Josh Straub wrote: > Hello, > > While trying to get a standard Pentium Socket 7 motherboard to boot, I tried > swapping the standard AWARD flash ROM chips from another machine to see if > that would work (I performed the hot-plug flash transplant successfully one > time before, to bring back a different board from the dead). Unfortunately > this time I paid no attention to the chip direction and the chip got very > hot and the sticker became blurry, likely from heat underneath, just like > your "hotflash" page indicates. > > My questions are: > > - is this flash chip completely ruined? yep. you fried it's little brain and let out the magic smoke. > > - would most likely any pentium "PCI/PNP 586" flash chip work as a if chipset is same (ie Intel 430TX) and superio, i think, maybe. > > substitute? Is there a way to tell if it's 5V or 12V flash? What happens look up the part on the manufacturer's website (flash chip) ie atmel, sst, winbind, the voltage only affects (erasing) programming mode. try 5v first... if it won't erase or flash, maybe it's 12V? > > if you mix the 2 up? > - How do you tell the correct orientation? there is a pit or dot near pin one, and this end is usually marked with a corresponding U notch in the socket. > > - is the motherboard ruined completely? did it work before? > > - is there a better way than pulling the flash ROM chips with those > extremely flimsy little metal pins, and plugging them back in? This is an > operation that seems to be reproducable once, maybe twice, with any given > ROM chip before you permanently bust the pins. you can develop some deterity by doing this a lot. a socket with a lever like a socket 7 cpu can be stuck in (so you only have to do the tricky part once) I get them from old eprom burners in surplus stores. (and I laugh fiendishly when I find a 14 part gang burner ho ho ha HA HA) > > > Finally, where can I get a POST card? I saw one on a vendor's website the > other day but I cannot recall where. let me know when you remeber :) > > > Oh and if you know of any site with PC BIOS information relevant to my > questions, I would be extremely interested in the reference; thanks!!! try mobo mfr, or if you wrote down the bios code at lower left before it blew up you could look up mfr at http://www.phoenix.com/pcuser/BIOS/motherboard.htm remember that link they keep hiding it (so people will *buy* bios updates?) > > > In case you are interested in my "purposes"; this is entirely slanted > towards the interests of a PC repair technician who often mucks around with > old/spare parts and tries to restore them to working order. Cheers Jeremy
