$250 BOUNTY: Intel Compute Stick BIOS mod needed

[Lost_N_BIOS]

The PCB board is not needed, unless you want to solder it together then it's useful a little bit I suppose. Never mind, I was thinking the smaller cheap PCB ones. That one you can use like it is since it's soldered, but if you're not going to get DuPont cables for the Pomona clip then you will need to cut/pull the cables off the cheap clip and somehow put onto the Pomona clip (soldered would be ideal, but you may be able to get them to hold just sliding them on).

Thanks for offering, but I also cannot use Paypal right now

I looked at that Willem thing, that's a lot of stuff on there you might never use, but it looks cool Doesn't look like it supports many Winbond chips, and yes I checked the "Serial method supports 7xxx chips" List too, a few are there but very limited amounts of current ones many boards use these days. Did you make sure it supports your chip on these? OK, I went back and checked the image you linked, and it's chip (W25Q64FW) not on the support list (but similar one is W25Q64BV), hopefully it will still work!

[ssybesma]

The PCB board is not needed, unless you want to solder it together then it's useful a little bit I suppose.  Never mind, I was thinking the smaller cheap PCB ones.  That one you can use like it is since it's soldered, but if you're not going to get DuPont cables for the Pomona clip then you will need to cut/pull the cables off the cheap clip and somehow put onto the Pomona clip (soldered would be ideal, but you may be able to get them to hold just sliding them on).  

Thanks for offering, but I also cannot use Paypal right now/probably ever, due to the recent changes and no current working attached bank.

I looked at that Willem thing, that's a lot of stuff on there you might never use, but it looks cool  Doesn't look like it supports many Winbond chips, and yes I checked the "Serial method supports 7xxx chips" List too, a few are there but very limited amounts of current ones many boards use these days.  Did you make sure it supports your chip on these?  OK, I went back and checked the image you linked, and it's chip (W25Q64FW) not on the support list (but similar one is W25Q64BV), hopefully it will still work!

Oh...I wasn't able to read the number off the Winbond chip. Didn't look very clear to me.

I'll just emailed Kee Electronics and the Ebay seller to ask them if W25Q64FW is readable and if not I'll cancel it with the Ebay seller.


The version 6.0E is their latest version though it requires a parallel port (which I'm taking care of).

The USB version of the 6.0E costs a lot more so I didn't try to get it.

I just found out it's going to take an eternity (until mid-April) to get the darned SOIC8 cable so I'm canceling that with Amazon.

I found a more reliable source here in the U.S. (Seattle, WA) for the Pomona 5250, the cable and the tiny SOP16/8-DIP8 board.

Only $14.99 which is cheap considering the brand I'm getting.

http://www.gqelectronicsllc.com/store/in...arch=SOIC8

Ordered and it will be 3-5 business days...next weekend I should be doing the firmware dump.


I really hate dealing directly with China...plus the stuff often takes forever to get here.

Steve

[Lost_N_BIOS]

I could read it on the image, may not be exact same as yours though, but their list is limited vs what's often used in BIOS for boards. W25QFW is very similar to BV, so it probably is even if they say they don't know, but it's hard to know for sure how they've coded things out.

You can get the $2.xx ebay CH341A flash programmer from US Shippers as well, usually $8 or so from them on ebay, or you can find on amazon and Newegg too.

[ssybesma]

I could read it on the image, may not be exact same as yours though, but their list is limited vs what's often used in BIOS for boards.  W25QFW is very similar to BV, so it probably is even if they say they don't know, but it's hard to know for sure how they've coded things out.

You can get the $2.xx ebay CH341A flash programmer from US Shippers as well, usually $8 or so from them on ebay, or you can find on amazon and Newegg too.

OK, I'll wait for a reply from the Ebay seller and Kee Electronics...they should know their own stuff.

Steve

[ssybesma]

Got my pry tools today and carefully opened one.  Little bit of a teardown, not too bad.

Another set of pictures I found from my specific model:

https://www.edn.com/design/consumer/4461...pute-Stick

Picture I took myself after I carefully got it taken apart. (That stuff on the upper left corner of the chip is mysterious and hard to remove, but I got some of it off with a plastic sharp point, a Q-tip with some alcohol, and scotch tape. Helps a lot to see the what's underneath.)

https://imgur.com/a/PxFHvRY

The best I can make out, it's a 25U6435F.

I looked it up and it's a Macronix, not a Winbond...so Intel used a few different ones I guess...early on maybe only Macronix, later Winbond.

http://www.macronix.com/Lists/Datasheet/...20v1.5.pdf

Possible issue...the list I was looking at from Kee Electronics only shows 3 chips starting with MX25U supported on Willem PCB6.0E LPT:

(MX25U6435F is my chip which has 64 Mbit capacity, the others below from the list are 16, 32 & 8 Mbit capacities, in that order.)

Macronix                  MX25U1635E [SOP8-200]                       (1065)
Macronix                  MX25U3235E [SOP8]                           (1065)
Macronix                  MX25U8035E [SOP8-200]                       (1065)

(I don't know if the letter E and F at the end is just a revision or what.)

I emailed Kee Electronics and Macronix about this.

Picture after I put the Pomona 5250 clip on the CMOS chip (fits like a champ):

https://imgur.com/a/XLgGsQJ


Steve

[ssybesma]

Reply from Macronix is below (waiting on reply from Kee Electronics):

Hello,

For MX25U6435F, it normally is backward compatible with E version as pin and command compatible with the basic Read/Program/Erase commands.
Therefore, both devices have same command for RDID and REMS.

Since we have no experience for use PCB6.0E Willem programmer, so I am not sure whatever it support MX25U6435F or not.
However, if the product is not listed which you need, please contact the KEE Electronics for technical support.        
Thank you!

[ssybesma]

About 4 years ago someone in an Intel forum posted this...

https://forums.intel.com/s/question/0D50...uage=en_US

Basically the Coreboot project back at that time was going to take on the Intel Bay Trail processors (of which Atom Z3735F is one of them).

So, I'm checking out that avenue as well to see if anything was ever done about this or can be started.

Open firmware is good. If it can be done that way it's a parallel effort at least to what I'm trying to do.

As long as it boots using Legacy/CSM BIOS!  

Steve

[Lost_N_BIOS]

Yes, that is Macronix chip as you found, it's commonly used in motherboards when they're willing to pay more than Winbond chip prices or have more stock of these on hand. That's why I mentioned best to check your actual device since could be any number of BIOS chips used too, but they're all about the same generally except when it comes to what programmers/software work with them sometimes.

In PDF, page 87 shows how the model name is derived. This is 1.8V chip denoted by the U following MX25, on the Willem list they only have those three listed as you mentioned, possibly due to not having this size/voltage on hand to test. These are compatible with the cheap CH341A I've suggested all along, but you will need a 1.8V adapter if you end up having to go that route - https://www.ebay.com/itm/202046860676

Here's the PDF for differences between "E" and "F" variants - "F" is faster standard read mode (Newer version vs "E"), also faster erase, slightly less hold voltage used too (irrelevant)
http://www.macronix.com/Lists/Applicatio...to%20F.pdf

[ssybesma]

Yes, that is Macronix chip as you found, it's commonly used in motherboards when they're willing to pay more than Winbond chip prices or have more stock of these on hand.  That's why I mentioned best to check your actual device since could be any number of BIOS chips used too, but they're all about the same generally except when it comes to what programmers/software work with them sometimes.
<clipped>

Waiting for Kee Electronics to respond...if they stay I'm screwed, I'll have to refund it.

Stubborn me...watch, I'll end up having to buy a CH341A anyway.  I know, I'm hard-headed.

I was just thinking of the future because I may want to get into this a little more seriously, and $42.50 wasn't much to spend.

I could have bought clips and cables and dumped ROMs from other devices too with that thing.

[Lost_N_BIOS]

Yes, the simple cheap working $2 item usually fits the bill Even if you didn't want to wait on long shipping, you can get that $2 item for $8-10 shipped faster to you

Cheap CH341A covers lot of devices, even TV's, game systems etc, the only time you'd really need something else is for older boards (Like 10-15+ years older), or maybe some strange things like pinball machine or something funky like that.

I could have showed you the $15-18 thing I use, but then you have to add on a bunch of little random adapters if you wanted/needed them and it's a bigger learning curve on how to use it and how it all works together etc. And it only ships from one seller in Korea, so always a 2 week wait. It's much easier to say get this cheap $2 100% working item and a cable (And yes, I also use these, since I help people with them often). I got the cheaper devices much later to help with forum questions and help people recover and I'd be fine with those if I had only purchased those first, easier to use and just as quick.