I have noticed that inside MEMINIT.BIN, it has a string that references the AGESA version. If one is to update the AGESA code, does MEMINIT have to be updated, too? Is the MEMINIT module independent from the board it is installed on? ie, interchangeable with other boards?
this is very interesting and could possibly be why some of our CPU Support mods havent worked , i will be looking into this!
Thank you for your help!
Admin
I am trying to get the latest AGESA code into my Gigabyte BIOS (Socket AM2, M61P-S3), but unfortunately it only has a 512KB FLASH and the new AGESA + MEMINIT is over by less than 1KB
I have a version where I've disabled the NV RAID feature via MODBIN and removed the NVRAID PCI BIOS to make room. We'll see if it works when I get my EPROM programmer (bricked my MB yesterday, OOPS!)
The donor BIOS is from another Gigabyte board with the same chipset. The ACPI table is 2K smaller...I'm not sure what to think about that. Have you found that using the ACPI table from the donor BIOS is necessary? It may free up enough space.
I have been doing extensive research in the matter and I have concluded a couple things. Think of the AGESA as a library, that contains all of the books on the shelves. But how do you know where to find you books without an OPAC or a method of finding the books with a call number. Tthis is where the MEMINIT as well as the CPUCODE.BIN come into play. The meminit doesnt necesarily always have to be upgraded, but in the AMD series boards its what sets the Hyper Transport between the memory and CPU, as well as other memory architecture settings, so most of the time youll need this. Then you deal with the CPU microcode strings, which call the proccessor information from the AGESA table. Without this updated, it will be as if you've done nothing. If you read Presola's thread, youll see we simply upgraded the AGESA ROM only, and it did nothing because you can add books to a library, but if you still only know where the old ones are, then you dont know that new ones are there. Yoyu can customize the AGESA ROMS so they include the CPU code you need to save space. The latest version 3.5.3.1 is like 37KB (YIKES!) but some older versions have the support without the extra baggage.
Hope this helps,
TheWiz
Well I have resurrected my board after a bad flash. I had to solder leads to the chip (there is no SPI header) and build a small circuit and parallel port cable. I used the SPIPGM utility to do the programming.
I tried the experimental BIOS mentioned in my previous post and it did not work -- the board would not POST at all. Perhaps it needed the update ACPI tables. I am done for now in attempting to upgrade this board because it is such a pain to fix if it won't boot. I may try again later if I can figure out a easier way to reprogram if an experimental BIOS doesn't work.