[REQUEST] Gericom Extreme - Adding RAM settings to bios

[AaronZ]

I have a Gericom Extreme laptop from 2004 which uses desktop DIMMs. The bios has no RAM options even under AMIBCP. The speed and timings are set automatically. I bought some "gaming" ram to use (DDR-400 PC3200 with timings of 2-2-2-5). Unfortunately the bios will set the speed to DDR-333 (memtest86+ shows DDR-320 2-2-2-5). I want to be able to force DDR-400 2-2-2-5. Please help, this ram would be a nice boost for it.
  BIOS.ROM (Size: 512 KB / Downloads: 1)

[Maxinator500]

How are you going to install the rom file if I add the setting for DRAM frequency?

[AaronZ]

Well, there's two ways although only one is available to me currently, there is a flashing utility Gericom provided that runs under DOS, booting into it via CD or USB.

The other is that the bios chip is a PnP chip, you can remove it and use a programmer but I don't have one and I'm not sure which one I would need since the laptop is from 2004, I'm not sure if I would need to find an older programmer for it.

On another note, did you find anything regarding the GPU? Because that is also removeable and I own an ATI Mobility 9700 which plugs into it but there's no picture output, not sure if there's a whitelist in the bios. The GPU module may be faulty but it does get power / heats up.

[Maxinator500]

did you find anything regarding the GPU?

I don't think there's a whitelist. From my experience, to run a different MXM card you have to change video bios, which is often embedded into main bios as oprom.

Here's your rom file with DRAM and DMA settings added: AaronZ.zip.

[AaronZ]

That works great thank you very much.

I'm not sure if the GPU predates MXM and is some other standard but it's probably the same kind of thing, it has these 3 connectors on the bottom rather than a slot in type of card


I did dump the GPU vbios with GPU-Z but not sure if anything can be done, plus I'm unable to flash the vbios on the ATI one without actually being able to boot with it.

  NV36 M.rom (Size: 64 KB / Downloads: 1)

One other thing with this laptop is there's no CPU temperature in HWinfo, I'm not sure if that can be added somehow in the bios? I have a similar laptop to this one which has a CPU and Motherboard temperature sensors. It's just a peace of mind thing.
https://i.imgur.com/xmu4Owh.png

Thanks for all your help though, I didn't think much could be done with the RAM timings in general.

[Maxinator500]

NV36 M.rom

I found this file as oprom module in the bios file you provided. This means you can flash a new vbios by replacing it in the main bios. Which is risky because new vbios for ATI card you can download from web may not suit. Since flashing vbios can brick the device, I suggest to get a chip programmer before continuing.

there's no CPU temperature in HWinfo, I'm not sure if that can be added somehow in the bios?

Sadly, I cannot add this. String for this doesn't exist in the bios.

[AaronZ]

Okay long-ish post so bear with me lol (and thanks for all your help up to now it really is appreciated, I actually don't mind sending you money for your time fyi).

Firstly, the ram timings thing seems to have a bug with the CAS Latency, I've tested 2 different sticks to confirm. Basically, if I set it to 3, I get 3, if I set it to 2.5 I get 3 and if I set it to 2 I get 2.5 lol At first I figured okay maybe the motherboard just can't do those timings @ DDR-400, however I tried a program called "memset" and it lets you configure the timings under Windows, and I am able to set it correctly to CAS 2, ran some benchmarks and its stable. Is it possible to correct this "bug" in the bios?
https://imgur.com/a/nO7rc2g

Secondly, this laptop uses a desktop Pentium 4 with Hyper Threading (originally it shipped with a Prescott but I switched that out with a Northwood because Prescotts are infamous for running hot). Anyway there is no way to toggle the Hyper Threading on/off, that is unless the bios goes into "failsafe mode", then it will turn off the HT, load optimal defaults will turn it back on. The bios splash screen actually changes the Pentium 4 badge when HT is on or off:
https://imgur.com/a/9PYHQGX

Honestly I don't really mind this too much because HT can be problematic with some games, so I'd rather just leave it off 99% of the time anyway.

Finally, I have tried a number of IDE to SATA adapters on this laptop but they always defaulted to UDMA2 / ATA-33, so I ended up buying one of those pricey IDE SSDs from aliexpress which gives UDMA6 / ATA-133 in the bios but when booting it seems to force it to UDMA5 / ATA-100. But once booted into Windows XP it actually does go back up to UDMA6 / ATA-133, but for Windows 98SE it remains at UDMA5 / ATA-100. This is probably the most annoying thing about this laptop because SATA SSDs are way cheaper and more convenient these days. These adapters work fine in other laptops I've tried at full speed, but I know some motherboards can be iffy with the adapters. If there's a fix or a way to bypass that UDMA "auto detection" thing for drives that would be amazing, at the very least to just get them to UDMA5.
https://imgur.com/a/5aAoTIc

For the GPU, I won't risk it without a programmer, if I can find one that's compatible (I really don't know what I'm looking for in this case, I can take a picture of the chip if needed), but if its as simple as plugging it into a modern PC over USB or other form of Serial then I can totally do that.

Earlier I mentioned I have another Gericom laptop (Gericom Hummer to be precise) that is very similar to this one (the motherboard layout is basically exactly the same, just with different chipset, southbridge, some different components etc.) however it uses the exact same PnP bios chip. As a test I decided to just take it out and put it into the Gericom Extreme but it wouldn't boot (unsurprising since it has different addresses and stuff obviously), however it has an Nvidia GeForce Go5600 (as opposed to the Gericom Extreme that has a Go5700). I found the latest bios and dumped the vBios, if these match just like the Extreme with the Go5700, it would confirm that it should work.

Gericom also had a laptop that did ship with the ATI Radeon 9700 according to their site (on waybackmachine), however there is no way to get the vBios off the GPU module without actually owning the laptop, the vBios on the module I have might be different from the vBios on this particular laptop that I don't own.
  GericomHummer.rom (Size: 512 KB / Downloads: 1)
  NV31 M.rom (Size: 63 KB / Downloads: 0)
  GericomWith9700.ROM (Size: 512 KB / Downloads: 4)

[Maxinator500]

Firstly, the ram timings thing seems to have a bug with the CAS Latency

Sadly for you, I'm not experienced enough to track down where the settings are leading to in code. I cannot fix UDMA and CAS.

As for HT, I was only able to find the Pentium badges you mentioned. In the "Reserved" bios module with index 31, under $OSB signature. That's where I'm stuck. This module has nothing but raw pictures, which means there's no actual code in it.
The $OSB signaturecan be also found in the bios module with index 1B, which is an executable, but I'm not able to understand its code.

So, I give up on solving the 3 issues.

the vBios on the module I have might be different from the vBios on this particular laptop that I don't own.

I extracted the vbios from GericomWith9700.ROM and found it belongs to a module with device ids 1002:4E45. Do you know the ids of the module you have, by any chance?

If they match, the vbios must be suitable.

[AaronZ]

That's okay, these are minor annoyances but I can live with them. The HT thing is best left turned off for my use cases anyway. I actually learnt that there exist PCMCIA SATA adapters which can operate @ 133MB/s, I'll order one and see, they're not too expensive.

I extracted the vbios from GericomWith9700.ROM and found it belongs to a module with device ids 1002:4E45. Do you know the ids of the module you have, by any chance?

If they match, the vbios must be suitable.

Not sure, could it maybe be physically labelled on the module somewhere? Unlikely I guess but I can take hi res pictures of the module if needed. Otherwise I would have to track down a laptop that used it specifically lol

The Gericoms use the same GPU module interface as an Alienware of the same time, and unless these guys had some kind of dev unit that let them switch freely, Alienwares I guess doesn't have this vbios "match or fail" thing the Gericoms seem to have.
https://www.hexus.net/tech/reviews/graph...00/?page=2

Even so its probably not worth the risk without some kind of programmer, if theres a USB type one I can get I'll try  it.

UPDATE: Here is a close up of the PnP chip, if there's a specific programmer for this one let me know, thanks.
https://imgur.com/a/4TkoGiu

[AaronZ]

Apologies for the double post but I decided to track down the bios for the Alienware I mentioned (was hard to find actually, its not on Dells site since its pre-Dell Alienware), and I found something very interesting in this bios, it basically has the different vbios's separately:


0348 = Nvidia Go5700 (this one is a different variant from mine; which has the ID of 0347)
031A = Nvidia Go5600
4E50 = ATI Mobility 9600

So, we can have multiple GPU modules contained in the bios file at once, rather than just one, unless by adding an additional one to the Gericom bios it "moves" stuff? Otherwise I guess it might be fairly safe to just add the 9700 module alongside the Go5700 one allowing me to switch them back and forth?
  Alienware.rom (Size: 512 KB / Downloads: 0)