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12-11-05, 03:10 PM
I have the eVGA Nf41 SLi Motherboard. eVGA has a large Logo on the startup of the machine. It is very annoying as the regular post screen will display usefull information. eVGA has left no way for the user to turn off thier post screen except editing the BIOS file and completly removing the images from the BIOS and then reflashing.
I would like to modify a BIOS in such a way that there is an option to turn on or off the eVGA Post Screen. I remember when I was playing around with Abit Nf7-S modded BIOS that sometimes the author would move around options or add some options, ect. How would I go about adding an option to remove the eVGA post screen from within the BIOS?
Also here are the instructions to delete the Poast Screen from the BIOS entirly.
Originally posted by TEtherton at this location:
http://evga.com/community/messageboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8855&whichpage=1
Steps:
Download the latest bios from evga.com (I performed this on the NF41 SLI myself):
http://www.evga.com/Support/Drivers/Default.asp
Direct links to E42 which is currently the latest as of 11/10/05
NF41 - ftp://evga.com/NF41_E42.bin
NF43 - ftp://evga.com/NF43_E42.bin
Next, download the utility you will use to alter the above BIOS .bin file (CBROM 2.07) @ biosmods.com - http://www.biosmods.com/download/award/cbrom207.zip
Extract cbrom207.zip into some directory (C:cbrom for this example). Copy your bios file into the C:cbrom directory as well.
Now change to the C:cbrom directory and run the following command to ensure that the version of CBROM you have is compatible with your BIOS file (NF41 BIOS used in this example):
cbrom.exe NF41_E42.bin /d
The output should look like this:
CBROM V2.07 (C)Award Software 2000 All Rights Reserved.
******** NF41_E42.bin BIOS component ********
No. Item-Name Original-Size Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
0. System BIOS 20000h(128.00K) 1351Ah(77.28K) NF41.BIN
1. XGROUP CODE 0E2F0h(56.73K) 099C9h(38.45K) awardext.rom
2. CPU micro code 02000h(8.00K) 00390h(0.89K) CPUCODE.BIN
3. ACPI table 05FDBh(23.96K) 01FDEh(7.97K) ACPITBL.BIN
4. EPA pattern 0168Ch(5.64K) 002AAh(0.67K) AwardBmp.bmp
5. YGROUP ROM 0F4A0h(61.16K) 044E3h(17.22K) awardeyt.rom
6. GROUP ROM[ 0] 05320h(20.78K) 023D4h(8.96K) _EN_CODE.BIN
7. Other(40B5:0000) 01C00h(7.00K) 00B38h(2.80K) _ITEM.BIN
8. OEM0 CODE 0C300h(48.75K) 00A94h(2.64K) BSMICODE.ROM
9. PCI driver[A] 0C000h(48.00K) 064EDh(25.23K) NVRAID.ROM
10. PCI driver[ ] 10000h(64.00K) 070C7h(28.19K) CK804PXE.NIC
11. Other(4067:0000) 01EEEh(7.73K) 00A3Fh(2.56K) AGESACPU.939
12. LOGO BitMap 4B30Ch(300.76K) 01330h(4.80K) EVGA2.bmp
Total compress code space = 5B000h(364.00K)
Total compressed code size = 366A1h(217.66K)
Remain compress code space = 2495Fh(146.34K)
If you only see a couple of lines and/or a bunch of garbage, STOP now - this will not work for you. Although for us, since we are using Award BIOS, nobody should encounter this problem. Looking at the above output, you'll see the last line (#12) is the infamous eVGA bitmap logo that splashes across our BIOS POST screens. We want to remove that, so issue the following command to do so (note: this only removes it from the BIOS file - this program does NOT interact directly with your BIOS):
cbrom.exe NF41_E42.bin /LOGO Release
This will remove the logo file from the NF41_E42.bin BIOS file. You can check this by once again running the following command against your newly edited file:
cbrom.exe NF41_E42.bin /d
Output is now missing line #12 as evidenced in the following:
CBROM V2.07 (C)Award Software 2000 All Rights Reserved.
******** NF41_E42.bin BIOS component ********
No. Item-Name Original-Size Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
0. System BIOS 20000h(128.00K) 1351Ah(77.28K) NF41.BIN
1. XGROUP CODE 0E2F0h(56.73K) 099C9h(38.45K) awardext.rom
2. CPU micro code 02000h(8.00K) 00390h(0.89K) CPUCODE.BIN
3. ACPI table 05FDBh(23.96K) 01FDEh(7.97K) ACPITBL.BIN
4. EPA pattern 0168Ch(5.64K) 002AAh(0.67K) AwardBmp.bmp
5. YGROUP ROM 0F4A0h(61.16K) 044E3h(17.22K) awardeyt.rom
6. GROUP ROM[ 0] 05320h(20.78K) 023D4h(8.96K) _EN_CODE.BIN
7. Other(40B5:0000) 01C00h(7.00K) 00B38h(2.80K) _ITEM.BIN
8. OEM0 CODE 0C300h(48.75K) 00A94h(2.64K) BSMICODE.ROM
9. PCI driver[A] 0C000h(48.00K) 064EDh(25.23K) NVRAID.ROM
10. PCI driver[ ] 10000h(64.00K) 070C7h(28.19K) CK804PXE.NIC
11. Other(4067:0000) 01EEEh(7.73K) 00A3Fh(2.56K) AGESACPU.939
Total compress code space = 5B000h(364.00K)
Total compressed code size = 35371h(212.86K)
Remain compress code space = 25C8Fh(151.14K)
Now all that is left to do is flash the edited NF41_E42.bin file into your BIOS. To do so, you will first need to reboot your computer and repeatedly hit DEL to get into your BIOS, go into Miscellaneous Control and set Flash Write Protect to Disabled. Boot back into windows and use nTune (install this from your motherboard driver CD if you haven't already) to update your system bios. Be sure to check all three options for Update boot block, Clear CMOS, and Automatic reboot.
I would like to modify a BIOS in such a way that there is an option to turn on or off the eVGA Post Screen. I remember when I was playing around with Abit Nf7-S modded BIOS that sometimes the author would move around options or add some options, ect. How would I go about adding an option to remove the eVGA post screen from within the BIOS?
Also here are the instructions to delete the Poast Screen from the BIOS entirly.
Originally posted by TEtherton at this location:
http://evga.com/community/messageboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8855&whichpage=1
Steps:
Download the latest bios from evga.com (I performed this on the NF41 SLI myself):
http://www.evga.com/Support/Drivers/Default.asp
Direct links to E42 which is currently the latest as of 11/10/05
NF41 - ftp://evga.com/NF41_E42.bin
NF43 - ftp://evga.com/NF43_E42.bin
Next, download the utility you will use to alter the above BIOS .bin file (CBROM 2.07) @ biosmods.com - http://www.biosmods.com/download/award/cbrom207.zip
Extract cbrom207.zip into some directory (C:cbrom for this example). Copy your bios file into the C:cbrom directory as well.
Now change to the C:cbrom directory and run the following command to ensure that the version of CBROM you have is compatible with your BIOS file (NF41 BIOS used in this example):
cbrom.exe NF41_E42.bin /d
The output should look like this:
CBROM V2.07 (C)Award Software 2000 All Rights Reserved.
******** NF41_E42.bin BIOS component ********
No. Item-Name Original-Size Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
0. System BIOS 20000h(128.00K) 1351Ah(77.28K) NF41.BIN
1. XGROUP CODE 0E2F0h(56.73K) 099C9h(38.45K) awardext.rom
2. CPU micro code 02000h(8.00K) 00390h(0.89K) CPUCODE.BIN
3. ACPI table 05FDBh(23.96K) 01FDEh(7.97K) ACPITBL.BIN
4. EPA pattern 0168Ch(5.64K) 002AAh(0.67K) AwardBmp.bmp
5. YGROUP ROM 0F4A0h(61.16K) 044E3h(17.22K) awardeyt.rom
6. GROUP ROM[ 0] 05320h(20.78K) 023D4h(8.96K) _EN_CODE.BIN
7. Other(40B5:0000) 01C00h(7.00K) 00B38h(2.80K) _ITEM.BIN
8. OEM0 CODE 0C300h(48.75K) 00A94h(2.64K) BSMICODE.ROM
9. PCI driver[A] 0C000h(48.00K) 064EDh(25.23K) NVRAID.ROM
10. PCI driver[ ] 10000h(64.00K) 070C7h(28.19K) CK804PXE.NIC
11. Other(4067:0000) 01EEEh(7.73K) 00A3Fh(2.56K) AGESACPU.939
12. LOGO BitMap 4B30Ch(300.76K) 01330h(4.80K) EVGA2.bmp
Total compress code space = 5B000h(364.00K)
Total compressed code size = 366A1h(217.66K)
Remain compress code space = 2495Fh(146.34K)
If you only see a couple of lines and/or a bunch of garbage, STOP now - this will not work for you. Although for us, since we are using Award BIOS, nobody should encounter this problem. Looking at the above output, you'll see the last line (#12) is the infamous eVGA bitmap logo that splashes across our BIOS POST screens. We want to remove that, so issue the following command to do so (note: this only removes it from the BIOS file - this program does NOT interact directly with your BIOS):
cbrom.exe NF41_E42.bin /LOGO Release
This will remove the logo file from the NF41_E42.bin BIOS file. You can check this by once again running the following command against your newly edited file:
cbrom.exe NF41_E42.bin /d
Output is now missing line #12 as evidenced in the following:
CBROM V2.07 (C)Award Software 2000 All Rights Reserved.
******** NF41_E42.bin BIOS component ********
No. Item-Name Original-Size Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
0. System BIOS 20000h(128.00K) 1351Ah(77.28K) NF41.BIN
1. XGROUP CODE 0E2F0h(56.73K) 099C9h(38.45K) awardext.rom
2. CPU micro code 02000h(8.00K) 00390h(0.89K) CPUCODE.BIN
3. ACPI table 05FDBh(23.96K) 01FDEh(7.97K) ACPITBL.BIN
4. EPA pattern 0168Ch(5.64K) 002AAh(0.67K) AwardBmp.bmp
5. YGROUP ROM 0F4A0h(61.16K) 044E3h(17.22K) awardeyt.rom
6. GROUP ROM[ 0] 05320h(20.78K) 023D4h(8.96K) _EN_CODE.BIN
7. Other(40B5:0000) 01C00h(7.00K) 00B38h(2.80K) _ITEM.BIN
8. OEM0 CODE 0C300h(48.75K) 00A94h(2.64K) BSMICODE.ROM
9. PCI driver[A] 0C000h(48.00K) 064EDh(25.23K) NVRAID.ROM
10. PCI driver[ ] 10000h(64.00K) 070C7h(28.19K) CK804PXE.NIC
11. Other(4067:0000) 01EEEh(7.73K) 00A3Fh(2.56K) AGESACPU.939
Total compress code space = 5B000h(364.00K)
Total compressed code size = 35371h(212.86K)
Remain compress code space = 25C8Fh(151.14K)
Now all that is left to do is flash the edited NF41_E42.bin file into your BIOS. To do so, you will first need to reboot your computer and repeatedly hit DEL to get into your BIOS, go into Miscellaneous Control and set Flash Write Protect to Disabled. Boot back into windows and use nTune (install this from your motherboard driver CD if you haven't already) to update your system bios. Be sure to check all three options for Update boot block, Clear CMOS, and Automatic reboot.
Table of Contents
Decompress it with winrar, modify the strings, adjust the size of the system bios back to premod size by modifying text strings, readd to dummy bios with cbrom (to compress), add the compressed module back to bios with cbrom, adjust chksum.
DISCLAIMER first:
I did do this. It worked for me perfectly. This might not be the case with you. If you don't find a Bios flashing tool for your mainboard, if you are not fluent with creating dos boot disks for Bios flashing, if you fear to loose your mainboard when flashing fails - this page is not for you. No guarantees.
Risk of damage to your mainboard exists!
What?
I own an Elitegroup K7S5A Pro board - cheapo mainboard with onboard integrated sis900 chipset and RPL support. Of course I didn't want Novell bootloading, so I decided to put Etherboot into the BIOS.
AMI-BIOS
If you have an AMI Bios, a recent one preferrably, chances are you could succeed in putting Etherboot into it. At your own risk, to mention it again.
You NEED:
A clean DOS bootdisk (without
config.sys
and autoexec.bat
, optimally) which also has the aminf335.exe
on it (at least for me, version may differ), the amibcp75.exe
(ask google where to get it, maybe some russian sites carry it and one .zrom
file from Rom-O-Matic for the respective network card - in my case for the sis900. btw beware - there were some bugs with the sis900 specially. You will need 256k free on the disk. If that's not possible, you could have the amibcp75.exe
on any fat harddrive as well, but ROM and flash utility should reside on the floppy. - Boot from this diskette. Use
aminf335.exe
to extract the current bios to a file on the disk like(it worked for me specifying /sbios.rom twice, really). - Be sure to get a copy of this disk and put it to a save place, just in case something bad happens.
- You then need to modify the bios.rom file by adding the etherboot.rom file (let's call it
ebsis900.rom
for example). - Choose edit bios modules. Locate any module of
type 20
(it should have the PCI ID of your network card on the very right hand of the listing) and hit Del to remove it. Then hit Insert and inputebsis900.rom
to insert the module. Make sure that the same PCI ID is shown. Activate compression and enter that screen - confirm to save changes. Then you save the bios file and exit. - If you have a board with built-in video, you probably don't want to remove the video BIOS, so save the type 20 modules to a disk, and look at them with strings or hexdump -C to see what they're for.
- If you are very sure what you are doing, you now can flash the new
bios.rom
file:and reboot. - You will have to enter setup, load defaults, adjust all values. After the next reboot, if available, F12 should bring you etherboot. Alternatively, you should be able to choose BBS0 as boot device.
- If you get into trouble as etherboot does not show up here or hit any mistake, please comment to the etherboot users mailing list.
Btw: I succeeded in adding a rom for a non-onboard NIC (namely an Realtek 8169-based Gigabit PCI NIC) too.
AWARD BIOS
This section added by Timothy Legge:Note: I own an Eprom Programmer. I made a backup copy of my bios chip before attempting this. If you don't or you didn't, I am not responsible for your non functional PC.
- Obtain cbrom from http://www.stormpages.com/crazyape/cbrom.html
- CBROM 6.xx is for Award BIOS 6.0 series only
- Obtain the latest copy of the bios for you motherboard or use the flash utility for YOUR motherboard to extract your current bios:
- Note the amount of free space available in the file
- Verify that the rom was added:
- Apparently you can also use modbin6.exe in place of cbrom for Award (and Phoenix?) BIOS.
How to recover from a bad flash:
Using a MB that does boot…
BIOS chips can be removed once the computer has booted (i.e. while it's still running). You can boot using a known good BIOS chip, remove the good chip, insert the faulty BIOS chip and reflash it.
More information
More information can be found in the web, for example on http://www.wimsbios.com/index.jsp