This is no request thread! HP COMPAQ bioses, how to modify the bios?

Discussion in 'BIOS Mods' started by Yen, Aug 6, 2009.

  1. andmail

    andmail MDL Junior Member

    May 11, 2008
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    #201 andmail, Aug 12, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: May 23, 2017
  2. 911medic

    911medic MDL Guru

    Aug 13, 2008
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    Gigabyte Award bios are a gimme :D
     
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  3. jiriteach

    jiriteach MDL Novice

    Jul 30, 2009
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    mm posing to be harder than we originally thought!
    Dam HP!
     
  4. Yen

    Yen Admin
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    I've never found that additive sum somewhere. I'm starting to think there is no such sum to be verified.

    mutante I think the best is to disassemble either HPQflash or rompaq to find the verification algorithm.... we need to know what's checked...what kind of sum and what address range.....at bios it's 8 bit, 16bit or crc, sometimes only the odd bytes are taken and at second sum the even bytes for calculation...sometimes different address ranges....
     
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  5. mirza

    mirza MDL Novice

    May 16, 2008
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    Is there any possibility to re-tattoo motherboard like DELL,maybe that "trigger" for fullflash the BIOS by original HPQflash is on the motherboard?In some older HP models there is written on motherboard if the computer is freeDOS or linux or not.Or we just have to wait BIOS update with unusable SLIC 2.1 and correct it with WoW?
     
  6. Yen

    Yen Admin
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    #207 Yen, Aug 12, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2017
    (OP)
    I think we should play with bytes....at the second marker change one byte +1 to 46h and the next byte -1 to 4Ch, try to flash with original flasher..error?
    If error then correct offset 2 to 52h only
    If error then correct offset 3 to 4Bh only
    If error then correct offset 4 to 48h only


    Somebody try please?
    Edit there, not the marker header:
    Code:
    Offset      0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7   8  9  A  B  C  D  E  F
    
    000F6210   45 4D 53 4C 49 43 2D 4D  50 43 57 49 4E 44 4F 57   EMSLIC-MPCWINDOW
    
    We can fiddle with bytes and try to flash with original, we can go step by step to see how sensitive the integrity check will be....change some bytes try to flash.. again and again....keeping the sum....
     
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  7. TTAV134

    TTAV134 MDL Expert

    Mar 1, 2009
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    #211 TTAV134, Aug 12, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: May 23, 2017
  8. TTAV134

    TTAV134 MDL Expert

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    #213 TTAV134, Aug 12, 2009
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  9. andmail

    andmail MDL Junior Member

    May 11, 2008
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    #214 andmail, Aug 12, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2017
    Hi, Yen!
    I tried all this with original HPQFlash.exe - always error.

    Moreover, I drew attention that 68MAD.BAK (can be created and loaded to ROM with original rompaq.exe and patched rompaq_.exe) more than the 68MAD.BIN (original) to 6h (first byte is FFh instead of F9h).

    I tried to restore original 68MAD.BIN (renamed to 68MAD.BAK) with the original rompaq.exe -> succesfull.
    So, I tried your method to modify 68MAD.BAK (first byte F9h and other six bytes in your string higher by one) CRC32 are equal -> error.

    And yet, I drew attention, when using rompaq_.exe (patched) in command line I can see restoring (/R) and updating (/U) proceed banks 1...14 (always with ORIGINAL and modded 68MAD.BIN).
    But backuping (/B) proceed banks 1...15.
    It seems, rompaq_.exe (and may be original rompaq.exe for 68MAD) cann't to overwrite 15s bank (it's may be addresses F0000-FFFFF).
     
  10. Yen

    Yen Admin
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    #215 Yen, Aug 12, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: May 23, 2017
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  11. Yen

    Yen Admin
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    So It seems the checksum problem is already solved at the patched flasher. The question: How to make the flasher to flash the last bank 15?
    Either patch the flasher or..hmm the biosfile itself has a flag somewhere to tell the flasher that bank 15 has to be updated! If HP wants to make this be updated as well, the biosfile 'has to tell' the flasher, just do it!

    maybe remove the 14 banks limit? Difficult? mutante? What do you think about? Or what about these special hP tools?

    Edit: there is 'uniflash' a universal flasher, but quite obsolete......
     
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  12. Yen

    Yen Admin
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    #218 Yen, Aug 12, 2009
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  13. ckv

    ckv MDL Novice

    Sep 15, 2008
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    #219 ckv, Aug 12, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: May 23, 2017
  14. ckv

    ckv MDL Novice

    Sep 15, 2008
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    I find 'HPQOEMSLIC-MPCWINDOWS' in the HQFLASH memory two times. Don't we then know what to do yet?