A project to reflash corrupted BIOS chips.

Affordable BIOS Restoration Tool

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This project aims to bring the capability of reprogramming BIOS chips to the average hobbyist. Professional EEPROM programmers are just to expensive for the average hobbyist to justify buying. Especially when the need for a programmer comes up so rarely. But when you need one you are usually in a bind with no other option.

With this tool you no longer have to hold your breath while you flash your motherboard, PDA, or similar electronic device. In the last five years I have had about ten failed flash upgrades and two failed PDA upgrades. In some cases I could track down the motherboard manufacturer and mail the chip to them, other times I couldn’t find a contact and the motherboard became a paperweight. Luckily the PDA’s were under warranty but I dread to think what the cost would have been if they had not been. In all cases I was out of system for several weeks. A bad BIOS flash is the Achilles heel of a computer, having an affordable option to recover from these situations seems very valuable.

But failed upgrades are not the only times that a programmer comes in handy... 

· If you do any work trying to get Linux to run on your embedded devices than you will appreciate having an affordable and flexible programmer. I have been meaning for years to attempt to get LinuxBIOS to run on some 3COM Audrey’s I have sitting around. An affordable programmer should bring such a project into the realm of possibility.

· If you plan on designing any embedded systems a programmer for can be an invaluable tool for verification. Being able to verify that a JTAG based flash worked as you expected could be the difference between your embedded system working and not working.