General Phoenix Question(s).. New to group

[rfdes]

Hi..
I wasn't sure which category this fell in but since it involves a Phoenix bios.. this group seemed as good as any.

I've been reading all I can but am confused about the approaches necessary to mod my bios. My bios is Phoenix 4.0.5 but is NOT supported using the typical mod tools that I have been finding. Would someone please explain which tools would be valid(if any) for my vintage bios?

I am attempting to modify a Phoenix bios (~1996) that was written for a Tektronix custom controller board that supported the VXI bus. The board was actually designed by Radisys. This version of bios contains a PLATFORM.bin and I have been successful upgrading using the PHLASH utility. I also understand how to use the Boot Block function for getting myself out of trouble. At present I've actually not attempted to 'patch/mod' the bios. I understand assy language and kwon how is disassemble the binary for modification. However, if there is a tool available that would make things easier, I would appreciate someone letting me know.


Here is what I would like to change?
Change the flat panel default from 640x480 to 800x600.
Increase the HDD limit from 4G to > 4G.
Increase the MAX DDram from 128M to 512M.


So.. my main questions:
What tools will work with my version bios?
Any tips to achieve my goals?
Is there a specific guide to understanding how Phoenix bios is organized for my vintage version?
Where is the checksum byte located? I saw this in print at one time and now cannot find it now. The first two bytes are 55 AA or AA 55 and somewhere in the first 32 bytes or so is the checksum byte.. at least that is what I remember..

So... I could sure use some expert advise. Your help is greatly appreciated.
thanks - Jim

[TheWiz]

Hi Jim,

I have had very little experience with the vintage Phoenix platform but there are some things you may want to look at to see if you can fix some of the things on your check list. The Phoenix tool from MDL, or even possible Phoenix BIOS Editor 2.2 will help you easily extract the ROM into its binary segments for inspection and reassembly.

For the HDD limit, you may try and see if this BIOS Patcher can patch the HDD limit.
http://www.rom.by/articles/BP/index_english.htm

This tool only works for Phoenix Award, so you should also confirmy ou are working with a Phoenix SecureCore as it seems much more probable to me that you are dealing with a Phoenix Award BIOS.

Thanks,
Chris