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 1Mainboard -----/ ___ Chip 2
___ Chip 23,3/5V --------/ ___ 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?