Hi!
I didn't find the BIOS Sa**our here in Germany so I made my own one. Of course this hack is nothing special, but perhaps useful for beginners! EPIA5000 owners don't have to modificate the board itself. Background: The capacity of the new flash chip is twice as large (4MBit) as the original chip, so we can burn a full BIOS in the lower part of the memory AND in the upper part of the memory. To choose between them, we use the highest address pin (A18). If A18 is low, the "lower" BIOS is selected, if it is high, the "upper" BIOS is activated (you need a reboot of course). I use this setup since 5 days and everything is working as it should. Please don't build it, if you do not know what I'm talking about!!! Use it at your own risk !!!!
Installation:
Take a AMD 29F040(B)-70 (you can find them on ebay) flash chip, bend Pin 1 (A18) in the other direction, as close to the chip as possible. Then solder an isolated wire to this pin, isolate this pin EVERYWHERE with a piece of tape (it's IMPORTANT, that it doesn't get contact with the PLCC socket pin, you can't bend it so close to the chip) and solder this wire to the "middle" contact (which connects EITHER to the left pin OR to the right pin) of a 3-pin-switch.
Now you have to find a 5V and GND source, solder/connect two isolated wires to them and solder the other side of the wires to the two other pins of the 3-pin-switch. For other boards than the EPIA5000 you have to be sure, that the supply voltage of the flash chip (called VCC) is 5V, otherwise you have to measure it and search for a source equal to the measured voltage (!!!they have to be the same!!!). For the EPIA5000 you can use the "Modem wakeup" connector, take an appropriate plug inclusive wires and connect the other sides of the wire to the switch (that's what I did).
If your board is powered on, TURN OFF YOUR BOARD NOW, insert the AMD flash chip (take out the SSF 39SF020A before :-) ) and make sure, that pin 1 of the flash chip has no electrical contact to the PLCC socket contact. Make sure that you soldered your switch as described above: Pin 1 of the flash chip has to be connected (through the switch) to EITHER VCC (for EPIA = 5V) OR GND. If everything was OK, you are ready with the hardware part.
Reinsert the original flash chip, boot Linux, get the original BIOS file, replace /freebios/util/flash_and_burn/flash_rom.c with this one at http://www.mikrosol.de/flash_rom.c (it is the SAME sourcecode, but the size of the 29F040 is reduced to burn only 256KB), compile it, take the chip out while power is turned on, insert the soldered AMD chip, write the original bios to the flash chip (if you have an EPROM Programmer, use it, cause it is safer) and mark the position of the switch. Everytime you will switch to this position, you are booting the ORIGINAL BIOS. If you want to burn the other part of the memory, switch to the other side (while power is on and you are at the console) and burn it. Be aware that both parts of the memory are writable, so you have to check the position of the switch BEFORE you are flashing. Flashing at the marked position of the switch is only necessary, if you want to replace the original bios.
That's all! Really helpful I think!
Best regards,
Sven
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Sven Luebke