Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

[brethin]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

I will agree with Koda here, that the BIOS is up by the RAM. Just try it! If you need an AM2 CPU I've got some, send me a PM and I'll send one your way cheap.

100% Wrong

[brethin]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

The thing you marked in green is not a BIOS chip, it's probably the legacy controller for things like PS/2, Serial and such stuff (ISA based)

The small 8 legged IC is the BIOS, it is a SPI based BIOS (SPI stands for Serial Peripheral Interface and explains how it needs so few legs to do it's work, it's like SATA for your HDD to make a crude comparison)

100% correct!

[gg1978]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

That's the BIOS circled in Green.. The chip by the RAM slots is the Super I/O chip.. Serial Flash ROMS are common on newer boards, and they are 8 pins, either DIP or SMT..

[larrymoencurly]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

That 8-pin DIP is the BIOS chip, and I've seen other motherboards where the BIOS label was stuck on something other than a BIOS chip.

I've done one SPI flash, for a bricked MSI mobo with a soldered BIOS chip (Macronix MX25L800, 2.7V - 3.6V read/write/erase). I used SPIPGM2 to flash it from a parallel printer port and didn't need a CPU.

[Koda]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

@ Koda
Why did your cousin remove the bios chip ?

He said it fell off in transport while he was moving the case somewhere doing something. The case was open and he simply lost it. He must have banged it pretty good for the chip to exit the socket or for some reason he's lying to me.

[gilly1984]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

No need but thanks, I'll try to hotflash another chip for it. Found another 8mbit bios chip from another dead mobo. Should work I think, latest BIOS file for my mobo is 940kb.

No probs, but if you need it anyway I can send it your way.

[mcdaydavies]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

That chip next to the RAM slots is not the bios, it is the ICS cpu controller. It monitors the cpu voltage, temperature etc.

[Gabriel]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

8 Mb=1 MB

lol

Your math seems to be good, have you been eating yellow snow ?


@ Koda
Why did your cousin remove the bios chip ?

[Koda]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

I have one of them on a dead foxconn mobo. Its a winbond chip.

Not sure of what numbers are written on it but could find out if you need it.

No need but thanks, I'll try to hotflash another chip for it. Found another 8mbit bios chip from another dead mobo. Should work I think, latest BIOS file for my mobo is 940kb.

[cheapie]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

8 Mb=1 MB

lol

Yes, and your point is...???

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

I guess you are missing the bios chip, 8Mb flash eeprom.

8 Mb=1 MB

lol

[gilly1984]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

I have one of them on a dead foxconn mobo. Its a winbond chip.

Not sure of what numbers are written on it but could find out if you need it.

[Gabriel]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

You could buy a chip on ebay pre programmed - bios chip

[Koda]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

Ok guys, I stipulate to the fact that the SPI chip is the BIOS and that the mobo would not boot without it. Next step, suggest chip replacements, will any run of the mill SPI flash rom chip work or does it have to be the one chosen by the mobo manufacturer?

[Phaihn]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

I have a few amd Sempron am2 cpus I replaced with Athlon 64x2 cpus.

[Gabriel]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

Wrong, that is not the bios as the bios is located at the top right corner of the mobo next to the ram slots. look at this pic, bios chip market with green, label clearly reads AmiBios 636 and some other stuff. I would think a bios to a more advanced mobo wouldn't be on a dip-8 chip. Maybe some sort of backup?

A 8-pin dip is good enough for bios, even the Maximus V Extreme uses 8 pins dip for bios but a 64Mb chip instead for 8Mb chip as yours.

could be a nic bootrom

Bootroms are normally on 8 pin soic's close the controller itself.

The thing is I know I'm right, I read the sticker on the chip and it clearly says AMIBIOS. Now I'm trying to find out if the spi is a critical component that would stop the mobo from booting or not.

The board will not post missing this chip.

The sticker is there because thats the only place they could place it, I have seen the same on MSI boards too.

[mariushm]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

OK, found this review of the "sister" of your motherboard, the Foxconn A7GMX:

http://article.tech-labs.ru/28_7263_2.html

If you check the pictures, it clearly says "SPI_SOCKET" on the board where the socket is. That's definitely a EEPROM/FLASH chip
If you try hard, you can probably also read the exact part number from the pictures.

And if you still think that chip with lots of pins is the bios chip, have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_I/O - you can see the ITE chip in the pictures on that page, it's a series of chips that's very popular for io chips.

[mariushm]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

SPI is not a component, it's a communication protocol through which data from a flash or eeprom chip is sent or received.
If it's not a bios chip, it could be something else.

I would suggest following the traces from that socket and see where they go, but it's quite possible they go inside the board, in some layer you can't visually see.

Can't really imagine what would be in a DIP format nowadays other than flash/eprom chips (like the bios chip but not bios)

I would also say it's some kind of firmware chip, maybe for firmware for an extra sata controller that is optional on that board, or maybe for boot from lan for the network card?

PS. And I agree with Gabriel - that chip with lots of pins near the ram is the chip that handles legacy stuff like ps 2, serial, and stuff like temperature sensors and all kinds of minor stuff .. the sticker may say "amibios" but that may very well be put there because it was the only large enough area to put the sticker on. It doesn't mean it's the BIOS chip.

[Gabriel]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

The chip in top right corner is not the bios chip, it's a general purpose I/O chip for lpc,fdc,kbc,acpi and for hardware monitoring.

The chip in top right corner is not a 8Mb flash eeprom.

Take the sticker off the chip and post the markings on it, pretty sure it will be a ITE I/O chip compatible to Winbond 83627.

[Time2Retire]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

The thing is I know I'm right, I read the sticker on the chip and it clearly says AMIBIOS. Now I'm trying to find out if the spi is a critical component that would stop the mobo from booting or not.

If you look at when I posted that comment, it was at the same time you posted yours. Be a little gracious, will you!