Gateway LX6200-01 - Working on it myself, but need help

[siryoink]

My daughter has a Gateway LX6200-01 which has a Gateway RS780 motherboard in it. Bios version shows as 871P011G dated 8/6/08 version number 8.00.14 . I strongly suspect this is the exact same Foxconn board used in the DX4200 series.

I'm trying to add support for an AMD Athlon II x3 435. The CPU will POST and run but shows as "unknown processor". I like to think I'm pretty self-sufficient at this sort of thing, but I've hit a point where I need some assistance.

I've used MMTool 3.26 to attempt to add CPU support as documented here: http://www.overclock.net/t/742636/how-to...pu-support

I used Microcode from a Foxconn A7GMX-S 2.0 motherboard with a 780 chipset that supports the CPU I wanted to use and added it to a backup of my original BIOS. But the CPU type still shows as unknown.

Original BIOS

Modified BIOS

BIOS is safe to flash for testing, it works, it just doesn't do what I want it to. Am I missing something? Can anyone point me in the direction of what I'm doing wrong? Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[siryoink]

After reading up a bit more, it seems the Microcode update isn't sufficient to accomplish what I'm trying to do. The microcode is apparently useless without a proper AGESA version in the BIOS. I've tried to decompile the 1B SLAB for this BIOS, but it does not contain a AGESA_CSEG or AGESA_DSEG module. Some bits of the code you would normally expect to see in these files is present in POST_CSEG .

Stumped. Any experts around to weigh in?

[siryoink]

Before anyone points out that Brainsuck posted a BIOS with "AM3 support" for the RS780 boards, I can confirm from testing it and picking it apart that the BIOS he posted only adds CPU microcode, but does not add the AGESA to support it. Still getting "unknown processor" with that one.

I'm attempting to take the AGESA from one Gateway board and add it to the BIOS of this one. So far, I've bricked it 4x. But I have another PC setting right beside it, and I'm hotflashing the chip to bring it back to life. So I've got a pretty good experimental lab going here.

[siryoink]

So far, I have two potential donor bioses partially working.

I have a Foxconn bios that will POST with the correct CPU, newer AGESA, but has no SATA or LAN functionality. Also have a bios from a different Gateway that will go to POST, but CPU still shows unknown and sound is broken.

I'm attempting to combine 1b modules from different bioses to get the desired result, so far have been unable to get something 100% stable or useable. The ability to hotflash it after I've bricked it is proving to be quite useful for this.

One thing I've noticed that seems quite odd to me is the behavior of the ROM ID. If nothing else in the BIOS is changed, if you overwrite the ROM ID with a different ID, the system will fail to POST. Seems odd to me, I'm not certain what in the system is verifying this ID and preventing it from posting?

So far I'm just talking to myself here. Anyone on the boards still interested in seeing one of these updated? I know there were a few threads on it but they're all well over a year old.

[siryoink]

Working BIOS has been posted under the confirmed forum. Have been running it myself for several hours with no apparent issues. Anyone interested, please download and test.

[tat2ddeviant]

Working BIOS has been posted under the confirmed forum. Have been running it myself for several hours with no apparent issues. Anyone interested, please download and test.

Is this a BIOS update for Phenom II support for the LX6200-01 that you have running stable..?

I'm about to endeavor to do the same thing.

-tat