flash compaq board w/orig Fic bios?

polarys425polarys425 Harrisonburg, VA
edited June 2006 in Science & Tech
I have a compaq mobo here which is an Fic AM37. i want to flash it with the Fic bios so this board will have full function. the trouble is however, nothing i do will flash it. the compaq bios is 524,288 in size, where as the Fic bios is only 262,144.

i get either a part number doesnt match error, or unknown flash type. ive tried many different versions of awdflash, different switch combos... /py, /f, /qi etc., renaming the Fic bios to the compaq bios name, but nothing has worked yet.

theres got to be a way to do this......

Comments

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    Nope, chances are Compaq puts a custom bios chip on the board. You'll need to obtain a new bios CHIP from some vendor and then chances are it will work.
  • polarys425polarys425 Harrisonburg, VA
    edited July 2003
    and of coarse the original is soldered on. but there is still hope....it uses an SST 39SF040 (4Mbit) PLCC chip for compaq, the original FIC is 2Mbit. i have an SST39SF020 32pin Dip flash chip.

    SST's site contains PDF's with all the pin outs. with the help of a bios savior, i can boot one of my puters up on the bios savior, then flip the switch and hopefully flash this other chip with the FIC bios. then just do some very fine soldering.

    i'll have to get on that when i get home from work sat evening.
  • polarys425polarys425 Harrisonburg, VA
    edited July 2003
    well....it is successful. 32 wires, one DIP socket and one 4Mbit PLCC bios chip replaced with a 2Mbit 32pin PDip bios chip. bye bye to the crappy compaq bios.

    not that the board is really great, but now its atleast useful.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited July 2003
    That's what I would call a very creative mod.

    Maybe you can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear!:D


    Prof
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    Nice work! Now THAT's the way to do things.
  • polarys425polarys425 Harrisonburg, VA
    edited July 2003
    Thanks guy's. I enjoy doing things like that, you know, stuff they dont want you to be able to do.....lol

    too bad we cant over clock hard drives... :banghead:
  • GriobhthaGriobhtha
    edited June 2006
    polarys425 wrote:
    Thanks guy's. I enjoy doing things like that, you know, stuff they dont want you to be able to do.....lol

    too bad we cant over clock hard drives... :banghead:


    Polarys, I hope you're still around. I have Compaq Presario with a mobo that reads QuickSilver2-CMT. I've read some posts that think it is FIC, but I don't see any identifying markings other than Compaq stuff, and FIC won't even speak to me about the board. Compaq tech support doesn't seem to have any information about the board either.

    Any ideas on positively identifying the board? I would be interested in finding out if you felt the chip change, and the resulting BIOS flexibility were worth it?

    Thanks,
    Griobhtha
  • polarys425polarys425 Harrisonburg, VA
    edited June 2006
    i havent been able to identify who makes it. whether it's worthwile depends on what board it actually is, and what was stripped from the original bios for Compaq.

    that bios chip is soldered on however, and changing it isnt a job for anyone without excellent soldering skills. however if your not worried about killing the board, practice will make you better.

    a 32pin PLCC socket and the bios chip of the original board would be easiest. all i had on the one i did was a compatible 32 pin DIP style bios chip, therefore i had to solder wires from the solder pads to the appropriate pins.

    now, if you could have seen the look on my face when i got the email about a post to this long ago thread...... :hair:
  • GriobhthaGriobhtha
    edited June 2006
    I'm considering a new board (ASUS Socket A/462) for it (Presario 8000Z-8QSXE1). I noticed on the FIC site that the BIOS for the board that this one seems to be based on (AD11/AD11-XP) are a little older than the Compaq BIOS (Mar02), but that wouldn't bother me that much if I knew what advantages the FIC BIOS held (as you know, the OEM BIOS are VERY limited). But even after modifying such a dated:rolleyes2 board, I think I would still have to see if some place like eSupport could provide an updated BIOS to provide maximum advantage. All that doesn't seem worth it.

    At this point, I think my best bet for this machine is a new board, retail, that offers better performance, support, and upgrade options. Until that happens, I'm attempting to "interact" with the Compaq BIOS image (HAWA7K21.47C) on a hard drive. I've been able to decompress it to another file using rompaq.exe, but I don't have a way to view it. It still doesn't seem to be in a format that will allow me to gain any knowledge of it viewing it in a hex editor. A Compaq chat tech told me he thought it had probably started out as a Phoenix BIOS that Compaq then modified. I've heard about a "Pheonix BIOS Editor" program (at least a beta supposedly), but I haven't been able to locate it anywhere. Any idea on how to view the decompressed file to gain knowledge? If I could modify it, I could use rompaq to recompress it and try it out.

    I admire your resolve and tenacity in defeating the OEM challenge!:respect: Do you still use the other machine? What was its life cycle after your modification? What BIOS enhancements did you achieve?

    Thanks
    John
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