5 wrote:
On 12/21/2017 05:31 AM, John Doe wrote:
Doomsdrzej wrote:

I had a motherboard a few years ago which had two BIOS
chips. If the first one gets corrupted, the second is used
as a failsafe. I believe the motherboard's brand was DFI. I
don't know if their motherboards are any good but that
feature, at the very least, was very welcome.

That is GIGABYTE DualBIOS™

After losing my last motherboard to a BIOS problem, I made it a
point to get one. I suppose Paul's version would work too.

It could have been DFI, with a BIOS Savior installed. I don't know if
they're still made, but they were popular a decade ago with overclocking
enthusiasts.

There is no serial 8 pin version of a BIOS Savior.

On motherboards that don't have socketed Flash, you
can't use a BIOS Savior (without some soldering iron
work). The BIOS Savior, might have stopped around the
PLCC Flash era (the "square" BIOS chips).

A lot of motherboards now, the 8 pin Flash chip is
soldered down. There is a pin header next to it
(or a pad pattern), with maybe seven contacts, and
that has been used on occasion for re-programming.
When the 8 pin format first came out, there was more
interest in providing a pin header. But to save $0.07,
they eventually remove interfaces like that to save money.

You can still gain access to the 8 pin DIP flash, using
a logic probe style clip.

This shows the "hacker spirit" for re-programming serial flash.

https://learn.adafruit.com/programmi...akout/overview

And this product shows a clip you can use, to connect
electrically to a 8 pin flash, without using a soldering iron.
There must be sufficient clearance around the IC, to fit
the clip and clamp it in place. You must orient the
clip properly, to avoid accidents (no alignment feature
prevents improper connections). If you rotate this
clip 180 degrees, and apply power, the serial flash
gets fried.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....SL._SX342_.jpg

You still need a "lead set" to plug onto the individual pins
on that big clip, to run it off to your protoboard. You can
see the business end required, on some of the harnesses here.
These are harnesses you find laying around on benchtops in a
hardware lab.

http://hobbycomponents.com/1707-thic...lip-bundle.jpg

I don't think I've run into anyone yet, who needed help with
their 8 pin serial flash. Which means the procedures for
updating a BIOS, must have improved drastically compared
to the "old days". I ended up forwarding a lot of people
to "badflash.com" for help with the older BIOS Flash chip types.
Using a BIOS Savior was one way to avoid the expense of
(eventually) ending up needing help from the folks at badflash.com.
But the BIOS Savior company, I don't know why they effectively
withdrew from the business. I'm pretty sure they could have
come up with solutions for newer motherboards, if there was
money in it.

At one time, Asus Tech Support in North America, was offering
a BIOS re-programming service, but it's pretty hard finding
the web page with details. And they might have stopped
offering that service (as the Asus EStore has disappeared too).

When I type in "estore.asus.com" now, some wholesale-type
page appears instead, like they weren't making money working
with "Joe Lunchbox" people :-)

Paul