Would someone be willing to help with, and teach me how to, hot swap out
a particular motherboard “BIOS” chip.
A suitable replacement chip is:
"Microchip Technology SST39VF040-70-4I-WHE"
http://gb.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtpQ9m7utombPTQIXbhrd0P
This apparently needs a “PLCC extractor”, are these what is required?
http://uk.mouser.com/ProductDetail/OK-Industries/EX-6/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtyU1cDF2RqUEei9ckA8tROCfAPjA03V5M%3D
OR
http://uk.mouser.com/ProductDetail/OK-Industries/EX-5/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtyU1cDF2RqUEei9ckA8tROWo2C40TG9%2bg%3D
I’m happy to get those from the HacMAN standard supplier.
It’ll be next year before I can make it to HacMAN but I’d really
appreciate the help. Otherwise it’s online help and a nervous shaking
hand. :S
Regards,
Mike.
FSF member #9429
http://www.fsf.org/register_form?referrer=9429
http://www.fsf.org/about
"The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a nonprofit with a worldwide
mission to promote computer user freedom and to defend the rights of all
free software users."
Would someone be willing to help with, and teach me how to, hot swap out
a particular motherboard “BIOS” chip.
‘Hot swap’ normally means doing something with the machine powered up.
I doubt that’s what you actually mean and you really, really, really
don’t want to be fiddling with the BIOS chip with the machine powered
up! Plus simply sticking in a new, blank flash chip will achieve
nothing - it needs to have the BIOS for the machine programmed on it first.
I think you probably need to roll back a bit and tell us what the
problem you are trying to fix is.
Alan Burlison
Would someone be willing to help with, and teach me how to, hot swap out
a particular motherboard “BIOS” chip.
‘Hot swap’ normally means doing something with the machine powered up. I
doubt that’s what you actually mean and you really, really, really don’t
want to be fiddling with the BIOS chip with the machine powered up!
Plus simply sticking in a new, blank flash chip will achieve nothing -
it needs to have the BIOS for the machine programmed on it first.
I think you probably need to roll back a bit and tell us what the
problem you are trying to fix is.
Yes, my fault, I should have explained more.
I want to flash the chip with a new firmware.
The chip currently has the original working firmware.
I do not have a spare chip with another copy of the original working
firmware.
The new firmware might not work in a way that is not recoverable without
replacing the chip with a chip with working firmware.
I would like to be able to try new firmwares after the help and
training, preferable having all the equipment and skills myself.
The method that has been described how to do this is:
- Boot into the working firmware which has a built-in flashing routine.
- Hot swap the old chip out and new chip in.
- Use the original firmware flashing routine to flash a new firmware to
the (new) chip.
- Reboot.
If the new firmware works then all fine.
If not, then can cold swap back the old chip (which has the original
working firmware). And try again. 
I suppose another option is to have a device capable of copying firmware
off one chip and onto another. Then I would always have a chip with the
original working firmware to cold swap back to. Perhaps such copiers
are prohibitively expensive?
Regards,
Mike.
FSF member #9429
http://www.fsf.org/register_form?referrer=9429
http://www.fsf.org/about
"The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a nonprofit with a worldwide
mission to promote computer user freedom and to defend the rights of all
free software users."
Quite a few of the newer boards have a ‘dual bios’ facility where you can
re-boot even if you do mess up programming them.
What device is it?On 3 December 2012 23:26, Michael Dorrington michael.dorrington@gmail.comwrote:
On 03/12/12 22:53, Alan Burlison wrote:
On 03/12/2012 22:39, Michael Dorrington wrote:
Would someone be willing to help with, and teach me how to, hot swap out
a particular motherboard “BIOS” chip.
‘Hot swap’ normally means doing something with the machine powered up. I
doubt that’s what you actually mean and you really, really, really don’t
want to be fiddling with the BIOS chip with the machine powered up!
Plus simply sticking in a new, blank flash chip will achieve nothing -
it needs to have the BIOS for the machine programmed on it first.
I think you probably need to roll back a bit and tell us what the
problem you are trying to fix is.
Yes, my fault, I should have explained more.
I want to flash the chip with a new firmware.
The chip currently has the original working firmware.
I do not have a spare chip with another copy of the original working
firmware.
The new firmware might not work in a way that is not recoverable without
replacing the chip with a chip with working firmware.
I would like to be able to try new firmwares after the help and
training, preferable having all the equipment and skills myself.
The method that has been described how to do this is:
- Boot into the working firmware which has a built-in flashing routine.
- Hot swap the old chip out and new chip in.
- Use the original firmware flashing routine to flash a new firmware to
the (new) chip.
- Reboot.
If the new firmware works then all fine.
If not, then can cold swap back the old chip (which has the original
working firmware). And try again.
I suppose another option is to have a device capable of copying firmware
off one chip and onto another. Then I would always have a chip with the
original working firmware to cold swap back to. Perhaps such copiers
are prohibitively expensive?
Regards,
Mike.
–
FSF member #9429
http://www.fsf.org/register_form?referrer=9429
http://www.fsf.org/about
"The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a nonprofit with a worldwide
mission to promote computer user freedom and to defend the rights of all
free software users."
Ben Dooks, http://www.fluff.org/ben/ bjdooks@googlemail.com
Programmers aren’t really that expensive. Something like
thishttp://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SP8-Universal-EEPROM-Flash-SPI-BIOS-USB-Programmer-support-MORE-4200-chips-/300611374470?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Components_Supplies_ET&hash=item45fdd58d86would
do the job. Although as Ben said most boards these days have ‘dual
bios’.
Jon WOn 3 December 2012 23:48, Ben Dooks bjdooks@googlemail.com wrote:
Quite a few of the newer boards have a ‘dual bios’ facility where you can
re-boot even if you do mess up programming them.
What device is it?
On 3 December 2012 23:26, Michael Dorrington <michael.dorrington@gmail.com wrote:
On 03/12/12 22:53, Alan Burlison wrote:
On 03/12/2012 22:39, Michael Dorrington wrote:
Would someone be willing to help with, and teach me how to, hot swap
out
a particular motherboard “BIOS” chip.
‘Hot swap’ normally means doing something with the machine powered up. I
doubt that’s what you actually mean and you really, really, really don’t
want to be fiddling with the BIOS chip with the machine powered up!
Plus simply sticking in a new, blank flash chip will achieve nothing -
it needs to have the BIOS for the machine programmed on it first.
I think you probably need to roll back a bit and tell us what the
problem you are trying to fix is.
Yes, my fault, I should have explained more.
I want to flash the chip with a new firmware.
The chip currently has the original working firmware.
I do not have a spare chip with another copy of the original working
firmware.
The new firmware might not work in a way that is not recoverable without
replacing the chip with a chip with working firmware.
I would like to be able to try new firmwares after the help and
training, preferable having all the equipment and skills myself.
The method that has been described how to do this is:
- Boot into the working firmware which has a built-in flashing routine.
- Hot swap the old chip out and new chip in.
- Use the original firmware flashing routine to flash a new firmware to
the (new) chip.
- Reboot.
If the new firmware works then all fine.
If not, then can cold swap back the old chip (which has the original
working firmware). And try again.
I suppose another option is to have a device capable of copying firmware
off one chip and onto another. Then I would always have a chip with the
original working firmware to cold swap back to. Perhaps such copiers
are prohibitively expensive?
Regards,
Mike.
–
FSF member #9429
http://www.fsf.org/register_form?referrer=9429
http://www.fsf.org/about
"The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a nonprofit with a worldwide
mission to promote computer user freedom and to defend the rights of all
free software users."
–
Ben Dooks, http://www.fluff.org/ben/ bjdooks@googlemail.com
–
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The method that has been described how to do this is:
- Boot into the working firmware which has a built-in flashing routine.
- Hot swap the old chip out and new chip in.
- Use the original firmware flashing routine to flash a new firmware to
the (new) chip.
- Reboot.
It sounds like you want to do this multiple times. Aside from the fact
that pulling the BIOS chip out of a powered up machine is a risky thing
to do, the chances are you’ll eventually damage the socket on your
motherboard, and then you’ll have to replace it. I suggest you spend
some time over at http://www.coreboot.org, there is lots of info on
there about the ins and outs of BIOS-fiddling.
As Ben says, your motherboard may have a dual-BIOS facility, or you
could look at something like
http://www.realworldtech.com/ioss-bios-savior/, although I haven’t used
it myself.
I suppose another option is to have a device capable of copying firmware
off one chip and onto another. Then I would always have a chip with the
original working firmware to cold swap back to. Perhaps such copiers
are prohibitively expensive?
For a one-off use such as this? Yes.
Alan Burlison
It sounds like you want to do this multiple times. Aside from the fact that
pulling the BIOS chip out of a powered up machine is a risky thing to do,
the chances are you’ll eventually damage the socket on your motherboard, and
then you’ll have to replace it. I suggest you spend some time over at
http://www.coreboot.org, there is lots of info on there about the ins and
outs of BIOS-fiddling.
He should only have to do ti once if i’m reading right, he basically
wants to take out the original BIOS to keep as a backup, and write the
new one once the PC is already booted.
I’d give it a go, I suggest getitng the PLCC extractor in one of our
farnell orders.
http://uk.farnell.com/duratool/d00038/extractor-plcc-duratool/dp/1257169
is cheap and should do what you need.
