MSI-AMI bios mod requests, post here. Previous requests

[Yen]

Hi,

the structure of those bioses is difficult to modify. A SSV3 mod failed!!! If anybody is able to program his chip or is able to do a hotflash and wants to support me trying new mods, please reply!

Yen

[phresko]

Hi Yen

I have the MSI 35 Neo2-FR which uses the same bios as the P35 Platinum. I also noticed the superstatic v3 mod does not work on these bioses.

I was able to find working modded bioses in the oemfans chinese forums but they mostly provide Lenovo XP + Lenovo Vista dual activated bios. I don't know how they do it but they got it working, as I am running the version 1.6 lenovo xp + vista bios. If you need the link I can provide it.

I would like to know if you can mod these to be Dell XP + Dell Vista dual activation. Let me know what I can help with.

Thanks

[Yen]

Thanks a lot for reply. I already analyzed a older version of your bios 1.40. And now this two (lenovo and MSI SLIC):

http://www.oemfans.cn/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=1175

This technique is not new to me since Zhaoliang has taught it to me a half year ago at a old AMI7 bios mod.
The only difference is to keep the original compressed size of 1b module.
I already did a mod for the MSI G33M-FI board. It resulted to a bricked board.
I don't know why, maybe it was by accident, maybe because of the deleted strings, maybe because of the fact I didn't place the SLIC between two modules.. I don't know.....

I'm able to make a dual (DELL)mod, but as I said the last mod caused a brick at MSI G33M-FI. But this bios is another one and has got a lot of free space at the start.

That's why I'm asking people who are able to recover in case of bricking it again.


Please tell me how did you flash the mod? This is important to know.



Yen

[phresko]

I actually flashed in a not so "safe" way according to many. I flashed using Winflash (AFUWIN) 4.22 in Vista. After selecting the modded bios, I left the program flash at its default settings. In the "Setup" tab, the option "Main BIOS image" is the only option checked. And it worked.

I had tried the superstatic v3 to mod the bios myself but that wouldn't work. The motherboard wouldn't even post. I was able to recover by following the AMI bios recovery procedures.

When you say that other motherboard was bricked after the flash, do you mean you couldn't recover using the AMI bios recovery procedure? Because if that's the case, I'd be a little hesitant before flashing my motherboard

Well let me know what else I can help you with. Your work is greatly appreciated!

[Yen]

Thanks a lot for reply.

Afuwin, interesting....

Please check this thread:
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?t=974

You may ignore #4 and #5 cause this way was done by accident and IMO won't work

Please post details how you've recovered your bios. I don't know if serael0324 has got two bricks or tried to recover using "your" method. He said the same about the SSV3 mod. No P.O.S.T.
I don't know if the board is / was totally unrecoverable. From what I've understood he sent the board twice to MSI for repair.

Usually I / we mean by stating "bricked" that it is only recoverable by reprogramming the bios chip using a eeprom writer or a hotswap / hotflash. Almost nobody has got a writer or knows a friend with the same board for a hotflash and the only way to get it to work is to send it to the manuf. for repair (RMA)

Yen

[phresko]

Hi Yen!

This website shows the recovery procedures I followed after my motherboard wouldn't post. I did this with a 3.5" floppy disk and a working version of the bios.

http://www.biosman.com/biosrecovery.html

Well it seems he probably could have recovered his BIOS by following the procedures I mentioned here.

My PC had the same symptoms, the board wouldn't even beep. When I noticed the floppy drive light would turn on and seek without stopping, I prepared a disk with a working bios, renamed the bios to amiboot.rom, put it in the PC, and restarted the machine. It read the disk, restarted, and the computer booted up fine. I was so relieved!

It would be good to know if he tried this procedure, because if he did and it didn't work, the "boot block" of the bios you provided him was probably messed up. The "boot block" is what allows the AMI bios to recover from a bad flash or corrupted bios (at least that's what I understood, but I'm just a noob who reads a lot )

I try to flash in a safe environment. I check that there's no unresponsive programs, I make sure AFUWIN is the only program open, and then flash.

In oemfans, Zhaoliang and Guho seem to be the ones that know how to mod properly. I think I saw them mention that a dual Dell bios is difficult, the reason I don't know. If you think you can do it, I'm willing to try it.

If you need anything else, please let me know. Thanks for your efforts!

[Yen]

Thanks again. You've described the AMI procedure which I know as well. I assumed that serael0324 has tried this as well, but I'm not sure anymore.

About dual Dell. I will take the time for a mod. By doing I will see if there are some problems which I cannot see at the moment. Only after that I will ask you for a try.
The method which is used is very sensitive, so I cannot understand why it should brick.
The bootblock of course is not needed to flash, cause there is no change (I always leave it untouched.)
Zhaoliang taught me a lot of interesting methods. He is familiar with debugger and programming. I stay in contact to him, but the last few weeks he didn't reply to me anymore, maybe he is too busy, or he doesn't mod anymore. He has got much more knowledge about than me. But at one thing I could help him..that was to remove the ASUS SLP2.0 revision for his mod tool...

Yen

[phresko]

Thanks Yen. Whenever you have the modded bios ready, I will try it and report.

Thanks again!

[Yen]

Hi,

I did a mod. Now I know probably why Zhao said it is difficult. It is difficult to get the size down to the original compressed size of 1b module. To manage it I had to modify other strings as well. This is a unknown factor.
But doing a SSV3 mod you have to change much more at the 1b module and it was recoverable.....this sort of bios is picky......

Serael0324 didn't reply so far, and we don't know if he tried that way to recover.
Now the question to me is if it is worth to test the mod, because the activation for Vista is no problem using Lenovo cert and key. Also for XP there is no problem to exchange the OEM files to Lenovo.

But for educational purposes I'm very curious.
I was very surprised as serael0324 said that the board was bricked
The bootblock is still original, of course. And you don't have to flash it. You must not.
I'm always a bit sad after I've heard about somebody has to send the mobo to repair. I'm careful......

What do you think? If you want it to try I'll upload the mod.

Yen

[phresko]

Hi Yen, sorry I didn't reply earlier. But yes, send me the link. I will try tonight, if not, maybe tomorrow, and I'll report.

Thanks!