such fun. There is a PAL (or PLD) on the motherboard called a BUD. The bud is a chunk of glue that takes care of stuff not in the various chipsets.
The BUD has two interrupt lines it controls, one called SMI_L.
IF you write to the NVRAM, BUD yanks SMI_L and the interrupt handler (in this case in the BIOS) is tasked with responding with a magic word or having put a magic word at some magic place in memory. This is the 'key'. No key, no write. Tough for you.
This little detail is only documented in the l440gx+ baseboard tps, #245151-001, version 1.0, march 1999, and not in any of the other five manuals I have on this chipset!
Security through obscurity, I guess.
ron
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