[LinuxBIOS] Which BIOS Savior for VIA EPIA M-II?

Coquelicot coquelicot408 at gmail.com
Mon Oct 29 09:54:39 CET 2007


>> Dear LinuxBIOSers,
>>
>> I have a brand new VIA EPIA M-II (with 1 GHz CPU) motherboard that I
>> would like to boot faster than by factory default (carputer
>> projects). I have following purchased BIOS Savior from FrozenCPU :
>> RD1-PMC2 but it seems that it is the wrong one (I have installed the
>> BIOS Savior but the motherboard doesn't boot, I have tried both
>> positions of the switch). After replacing the original BIOS back on
>> the motherboard the boot works OK, so it seems that's definitely the
>> BIOS Savior chip that is not working.
>>
>> I am tempted to do the direct flashing (ie. without the BIOS Savior)
>> but I know that's pretty risky... especially that I want the
>> motherboard boot Linux from CF port (I read the howto and I think I
>> know what to do) which can be tricky.
>>
>> Greetings to all LinuxBIOS users & developers,
>>

>If you don't have two left hands, i suggest this.
>
>Buy an second Flashchip, which same Pining.
>Bend out the Pins of this, so you can stack both Flashchips together.
>Bend the ChipSelect Pin seperate from both chips.
>Take an drilling tool and cut out the Chipselect in the socket.
>Take the CS from mainboard and search for an 3,3 or 5 V pin, depend on
>what is for the flashchip high.
>Buy an switch, 2 changer,
>
>              ___ Chip 1
>Mainboard -----/
>               \___ Chip 2
>
>               ___ Chip 2
>3,3/5V --------/
>              \___ Chip 1
>
>
>For my it work perfect. The unused, saved, Chip have to see the high
>pegel, so it ignor everything.
>
>And sorry about my bad english.
>
>Greeding Markus


Dear Markus,

this is a challenging approach! I probably don't have 2 left hands but I
have really never worked with BIOS before :-). So I need more information:
where can I find ChipSelect signal on the motherboard/BIOS socket?

I assume that I can skip the whole procedure if I do a 'hot swap' of BIOS
chips on the motherboard? I am planning to use Linux to re-program the BIOS
so I assume that I can do the 'hot swap' of the chip with motherboard
powered on? or is it not advisable approach?

-- 
Coquelicot
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