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BIOS (modified 0 times) Kludgemeister Profile From reading the translated Spanish forum, I think we will need to be careful about the BIOS. There is an Intel BIOS upgrader at (Link) that works in Win98, ME and 2000 and updates to MO81010A.8Ã.0008.P04, but farther down in the thread ("To update the BIOS from Windows") it's pointed out that the upgraded BIOS won't boot off a USB device as the MO81010A.8Ã.003.ABAZ bios allows. jsmmd, you seem to be getting your unit first, and already have a new BIOS (which version is it?) so it is probably a good idea to back up your BIOS before doing any experimenting! Kludgemeister (just hand-waving until my own unit arrives!) 04-02-2003 11:11:59

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Kludgemeister Profile Oops, the link doesn't work out of context. It does work from within the "To update the BIOS from Windows" thread. I just found the "We have companions in the United States" thread that has a link to the P05 BIOS, but there is still the question of whether it will USB boot. Dang, I wish I had my unit already! Kludgemeister (I wonder how that translates in Spanish? ) 04-02-2003 11:22:03

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) CjBiFiDuS Profile | Email Hi, kludgemeister, could you tell me how to back up the BIOS please?? Thanks. CjBiFiDuS (member of the spanish forum ) 04-02-2003 16:43:21

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile The ouput of the POST: HPG Bootloader Version 0.5.7.2 Copyright 2000, Intel Corporation Waiting on Harddrive, Harddrive Ready. 04-02-2003 16:58:32

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Kludgemeister Profile CjBiFiDuS, I think I spoke too soon. I don't have my Dot yet and did not realize that there was no separate EPROM chip for the BIOS. I normally just remove the chip and copy it with an EPROM programmer at work if the BIOS updating program does not have an option to back up the current BIOS. Kluegemeister 04-02-2003 17:22:38

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) CjBiFiDuS Profile | Email Ok, thanks, so we have to wait till your Dot arrives CjBiFiDuS. 04-02-2003 17:43:00

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile MHeadroom, Were you able to access the machine's bios (f2?)? I didn't have any luck with the supplied keyboard. 04-02-2003 19:17:56

RE:BIOS (modified 1 times) MHeadroom Profile Found out today that you can't get into the bios with F2. The only way into the bios is by moving the blue jummer at j8f1 to pins 2/3 Everyone on the spanish boards are buy'n premodified units with bios updates that allow f2 for bios and allow the use of a different OS. Like I said in other post they are buying from http://www.subastaspc.com/ Looks like what we are looking for is a way to update the bios via installed linux. I've been hard ware hacking for a while but new to linux and was going to use this project and the 3com web server I just bought to cut my teeth with so I'm still new this. -mheadroom 04-02-2003 19:26:30

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Kludgemeister Profile We need to merge this thread with "The plot thickens"! They are parallel BIOS discussions. Maybe we can pick one or the other to propogate... Kludgemeister 04-02-2003 19:33:13

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) MHeadroom Profile ok, lets just use this one for now on because the name is correct for future searchs. The chip is PLCC from what I can see and should have no problem installing a socket. -mheadroom 04-02-2003 19:38:53

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile i have posted some bios related files on the site. jsmmd / MethodicJon 04-02-2003 19:58:36

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) wfg97079 Profile According to the fist post in this message the guy was trying to get a flash probgram working in the linux sofware that comes with the system. Anyone out there that can undertsnad the language a little better understand if it worked or how we can do the same? fourm link 04-03-2003 11:31:33

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) bbsux Profile So let me get this straight... (can't make sense of much of that board) The bios on these is designed to load part of thier linux OS and that will keep us from booting to say DOS to reflash the BIOS? 04-03-2003 11:58:53

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) wfg97079 Profile Just got mine (spanish version) its looking for what I can only guess is a registration code or something before it will even boot. Can we even get into the linux on here? 04-03-2003 12:44:18

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile I got a very interesting email just now: "On most intel boards, there's also a recovery BIOS jumper... 3 pins..normally jumpered on pins 1-2... if you pull the shunt, it'll do a blind recovery from a removable media (floppy, ls-120, etc.). I don't have the dot.station yet so I can't confirm if this is possible on it or not. If you do recovery flashing, use the normal BIOS files, not the express BIOS files. The normal BIOS files contain the necessary boot block file (*.bbo) also. good luck!" Also, just got the release notes for the P05 bios, posted to the site. jsmmd / MethodicJon 04-03-2003 13:38:03

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) wfg97079 Profile sounds like a lead, has anyone actually tried to boot from a diff hard drive? 04-03-2003 13:56:42

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) MHeadroom Profile Todays tests: 1. Boot machine with bios jumper at 2,3: Could not get into BIOS 2. Boot machine with bios jumper off: Could not get into BIOS 3. Boot machine with Orig HD Master and CD-ROm Slave. Self boot CD BIOS update: Still boots to Welcome Screen 4. Boot machine with Orig HD as slave and CD as master: System halted because of HD 5. Boot machine with New HD as master: System halted becasue of HD Bios needs to see the original HD as master. The key to cracking this machine open is to update the BIOS. Like I said in previous posts I am pretty new to linux so maybe one of you can tell me is this is possible. From what I understand the HD check is checking to make sure the HD has the same partitions. So can we take the HD out and place it in a new machine and configure Linux to flash the bios on boot? then just pop the HD back in and turn it on. Once the new BIOS is in the machine should be able to boot with a new HD. Happy hacking! -mheadroom 04-03-2003 18:43:53

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile mheadroom, Could you post more information, maybe in a different thread, about the harddrive's partition topography. I saw that there were several partitions. I noticed when I plugged it into another machine, dos saw 2 of the 4 partitions, and assigned drive letters. I never thought to do a directory listing. 04-03-2003 18:48:27

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) MHeadroom Profile I haven't looked into the structure yet. If I have a chance I will let you know what I find 04-03-2003 19:09:47

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Kludgemeister Profile [Dr. "Bones" McCoy mode on] I'm a mechanical engineer, not a programmer, dammit [Dr. "Bones" McCoy mode off] but someone who is a programmer might make some sense of http://www.clustermatic.org/pipermail/linuxbios/2002-September/000062.html . Is that anything that might be useful in reprogramming the BIOS in place? Kludgemeister 04-03-2003 19:11:31

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile codeman told me to test the loader by mirroring the default drive onto a different drive. If the machine boots up like normal, this is a good sign. Also, he recommended using knop?, a Linux distro., to mount the partitions, and then browse them. If someone can perform these tests, post any results here, otherwise, I'll try to do it tomorrow. 04-03-2003 19:36:49

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Kludgemeister Profile Knoppix ( http://www.knoppix.com/ ) is a self-contained Linux distro that runs from a bootable CD-ROM, but you need to be able to boot off a CD-ROM to use it. It's way cool (I've run it on a bunch of machines, and I'm not a Linux guy myself [yet]) but I don't know how it would help in this case... Kludgemeister 04-03-2003 19:49:26

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile Plug in the dot.station harddrive into your "home" computer, use the knoppix, to load up linux. mount the dot.station drive and it will identify the partitions, and you should be able to explore the drives. (or that's what codeman said you should hopefully be able to do.) you might want to make an image of the drive with dolly. I'll post that to the site. syntax eg. of dolly with 2 harddrives, the second being the dot.station drive. dolly HD129: c:\backup.img i believe this to be correct, if not type: dolly /? jsmmd / MethodicJon 04-03-2003 20:25:49

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Kludgemeister Profile OK, got it. I recently removed the Zipdrive from my desktop so I have one IDE slot open. [Can you tell I'm drooling on the keyboard as I type this? Thanks for the great disassembly pics, by the way... It's like the early days of the iopener again--great feeling! The chase is on!!!] Kludgemeister (fresh from "customizing" my second iopener) 04-03-2003 22:59:51

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) bbsux Profile I don't suppose we can mount the drive in another PC, copy the bios flash exe to it and run it? Nah be too easy... 04-04-2003 01:24:29

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) gdlanzi Profile Reading some info from intel this bios has an unerasable part that will allow it to be recovered via a recovery cd or floppy. There is a jumper on the motherboard that removing will allow it to recover. I'm sure many of you have tried removing it as I have and it didn't work. The reason is that the current flash bios blocks it from working; however, If we can determine a way to corrupt the current flash than it should default to the unerasable part. I remember having to do something very similar to this years ago by shorting pins on the cmos. 04-04-2003 22:21:50

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile I suppose pulling the battery wouldn't work??? Could it? That "should" reset things, right? 04-04-2003 22:28:51

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Hugatre Profile | Email Nope, its not that easy. 04-05-2003 08:16:20

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) wvgeo Profile As someone noted on the Spanish BBS, one way around the BIOS is to just replace the Motherboard with a Flex-ITX or mini-ITX. One of the problems with this answer is that the video cable and sound would have to have a connection outside the unit, in the back. Not very neat and of course contrary to why we purchased the units to begin with (to hack). I have a mini-ITX board (Shuttle FV-24) with a 1Ghz C3 that I was going to set up as a server for my home network, but if I fry the MB in the Dot or just get frustrated, it may find its way into it. As another note, I contacted TigerDirect to see if they would tell me who they purchased the units from. I told Tiger that I had a unit that I needed parts for (small lie) and wanted to contact their vendor to see if they had extra parts (actually wanted info). This is a long shot as I believe Tiger will just blow me off, but no harm in trying. 04-05-2003 09:44:16

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile wvgeo, Good thought about calling tiger. If you find anything out post it in the TigerDirect thread. In the linux os thread I've documented the mounted partitions. Anyone know how I should modify linux os to skip the registration? or better yet, flash the bios? 04-05-2003 10:01:49

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile Found an interesting URL: http://www.elfqrin.com/docs/biospw.html This person proposes one possbile way to reset the bios is to physically short pins on the chip while the machine is off. 04-05-2003 18:46:01

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile Linux ppl. might know this already. Let me know if this makes any sense? (transcript from irc) <jsmmd> Anyone mind answering a more challenging question: Is it possible to flash a computer's bios from linux. I've read some conflicting msgs. on this throughout the internet. Thanks. <runkpock> jsmmd yes, you can use the "memory technology devices" in the kernel, however i have never done this ;) <runkpock> jsmmd i never reboot ;) 04-05-2003 20:28:30

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) gdlanzi Profile Quick update. Tried reseting the bios directly on chip by shorting pins. The end result was that this has no effect. 04-06-2003 09:40:09

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Kludgemeister Profile jsmmd, could you snap a good shot of the 82802AB chip please? I'm really curios to see exactly what it and the immediately surrounding portion of the board looks like. (Since I'm getting my Dot tomorrow I likely won't get to disassembling it until next weekend (or more likely I'll pull an all-nighter Monday night... ) BTW, the link I posted about halfway up the thread is source code to supposedly be able to flash the 82802AB from Linux. But I'm not a programmer, so I'm not able to play with it myself. Kludgemeister 04-06-2003 12:34:26

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile I'll try to take another picture of the chip tomorrow. I'm in a similar position as you. I'm no good with the programming. Maybe someone else might step up and be able to compile that. I think you have to compile on a similar OS for it to run on the dot? 04-06-2003 14:55:28

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) TheBigDog Profile here is some more info on the 82802AB Firmware Hub (FWH) http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/INTEL/2515568/251556813.shtml The above link said "The Intel FWH includes a 4-megabit (512-kilobyte) symmetrical flash memory device. Internally, the device is grouped into eight 64-kilobyte (KB) blocks that are individually erasable, LOCKABLE, and UNLOCKABLE. The BIOS chipset provides the non-volatile storage of the BIOS. " Here is the official document from Intel on the chipset ftp://download.intel.com/design/chipsets/datashts/29065804.pdf 04-06-2003 21:02:01

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) TheBigDog Profile ======================================================= Todays tests: 1. Boot machine with bios jumper at 2,3: Could not get into BIOS 2. Boot machine with bios jumper off: Could not get into BIOS 3. Boot machine with Orig HD Master and CD-ROm Slave. Self boot CD BIOS update: Still boots to Welcome Screen 4. Boot machine with Orig HD as slave and CD as master: System halted because of HD 5. Boot machine with New HD as master: System halted becasue of HD Bios needs to see the original HD as master. The key to cracking this machine open is to update the BIOS. Like I said in previous posts I am pretty new to linux so maybe one of you can tell me is this is possible. From what I understand the HD check is checking to make sure the HD has the same partitions. So can we take the HD out and place it in a new machine and configure Linux to flash the bios on boot? then just pop the HD back in and turn it on. Once the new BIOS is in the machine should be able to boot with a new HD. Happy hacking! -mheadroom ======================================================= When you perform #2, did you see the post? according to the manual, this is what should / could happen: 1) Because of the small amount of code available in the nonerasable boot block area, there is no video support. You can only monitor this procedure by listening to the speaker or looking at the recovery drive LED. 2) Two BEEPS indicate the beginning of the BIOS recovery process 3) TWO beeps and the end of activit in the recovery drive indicate successful BIOS recovery 4) A series of continuous beeps indicates a failed BIOS recovery. 5) Recovery requires the use of bootable media in a bootable device Last but not least.. BIOS recovery media must be bootable and it must contain the BIOS update files copied to it. BIOS upgrades and the Intel Flash Memmory UPgrade utility are available from Intel Customer Support thru the Intel WWW site. I don't have the unit yet, but looking thru the documentations and reading your post have lead me to a few questions... For this RECOVERY PROCESS, 1) Did you try to attached a CDROM to the PRIMARY (the IDE where your HD is currently connected)? 2) Have you tried connecting a different HD? 3) If you have done 1 or 2, was the media bootable w/ the flash utility + BIOS files in the root directory? I guess I am wondering what happened to the screen when you attempted the recovery mode. Did you see post? Was the video functioning? cuz' if it is, then the recovery is not working right. I noticed you mentioned you can't get into BIOS w/ the recovery mode. The recovery mode is not meant to be used to get into BIOS. I am by no mean flaming you and please dont' misunderstand. I am just trying to make some sense out of this Recovery Mode cuz' it seems to be a valid way to hack the bios. I could be wrong, of course, but that's just my 2 cents worth. 04-06-2003 23:30:54

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) TheBigDog Profile one more thing, BIOS recovery requires SPD DIMMS. NON-SPD won't work. 04-06-2003 23:31:53

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) TheBigDog Profile I was just about to go to sleep and I had another thought.... I look at the release note of P04 and it says "Added a fix to enable USB devices at runtime" Could this be why we cant' get into BIOS by hitting F2 on the USB keyboard? I am assuming that the stock BIOS is PRE P04. You might ask..why doesn't the mobo give a keyboard error then? Well, after reading the mobo manual, section 3.7.2 says 3.7.2 Booting Without Attached Devices For use in embedded application, the BIOS has been designed so that after passing the POST, the operating system loader is invoked even if the keyboard and mouse are not connected. once again, this is just me thinking out loud, but just thought I would share it with you guys. Good night for now. 04-06-2003 23:51:41

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Kludgemeister Profile jsmmd, never mind the pic. I see it in your existing pic36. Thanks! Kludgemeister 04-07-2003 11:03:46

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile Attention, Dr. Bones McCoy: In the same Linux BIOS message thread you previously referenced, there is another gem: http://www.clustermatic.org/pipermail/linuxbios/2002-September/000078.html which essentially says the Linux flash_rom program supports this chipset, if you can't get the MTD program to do it, although MTD should be capable. keith721 04-07-2003 11:27:19

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) mkriley Profile hi there, i'm sure the answer to the boot problem is in the bios security program known as "bis" here is the link http://developer.intel.com/design/security/bis/bis.htm this is over my head but this requires some sort of authentication before bootup 04-07-2003 12:25:28

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://developer.intel.com/ial/wfm/tools/bis/download.htm FYI. The download page off the link above gave me a 404. The wayback machine has some cached versions. -- If I am reading the info. on BIS correctly, this is more for Networked machines, so this might not be applicable to the dot since it seems to be a local, harddrive/partition based security?? 04-07-2003 12:29:59

82802ab flashing code at the Freebios repository (modified 1 times) Kludgemeister Profile http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/freebios/freebios/util/flash_and_burn/ flash_rom.c includes the 82802AB code now Kludgemeister 04-07-2003 13:14:48

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile http://sourceforge.net/projects/freebios I think this is the same project, just a link to the project, not the CVS. 04-07-2003 13:20:55

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) MHeadroom Profile ======================================================= >>When you perform #2, did you see the post? according to the manual, this is what should / could happen: Yup booted normally >For this RECOVERY PROCESS, >1) Did you try to attached a CDROM to the PRIMARY (the IDE where your HD is currently connected)? Yes, see above post >2) Have you tried connecting a different HD? Yup, hang on boot >3) If you have done 1 or 2, was the media bootable w/ the flash utility + BIOS files in the root directory? CD-ROM yes, HD no >I guess I am wondering what happened to the screen when you attempted the recovery mode. >Did you see post? yes >Was the video functioning? yes -MHeadroom 04-07-2003 17:02:41

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Hugatre Profile | Email Referring to post above. >3) If you have done 1 or 2, was the media bootable w/ the flash utility + BIOS files in the root directory? CD-ROM yes, HD no Since it appears that the i.dot is as sensitive as it is to needing the proper partitions, I was wondering if maybe the key is to have the update software on a hd with the same layout? Just a thought. 04-08-2003 08:49:42

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) wvgeo Profile I don't believe a DOS executable file will run in Linux/Unix. You need the actual BIOS image along with a *nix flashing program. A posting on another thread stated that the Dot will not recognize a bootable DOS floppy so the self-flashing .exe file is useless, and I haven't seen an updated BIOS image by itself. The only alternative at the present time is to get the USB dongle that Intel told jsmmd about. Someone speculated that the USB dongle may contain a bootable self-flashing program; I think it may be a security key to get into the BIOS. The Intel guy stated that they wanted to make the Dot unhackable so a security key makes more sense. 04-10-2003 10:48:27

BIOS etc. (modified 0 times) Hugatre Profile | Email part 1 ------------- Makes a little sense. When I took mine apart a few days ago, one of the combinations I tried was with a usb floppy drive attached but with the HD out and the jumper set to restore. The system hit the floppy and said it found the hard drive, but stopped there. At the time, we did not have a direction so I did not persue it. I will slap a floppy in the usb drive and see what it thinks aboout the bios program. "sound of fingers crossing" part 2 ------------ With the hd in and the usb floppy connected with the jumper removed (also tried (2-3), the systen hits the floppy but continues to boot from the hd. The floppy I am using is loaded with the bios program but is a dos disk. I wonder if it should be a linux boot disk? I am not a linux guy. Any ideas? Hugatre I created a dos bootable p05 flashing diskette from your web page. It appears the po4 file may be corrupted. Hugatre 04-10-2003 11:20:23

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile What problems did you have with the P04? I got that file from the Spanish BBS. On their forum, they can attach files. I got it from a thread. I'll see if I can get a better version. 04-10-2003 11:48:36

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile Random Find Intel D810MO BIOS Post Codes: http://bioscentral.com/intel/d810emobios.htm 04-10-2003 11:50:38

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile more vague information about the USB dongle for reflashing the BIOS : i spoke with an individual from Tiger's refurbishing agent, and it's his understanding that what they're using to unlock/reflash the BIOS is a bootable flash image containing the Intel BIOS files needed by the motherboard recovery procedure, stored on a USB key/drive/dongle. (this seems to confirm my earlier guess.) i'd *really* like to verify this myself, and have everything necessary to try it except my Dot.Station is totally disassembled right now, waiting for upgrade memory and CPU parts to arrive. i may hear more on Monday. if i do, i'll gladly share to help those with locked down units. keith721 04-11-2003 19:57:52

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) chillywilly Profile Hello everyone, I've been reading this thread religiously hoping someone would find a way to hack into the bOB dot.station. I received mine about a week ago and I have tried many ways to try and hack into the system. Last night I tried the following I created a bootable 64MB pen drive and copied the BIOS files (p05) and the necessary flash tools. I also attached a normal USB keyboard and mouse. 1) Disconnected the hard drive started the unit and started pressing ESC and F2. Hangs with a message about looking for the hard drive 2) Disconnected the hard drive, jumpered pins 2,3 to go into recovery mode, started the unit and started pressing ESC and F2. Hangs with a message about looking for the hard drive 3) Disconnected the hard drive, removed jumper, started the unit and started pressing ESC and F2. Hangs with a message about looking for the hard drive 4) Connected the hard drive, jumpered pins 2,3 to go into recovery mode, started the unit and started pressing ESC and F2. Boots up to the Welcome screen then the registration screen. 5) Connected the hard drive, removed jumper, started the unit and started pressing ESC and F2. Boots up to the Welcome screen then the registration screen. I read somewhere that using a soft reset exposes a vulnerability to get into the BIOS. I wired up the reset button and reset the unit and started pressing ESC and F2. Boots up to the welcome screen. Another thought has crossed my mind. In the post about the Linux OS there is a mention about the different partitions present on the HD. There is one partition that is 7MB in size, I'm wondering if the supposed USB dongle that is used to reflash the unit is a Pen drive most likely they would not be use using one with a large capacity > 32MB, so my reasoning is why not create a 7MB partion on the pen drive and make it bootable, copy the BIOS file and the flashing utilities? Restart and see if the unit will reflash itself. I might give it a try sometime this weekend. If someone else wants to give it a try and save me the headache of disassembling the unit it would be greatly appreciated. thanks, ChillyWilly 04-11-2003 20:40:50

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Kludgemeister Profile If the guys at TigerDirect/Wintergreen are anything like the IT guys at work, opening a computer case is the *last* thing they're going to want to do. And tearing a Dot down to get at the BIOS jumper is lightyears beyond putting in a PCI network card in a tower case. So I have a feeling that the recovery mode is not the way to get into the Dot. Chillywilly sounds reasonable about the bootable USB device needing a specific partition size or some way to let the BIOS let it boot while preventing other USB devices (floppies, CD-ROMs, etc.) booting. Kludgemeister 04-11-2003 21:42:16

RE:BIOS (modified 1 times) keith721 Profile I have a sneaking suspicion the layout of the USB device is very simply DOS-based. Intel has a general BIOS update page at http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/standardbios.htm for their iFlash program that describes this fairly well. since we know that the D810EMO board doesn't support floppy diskettes, it's probably an El Torito bootable CD image or something similar. if you can drop to DOS and perform a C:\> format g: /s on your 32 MB USB device, then place on it the files that normally go on a boot floppy, it might work. 04-11-2003 21:59:03

RE:BIOS (modified 1 times) keith721 Profile Intel's standard instructions for BIOS 'recovery mode' are at http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/standardbios.htm where they describe a boot floppy again. since we know the D810EMO board doesn't support a floppy diskette at all, this is another strike against recovery mode. finally, the Express BIOS flashing methods are only available for GUI-mode Win9x and higher systems, so I don't think that's much of an option, either. keith721 p.s. I agree 110% with Kludgemeister - - there's *NO WAY* a lazy tech who has to refurb at least 20 or 30 of these in a single day is gonna disassemble it to reset that jumper. it's just not practical, not cost-effective, and no one getting paid what refurb/assembly workers do would go through that much trouble. 04-11-2003 22:08:50

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) chillywilly Profile When I tried my attempts to boot the dot.station I formatted my pen drive in dos using format g: /s. I'm still thinking that somehow a partition size is the key. I also agree with Kludgemeister that a tech would not open the unit to set the recovery jumper if he had to flash hundreds of units. With this reasoning I also believe that they wouldn't use a pen drive greater than 16MB because all the pen drive has to hold are the dos system files, the bios files and utilities. The way it currently stands you only need a 1.44MB floppy to reflash most systems. Since it seems that the HD drive was partitioned with 7 partitions and the current bios somehow looks at one of these partitions to boot I conclude that it has to be a partition that is small enough to be loaded in a 16MB pen drive. So either I need to partion my 64MB pen drive to either a 7MB or 16MB partition, make it bootable and copy the flash utility and BIOS files to it and hopefully it will reflash the unit. Sounds promising, if I have time tonight I'll give it a try. ChillyWilly 04-12-2003 09:21:35

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) bbsux Profile Why not use a USB Hard drive adapter with the origional drive and see if it will boot. If it will remove partitions unil it won't... 04-12-2003 11:45:59

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Kludgemeister Profile ChillyWilly, What utility will let you resize partitions on a removable disk? Ranish will only do fixed disks. Do you make an appropriately-sized partition on one of your fixed disks and then clone it onto the flash disk? (You can tell I'm a newbie in this area.) Kludgemeister 04-12-2003 11:48:39

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile Ranish should let you configure as many partitions as you like on the removable device. If you only tell Ranish to partition the first X MB of the removable device, everything else should just see the boot partition as X MB. When working with the Compaq IA-1, it was necessary to format the Compact Flash cards to FAT-16 or FAT-32, I can't remember which (without looking back through all of the IA-1 forum messages ) it was, but floppy disks are actually formatted as FAT-12, which could be part of what the BIOS is looking for. looking at the 16 MB /dev/hda1 partition from my TigerDirect Debian/GNU 3.0 Linux system, the first several hundred bytes actually look like an MS-DOS 5.0 FAT-32 bootable disk, looking for NTLDR. Much farther down in the image, it references the Linux kernel files and VGA device modes. Kinda confusing, unless anyone knows why a Linux bootable partition should have a DOS FAT-32 header block??? I've been digging through the Intel BIOS download for a similar motherboard, the D810E2CB, and the bootable diskette format they use for the iFlash utility is actually 1.44 MB MS-DOS 3.3. Might be interesting to format a USB device for 1.44 MB at FAT-12, use RAWRITE.EXE to load the boot disk image to it, then replace the several BIOS files for the D810E2CB motherboard with those of the P05 BIOS for the D810EMO in the Dot.Station. Shutdown and turn-off the Dot.Station, insert the 1.44 MB formatted USB boot device, and re-apply power. If you're lucky, it'll load up the DOS 3.3 image and flash your BIOS. now, who's brave enough to try this out ?? wait, what was that guy's name that bought two of these, was it jsmmd ? ? keith721 04-12-2003 13:11:19

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) artc Profile I found this Intel Technical Product Specification for the MO810e desktop board at http://developer.intel.ru/download/design/motherbd/MO/A0065301.pdf Look at the OVERVIEW OF BIOS features on page 61 ... and Bios flash memory organization on page 62 04-12-2003 14:00:38

RE:BIOS (modified 1 times) Kludgemeister Profile keith721, When I run Ranish (2.4.0, the latest I have) the f5 key only cycles through the fixed disks on my system. The flash disk is not in the rotation order, and I haven't found a setting to include removable disks. I have the Intel P05 BIOS updater burned onto a CD as an El Torito disk image. If I can get it onto the Sandisk in a workable form, I will happily try it on Manuel. As it is, my wife's (it's only mine until it's operational...) Dot is a paperweight. Kludgemeister 04-12-2003 14:04:31

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile Kludgemeister: What OS are you using? I've recently upgraded from Win98SE to WinXP Pro, so I'm only working from vague memory, here. If you close Ranish, and open Windows File Explorer, you should see the removable device in your folders beneath My Computer. If you do, click once on My Computer so that all the devices are displayed in the right-hand window. Then, press F5 to refresh the screen. At this point, I believe you will be able to see the removable device in Ranish. If this doesn't work, you can shut down and reboot your system with the removable drive attached. Then start Ranish, and it may see the device. Apologies for my memory being rusty, but I know what you're describing, and that it was possible to get around it. let me hook up my 32 MB USB pen drive to this WinXP box, and see what Ranish says about it... keith721 04-12-2003 15:27:56

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile Man, does Ranish ever hate running under XP Pro - - it wants to create a boot diskette to run, which doesn't help much with the USB aspect of things. Really makes me wish I had Win98 running on the dot.station, right now. Let me know what happens, and maybe something will click beneath the rust spots of my memory. apologies.... keith721 04-12-2003 15:59:48

TigerDirect 003.ABAZ BIOS information (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile This information was obtained using the Unicore BIOS Wizard running under Win98SE on my TigerDirect dot.station: BIOS CAPABILITIES TEST REPORT =============================== Generated by: BIOS Wizard 2.10 Date: April 12, 2003 Time: 22:36 PnP Version : BIOS currently supports latest version 1.0 PCI Version : BIOS currently supports latest version 2.1 PCI IRQ Routing Table : BIOS currently supports this feature Enhanced Disk Drive Specification : BIOS currently supports this feature DMI Version : BIOS currently supports latest version 2.3 ACPI Version : BIOS currently supports latest version 1.0 APM Version : BIOS currently supports latest version 1.2 Booting From CD-ROM : BIOS currently supports this feature Supports ESCD : BIOS currently supports this feature Can be Updated (flashed) : BIOS currently supports this feature Can be Shadowed : BIOS currently supports this feature BIOS Chip in Socket : BIOS currently supports this feature Supports Selective Booting : BIOS currently supports this feature Supports LS-120 Booting : BIOS doesn't support this feature Supports ZIP Booting : BIOS doesn't support this feature Supports Network Booting : BIOS currently supports this feature BIOS Manufacturer : American Megatrends licensed to Intel BIOS ID : 51-2300-000000-00101111-030199- BIOS Date : 09/20/02 BIOS OEM Signon : BIOS ROM Size : 512K Chipset : Intel Whitney 82810 rev 3 Super I/O Chip : SMC LPC47B27x rev 1 found at port 2Eh 04-13-2003 08:07:08

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile okay - built a bootable DOS 6.22 diskette with UniFlash v1.30 on it, and tested the diskette in my Athlon system, before burning it to a bootable CD using Roxio EZ CD Creator. I have an IDE CD-ROM connected behind the hard disk drive in my TigerDirect.dot.station, and a USB keyboard with F2 to get into the P03 BIOS. Went to the BOOT option on the main BIOS menu, and changed it from USB CD-ROM as first boot device to IDE CD-ROM. The bootable CD worked fine, booting MS-DOS 6.22, and I can execute the UniFlash 1.30 program, but it can't correctly identify the BIOS flash ROM. It says this: Flash ROM chip: UNKNOWN Organisation: N/A (Is write protect disabled?) PCI chipset: Intel 810 Last write status: not available And, since I didn't include a CONFIG.SYS file with a LASTDRIVE=Z command, it can't access the C:\ hard disk drive to save a file of whatever it might possibly detect. Tried using the -AMI command line option to force reading the BIOS, but results were no different. Back to trying something else . . . keith721 04-13-2003 08:50:51

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Kludgemeister Profile keith721, Great progress you're making! I think that you will need to use the Intel iflash program to both back up and reflash your BIOS, though. The BIOS is a set of files, since the 82802 is programmed in individual 64k segments. *.BIO is the first file in the BIOS set, and each file in the *.BI? set includes a pointer to the next file in the set. *.BB0 is the boot block segment, *.USR is the user area segment, and *.VDO is the video BIOS segment. (A little snooping with a hex editor...) iflash looks like it has a menu to select the BIOS area you want to back up or flash. Kludgemeister 04-13-2003 13:48:03

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Kludgemeister Profile BTW, I'm running 98SE/lite (chubby) on my desktop, and try as I may I can't get Ranish to see the Sandisk. Kludgemeister 04-13-2003 13:51:49

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile Kludgemeister: Sorry, been taking care of real life for a few hours today ;^). Almost totally lost it, earlier. The BIOS continued to think the IDE CD-ROM drive was the A: drive, even when there wasn't a CD inserted. Lousy message about "Insert a bootable diskette in drive A:", and then the USB keyboard stopped responding. EEEEK!!! Unplugged it and let it sit while out taking care of the wife, dogs, cat, bird, fish, lunch, etc. Just started messing with it again, and got back to normalcy when the USB keyboard decided to let me into the BIOS again. Intel's iFlash utility was going to be my route of absolute last resort, because I wasn't too sure it could back up my existing BIOS, before flashing down the new one. If I had no way of returning to the 003.ABAZ BIOS, I could be sitting with a nearly unusable TigerDirect.dot.station. Not where I wanted to be. Most of the iFlash packages are wrapped inside of InstallShield packages with non-standard .CAB files, and the only individually available one I've got is from the D810E2C32 BIOS package, which should be close enough. What's got me concerned right now is the wrinkle of using iFlash from a DOS 6.22 bootable CD-ROM drive, while still having access to the C: hard disk drive to save the backup copies. Just can't write back to a CD-ROM drive in DOS unfortunately. So, if I burn a couple of more bootable DOS coasters in the next few hours, I may wind up getting it right, somehow. As soon as I do, everyone here will be the second to know (the wife, dogs, cat, bird, and fish obviously have immediate knowledge, as soon as I whoop and shout.) keith721 04-13-2003 14:35:36

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile okay -- made a bootable CD with the Intel iFlash V4.1 program from the D810E2Cxx BIOS package, but still can't get a DOS bootable CD-ROM to let me access the C:\ IDE hard disk drive. it doesn't even think it's there, not even as B: or D: ?!?!? at least i was able to inquire as to the iFlash program options: Intel Flash Memory Update Utility Part 643643-041 GUI-mode options: /m - Monochrome display /b - Use BIOS video calls /t - Use EGA/VGA line count /n - Do not use pointer device Command-line mode options: /h - Help (this text) /q - Quiet mode; errors only Standard options: /@ - Use override file /d - Verbose debugging output /r - Force reboot after update /f - Force CMOS defaults next POST /c - Clear ESCD (Extended System Configuration Data) next POST /p pathname - Program FLASH device with contents of 'pathname'. /v pathname - Verify current FLASH with contents of 'pathname'. /sX pathname - Save resident FLASH area to 'pathname' (or 'vvvvBIOS), . where XX = 'B'IOS, 'L'anguage, 'U'ser, or 'R'ecovery areas /x pathname - eXamine FLASH header of 'pathname'. I'm going to just copy iFlash.exe to the root of the C:\ hard drive over the network when Win98 GUI is running, and then see about rebooting into Win98 DOS and trying it. Wish me luck. :-| 04-13-2003 14:52:50

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile Nope - - restarting Win98 to MS-DOS mode renders either the original or my USB keyboard useless. What the heck should I try now, I guess making a bootable 32 MB USB pen drive ??? Kludgemeister: With Win98, make sure you have nothing but your Windows Explorer window open, set on "My Computer". Then, connect your USB CompactFlash device, and wait for it to be detected and displayed by the Windows Explorer screen. Then, open an MS-DOS window, and you should be able to browse the device from within the DOS windows, running under the Win98 GUI. Or, at least that's how I seem to remember it working. Right now, the dot.station is the only thing I've got running Win98SE, so I'll try that myself, after loading Ranish partition manager and Gemulator Explorer down to it. one way or the other, i'm determined to drive myself crazy with this thing... 04-13-2003 15:08:17

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile well - still no luck. i've tried unwrapping one of the InstallShield packages for a similar motherboard, and placing the Win32 files on my Win98SE system, but I think I've got to install a few virtual device drivers (VXD, SYS) into the SYSTEM32 directory, before it will get to the point of telling me it's the wrong BIOS. for anyone who wants to extract files from an InstallShield '.CAB' file (no, it's not a Windows Cabinet file) do a Google search for the programs I5COMP and I6COMP. These BIOS CAB files are circa 1999/2000, so I5COMP worked to list and extract them. Later CAB files will probably require I6COMP to do the same thing. Many thanks to the Linux and Windoze hackers who developed these programs so that folks can load BIOS settings under Linux. found an extracted copy of the 003.ABAZ BIOS on the Spanish board, but it's in a single 512 KB file, and appears to be a mixture of D810EMO and CA810 portions of the BIOS. I suspect 'vood' (his user name on the Spanish board) forced the loading of various BIOS portions, because I saw the text CA810 in the trailing signature near the end of the file. the way this is going, i'm about ready to dump Win98SE for a few weeks, build my own Mandrake hard disk on the Frankenstein version of the TigerDirect.dot.station, and see about trying the Linux BIOS flashing programs to make a backup copy of the ABAZ.003 BIOS, and flashing the P05 BIOS. Later, everyone . . . keith721 04-13-2003 19:09:33

Recovery BIOS (modified 0 times) Anacleto Profile Hi friends Look at this http://www.recoverybios.com/default.html Good luck 04-15-2003 06:01:06

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) chillywilly Profile Hello everyone, Someone called VooD in the Spanish forum has supposedly copied the original Dot.Station bios. He also mentions that when he compared the file to the official P04 BIOS that they were not the same size 384kb (p04) 512kb (original), he then copied the missing information from the original and copied it to the p04 thus creating a modified P04. His last post was on 4/13/2003 so I don't know if he has tried flashing it on the chip. Here is the link to the post, I know some spanish so this links to the thread in Spanish. http://www.el-muelle.net/foros/showthread.php?s=&postid=49594&t=732#post49594 Later, ChillyWilly p.s. Last night I tried connecting another hard drive to the dot.bob along with a bootable USB pen drive and I got the following message "INT DISABLED". I'm not sure if my USB pen drive is actually bootable because when I try it on a machine that allows booting from a USB device I still boot up to the hard drive. My pen drive came with a utility that supposedly makes it bootable and upon verification I see that the system files are copied and when I run FDISK I see that the partion has been made active. I've looked for information about making my boot drive bootable and it seems that this process is flaky. So if anyone has had success creating a bootable pen drive. See if you can boot your dot.bob. 04-16-2003 09:10:15

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile well, here's a thought: the 003.ABAZ bios allows booting from a USB CD-ROM drive or a USB Floppy. how about formatting the USB pen drive to resemble an El Torito bootable CD-ROM (which actually emulates a floppy)? a USB drive would only need to be large enough to hold the 1.44 MB floppy image of the General Software DOS-ROM, the iFlash executable program, the BIOS code files, and an AUTOEXEC.BAT to run it. y'know, i *hate* sitting here at work, thinking about how many hours it's going to be before i can get home to try out any of this stuff. keith721 04-16-2003 09:29:52

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) chillywilly Profile Keith721, I tried last night to boot from a USB Floppy (using dos), it didn't work. The 003.ABAZ bios probably does support booting from a USB-CDROM or USB-Floppy but if this function is turned off it would never boot from either of them. Here is another thought. I'm no Linux guru so I don't know if this is feasible, reading some of the threads on the Spanish forum someone mentioned that it seems that the bios is looking for a version of Linux with a 2.2.15 kernel or lower. I've read that there is a flavor of linux that can be installed on a floppy disk, how about setting this linux on a pen drive or possibly a floppy to use with an usb-floppy and try to boot with this? Later, ChillyWilly 04-16-2003 10:59:09

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile yeah, the TiVo hackers use something called "Dylan's Boot Disk" or DBD for short, to boot a desktop PC into a minimal Linux config. the limitation is that it's built with byte-swapping enabled for every hard disk device except the primary master IDE hard disk, /dev/hda. in the case of the dot.station, that should be perfect, since there is only *one* hard disk drive, and it is, in fact the primary master IDE hard disk. you can download the floppy image of DBD from http://pvrhack.sonnik.com/tivo/dylans.asp give it a shot, and let us know if it boots !! 04-16-2003 13:27:56

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Hugatre Profile | Email It doesnt, tried it a few days ago. 04-16-2003 13:31:25

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Randomluck Profile | Email Is there a Intel version to Phoenix Technologies EZBios? 04-16-2003 13:41:58

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile Has anyone been able to backup the dot.bob/dot.bob2 bios? 04-16-2003 17:30:54

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile fyi, I was talking to bob via email last night and he said "thats one of the companys im dealing with so maby we will get lucky and they will come back with a great price for doing so thank you thow Bob" (referring to Wintergreen), this was in a discussion about him trying to unlock the bios, and how to make the machines usable. 04-18-2003 08:11:34

RE:BIOS (modified 1 times) Kludgemeister Profile The BIOS on the retail D810EMO motherboard I just bought (it's designated BOXD810EMO) is MO81010A.86A.0008.P04 (the character after the M is letter "o") Until I hardwire an "esc" key on the dot keyboard, I can't navigate the setup menus to make any meaningful setting changes. I did manage to turn off the spash screen, though There are no BIOS utilities on the accompanying cdrom. The PDF user's manual (A06264-001, Jan. 2000) is substantially the same as the D810EMO manual already online, and says "You can obtain the BIOS upgrade file through your computer supplier or from the Intel World Wide Web site: http://support.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/" Kludgemeister 04-18-2003 23:03:24

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Kludgemeister Profile Well, doh, I just arrow back up to the top of the BIOS setup page I'm on and arrow sideways...no esc key required (it's been a long week...) There is indeed no boot menu choice for booting off a USB floppy. Kludgemeister 04-18-2003 23:13:03

RE:BIOS (reply to keith721) (modified 0 times) VooD Profile The Bios I posted on the spanish board, is a perfect copy of my free DotStation using the Ami Flasher, It´s a single 512kb file, as that (raw format) is the standart format of almost every flasher (including AMI ones) except that ####ty intel flasher. The ABAZ bios I extracted is unmodified, and you can even edit the modules and a lot of things using the Ami BIOS editor, that also confirms me the BIOS is correctly dumped. About the "CA810" text string, that string appears even in the official p04 and p05 updates, every d810emo bios has that string, so I suspect both boards are compatible. The single file p04 bios I posted was done just for compare it with the ABAZ and testing I had done the dump with no errors, that P04 bios was done using the official bios intel files as they spread the 512 file in varios files in this order (look at the d810emo intel docs): - 128 kb with no data (this space is used in a running d810emo just for backup others part of the bios, but just in case I used the first 128kb of my ABAZ dump (FF FF FF FF...) - *.BIO - *.BI1 - *.BI2 - *.BI3 - *.BI4 - *.BBO (every file has a 160 header used by the intel flasher to identify them, so have to be removed) Even tought, I don´t recommend this BIOS as you can´t boot from USB devices, so If you want to try, or back to the ABAZ bios, just use the Ami Flasher and my ABAZ bios. On the other hand "scaner" asked me to made the inverse proccess so he could back to ABAZ bios from Windows XP (ami flasher doesn´t works in XP),so I divided the 512kb ABAZ file in various intel flasher files using adding the 160bytes header. You can find that version here http://www.el-muelle.net/foros/attachment.php?s=&postid=49820 The flasher, both bios, and Ami bios editor can be downloaded here http://www.el-muelle.net/foros/attachment.php?s=&postid=49783 , just select devId 2420 and the only "part list" By the way, tribadelics have managed to extract the "capped" dotstation Bios from its Dotstation...it´s funny to see it´s not Ami and that there are a lot of text string referring to network booting and PXE, you can download it there to examine http://www.el-muelle.net/foros/attachment.php?s=&postid=51531 And I repeat my ABAZ bios dump IS NOT "a mixture of D810EMO and CA810 portions of the BIOS", and have´nt be "forced the loading of various BIOS portions" IS A 100% PERFECT DUMP USING THE AMI BIOS FLASHER CONFIGURED WITH THE CORRECT CHIPSET AND FLASHROM. p.d.: excuse my english...but software translators do the translation even worst. 04-19-2003 07:06:43

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile VooD, I just want to make sure I understand correctly. Is the bios file from tribadelics, the original bios, from the original machines? 04-19-2003 10:01:09

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Kludgemeister Profile VooD, Thank you for your work! And thank you for the ABAZ BIOS. I did not realize that the normal AMI utilities would work with the 82802AB chip. Has anyone loaded the P05 BIOS? If so, did it restore the USB booting? Kludgemeister 04-19-2003 10:39:31

RE:BIOS (modified 3 times) VooD Profile To jsmmd: Yes he have a capped Dotstation, desolded the 82802AB chip and made a backup of the data. To Kludgemeister: not every Ami Bios flasher support that chip, I had luck as I found a kind of "universal" ami flasher with a lot of modules in order to made it compatible with differents chipsets and eeproms, I deleted the non-compatible modules from the flasher to made it a bit more easy to work (if you can just select one chip you can´t made a mistake lol). P05 and P04 bios doesn´t allows USB booting, if you flashed your "free" dotstation with one of these bios and want usb booting again, you´ll have to flash ABAZ bios back again. 04-19-2003 12:01:35

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile VooD: Your English is better than any translator, and much better than my Spanish. Congratulations on your success extracting the various BIOS codes. Gracias, amigo !! 04-19-2003 13:25:39

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) VooD Profile Thanx keith721 :P BTW I have just noticed both bios (p04 and p05) are a lot older than the ABAZ version. This could explain why they have not usb cd boot support. So there is no excuse to "update" to p05 or p04 if you have a working Dotstation with ABAZ bios, as you´ll lose the usb boot and in fact you´ll be downgrading your bios. P04: 04/17/00 P05: 10/11/00 ABAZ: 09/20/02 04-19-2003 13:44:22

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile Anyone know of a way to analyze the original bios to reverse engineer a dongle? or idenitfy other explotable ways to re-flash it? 04-19-2003 14:26:43

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile VooD: The 003.ABAZ bios did not recognize my 800 MHz Celeron as 100 MHz Front Side Bus (FSB), instead it recognized CPU as 533 MHz ( 8x multiplier, 66 MHz FSB ). What BIOS code does SubastasPC use to run 1.2 GHz Celeron in the Dot.Station? keith721 04-19-2003 14:28:15

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile jsmmd: Stop posting at the same time I do !! It appears the AOL Avant 'locked-down' BIOS is searching for an initrd.img or vmlinuz image of Linux, but this may be only the network download code using Trivial FTP for PXE booting. keith721 04-19-2003 14:38:12

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) VooD Profile keith721 Nobody knows the Bios that 1.1ghz Dotstation use, mainly coz NOBODY on the forum managed to receive one from SubastasPC til today. Today a guy wrote in the board that he have a 1.1ghz and wanted to update to 1.4ghz, so I have asked to backup his Bios using the Ami Flasher. The only problem is that he uses WindowsXP SP1, and Ami flasher refuses to work in that OS. I sugested him to use a MSDOS boot cd with the flasher, but there still a problem, latest MSDOS can´t read or write NTFS (we need to write the bios to the hd :P ) and I don´t know if his hardisk is formatted with NTFS or FAT32. To sum up..if the guy: - Want to collaborate - Has a FAT32 HD, and - Has the skill neccesary to dump (I hope so..it´s really easy :P ) We´ll have a working dump of the 1.1ghz bios soon. On the other hand, as I wrote in my previous post, I think CA810e and D810EMO could be compatible, so maybe flashing a newer CA810e BIOS on the D810EMO could solve the CPU upgrade problems. Also, we could try to extract the CPU microcode module from that CA810e newer bios, and insert it on the ABAZ. 04-19-2003 15:03:21

RE:BIOS (modified 3 times) VooD Profile keith721 I managed to boot my free Dotstation using network booting (PXE, TFTP). If the capped Dotstation is looking for a kernel file on the net, that mean it could load any renamed kernel to vmlinuz (i.e. I use a 3com network boot image menu). If you don´t know how to setup a server for network booting I posted instructions on the spanish forum (I also posted pictures, but for some weird reason they are only displayed if you cut and paste their urls on a new windows :P) http://www.el-muelle.net/foros/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3007 You just have to test if the capped dotstation makes any bootp dhcp petition (install a single program in the server, BooTP Desktop) 04-19-2003 15:17:06

RE:BIOS (modified 1 times) keith721 Profile VooD: Thank you!! I have successfully backed up my 003.ABAZ bios using AMIFL822, and now feel secure to flash the CA810 or D810E2C3 bios code into my Dot.Station. I have followed the el-muelle forum regarding TFTP / BOOTP / DHCP, and may consider testing this option. Now, I want to get my 1.3 GHz Celeron chip working at 100 or 133 MHz FSB keith721 04-19-2003 15:39:34

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) VooD Profile 1.3 ghz ???. I´m sorry, but the theorical limit on D810EMO board with no add-ons is 1.1ghz, as celeron 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 are Tualatin FCPGA2 and you´ll need to use a FCPGA to FCPGA2 adaptor like this http://www.upgradeware.com/english/product/370gu/370gu.htm and a compatible BIOS If you have a capped DotStation, try BootP Desktop, and see if the DotStation ask for a IP :) Good luck 04-19-2003 16:03:48

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile I have a PowerLeap Neo-S370 PGA-to-FCPGA socket adapter, but had no success. I will check the PowerLeap web site at http://www.powerleap.com for additional information. 04-19-2003 16:20:25

RE:BIOS (modified 1 times) VooD Profile You need a tualatin compatible adaptor as the previous I told you or this one http://www.powerleap.com/Products/370T.htm Btw told us when you flash to a ca810 bios. 04-19-2003 16:28:01

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile PowerLeap only sells the PL-370/T socket adapter with a CPU included, to improve their profit. I have asked them via e-mail if they will sell only the socket adapter with no CPU. I will wait until next week for their reply. Until then, I will continue with the 500 MHz Celeron PPGA CPU. No time to flash the CA810 bios tonight, will attempt it on Sunday. Buonas noches, keith721 04-19-2003 17:02:16

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) VooD Profile Try the Upgradeware adapter http://www.upgradeware.com/english/product/370gu/370gu.htm http://www.jes-computer.de/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=12074&language=en&osCsid=38c7729efe8ce4478937d5516dc1533f They sell it without CPU (just 25 €) 04-19-2003 18:17:30

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile VooD According to Intel, there's a USB dongle at allows "access" to then re-flash the bios. Do you think it's possible to identify in the bios what it is looking for on the dongle? 04-19-2003 18:53:51

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) VooD Profile As I wrote in a previous post, I extracted the ABAZ bios from my uncapped dotstation using an AMI flasher (the links are in that post), and the "capped" Bios was extracted by Tribadelics on the spanish forum desolding it from the motherboard. ABAZ bios is pretty similar to p04 and p05, but "capped" bios is absolutly different, you can recognize some bank structure as in the others but isn´t an AMI bios or AWARD...it´s really strange. An interesting thing about the capped bios is the fact there is several text strings referring to PXE and TFTP booting. Want to try? :P p.d.: of course all bios are in ASM :P and AMI bios uses data compression in some modules. 04-19-2003 19:56:30

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) VooD Profile I was reading this web http://www.ops.dti.ne.jp/~n-yagi/pc/drep3s/drep3s_e.htm and I learn a bit how the bios micro code module works, so I´ve extracted the micro code module from the ABAZ bios and found what CPUID´s has. As I could see, ABAZ´s micro codes supports the following CPUIDs: 0666, 0681, and 0683. If you look at these urls : http://www.qdi.nl/support/CPUSspecCeleron.htm http://www.qdi.nl/support/CPUSspecP3.htm You´ll find ABAZ bios should work with all this CPU´s 0665 Celeron Mendoncino 300-533 0681 SL3VM 733 MHz cA2 0681 SL3T4 733 MHz cA2 0681 SL3VK 667 MHz cA2 0681 SL3T2 667 MHz cA2 0681 SL3VG 600EB Mhz cA2 0681 SL3VB 600EB Mhz cA2 0681 SL3VF 533EB Mhz cA2 0681 SL3VA 533EB Mhz cA2 0681 SL3VN 750 Mhz cA2 0681 SL3VC 750 Mhz cA2 0681 SL3VL 700 Mhz cA2 0681 SL3T3 700 Mhz cA2 0681 SL3VJ 650 Mhz cA2 0681 SL3NM 650 Mhz cA2 0681 SL3VH 600E Mhz cA2 0681 SL3NL 600E Mhz cA2 0681 SL3R3 550E Mhz cA2 0681 SL3QA 550E Mhz cA2 0681 SL3R2 500E Mhz cA2 0681 SL3Q9 500E Mhz cA2 0683 SL49J 933 MHz cB0 0683 SL44J 933 MHz cB0 0683 SL49H 866 MHz cB0 0683 SL43J 866 MHz cB0 0683 SL464 800EB MHz cB0 0683 SL3Y2 800EB MHz cB0 0683 SL45Z 733 MHz cB0 0683 SL3XY 733 MHz cB0 0683 SL45X 667 MHz cB0 0683 SL3XW 667 MHz cB0 0683 SL45V 600EB MHz cB0 0683 SL3XT 600EB MHz cB0 0683 SL45S 533EB MHz cB0 0683 SL3XS 533EB MHz cB0 0683 SL49G 850 MHz cB0 0683 SL43H 850 MHz cB0 0683 SL463 800 MHz cB0 0683 SL3Y3 800 MHz cB0 0683 SL462 750 MHz cB0 0683 SL3XZ 750 MHz cB0 0683 SL45Y 700 MHz cB0 0683 SL3XX 700 MHz cB0 0683 SL45W 650 MHz cB0 0683 SL3XV 650 MHz cB0 0683 SL45U 600E MHz cB0 0683 SL3XU 600E MHz cB0 0683 SL45T 550E MHz cB0 0683 SL44G 550E MHz cB0 0683 SL45R 500E MHz cB0 0683 SL446 500E MHz cB0 This is a bit strange as I could´nt find the CPUID´s 0686 and 068A (the id´s of celeron 733 cpus) on the micro code module, and they had to be there coz SubastasPC sells 733mhz (and better) Dotstations. So...there could be two possibilites: 1.- this bios uses magic to make work cpu´s without its micro codes 2-. this is the confirmation there are differents BIOS for 733mhz and better dotstation models whitch includes new CPUID´s in their micro code module. (I´ll test this as soon I receive my 733 Dotstation) Well, this is all (by now) p.d.: ABAZ´s microcode module is 100% exact to the ones from p04 and p05 bios (byte by byte), so that could explain why all those bios work always with the same cpu´s and doesn´t allow better ones. (again sorry my "fast translation" english lol) 04-19-2003 20:08:14

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile I wiped out my HD, and I'd like to get that back first. I'll set up a PXE, TFTP server and see what I can make happen. I also have packet sniffing software installed so I can capture the packets the dot.station sends out. I will try anything I possibly can. 04-19-2003 20:08:37

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile It would appear that for my machine, I either need the original HDD attached / operational to make it past the searching for drive, or my machine just won't dhcp. 04-20-2003 09:35:08

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile jsmmd: sorry to hear about your dot.bOB station. the dd copy of your previous backup didn't help? VooD: Usted está loco, aunque de una buena manera. Thank you for your research, url links, and detailed description of the CPU microcode recognition in the BIOS. You have taught me something new and very useful!! I was not able to load the CA810 BIOS yesterday, but have removed the 160 byte header from each of the BIOS boot block and binary code files. The ABAZ bios code extracted as 512 KB, but the CA810 bios files together equal only 384 KB. Which blocks of the D810EMO bios should I combine with the CA810 bios files to make 512 KB? Or, should I include blocks full of hex FF or 00 values? everyone: I particularly like the international Intel logo displayed by the locked-down Avant AOL bios at boot-up. We should be able to extract this display with a hex editor or the AMIFLASH program, and replace the "Intel Desktop Board" screen, as described on this web page: http://home.earthlink.net/~billselk/al440lx/bitmaps.html keith721 (almost recovered from the cold virus!) 04-21-2003 06:13:13

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) VooD Profile I hope you are joining the 64kb blocks using the order i posted , right? Then you have to extract the first 128kb from the abaz bios and add that before the others 384kb. (I think you just could use 128 kb of FF FF) Before join all the files look if they are 65536 bytes long, and before flashing test the "home made" bios with the ami bios editor so you can confirm is right (btw don´t modify anything with the bios editor I read somewhere that if you use the graphical mode could corrupt your bios but im not sure) 04-21-2003 10:54:49

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile Everyone: PowerLeap e-mailed a technical support response this morning. I have special ordered their PL-370/T socket *without* a CPU included, for $59. This should support the FC-PGA2 Tualatin on the D810EMO motherboard. Now, a little more tweaking in the BIOS (thank you, VooD) so that it recognizes the chip, and it's on to hacking the case and second IDE channel for the slimline CD-ROM drive. As soon as that's done and the new front bezel/lens arrives from Wintergreen, I'll have to decide whether to leave Win98SE or Mandrake Linux 9.1 in the dot.Tiger station. Knowing the instability issues with Win9x, I'm leaning heavily to the Linux side. Of course, for the Linux enthusiasts out there, the Debian (unstable) kernel may be an alternative option. Kludgemeister: Making any progress with your: - BIOS replacement effort - CD-ROM installation - on-board VGA socket replacement keith721 04-21-2003 11:00:19

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) VooD Profile keith721: Be absolutely sure you wont manage to run a tualatin cpu on your dotstation without a proper update of the micro codes stored on the bios. I think this is a bit risking, but maybe you could find help if you ask the guy who wrote this web (the one gave me the clue to find what cpus will work with the Abaz bios) http://www.ops.dti.ne.jp/~n-yagi/pc/drep3s/drep3s_e.htm In the other way, you could try to ask Powerleap for an update since I think they distribute "special" bios for severals boards in order to make them compatibles with their tualatin updates. Cya 04-21-2003 13:18:53

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) VooD Profile keith721: Just remembered SubastasPC is selling 1.4 ghz Dotstations, so when someone buy one and contact us in the spanish forum we´ll tell him to dump its bios :) btw (in a couple of days we probably have the 733 bios) Byez 04-21-2003 14:05:10

RE:BIOS (modified 1 times) keith721 Profile VooD: Thank you for your suggestions. If hacking the ABAZ BIOS is unsuccessful, I will refer to the FreeBIOS (http://freebios.sourceforge.net/) or LinuxBIOS (http://www.linuxbios.org/index.html) projects. All of the Intel technical reference documents for the D810EMO motherboard and the 82810E chipset state that 66/100/133 MHz are all valid FSB speeds, since the chipset manages the SDRAM clock at 100 MHz, independently from the CPU's FSB clock. If the BIOS initialization code for the FSB clock and multiplier values are as clearly evident as the CPU microcode identifiers in the BIOS, it shouldn't take too long to identify the hacks. At what hex address did you locate the CPU microcode? The CA810 bios code includes the BIOS Boot Block, or 64K .BBO file, the first 64K BIOS code block, .BIO, and four additional 64K BIOS code blocks, for a total of 384 KB. I will compare the start bytes of the CA810 bios code with the corresponding areas of the 512 K ABAZ bios image, to determine how it should fit. For the worst case, I can use the hex editor to create the remaining 128K necessary. The D810EMO Technical Product Specification shows the BIOS Boot Block in segment 7, and the five BIOS Code Blocks in Segments 6 through 2. Segment 1 is a Fault Tolerance Block with two 8K Parameter Blocks and 48 K Reserved. Segment 0 is labeled Backup; This should be an identical copy of Segment 1. Wish me luck . . . keith721 04-21-2003 14:08:48

RE:BIOS (modified 2 times) VooD Profile The info about the microcodes module structure and where the CPUID is can be found in the url I wrote in my previous post. Also you can save time avoiding to join all the BI* files testing if a bios has the cpuid you need (06B4 or 06B1) just by looking with an hex editor inside the *.BI1 files of that bios(the microcode module is uncompressed). (i.e. the microcode module of p04 d810emo bios starts about the offset 67f8 on P04-0008.BI1 file) Every code for a CPUID starts with something like that "01 00 00 00 11 00 00 00 99 19 21 09 81 06 00 00 8D...." and in this string the CPUID are the 13th and 14th bytes : 81 06 . Then just reverse the order and...voilá you´ll know one of the various CPUID that the bios you are analyzing has: 0681 (every string differs, but just look for a 01 and a few 00´s and then in 13-14 position you´ll find the CPUID) Hope it helps. Cya p.d.: maybe you should use an ca810e bios rather than the ca810 (same chipset that d810emo) 04-21-2003 15:17:22

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) VooD Profile update...it seems the micro code modules positions difers on every bios (at least in ca810e isn´t in BI1 file but in BI4). So search on every file. 04-21-2003 15:26:30

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) VooD Profile another update: I found that ca810e p08 bios supports in addition to the abaz cpuids this others: 0686: several celeron coppermine models (850 MHz is the max) several pentium 3 coppermine (up 1ghz) 068A: more 1ghz pentium 3 chips more celeron coppermine chips, including 1.1ghz model (the top of coppermines celerons) (So this probably the BIOS that 1.1ghz SubastasPC DotStations uses, but still useless for 1.4ghz Tualatins cpu´s) 04-21-2003 15:39:08

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile VooD: My 1.3 GHz Tualatin Celeron is product code SL5ZJ, and the Intel specs for it are on this URL: http://processorfinder.intel.com/scripts/details.asp?sSpec=SL5ZJ&ProcFam=49&PkgType=ALL&SysBusSpd=ALL&CorSpd=ALL This shows that the internal identifier is 06B1, with 100 FSB and 13x Multiplier. The PowerLeap PL-370/T socket adapter should supply the 1.5V core voltage. I will search the CA810E BIOS for identifiers and microcode as you suggested. Thank you!! keith721 04-21-2003 16:31:47

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) VooD Profile I searched lastest ca810e bios, and nothing...the support ends at celeron 1.1ghz coppermine. Try the other "possible compatible" board bios you told. If no official bios has that microcode, you´ll then have to wait someone to dump the subastaspc 1.4ghz dotstation bios, or start hacking (addinh) microcodes. 04-21-2003 16:51:48

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) VooD Profile argg...another update (lol) I searched D810E2CA3 p09 bios (the last one) and the cpuids are the same that in the last ca810e: 0665, 0681, 0683, 0686, and 068A...so it´s time to start hacking (or at least ask the guy who explains microcode hacking in his web)(or...wait for someone to dump the 1.4ghz Dotstation bios from subastaspc) Cya. 04-21-2003 17:02:22

RE:BIOS (modified 1 times) keith721 Profile well, that's hacking ;^| i'll inquire with wild pencil and codeman if they are aware of which board's BIOS contains the necessary code. i suspect the later Intel 8xx series boards are the place to look. (codeman started this message board, and wild pencil did much of the I-Opener BIOS hacking.) keith721 04-21-2003 18:42:38

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Kludgemeister Profile keith721, The BOXD810EMO BIOS is socketed, I removed the back-panel audio in and out connectors, added the header for the audio ribbon cable up to the modem, and removed the VGA socket. Arrgh, DigiKey is back-ordered on the straight-up DB15HD female sockets until first week of May or so. So I am removing the socket from the Dot motherboard to transplant to the BOXD810EMO. Maybe tomorrow (I'm also in the middle of putting a P100 motherboard in an old "lunchbox" luggable PC) I am working on the "jumper cable" too. The PLCC chip pins have the same spacing as an IDE cable, so that is convenient. Kludgemeister 04-22-2003 00:36:21

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Kludgemeister Profile Oh, and I did buy-it-now a 24X CD-ROM from eBay and order the adapter from idot. K 04-22-2003 01:14:29

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile Kludgemeister: Nice to hear that the retail boxed motherboard has a socketed BIOS. Not terribly surprising, since it was intended for end-users. I'm sure they cut every last expense possible when OEM-building the boards for the dot.stations, and not just the EEPROM socket I went back to Essential Computers for the adapter, before the iDot price got posted. They were so quick to ship my order for the CD-ROM drive (same day I called) that it arrived two days after I called. I only wish they had suggested the adapter at the same time I ordered the drive, so I could have saved $$ on the shipping. Oh, well... I was going to suggest a trip to RatShack for the VGA connector, but you've already done the better hack, re-using the old one from your OEM board. I was reading several pages about the 810/815/820 chipsets last night, and several of them remarked that the only additional silicon on the EEPROM chip is the random number generator. Not much of a significant addition to manufacture such a proprietary part. keith721 04-22-2003 06:23:56

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) Kludgemeister Profile keith721, What I meant was that I installed a BIOS socket yesterday noon (sorry about the passive voice--I try to avoid it like the plague but that slipped by me!) The BIOS came soldered to the board, just like the Dot's. Speaking of silicon, the BOXD810EMO has a couple of synchronous RAM chips that the Dot doesn't (the two SO-package chips near the CMOS battery.) I can't tell from the datasheet, but I think they might be external cache. Kludgemeister 04-22-2003 11:57:36

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile everyone: on suggestion from VooD, and after seeing a link on another page, i searched PowerLeap's web site for a modified BIOS. the bad news is, there is nothing there for an i810 chipset/motherboard. the good news is, there is one BIOS for the VC820 chipset/motherboard, and several different BIOS for 440BX (pre-810) motherboards. i will email PowerLeap to ask if they have any resources or suggestions available for tweaking the D810EMO BIOS for the Tualatin Celeron processors. wish me luck... found another directory beneath PowerLeap's BIOS page: http://www.powerleap.com/bios/MicroCode/Tualatin%20IBM/ off to play and dig and hack and tweak and . . . keith721 04-22-2003 14:05:30

RE:BIOS (modified 1 times) VooD Profile I was looking for some bios modding info and found this web that talked about Award Bios modding, and...THERE IS WHAT IT SEEMS TO BE A MICROCODE FILE EDITOR!!!, also lets you to know what cpuids has a certain microcode file without hex editing, just by extracting the module with the ami editor (or amimm.exe) and using that program. Heres is the output of the ABAZ micocode module (notice you can see the last time the module was updated): Microcode utility ctmc V1.0, c't/Andreas Stiller 02/2001 Filename Version UpdateID Date CPUID Checksum LoadVers Platform MICRO.BIN 00000001 00000003 05.05.1999 00000665 2B9733F1 00000001 00000010 MICRO.BIN 00000001 00000011 21.09.1999 00000681 FC16538D 00000001 00000010 MICRO.BIN 00000001 00000010 10.01.2000 00000683 AA8ED88C 00000001 00000010 Look this web, talks about Awards bios, but I think microcodes are pretty similar and may work. http://www.froggy.com.au/frogge/pepper/bmreport1.html Just use AMImm or the ami editor instead cbrom. 04-22-2003 17:07:13

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) VooD Profile I followed reading the web and....I THINK ITS PRETTY PROBABLE WE COULD UPDATE THE MICROCODES!!!!, and it seems very easy. :) It seems all that you have to do for support better cpu´s (including those tualatins) is search for better microcode files inside another intel bios (im not sure if any other motherboard manufacturer could work), then extract the microcodes (its really easy, don´t have to hexedit or joining the *.bi* files, ctmc makes the work automatically), now when you have all the microcodes you´ll need in a folder just join them by "copy /b micro1+micro2+micro3..." in a file equal or smaller than the original microcode file. Now you have to delete the old microcode file in the ABAZ bios (for example) and insert the new one; amimm.exe {BIOSfile} /D 11 amimm.exe {BIOSfile} /I {modfied MicroCodes file} 11 /U and finally use the ami flasher to flash :P :) Let me know if it works. 04-22-2003 17:25:05

RE:BIOS (modified 1 times) VooD Profile Yeah...(baby)..yeah I have just extracted the microcodes using that app from amy Asus P2B board bios and compared the 0665 CPUID microcode extracted from the ABAZ with the one from the P2B........ THE ARE THE SAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, so you probably could use any microcode extracted from a motherboard with intel chipset :) I think we´ll start to see 1.4 Tualatin Dotstations veeeeeeeeeery soon :) Good Luck 04-22-2003 17:31:20

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile VooD: You are THE MAN !! If you check the PowerLeap link I posted above, there is a file named 06B1 that can be downloaded as 06B1.BIN, and is the microcode for the 1.3 GHz 13x 100MHz FSB Tualatin Celeron chip. Is it possible for you to include that file as well as your 0665 microcode in your BIOS tweaking? I will gladly download and test any changes you prepare!! Thank you!! keith721 04-22-2003 17:51:49

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) VooD Profile Hi Keith, I´ve been working a bit about the news I posted and...voilá..here´s an ABAZ bios with EVERY cpuid: - 0665 - 0681 - 0683 - 0686 - 068A - 06B1 - 06B4 Translated it means: IT SHOULD RUN ABSOLUTLY EVERY INTEL PGA, FCPGA OR FCPGA2 CPU. - Celeron 300-1400 (including tualatins :P ) - Pentium III 450-1400 (also including tualatins :PP ) You can download the bios here: http://www.el-muelle.net/foros/attachment.php?s=&postid=56469 btw, simply join every microcode won´t (as that web said in the Award bios), cause the AMI microcode module has a final eight 00 bytes string, so I added to the updated microcode module. Also the microcode file you suggest me wasn´t recognized by ctmc as a valid file, so I used one extracted from a newer intel board. Finally every microcode was extracted from intel boards, except for 06B4 (lastest tualatins) that was extracted from an Asus board with intel chipset. Before trying to flash this Bios I suggest you to flash your dotstation with the standart abaz to test if the flasher works fine, and then go to flash the updated ABAZ. Always remeber to flash from pure msdos. hope it works :P Cya 04-23-2003 07:12:07

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) VooD Profile In the bios file I posted I followed the guy from http://www.ops.dti.ne.jp/~n-yagi/pc/drep3s/drep3s_e.htm instructions: first delete the module from the bios, and then insert. But I have also just replaced the module and heres the alternative bios: http://www.el-muelle.net/foros/attachment.php?s=&postid=56475 04-23-2003 07:19:06

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile VooD: I'm at work right now, but will *definitely* try this out at home, tonight. I'm still waiting on my PowerLeap socket adapter, but this will allow me to verify the BIOS works with all three of my Celerons, PPGA 300, PPGA 500, FC-PGA 800. keith721 04-23-2003 08:24:58

RE:BIOS (modified 1 times) VooD Profile Ok. Be sure you have a trustworthy way to recover the bios if a bad flash happens or the bios doesn´t work. Flashing a bios is always a risky proccess and in this case is even riskier (we know the ami flasher work for dumping,it should work however but nobody tryed yet to flash, and also the modified bios could not to work) So I repeat: 1.- Use pure msdos 2.- First Flash the unmodified ABAZ bios (or one of the officials bios and then back to the abaz) 3.- Finally try the updated Abaz bios. Good luck. 04-23-2003 09:49:36

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) VooD Profile As far I understand the recovery mode for the d810emo works if you make a bootable cd with the files of an official iflash intel update, and set the bios jumper in the board on recovery mode. Also notice that the cdrom drive have to be an IDE drive. 04-23-2003 10:05:37

RE:BIOS (modified 1 times) VooD Profile VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE: I think I made a mistake in those last bios files, the problem was the strange bank structure of the d810emo board. If you look at the bios specs you´ll find that the first 128 kbytes are used for backup purposes once the computer is running and must not be used to insert "real" bios code...well, it´s seem amimm and amibcp didn´t know that thing and reported I have more than 128kb of free space to include microcodes so when I inserted the module amimm choosed to place it in those first 128kb...and probably the bios was broken. To solve this problem I ´ve forced both programs to use only the real bios space and found a new problem...there was not enought space for every microcode, so I had to delete one. I choosed the 0681, check the list on the others post to see what cpus this affects to. If the Bios finally works I´ll made a "celeron only" and "pentium only" bios, so everybody could use every cpu. Here´s the correct bios file: http://www.el-muelle.net/foros/attachment.php?s=&postid=56606 And sorry for the mistake. 04-23-2003 11:35:03

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) VooD Profile Here is the same bios with the microcode module inserted with the replace option (another microcode have to be cutted to fit..06b4 and 0681 are out). I think this is the safest bios (keeps the same module structure that the original abaz uses), but the previous one also should work. Here´s the file: http://www.el-muelle.net/foros/attachment.php?s=&postid=56618 04-23-2003 12:15:05

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) keith721 Profile VooD previously posted: And sorry for the mistake. VooD: There is no need to apologize. You have done so very much research and testing to analyze and solve the BIOS problem, and enable new abilities. At every step, you have shared freely what you learned, and offered the results to us for testing. For your generosity and courtesy, I am truly thankful. I am certain all the other users of the el-muelle forum appreciate your great work, as well. Congratulations on all your efforts!! keith721 04-23-2003 12:43:33

RE:BIOS (modified 0 times) jsmmd Profile This thread will be closed due to its length. Please continue posting in: BIOS (Part II) http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowPost&Board=idot&Post=38 04-23-2003 13:13:45

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