phoenix/award BIOS unlock request

[mattliston]

the computer in question is a retail eMachines T6414

this computer has the MS-7184 motherboard. I searched this site, came up with an unlock done on an HP board of the same name, but that motherboard looks different in a few details.

while the board layout is very similar, I noticed there is 2 big differences. the HP board has only 2 sata ports, but has an extra IDE port located under the 3rd PCI slot


my board does not have that additional IDE connector and has 4 sata ports instead of 2.

CPU is AMD athlon64 3200+, ATI radeon X200 chipset, onboard nic, sound, and video. DDR400 ram slots.

My question is there a different bios for my board, or will that unlocked bios work for me?

I downloaded a detection utility fomr the award site. the file was detect.exe and it pulled a 64kb file and created a text file stating this:

Program: eSupport.com BIOS Detect v1.2 July 21, 2003
BIOS Date: 08/19/05
BIOS Type: Phoenix
BIOS ID: unknown
Superio: NSC 332 rev 8 found at port 2Eh
CPU Type: AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor 3200+
CPU Speed: 2000 Mhz
CPU Max: 3000 Mhz
BIOS ROM In Socket: Yes
BIOS ROM Size: Unknown
Memory Installed: 1024 MB
Memory Maximum: 2048 MB

eSupport.com, Inc.
1-800-800-BIOS (2467)
www.esupport.com

this concerns me, as it shows a memory limit of only 2gigs and cannot find the size of the bios rom

I was not able to attach my bin file for some odd reason, you would think a bios forum would allow it seeing as the site is devoted to them. i dunno, maybe its a security feature. I can email the file renamed to those interested

I have so far been successful creating a floppy drive imitation with my PNY 4gb flash drive, but have not successfully booted it yet. I find that most BIOS readers/flashers create their own floppy and as such do not see my flashdrive/floppy fake.

If someone would be so kind as to compare my BIOS with the one off the HP and confirm if they are one and the same (when both are un touched) that would be great. I also need help figuring out how to run a proper flashing utility off my jumpdrive. to created the floppy "drive" I used a program called windows enabler and it basically forced windows to process teh MS-DOS command for my drive. the result is a 1.42mb partition filled with bootable files. I did boot off of it and attempted to test it, but it said there were errors. so when I tried to run scandisk for starters, it failed to do so.

thanks in advance

-Matt

[1234s282]

Please provide a link to your bios or we cannot help you

Regards
Admin

[mattliston]

where can I post it? it wouldnt allow me to attach it

---

I am also having extreme trouble locating the correct BIOS for my motherboard. microstar completely sucks, as I havent gotten a response out of them on over 2 months regarding a simple BIOS request. their website shows only the retail version of my board, not the OEM.

I go onto the ecs website and I cannot for the life of me discover the download link for their award flash utility. I find the how to's but not he actual utility.

also I found this

http://www.ecsusa.com/ECSWebSite/Products/ProdMBModel.aspx?CategoryID=1&TypeID=31&MenuID=47&LanID=9

please scroll down, you will find 2 ATI Radeon Xpress 200 boards. upon checking both boxes and clicking compare I see that both only have 2 dimm slots while my board has 4

this would explain why the detection utility is completely worthless, it seems all it does is check your system and compare and post the closest match


I am left with only one choice, figure out a way to use my flashdrive to properly mimic a floppy and read the BIOS. I am at my wits end at trying to figure that one out

the "bios" the detection utility created is only 64kb, and the smallest BIOS of a close matching board is over 300kb

friggin computers, why cant all bios's have a simple "copy to flashdrive" command? both retail and oem boards would only benefit from it

[1234s282]

you need the emachines oem bios , not the ECS retail one. OEMS make their boards based on retail equivalents but falshing the retail bios will ALMOST DEFINATELY BRICK THE BOARD

Admin

[mattliston]

thats why Im posting before attempting anything hee hee

so I should contact emachine for support. Ill update this thread when I can get a solid answer outta them

-Matt

[mattliston]

tech support from emachine keeps linking me to an incorrect BIOS. I swear they are employing a bunch of idiots. their download link took me to a download for an HP computer with a different processor and ATX layout instead of mATX

I will continue to try to get the proper BIOS so you guys can check it out

thanks

-Matt

[TheWiz]

Use awdflash or winflash to make a backup of your current bios image. That way its a guaranteed correct bios.[/b]

[mattliston]

okay, downloaded and copied the awdflash.exe to my prepared flashdrive. it correctly boots, now we will have to see if it gives me anotehr error


I will post back in a little bit as to the results of that. hopefully it is not designed only to flash, but to backup as well. I know it has the ability to copy the current BIOS into the drive, but not mandatory to perform the flash, if you get what Im saying

thanks for the tips, and here goes nothing!!

-Matt

---

did not work

"Invalid setting in the MSDOS.SYS file : PBU|=(spade character)(upsidedown ?)1|=
Starting... "


A:


typed in awdflash.exe and it didnt do anything


any ideas or a link to a website that can correctly emulate a floppy drive environment on a flashdrive?

Im doing more research, thanks in advance for any more ideas

-Matt

[1234s282]

No , you have gotten mixed up , awdflash.exe and winflash are not the same thing. Winflash is a windows program which you can use to save a backup of your current bios.

Download Winflash here [url]http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/747181/Winflash.zip/url]

Save a backup of your bios and upload it to us for us to mod

regards
Admin

[mattliston]

ok downloading now. regardless, isnt windows based flashing risky in taking a clean BIOS copy??

I will give it a shot though, thanks

---

alright, it saved a 512kb file

where can I upload it to? Ill give rapidshare a try while I wait for a response. if it works (for free lol) I will post the link

thanks for being so helpful man!
-Matt

---

alright, here is teh rapidshare link. it has a 10 download limit, so please only download once
http://rapidshare.com/files/275799576/CU...s.bin.html

thanks

-Matt

if for some reason it becomes unavailable, I will simply create a free account on there

EDIT thanks for tidying up the thread, i sometimes forget to use the edit button lol