Service Forum

venturelive · Interesat Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 11

I have an X31, and was wondering if there was anyone who has had success resetting a BIOS password that can help me locally. I live in Orange County, CA. If you are nearby and willing to help, please contact me, thanks.

venturelive · Interesat Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 11

Victor, I built a simple interface on a breadboard, but I' not sure if it is right. I am posting this picture... let me know. The leads going up go to the COM port, and the three leads down are GRD, SDA, SCL.

I keep getting 'eeprom not available' error message and an't read the eeprom on my X31

Thanks for your help!

venturelive · Interesat Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 11

victor · S.F. Boss Joined: 07 Mar 2004 Posts: 2581 Location: Staff

The circuit looks OK. I can't see the exact color code on the resitors there, but I guess they are 2.2KOhms (red,red,red). The diodes are connected right, I hope they are 5.1V zeners.

Anyway, to eliminate any possible misinterpretation see the notes below.
Keep in mind that the eeprom has pin#1 marked on it, be sure you fit the wires at the right pins.

venturelive · Interesat Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 11

Thanks for adding the notes to the picture... all your guesses are correct! :00)

The diodes are 5.1v zeners, the resistors are 2.2k ohm 1/4 watt,

On the X31, the ATMEL chip is an 8-pin variety. There is a very small dot on the chip indicating pin 1, and also a small white dot on the circuit board indicating pin 1. I then put the three leads on the appropriate pins on the ATMEL that correspond to GRD, SDA, and SCL.

So, it would seem the connections are correct, the circuit is correct, and I didn't connect the leads from the ATMEL to the interface until after the laptop booted to the password screen and I connected GRD first.

What am I missing here?

venturelive · Interesat Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 11

Another note... I get a "BAD CRC error: using default values" and a "Sytem has been tampered with" error right before the SVP password screen comes up. Is this something unusual for the X31? Is the CMOS fried?

venturelive · Interesat Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 11

I wasn't able to take a pic of my ATMEL, so I marked up the one I found on this site.... I just wanted to verify that my pin selection was correct. I assumed the white dot represented pin1, so I marked the other pins respectively. If this is WRONG, please let me know! Thanks!

venturelive · Interesat Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 11

More info:

ran voltage tests with multimeter...

getting 11.1v from the COM port (this should be enough?)

Getting 3.1v from the SDA & SCL leads (from the eeprom).

I'm getting 3.56v coming from the interface to the SDA lead
-0.65 v from the interface to the SCL lead (????)

Are these values in the right range to be able to read the eeprom?

Does the CRC error prevent reading the eeprom?

Thanks again!

venturelive · Interesat Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 11

I forgot to mention that on my board there is an extra chip next to the ATMEL. In the photo of the X31 board above, the chip is right above the ATMEL chip and is about the same size.

Is this the "security chip" and could this be the source of the problems?

Also, my ATMEL chip is version "24RF08CN"... does this make a difference?

Thanks again!

victor · S.F. Boss Joined: 07 Mar 2004 Posts: 2581 Location: Staff

The SCL signal coming from SIPROG has to be 5.1V for High state and -0.6 for Low. Else the zener is not good.

The SDA voltage is depending on the CTS line impedance, usually would be around 3,6V (Hi) and -0.6(Lo).

Could be a port problem, SIPROG needs a native 16550 UART port, that is a bit more sensitive on the CTS pin.

venturelive · Interesat Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 11

I actually tried this on THREE different PCs! Smile

Ugh... Same results on all three...

I did notice there was a daughter card that had the 1394 port and the IR port/leds. Is the security chip on there? Still this wouldn't prevent me from reading the eeprom, right?

venturelive · Interesat Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 11

I assume, if I just go buy a new motherboard, my problems go away??? Smile

bob · Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 12:30 pm Post subject:

Although X31 eeprom can be read with SIPROG, a lot of people did that before, maybe you need to do this with driven-i2c programmer.
No need to replace the board unless it is defective.
And yes that is the security chip (Victor said this earlier), but the tamper error can be reset after you will be able to enter the BIOS, well, in case of security chip is performing well and wasn't erased or changed. This is pairing with the board, actually.