My New Tool for Flashing

[rubidium]

For whatever reason, I seem to have this addiction to big-ass, multiple-socket, hold-the-entire-Library-of-Congress-in-RAM, super-workstation/server motherboards that generally have BIOS's that are not overclocker friendly in terms of allowing clock settings, voltage settings, etc. at the BIOS level. I also have this addiction to overclocking everything I build or buy. :coke: In the past, I've gotten by with the standard collection of software tools that allow setting tweaks from the OS level, but these days many of those tools are getting long in the tooth. So I've decided to set out on the long journey of learning to mod BIOS's, starting out with baby steps like activating 'grayed-out' options and the like. Eventually, I'd like to develop the capability to hack the code itself, which has to go hand-in-hand with gaining a solid understanding of the chipset.

Along this journey, I've grown tired and frustrated with the conventional horseshit approaches to flashing a BIOS. It's hard to believe we're still held hostage to that 386-era DOS-bootable floppy shit :turd:, and a DOS-bootable USB flashdrive used in this way is just a half-assed surrogate to :turd: - often less reliable than the original floppy. Try to flash from the OS level? That's equivalent to taking it like this: :hump:, after which you have to make a call to BiosMan. The 21st century method, for me anyway, just arrived at my doorstep from Canada in the form of this tool, the Willem GQ-4X:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3313/3314442409_6da06f4a10_o.jpg

It will read, erase, write and verify just about any EPROM and more, quickly and reliably, from the comfort of your desktop. The chips are just a few bucks apiece. Here's my setup for the 8Mbit PLCC chips I'm using in both of my rigs:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3596/3314447303_849961b803_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3439/3314448343_7d30000382_o.jpg

Come next trash day, I'm finally going to shitcan that archaic floppy drive. :clap:

rubidium

[Cutless009]

isnt it dangerous to continually removed/insert the bios chip?

[rubidium]

isnt it dangerous to continually removed/insert the bios chip?

Shouldn't be. With yourself properly grounded to avoid ESD, there's no reason I can think of for avoiding removal/insertion of the chip in it's socket any number of times. At work, I have people developing microcontroller and FPGA based systems, and PLLC and much larger chips are pulled hundreds of times to get reprogrammed throughout the course of real-time software development cycle - without a hitch.

Different matter, of course, if the chip is soldered in, but no mobo manufacturer is doing that any longer.

[Cutless009]

I was just thinking of danger to all those tiny ass little pins :) But then I have hands like a gorilla... so... for me, probably dangerous :)

Actually come to think of it... all of me is pretty much built like a gorilla.

[Snyxxx]

Nice job. Take things into your own hands.

[rubidium]

I was just thinking of danger to all those tiny ass little pins :) But then I have hands like a gorilla... so... for me, probably dangerous :)

Actually come to think of it... all of me is pretty much built like a gorilla.

Actually, the first time I ever removed a PLCC chip from a socket, I was expecting straight vertical pins inserted into vertical receptacles. Actually, the "pins" are wrap-around springy loops that gently oppose similar springy contact loops arranged around the inner periphery of the socket. So it's really not that daunting.