Greetings. I got a rare RAID/ATAPI PCI controller here that I need to upgrade the BIOS on but the card lacks reprogrammable ROM. Is there a service/place where somebody could desolder/remove the current ROM chip, and replace it with EPROM/EEPROM/Flash PROM/anything to match the pin outs? Is this even possible to do outside the factory for modern high-density circuit boards*? How much would such a service like this cost? Where could I buy a few ROM chips (walk-in preferred) if I wanted to attempt this myself? What else would I need? so on and so on. Thanks for reading.
have a UltraATA133PCI RAID card=20 under part number WF84F, With the following spec: =09 =E2=80=A2Compliant with Ultra ATA/133 specification and PCI v2.2/v2.=20 Plug-n-Play =E2=80=A2Full backward support for Ultra ATA/100/66/33 standards =E2=80=A2On-board flash BIOS for future upgrade =E2=80=A2Connect up to 4 IDE hard drives =E2=80=A2RAID 0 (striping) interleaves data across multiple hard=20 disk drives, which increases disk system performance=20 dramatically =E2=80=A2RAID 1 (Mirroring) simultaneously writes data to two hard=20 drives for data redundancy =E2=80=A2RAID 0+1 (Mirroring + Striping). Four hard drives are=20 required for this mode =E2=80=A2Acts as a conventional (non-RAID) controller when not=20 configured for RAID =E2=80=A2On-board BIOS supports booting from attached hard drive or=20 stripe set =E2=80=A2Auto-detects drive types and fine tunes to the best=20 performance for each =E2=80=A2Supports scatter/gather, multi-threaded, multi-tasking and=20 automatic FIFO threshold selection =E2=80=A2Provides two independent Ultra ATA channels for faster data=20 transfer =E2=80=A2Full support ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power=20 Interface) for advanced system power management
The FAQ refers to its boot capabilty and support for=20 non-hard disks.
Shame on you; you got me excited. You probably noticed that the FAQ mentions the board can boot HDD, and that it can operate ODD but there's nothing in there concerning ODD boot. The card is also built with a Silicone Image chipset, which from what I gather* won't boot an ODD and is just generally not friendly to ODD (such as running modern drives in pre-ATA mode). Flashable ITE 8212 boards are the only add-on controllers that I know of which will boot ODD and actually run burners well. There's no good reason they are so hard to find. THanks for trying though, its much appreciated. If anyone else knows where to buy, alternatives or how to install a ROM chip, drop a line.
Can't you boot off something else and then bootstrap into=20 the optical drive?
Installing a new ROM chip isn't practical, I'm afraid.
Firstly, there doesn't look to be one - the ROM is probably=20 built into the glue chip. Secondly, they are pretty high=20 density surface mount. Any idiot can change a DIL one.
Yes a trained technician could do it - you pay find a=20 helpful one in the electronics faculty of your local Uni.=20 Whether it would work afterwards in another matter.
If there was a discrete ROM chip, the next problem is=20 actually getting hold of the image file(s) for the new ROM.=20 They are likely to be very manufacturer/card/version specific.
If you had those files and you had a discrete ROM chip to=20 replace and you had a friendly technician and he had the=20 right skills and a chip programmer....
It is so unlikely to actually give you anything that works=20 that it really wasn't worth mentioning.
The FAQ didn't say it wouldn't - which is why I mentioned=20 it. I don't know if it will or won't - I can give it a try=20 if you like, I have a few of them.
The FAQ didn't say what updates were avialable from the=20 manufacturer. It may be worth checking. I only flash BIOS if=20 I have to, so haven't looked as these cards haven't given me=20 any problems.
Just because the card has a BIOS doesn't mean you have to=20 use it. If you have the skills to re-write a BIOS to do what=20 you want, you have the skills to patch into the bootstrap=20 chain and do what you want to - using firmware provisions on=20 just about any old card - as long as the BIOS chip on that=20 card is programmable. That old card probably won't work=20 anymore - as you have used its BIOS space for code for the=20 drive controller. Mind you, it is a b**er for anyone that=20 inherits the system - finding out that when he pulls the=20 multi-serial card, the RAID card "disappears"...
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