EPROM [BIOS] Programmers - What's good?

[japlytic]

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

I bought a no-name unit (Atmel AVR8 with a USB stack, with two parallel-connected SOP8 posistions) from a Hong Kong eBay seller, and after asking what software is used for it, I practiced using it on an SPI flash which didn't matter if I stuff up.
Later, I programmed PVR-enabled firmware into a set-top box with USB which did not have PVR functionality with good results.
Before I did that, I compared the two boards (of which had very subtle differences), and these differences did not affect the PVR functionality at all.
There was only one small penalty, which was that you cannot use the front panel Ch +/- buttons (they are used very rarely, since many use the remote). The Ch - button had to be shorted out, since it would keep activating Vol -.
This required SMD soldering skills (the flash was a SOP8 device near some very fine resistors; I managed to do finer TSSOP packages in the past!)

I later dumped the contents of SPI flash devices in DVD players and found where the background image is (I have to get the header and filesize right to change it).

[larrymoencurly]

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

There's http://FlashROM.org , which supports not just regular programmers but also lets you use motherboards as programmers but also Nvidia graphics cards, 3com and Intel network cards, and Silicon Image disk controllers. BTW many Silicon Image cards are built for both parallel and serial EEPROMs, and the company shows what parts to add for serial chip support.

[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.

[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?

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?

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

[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?

[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?

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?

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.

[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)

[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 ?

[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.

[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.
.

[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

[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?

[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?

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

[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...

[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.
.