Mod Your Own Bios / Discussions on BIOS Transcoding

Discussion in 'BIOS Mods' started by hellohello, Jul 12, 2007.

  1. chaddawkins

    chaddawkins MDL Senior Member

    Sep 16, 2007
    344
    66
    10
  2. dumppq

    dumppq MDL Junior Member

    Mar 3, 2008
    95
    0
    0
    #122 dumppq, Mar 3, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2017
    Hi!

    My board: DFI LANparty UT nF4 Ultra-D

    I tried to use NEC OEM with ...

    Code:
    cbrom UNMODDED.BIN /ISA NEC\ISA.BIN
    slmgr.vbs -ilc NEC.XRM-MS
    slmgr.vbs -ipk 2QBP3-*****-*****-*****-*****
    The license and key installed OK, flashed with the new modded BIOS and Vista did not activate. Tried the same scenario above with Toshiba ISA and Toshiba license and it activated!

    Why does it work with Toshiba but not NEC?
     
  3. ciscokid

    ciscokid MDL Senior Member

    Jun 3, 2007
    319
    74
    10
    Try it again, that doesn't look right for some reason. Put everything in the same folder and type:

    CBROM UNMODDEDBIOS.BIN /ISA NECISA.BIN

    Then check your work with:

    CBROM MODDEDBIOS.BIN /D

    That should do it.

    Remember that the filename of the modded bios will not change from the original name. CBROM just inserts the ISA file.
     
  4. dumppq

    dumppq MDL Junior Member

    Mar 3, 2008
    95
    0
    0
    #126 dumppq, Mar 3, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2017
    I used "NEC\ISA.BIN" because the file for it is in the "NEC" subfolder. I also tried moving it to the same dir (and renaming it to NEC.bin) as my bios and cbrom and using:
    Code:
    cbrom NF4LD406.BIN /ISA NEC.bin
    Same result. :(

    Tried the /D param, got:

    Code:
    CBROM.EXE V1.82 [04/11/07] (C)Phoenix Technologies 2001-2007
    
                  ******** NF4LD406.BIN BIOS component ********
    
     No. Item-Name         Original-Size   Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
    ========================================134C2h(77.19K)==NF4LD406.BIN============  0. System BIOS       20000h(128.00K)
      1. XGROUP CODE       0F830h(62.05K)   0A758h(41.84K)  awardext.rom
      2. CPU micro code    02000h(8.00K)    00390h(0.89K)   CPUCODE.BIN
      3. ACPI table        061C1h(24.44K)   0204Ah(8.07K)   ACPITBL.BIN
      4. YGROUP ROM        0B0B0h(44.17K)   04C21h(19.03K)  awardeyt.rom
      5. GROUP ROM[ 0]     07B90h(30.89K)   03364h(12.85K)  _EN_CODE.BIN
      6. SETUP0             021C0h(8.44K)   00D26h(3.29K)   _ITEM.BIN
      7. OEM0 CODE         0C2B0h(48.67K)   00A11h(2.52K)   BSMICODE.ROM
      8. PCI ROM[A]        0C000h(48.00K)   06F9Dh(27.90K)  NVRAID.ROM
      9. PCI ROM        0E000h(56.00K)   071B8h(28.43K)  NVPXES.NIC
     10. PCI ROM[C]        0F000h(60.00K)   07469h(29.10K)  5216.bin
     11. LOGO BitMap       4B30Ch(300.76K)  059D5h(22.46K)  LPLOGO.BMP
     12. OEM1 CODE         00090h(0.14K)    000AFh(0.17K)   MemSetup.rom
     13. OEM2 CODE         16828h(90.04K)   09433h(37.05K)  MemTest.rom
     14. OEM3 CODE         14668h(81.60K)   0827Fh(32.62K)  CPUTEST.rom
     15. GV3                0475Dh(17.84K)  01216h(4.52K)   AGESACPU.ROM
     16. ISA ROM[1]        00400h(1.00K)    00326h(0.79K)   NEC.BIN
    
      Total compress code space  = 5C000h(368.00K)
      Total compressed code size = 572E0h(348.72K)
      Remain compress code space = 04D20h(19.28K)
    
     *** NVMM 4.054.0811/09/05 ◄♥ * Start Offset => 0, End Offset => 4b00 ***
    
                              ** Micro Code Information **
    Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID
    ------------------|       003A     004A|       0041     0150|       004D     0210    0039     0048


    I also see "NEC" in the SLIC table in Everest after rebooting, but still no luck getting it to activate. :( I tried reinstalling the NEC.XRM-MS too.

    Code:
    slmgr.vbs -ilc NEC.XRM-MS
    Which installed okay.

    The exact same procedure using Toshiba ISA/SLIC works and activates, so why won't NEC? :confused: Thanks for any help.
     
  5. ciscokid

    ciscokid MDL Senior Member

    Jun 3, 2007
    319
    74
    10
    #127 ciscokid, Mar 3, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2017



    Everything seems right in your /D printout. I had the same problem with HPISA.bin. I could activate DellISA.bin no problem, when I tried HP, it would never activate. Basically I did what Yen said and checked the HPISA.bin with WinHex and found that the checksum was wrong, it should be 00, it was something crazy like 9F or something. There is a check digit in the ISA file that needed to be changed so WinHex would have a 00 checksum. Once I fixed that, the HPISA.bin activates with no problems.

    Alot of the ISA.bin files have wrong checksums. I guess HP and NEC have problems so far. If you want to upload your NECISA.bin file somewhere, I can check the checksums for you and maybe fix it.
     
  6. dumppq

    dumppq MDL Junior Member

    Mar 3, 2008
    95
    0
    0
    Hey, thank you very much for that! I am unable to try it out right now (waiting on a replacement PSU to be here this week hopefully) ... but I will certainly post back with my the results! :)
     
  7. ciscokid

    ciscokid MDL Senior Member

    Jun 3, 2007
    319
    74
    10
    You shouldn't have a problem with it, I fixed the SLIC and double checked the checksum with WinHex, the file is perfect now. Thanks to Yen, he taught me this trick, haha. :)

    It should activate perfectly now. For some reason, Vista doesn't it like when SLIC's checksum is anything other than 00.

    Good luck.
     
  8. nartac

    nartac MDL Novice

    Mar 3, 2008
    16
    0
    0
    How do you calculate the size of oem7?

    Sorry for the question since Yen is away and I can't ask him directly and I hope some knowledgeable moddlers can help me to understand this issue.

    I have an Abit IP35-E motherboard and I know that China4Ever has already modded version 15 for this but I would like to learn how to do it on my own due to an interest on learning how to.

    I found out that the ISA method does not work with the newer Award bioses because the positions of certain modules within bios are sensitive. Manually, when followed the AMI_AWARD_SUPERSTATIC guide that Yen posted, removing the ACPI module will shift the positions of the modules below it so Yen figured out that by putting OEMS.bin in place of ACPI module (which has been removed) and then reinserting other modules which would keep the sensitive modules in it's original position. (I read this from rtfm's guide to modify Gigabyte's bios)

    Now is where I'm lost. The OEMS.bin compressed size has to be the same as the original ACPI module. I know you are supposed to add or delete random codes within the OEMS.bin to adjust to size but how do you calculate to get OEMS.bin the same size as original ACPI module? I have analyzed China4Ever's modded version 15 bios for the board (which works) and extracted OEMS.bin and compared to original ACPI module but both file size are different yet the compressed size are the same for both.

    I would very much appreciate an insight. Thanks
     
  9. Mr Been

    Mr Been MDL Senior Member

    Feb 24, 2008
    262
    69
    10
    Hello everybody,

    In the Bios Modification Guide -"Guide to modifying your Gigabyte BIOS v1.1.pdf"-
    under point 2) you are told to -"Open OEMS_EMPTY.BIN in hex editor.
    Select first 175h bytes which are currently zero, then paste (CTRL+V) over"-

    What kind of BIN-file is this "OEMS_EMPTY.BIN"?? Is it an empty SLIC.BIN file
    with only 00 00 00 ...., but it seems to be greater than 175h, because you are
    told to -"Select the first 175h bytes which are currently zero"-

    Is there perhaps anybody who might tell me how I can manufacture this file myself
    or where I can download it??

    Thank you in advance
     
  10. nartac

    nartac MDL Novice

    Mar 3, 2008
    16
    0
    0
    #137 nartac, Mar 7, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: May 23, 2017
  11. Mr Been

    Mr Been MDL Senior Member

    Feb 24, 2008
    262
    69
    10
    Oems_empty.bin

    Hello nartac,

    thank you for your promt answer

    But, sorry, I don't understand!
    If I paste this SLIC (175h bytes) into OEMS_EMPTY.BIN
    what is the rest of this file and how large is it????
    That's important!!!!

    Have you had a SUCCESS in using this guide??

    Any HELP would be great!

    Thank you very much
     
  12. nartac

    nartac MDL Novice

    Mar 3, 2008
    16
    0
    0
    Mr Been,

    After pasting SLIC, the rest would be just ramdom codes that don't do anything except to help you make a compress file size exactly the same as the original ACPI.bin compressed size. The size is where I'm confused as well. What Yen is telling us to do is to make the OEMS.bin compressed size to be the same as the orginal ACPI.bin compressed size. To do this you need to add or delete the ramdom codes within the OEMS.bin file to get it to match with the original ACPI.bin compressed size but I don't know how to calculate so that the OEMS.bin would come out certain size that I need to match.

    Once I get past this stage, the rest would be easy.

    If you want, PM me your email and I'll send you a sample OEMS.bin. It already has Asus SLIC in it and all you have to do is adjust the size so the compressed size is the same as your original ACPI.bin.

    Edit: I wish rtfm had placed pictures with his guide. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words
     
  13. ciscokid

    ciscokid MDL Senior Member

    Jun 3, 2007
    319
    74
    10
    Great!!! I'm glad it worked for you. Like I said before, alot of those SLIC.BIN files are not working because of checksum errors. My HP.bin had a bad checksum but amazingly it worked in Vista x86 but not x64. I took care of it and now it works in both.

    Look in post #48 in this very thread. That is the method I use to fix ISA files. A big thank you goes to Yen for showing me how to do it. It's a little confusing to start but if you do it one step at a time, you will soon be a pro at it. WinHex does a great job with ISA files. :)