I want to put my motherboard 32-pin PLCC BIOS chips into sockets so I
can hot flash them if they somehow get erased, as many of them have,
but how cam I solder those sockets to the circuit board without special
equipment? It seems that their surface mount contacts are inside the
perimeter.

On 3 Jul 2005 00:30:21 -0700, "larry moe 'n curly"
wrote:

I want to put my motherboard 32-pin PLCC BIOS chips into sockets so I
can hot flash them if they somehow get erased, as many of them have,
but how cam I solder those sockets to the circuit board without special
equipment? It seems that their surface mount contacts are inside the
perimeter.

Simply, you probably can't. The board is likely multi-layered.

Tom

In article . com,
says...

I want to put my motherboard 32-pin PLCC BIOS chips into sockets so I
can hot flash them if they somehow get erased, as many of them have,
but how cam I solder those sockets to the circuit board without special
equipment? It seems that their surface mount contacts are inside the
perimeter.

Unless the motherboard was explicitly laid out with the foil pattern for PLCC sockets,
you're pretty much SoL.

How is it that you came to believe E2PROMs can "somehow get erased?" As I recall, most
modern motherboard with FLASH update capability require that a hardware jumper be manually
set before they will allow any writing to the chips.

Keep the peace(es).

On Sun, 3 Jul 2005 07:52:07 -0700, Dr. Anton Squeegee
wrote:

In article . com,
says...

I want to put my motherboard 32-pin PLCC BIOS chips into sockets so I
can hot flash them if they somehow get erased, as many of them have,
but how cam I solder those sockets to the circuit board without special
equipment? It seems that their surface mount contacts are inside the
perimeter.

Unless the motherboard was explicitly laid out with the foil pattern for PLCC sockets,
you're pretty much SoL.

How is it that you came to believe E2PROMs can "somehow get erased?" As I recall, most
modern motherboard with FLASH update capability require that a hardware jumper be manually
set before they will allow any writing to the chips.

Static electricity...power surge? Chernobyl virus, before the
jumpering practice began, I think...

Tom


Keep the peace(es).

"Tom MacIntyre" ha scritto nel messaggio
...

Static electricity...power surge? Chernobyl virus, before the
jumpering practice began, I think...

I use the "hot-flashing" consisting in removing the bad programmed chip,
insert it in a working mobo, removing the flash from the working, inserting
the bad programmed chip, and flash it, from dos using uniflash !

I.

Tom MacIntyre wrote:

On 3 Jul 2005 00:30:21 -0700, "larry moe 'n curly"
wrote:

I want to put my motherboard 32-pin PLCC BIOS chips into
sockets so I can hot flash them if they somehow get
erased, as many of them have, but how cam I solder those
sockets to the circuit board without special equipment?
It seems that their surface mount contacts are inside the
perimeter.

Simply, you probably can't. The board is likely multi-layered.

But the surface mount socket mounts on the surface, doesn't it? I
already unsoldered the BIOS chip (solder wick and a double-edge razor)
and can see all the solder pads.

Dr. Anton Squeegee wrote:

In article . com,
says...

I want to put my motherboard 32-pin PLCC BIOS chips into sockets so I
can hot flash them if they somehow get erased, as many of them have,
but how cam I solder those sockets to the circuit board without special
equipment? It seems that their surface mount contacts are inside the
perimeter.

Unless the motherboard was explicitly laid out with the foil pattern
for PLCC sockets, you're pretty much SoL.

It is laid out that way, and the motherboard working again with the
BIOS chip held in place with a clothespin.

How is it that you came to believe E2PROMs can "somehow get erased?" As
I recall, most modern motherboard with FLASH update capability require
that a hardware jumper be manually set before they will allow any writing
to the chips.

I ran NEC's Windows-based program to flash one of their DVD recorders
(ND-2500A) and then power-down the computer, but when I turned the
machine back on, there was none of the usual boot-up activity, except
for the keyboard lights blinking. All the major voltages (+5.0V,
+3.3V, +12V, CPU core, DDR memory, AGP socket) measured right, the CPU
worked fine in another mobo, and I didn't see or smell anything funny.
Also this ECS K7VTA3 mobo has no BIOS protection jumper or a setup
feature to prevent BIOS writing.

Tom MacIntyre wrote:

On Sun, 3 Jul 2005 07:52:07 -0700, Dr. Anton Squeegee
wrote:

How is it that you came to believe E2PROMs can "somehow get erased?" As I
recall, most modern motherboard with FLASH update capability require that a
hardware jumper be manually set before they will allow any writing to the chips.

Static electricity...power surge? Chernobyl virus, before the
jumpering practice began, I think...

I'm sure the erasure was caused by NEC's Windows-based flash program
for their ND-2500A DVD writer because when I ran UniFlash to hot flash
the mobo BIOS chip, I had the chip's contents written to a file, and
that file looks like the NEC DVD writer's BIOS. The DVD writer did get
updated though.

Inty wrote:
"Tom MacIntyre" ha scritto nel messaggio
...

I use the "hot-flashing" consisting in removing the bad programmed chip,
insert it in a working mobo, removing the flash from the working, inserting
the bad programmed chip, and flash it, from dos using uniflash !

Uniflash was a lifesaver for me because Award/Phoenix's flash program
refused to let me flash the "wrong" BIOS.

"larry moe 'n curly" ha scritto nel messaggio
oups.com...

I'm sure the erasure was caused by NEC's Windows-based flash program
for their ND-2500A DVD writer because when I ran UniFlash to hot flash
the mobo BIOS chip, I had the chip's contents written to a file, and
that file looks like the NEC DVD writer's BIOS. The DVD writer did get
updated though.

Why did you flash any bios via Windows ? Why didn't you flash via a boot
disk with DOS, UNIFLASH and the relative .BIN fiel ?

I.

Inty wrote:

"larry moe 'n curly" ha scritto nel
messaggio
oups.com...

I'm sure the erasure was caused by NEC's Windows-based flash program
for their ND-2500A DVD writer because when I ran UniFlash to hot flash
the mobo BIOS chip, I had the chip's contents written to a file, and
that file looks like the NEC DVD writer's BIOS. The DVD writer did get
updated though.

Why did you flash any bios via Windows ? Why didn't you flash
via a boot disk with DOS, UNIFLASH and the relative .BIN fiel ?

I was trying to flash the DVD writer's BIOS, not the motherboard's, and
the drive's maker, NEC, provided a Windows-based flasher program that
somehow managed to write the motherboard's BIOS as well. I later
learned that they have DOS-based flasher.