VOGONS


First post, by BitsUndBolts

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Hey everyone!

I found an Intel SE440BX-2 (Seattle 2, 440BX, Slot 1) motherboard at my local scrapyard some time ago.
The board seems to have been distributed by "Micron Electronics" (I do not believe there is a relation to the memory manufacturer).

The BIOS of this board is P06, but I would like to update to P16.
Unfortunately, the Intel flashing utility (iFlash) aborts with the following error message:
(H48) Invalid reserved string in flash image header.
(H01): The flash data image read from disk was found to be not valid.

And then the process stops. Any idea what I could do?

I was thinking to desolder the BIOS chips and flash the BIOS directly, but Intel uses a proprietary BIOS format which seems to be encrypted to make things more difficult.
I could extract my current BIOS using Uniflash. Maybe someone who has this board with a standard BIOS could share a dump of their BIOS extracted with Uniflash - but I have no idea if this would work.

Any other suggestions what I could try are welcome!

Thanks

The attachment Intel Flash Utitlity.jpg is no longer available

Reply 1 of 6, by Horun

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Can you find the Micron board # ? Should be on a little sticker and according to Micron archive it could be MBD001109-xx or MBD001138-xx.
Does your board have Yamaha sound chip, no sound chip or Crystal sound chip ?
Might want to read this topic: Micron Millennia in a full tower case
PC Hoarder Patrol attached the Micron bios ...Re: Micron Millennia in a full tower case

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 2 of 6, by Grem Five

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BitsUndBolts wrote on 2024-09-28, 04:55:

The board seems to have been distributed by "Micron Electronics" (I do not believe there is a relation to the memory manufacturer).

Micron Electronics was part of the same company that now makes mostly memory.

Post a pic of the motherboard as if it has the included yamaha sound chips it uses a different bios.

I have a one of these boards and have only updated it with Micron bios and not the stock Intel ones. Horun has linked PC Hoarder Patrol's post that has the correct info.

I mean the Intel Bios should work but I used the Micron one.

Reply 3 of 6, by Horun

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The Micron P15 listed earlier might be the newest you can flash without an error, has to due with that Invalid string in header (think it has to be 05a as PC Hoarder said)..
Here is the Micron P12-0013 for SE440BX-2 in case you want to try it. From the internal text "Thank you for choosing micronpc.com. A blank 3.5" floppy is needed before proceeding.... "
And the Update text...

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 4 of 6, by BitsUndBolts

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Horun wrote on 2024-09-28, 14:12:
Can you find the Micron board # ? Should be on a little sticker and according to Micron archive it could be MBD001109-xx or MBD0 […]
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Can you find the Micron board # ? Should be on a little sticker and according to Micron archive it could be MBD001109-xx or MBD001138-xx.
Does your board have Yamaha sound chip, no sound chip or Crystal sound chip ?
Might want to read this topic: Micron Millennia in a full tower case
PC Hoarder Patrol attached the Micron bios ...Re: Micron Millennia in a full tower case

Thank you all for the quick response! This is exactly what solved my issue.
I tried both BIOSes (P12 and P15 from the link / PC Hoarder Patrol) - they work perfectly on the board.
I am a bit surprised that those BIOSes aren't on The Retro Web.
I will submit them just in case someone else is looking for them as well.

My board does have the Yamaha Sound chip and has the model number: AA 719944-213

The attachment Micron SE440BX-2.jpg is no longer available

The issues seems to be the identifier (header) in the BIOS file:
86A = INTEL
05A = MICRON

Although I did not test BIOS P12 (4S4EB2X0.05A.0013.P12) thoroughly, it did POST and seems to work.
I am using P15 (4S4EB2X0.05A.0016.P15) from the link shared above - which did solve an issue with Wake-On-LAN (WOL).

Thanks again for everyone's help!

Reply 5 of 6, by Grem Five

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I have quite a few different OEM boards and it is best to use the OEMs Bios over Intels in most cases.

It is always best to check the OEM identifier in the bios string.

https://dosdays.co.uk/topics/mobo_ident.php#Phoenix

Reply 6 of 6, by Horun

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Glad it worked.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun