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BIOS access on a V4
BIOS access on a V4

New Message BIOS access on a V4 (modified 0 times) NarShadda

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I have done quite a bit of reading on here and on other web sites about the iOpener. I just purchased one from a surplus dealer on eBay. It has a sticker on the back of it that says it is refurbished. I boldly ignored the stickers that said that the warranty would be voided if I removed them, and ripped the thing open. Considering there's no Netpliance around to warrant them, I don't feel I'm in that much danger. ;)
I have what appears to be an early v4 by most accounts. I've seen that the v4's have a Hitachi screen, but this one has a Sharp. (Maybe because of the refurbishing?) This has the Rise 266 CPU and no SW4 or even a place for one. The BIOS is not epoxied, it has a Yamaha sound chip, and all of the IDE pins are intact. The motherboard revision is: "IA1 M/B REV: I P/N DA0IA1MB4I6" which also seems to point to an early v4. The motherboard manafacturing date reads "0018" (19th week of 2000 or mid-May 2000?). The stickers on the front and back panel both say Rev: 3B and have dates of 5/3/2003 for the back and 4/28/2003 for the front. When I boot it up, it has the black screen that simply says "i-Opener" in big letters. If I get it into demo mode, it proclaims itself as the "iOpener 2001".
From what I have read on this board, none of the root exploits work on this unit (which I have personally verified). It seems that pressing TAB during the boot up sequence is supposed to let me see the boot process, but I am unable to get that to work using either the stock keyboard or a standard PS/2 keyboard. I've also tried Ctrl-Alt-Esc and Del to get into the BIOS with no success.
I've read of a way to flash the BIOS using a QNX image on a hard drive, but they all mention getting into the BIOS on the iOpener which I have been unable to do. Any ideas if these methods will work with this machine or how I can get into the BIOS? I'm beginning to think that I have some kind of V4 with a V5-like "unhackable" BIOS. Is there such a beast? If this is the case, I guess the only alternative is to order a BIOS from badflash.com.
Any help would be appreciated.
NarShadda

03-16-2003 11:12:26

New Message RE:BIOS access on a V4 (modified 0 times) Jeff102410

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The only way I found to hack these units was to get a "spare" BIOS from Jack at http://badflash.com I boot from the spare BIOS. With hard drive attached (with Bootable DOS, AWDFLASH.exe, and Wild Pencils BIOS, I boot to DOS. While the unit is up and running, CAREFULLY pull out the BIOS...put in the original BIOS...Run AWDFLASH...and flash the original BIOS. Power down and up and I'm good to go. I also have several friends that tried and gave up a while back...and they are back "in the game".
Anyway, with the "screwing" around that I keep doing, I feel better knowing that short of physical damage, I can go all out...and if necessary...reflash the BIOS and just start over...
I'd also like to know if someone has another way around these V4 BIOS problems...

03-16-2003 20:04:42

New Message RE:BIOS access on a V4 (modified 0 times) BadFlash

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This is a V3B. Basically if you take a V3 and do the mods to allow for dual voltage, and put in a resistor at R343 for the right voltage for the Rise you get the V3B, which was formerly called a V4A. I call it a V3B because it has the same motherboard as a V3, just re-configured.
Once refirb'd you can't get at the bios from the inside. It has to come out I'm afraid.
Be carefull if you are tempted to hot flash. It is a good way to trash your IOP.

03-25-2003 19:02:28

New Message RE:BIOS access on a V4 (modified 0 times) NarShadda

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Thanks, Jack. I've been needing to talk to you about getting a BIOS for this thing and possibly a drive cable and other things. I need to sit down and make a list of all I want to do to this thing. :) I just haven't had time to work on it for the past few days. I'm also curious about the banner ad on this BBS that says "dual rs-232 serial+ BadFlash.com". I've looked on the website and didn't see anything about it. I have some other questions, but I'll probably just e-mail you with those later.

03-26-2003 17:47:55

New Message RE:BIOS access on a V4 (modified 0 times) BadFlash

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We've just put the dual RS-232 boards back on the website, so feel free to check it out at
http://www.badflash.com/iopener.html
This is a slick device that allow you to use 1 or 2 RS-232 ports. 2 if you give up the modem, 1 if you don't. It also has a sound output connection, but I don't recommend you use it unless you are really good at surface mount soldering. Don't use sound out at all on V5's. It also has power connectors for the fan as it plugs into the port where the fan normally gets it's power, so we put some plugs on there for it. The basic mod is plug & play, no soldering if you skip the sound out.
We've also just listed the KX-15 CDROM adapters that convert a stock CD or DVD with those funning littel connectors to a 44 pin IDE connection. These are not a cure-all though as some cd's and DVD's won't co-exist with the sandisk, or other hard drives.

03-27-2003 16:01:34

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