was run it from a DOS prompt. Wasn't that big of a file. jim52 05-25-2001 17:53:58

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) jim52 Profile | Email The file from Phoenix is called "detect.com", it dumps a bin file and text file of the bios type. -jim52 05-25-2001 17:59:16

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) chaezewhiz Profile | Email Well, unfortunately, it looks like Phantasm doesn't own the GCT in question. I wonder if this model has the ide connector intact. At least that would eliminate having to molest the board in order to get the BIOS image. Phantasm, Is there anyway you can disassemble the GTC to see if the ide header is intact? -chaeze Miracle in a Can 05-25-2001 18:33:24

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email Jim52 - Was i a complete bios, or just part of CMOS data ? How big was the file it created ? and can you email it to me ? 05-25-2001 19:15:47

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) jim52 Profile | Email It was 256k and it's on the way -jim 05-25-2001 21:07:19

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) jim52 Profile | Email Duh... it was 64k. -jim 05-25-2001 21:19:36

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) yellow1 Profile | Email Tried the WINDOWS key trick with the Silitek (what a name !) keyboard I just got and it's really a struggle to be ablet o catch a glimpse of the boot screen. I haven't found a sure way to see it. Best bet is to hold the Windows key from the start and then let go and press it again a few instants later, as a result, it works about 25% of the time. You then see the screen for about half a second and pressing F2 doesn't help. 05-25-2001 21:53:11

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) ckbone Profile What do you think? http://www.unicore.com/bioswiz/index.html 05-26-2001 18:52:51

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) artc Profile OK I tried the BIOS Agent here is what I got: Program: Unicore BIOS Wizard Version 1.5 Program: Unicore Chip Detect v0.72 2000.03.10 BIOS Date: 11/22/00 BIOS Type: PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0.3 BIOS ID: unknown Chipset: ALi M5451 rev 1 05-26-2001 19:13:34

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) Clueless Profile | Email That's exactly the same ting I got. Is dumping the bios code going to do anyone any good if we can do that? Chaos, panic, and disorder... My work here is almost done... 05-27-2001 08:54:52

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email Dumping the entire code would allow someone who has an external eprom reader/writer to copy a replacement bios for the GTC, such as is required with the orginal V5 i-Opener bios that wouldn't allow entry into the setup. So far no one has come forward with a software program that will dump the entire 256k Phoenix bios to file, most are only getting the CMOS data. The only complete bios file so far has been obtained using an external eprom reader. 05-27-2001 09:13:59

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) ckbone Profile The idea here with this BIOS Agent is that Unicore may be able to make you a replacement BIOS which allows access to the BIOS. Once someone had one that worked....duplicating it would not be too difficult. This whole procedure shouldn't be too expensive....probably would save a whole lot of time..... 05-27-2001 10:34:13

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) mikeman Profile Has anyone tried out this Flash programming utility? http://ic.doma.kiev.ua/inside/ami/ehistory.htm I still have the original OS on my GCT, so haven't been able to try it. Seems like it should be able extract the whole BIOS. No one has been able to that yet have they? 05-30-2001 19:21:12

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) 02U2 Profile Question? Are flash programming utilities interchangable? ie AMI utility on Phoenix code? I've never tried this before... 05-30-2001 22:10:26

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email I don't think so, Mikemans link to download for the AMI bios utility didn't work (link worked, the AMI utilities there didn't!) It came back with un-supported chipset We need to get phantasm's chip to Badflash to copy and see if that preliminary bios fixes the setup issue 05-30-2001 22:21:34

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) wordsmith Profile I second that notion! * WordsmitH 05-30-2001 23:03:23

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) GWIZAH Profile | Email I Thirdify that notion! -wheee!- 05-31-2001 06:55:09

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) LD37 Profile Try here maybe I am at work and my GCT is in a couple pieces anyway. I know nothing about BIOS's but there are a couple interesting utilities on this page. And if you speak German 05-31-2001 08:11:16

RE:BIOS Sub-Forum (modified 0 times) phantasm Profile | Email I would love to send it out, but it appears the device is taking a trip for a few weeks. It appears some people what to verify my claims of AOL and Gateway violating the GPL, and have requested the device for further investigation. The owner has agreed with this, so it will be unavailable for a period of time. If there is someone here thats in the North Carolina area, they can contact me, and we can hook up sometime this week or next before I ship it off. phantasm phantasm@observers.net 06-04-2001 23:08:53

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