EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

[kiddznet]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

Fan spinning mobo collectors of the world unite and EPROM !!

If it was as simple as connecting the cable and running a floppy......????

[bigbeark]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

Has anybody had any experience with this board/software/support???

http://www.sivava.com/EPROM_Programmer_5.html

I'm in the same boat as PCBONEZ, i have laptop and desktop boards with spinning fans that need resurrecting and re-flashing seems like the way to go.

If you search "All Forums" on this site you will find a review of the SIVAVA programmer in a similar thread I started. The SIVAVA is the parallel port (printer port) interface, apparently slower than USB interface, and you need the appropraite cable and the PC used to do the programming must have a parallel port

[PCBONEZ]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

"Slower" ??
That means it takes like 3 minutes instead of 2??
If that's the case I think I'll live.
.

[Per Hansson]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

Actually it depends
In some cases the older parallel interfaces can take about 20 minutes to program an eeprom
If you have one to make maybe not a problem, but if you have got a few to do...

This depends on the type of eeprom used and type of programmer used...

[kiddznet]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

http://www.sivava.com/products.html

[Topcat]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

on the rare occasions I ever dink with a BIOS, its still good 'ol CBROM and modbin.

[kiddznet]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

Would I be correct in saying that a lot of the "spinning CPU fan no post" syndrome would be down to a borked bios chip?

[Scenic]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

if you have a POST code test card and it only says "FF" or "FFFF" on bootup, it's either the BIOS, or the board is FUBAR'd in some other way..

as BIOS reflashing/hotflashing just takes a couple minutes it's usually worth a try.

if you're lucky like me, you can get a board on ebay for cheap and it turns out that all that's wrong with it is that the dumbass previous owner just flashed the wrong BIOS

happened to me that way with a Gigabyte G33M-DS2R .. all that it did was beep at me and get stuck on a certain POST code on my POST code card. nothing on the screen yet.
turned out the prev. owner had flashed the BIOS of a G33M-DS3R onto the 8pin SPI BIOS chip..
oh well..12euro for the board and 10 mins worth of time and it's back alive

[PCBONEZ]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

Would I be correct in saying that a lot of the "spinning CPU fan no post" syndrome would be down to a borked bios chip?

That or a bad PSU blew the chipset so the BIOS can't 'talk through' it.
.

[kc8adu]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

i still use my old xeltek superpro.have also used a random board that supports the eprom in question to do a hotflash.

[kiddznet]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

How about spinning CPU fan, both h/sink on CPU and northbridge getting warm, beeps for no RAM but still no boot ?

[Scenic]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

if nothing is visibly damaged and it doesn't have a nvidia chipset, BIOS is the best bet (assuming the caps are OK)

[Agent24]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

Has anybody had any experience with this board/software/support???

http://www.sivava.com/EPROM_Programmer_5.html

I'm in the same boat as PCBONEZ, i have laptop and desktop boards with spinning fans that need resurrecting and re-flashing seems like the way to go.

I bought one of those, and I like it very much.

Cheap and seems very capable for a lot of things (Although someone on this forum said they don't work for some 27C devices that are supposed to be supported) - I don't know for sure as I haven't tried any (yet)

Sivava seems to have (on their website at least) not the latest version of the programming software. The latest programmers might have a newer version on CD though.

I did find some newer versions on various electronics forums though.

If you really want to save money, the v3 schematics are around on the internet, you could build one yourself (although it doesn't support as many devices as the v5 apparently)


My only problem (so far) would be that I wish the PLCC sockets were ZIF - but I don't know if those actually exist.

[kiddznet]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

Oh dear more drama on removing 8 pin SOP
Desoldering I was a little bumfisted and pulled 2 solder pads off

They are pad six and seven. Can see the trace to six but none for seven
Have I had some luck and seven is unused?[

IMG] Uploaded with *************[/IMG]

[Agent24]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

I guess if they didn't use Pin 7 then you don't need it

What does the datasheet say the "Hold#" pin is for?

[kiddznet]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

Can anyone help out with a trace/circuit diagram around a SPI bios chip on a GA-M61SMES2?

[holmes222]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

use my own spi bios flasher/programmer
build from scratch
based on http://rayer.ic.cz/elektro/spipgm.htm
here's the stuff ..
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...50&postcount=5

[Agent24]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

My Willem EPROM programmer has an SPI pin header on it for doing this sort of thing I believe. But your design there looks nice if you didn't have a programmer already

[holmes222]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

the SPI header is indeed very useful ..
almost new mobo have this type of bios chip
even if the chip is not soldered on board (dip8 pin)
my maximus has soldered bios chip but with spi header present on it ..
you can modify the cable to accomodate no soldered bios ..
here's the pin guide reference

[Agent24]

Re: EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

Yeah my MSI 790GX-G65 has a SPI header on the board also, and an 8-Pin SOIC SMD EEPROM. I've seen some other boards use a socketed DIP-8 with no SPI header, which is easier. In fact I reprogrammed one for a guy when he did a badflash.