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Does anyone have a suntac 286 motherboard with Phoenix, Ami, or Award bios roms.

Robin4

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Sep 25, 2011
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Iam looking for the almost or latest versions of these bios roms.

Is there anyone who can help me with this problem cause they are really hard to find nowdays..

I specially looking for the versions with diagnostic roms..
But if you have something different what i can use i will give it a try.
 
What type of roms are installed on your motherboard? Does it also have the diagnostic rom? Can you also tell me which version it is.
 
I've got a Magitronic 286 with a Suntac chipset, according to the strings in the file it is "80286 ROM BIOS PLUS Version 3.10", *but* this does not have a built in setup of any kind, and is limited to hard disk types in a ROM table, so I would not recommend it.

Is this a generic AT board or something proprietary? Other generic AMI/Award 286 BIOSs should work fine in it. The only thing that should care that it is specifically a Suntac chipset is the EMS driver (If you have it set to use EMS).
 
@ stone do you maybe have a copy of these roms?



I've got a Magitronic 286 with a Suntac chipset, according to the strings in the file it is "80286 ROM BIOS PLUS Version 3.10", *but* this does not have a built in setup of any kind, and is limited to hard disk types in a ROM table, so I would not recommend it.

Is this a generic AT board or something proprietary? Other generic AMI/Award 286 BIOSs should work fine in it. The only thing that should care that it is specifically a Suntac chipset is the EMS driver (If you have it set to use EMS).

Iam looking specially for the original roms because i want to have the EMS option to be open.. And if i using the bios files from a different brand or chipset based board, it could gave me problems in the near future, id really like to tackle that, then have to solve this twice, what would be a waste of time.
 
I need 27c128 and or 27c256 type of eprom.. Is it interchangeable with 27c512? Or do i need specific the first two.

I have ordered new 27c256 eproms that are underway, but have 27c512 laying on my table?


Is there anyone who has a manual from one of this boards? All of those suntac boards look the same, but the jumper / header positions on the board are different..
 
Iam looking specially for the original roms because i want to have the EMS option to be open.. And if i using the bios files from a different brand or chipset based board, it could gave me problems in the near future, id really like to tackle that, then have to solve this twice, what would be a waste of time.
Then you will have to specify exactly what make/model/brand of board you are talking about.

You might try the AMI 286 bios posted here:
http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/bios/bios.htm
 
Then you will have to specify exactly what make/model/brand of board you are talking about.

You might try the AMI 286 bios posted here:
http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/bios/bios.htm

Those are only for IBM 5170 system.. Actually it can work, but wont match it with the original ones that supports EMS on the motherboard it self.






The boards look like this one
suntac_286_mama1.jpg


two or three looks the same like this, only header / jumper positions are different on these boards.
 
Can you send it to me (by email or so?) Are those with two eproms? Iam looking for the ones with Hi and Lo eproms.

Here you are; but unfortunately it's the one 27256 eprom version (mask rom on the board I have).
Maybe it will work on your board if you split this rom image in half and burn two 27128s?
 

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My one, a long AT format board with DS1287-based RTC (but still with place for rechargeable battery) has Award 3.03HL. No diagnostic ROM, only simple setup invoked by Ctrl-Alt-Esc.
Deinterlaced two 23C128 dumps to one, date shown up in the last bytes:
I'm attaching it if you want to reverse-engineer more information from it.
My board is different than one in the picture - it has 4 SIPP sockets near its outer edge.

->elwro07
It looks like your is newer, but I analyzed Your ROM too, there is no start-up message in it. Maybe you have the second chip or it's compressed.

EDIT:
Elwro07, I tried to check Your BIOS dump. It has both halves, even and odd, in series. Probably mainboard has its addressing made this way. In another attachment - a two-chip version for Author of topic and deinterlaced dump for analysis, its date string in it is 11/21/90.
 

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Last edited:
Just in case someone was interested, i have a suntac based motherboard called "M bay-1000C".

It's BIOS is Quadtel (c) 1989, 1990. It has user definable HDD types, and a low-level format option.

The motherboard is a bit different to those posted above. It accepts SIMMs, in a weird socket that you have to push
directly down, like with DIMMs. I have yet to find an easy way of getting them out, really awkward.

If anyone's interested I can do a bios dump, although i believe Quadtel is not a great bios.
 
@elwro07 Your BIOS Image looks very interesting as it seems to be possible to switch between EMS + XMS in Bios...usually this is a DIP-switch.
I have tried to use the split-file done by MCbx and also did it on my own...but it doesent run in my board.

The BIOS-image from MCbx works however.

So elwro07 what kind of board do you have? Its also unusual that yours run with 10 MHz ... usually its 8 and 12. Is it possible that it is like this one? This one has also only one BIOS-Chip:
http://shrani.najdi.si/?3x/3l/1qpI3TRb/dsc0625.jpg
from this topic
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=44609&
?

I have uploaded my BIOS images here
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=53419&p=577812
You are welcome to add ;-)
 
Here you are; but unfortunately it's the one 27256 eprom version (mask rom on the board I have).
Maybe it will work on your board if you split this rom image in half and burn two 27128s?


@elwro07 Your BIOS Image looks very interesting as it seems to be possible to select between EMS + XMS in Bios...usually this is a DIP-switch. I have tried to use the BIOS-split done by MCbx and also did it on my own...but it doesent run in my board.

The one from MCbx (303_hl) works however.

So elwro07 what kind of board do you have? Its also unusual that yours run with 10 MHz ... usually its 8 and 12. Is it possible that it is like this one?
http://shrani.najdi.si/?3x/3l/1qpI3TRb/dsc0625.jpg
from this topic
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=44609&
?

I have uploaded my BIOS images here
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=53419&p=577812
You are welcome to add ;-)
 
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