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The CDROM Bootable BIOS (SmartBootManager ROM)
CDROM Booting via BIOS

New MessageThe CDROM Bootable BIOS (SmartBootManager ROM) (modified 0 times) Wild_Pencil
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Sorry to keep you all waiting.. you know how it is if you've ever been a consultant.

Anyways.. finally got around to slapping together an Alpha-Test version of a BIOS that uses Smart BootManager. It's functional, but considered "Alpha" because this ROM doesn't let Smart BootManager populate the pop-up windows. (I must've missed loading the SBM Theme Data in my ROM Wrapper. I will fix it when I find more time. Probably in a week or two.) It's usable, but the blank popups are annoying in its present state.

You can boot from a CD if you hit <enter> a few times, ignoring the funky "blank" popup windows.

This BIOS is available on f r e e d r i v e .

-WP

11-22-2000 21:18:27

New MessageRE:The CDROM Bootable BIOS (SmartBootManager ROM) (modified 0 times) Programmer
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any chance you could figure out why the bios only initialises 128Mbit chips? I have 3 sodimms(128Mb) populated with 4x256Mbit chips and it gives me only 64Mb
11-22-2000 22:23:18

New MessageRE:The CDROM Bootable BIOS (SmartBootManager ROM) (modified 0 times) ASPguy
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programmer,

i thought there is just 1 slot for the memory? how did you get 3 chips on there? i probably misunderstood you.


wild_pencil, i tried using smart boot manager by itself to boot into either jailbait6 on sandisk or my windows on harddrive and it did not work. the program would not let me swap the sandisk boot so i could not boot up from any other disk besides the harddisk. any ideal how i can get this to work? thanks.

11-23-2000 13:53:28

New MessageRE:The CDROM Bootable BIOS (SmartBootManager ROM) (modified 0 times) Programmer
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ASP.. only 1 per IOpener.. :)
(I have 3)
11-24-2000 09:03:21

New MessageRE:The CDROM Bootable BIOS (SmartBootManager ROM) (modified 0 times) Wild_Pencil
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Sorry, figuring out how to initialize the RAM chips is wayyy out of my league. I'd always thought that determining RAM was intrinsic to the chipset, and the BIOS just does a memory-walk of what the chipset reports, stopping at the first memory hole encountered? Hm. Now I'm curious about this . . .

-WP

11-28-2000 21:16:37

New MessageIO memory (modified 0 times) Programmer
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As near as I can tell, the chipset should support the memory.

There are several reasons this may be happening..
1) we could be missing an Address line connection on the motherboard (A12).. maybe Turbo3 can test that..

* my guess *
2) The bios may be expecting memory at 65MB+ to be on CS1 and configuring the chipset in that manner and not testing thouroughly.

3) They may have tied Address line 12 to CS1 (Turbo3??)

4) they may have done something I haven't thought of.

If I have time, I would try connecting CS1 to address line 12. unfortunately, the signal is inverted and that probably happens in the chipset..

This is a 128Mbit chip that uses 11 Address lines

http://www.usa.samsungsemi.com/Memory/DRAM/DRAM_Components/Synchronous_DRAM_(PC66,_PC100,_and_PC133)/128M_bit/K4S281632C/K4S281632C.PDF

This is a 256Mbit chip that uses 12 Address lines

http://www.usa.samsungsemi.com/Memory/DRAM/DRAM_Components/Synchronous_DRAM_(PC66,_PC100,_and_PC133)/256M_bit/K4S561632A/K4S561632A.PDF


The difference is reflected in 2 SODIMMS that are made from corresponding parts

The SODIMM using 128Mbit Parts has 11 Address lines

http://www.usa.samsungsemi.com/Memory/DRAM/DRAM_Modules/Synchronous_DRAM_DIMM,SODIMM_(PC66,_PC100,_and_PC133)/128M_Byte/M464S1724CT1/M464S1724CT1.pdf

and the SODIMM using 256Mbit parts has 12 Address lines

http://www.usa.samsungsemi.com/Memory/DRAM/DRAM_Modules/Synchronous_DRAM_DIMM,SODIMM_(PC66,_PC100,_and_PC133)/128M_Byte/M464S1654BT1/M464S1654BT1.pdf

11-29-2000 09:30:49

New MessageRE:The CDROM Bootable BIOS (SmartBootManager ROM) (modified 0 times) starfish
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Just Bumping this back to the Top.
There were Questions About The Date of This BIOS Image on F R E E D R I V E.
(& Reread the First Post, to explain the Blank Dialog Boxes)
I Just Got some V5s & Will Be using A V4 to Flash my BIOSs, And test Images.
I am Hopefull that We will Have a Finial Killer BIOS IMAGE Soon,
even if I don't think CD Images will catch on, I will Build up 1 of My I-Openers To Boot From CD-Rom
12-29-2000 12:10:12

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