ROM updates for NEC Ready 9618

[Jackson]

Does anyone have these personally archived? My NEC has a nasty bug with IRQs that prevents some tools from properly working and crashes Windows 2000 while booting, and even if you enable a workaround, that leaves everything except Windows 2000, which freezes at "Setup is starting Windows 2000." I want to see if any later BIOS fixes this. I originally thought this was the temporary IDE BIOS that I hacked in that was causing these shenanigans, but I was wrong.

 

[jafir]

There are some archives of the necam ftp site on archive dot org and maybe some other places too. Might be worth a look there. I was able to find some newer setup disks for my powermate.

 

[Jackson]

There's a Microid Research file for a Ready 9522, which uses the same board as the 9618. Too bad it seems I can't actually flash it on my machine-- at least the contents it doesn't like. There is an undocumented ROMREC jumper, but it does absolutely nothing worth of value. Don't make me have to pull out the programmer...

 

[ArtiomWin]

There are some archives of the necam ftp site on archive dot org and maybe some other places too. Might be worth a look there. I was able to find some newer setup disks for my powermate.

NECAm FTP didn't have files for consumer models. I'm also looking for BIOS update files, so I've checked over there. There was an earlier FTP address, nectech.com, but it wasn't archived.

 

[Jackson]

So I tried booting the Microid Research BIOS in an emulated PowerMate V environment within 86box. The PowerMate V uses the same board as the 9618. Given this, it's unsurprising that Microid Research did not care for what this board even was nor did they even try. Attempting a boot results in a black screen with no POST code available. Given that you can't flash the ROM at all, it seems like there were no updates and that it solely depended on what model was manufactured at the right time.

Later today, I'll be using a checked copy of Windows NT 4.0, which also crashes, to delve into the situation. If there is a BIOS bug, patching it without having to flash the programmer will be tricky-- either through a TSR hijack or a direct patch to whatever DLL, SYS, or EXE is having issues (the better option). It may be simply that my dead battery causing the BIOS to not set all NVRAM tokens properly, even if you are able to set the NVRAM through the BIOS once.

 

[Jackson]

I finally installed NT, but it was tricky. You have to force NTOSKRNL to be loaded by replacing NTKRNLMP. As always, select the Standard PC HAL. You may also need to explicitly set this in BOOT.INI, too-- even when only those files are installed-- along with perhaps /pcilock and /use8254. Ordering of the options may be important here.

As for BIOS updates, it seems that most of these systems, if not all, were never meant to be upgraded. However, they all share the same board, including with the late '95 PowerMate series. They can be easily dumped with a DOS port of flashrom, so as long as you type the following:

-p internal:laptop=this_is_not_a_laptop

I dumped mine myself, and will get it uploaded somewhere shortly. Right now, 2/22/96 seems to be the latest BIOS version that I know of. A 9522 motherboard is being sold with version 2.10 of an unknown date; yes, the 2.x BIOS is newer than the 4.x BIOS of the Powermates.

 

[ArtiomWin]

Finally, I was able to find BIOS update for your board.

 

[KanaKonpaku]

There's a Microid Research file for a Ready 9522, which uses the same board as the 9618. Too bad it seems I can't actually flash it on my machine-- at least the contents it doesn't like. There is an undocumented ROMREC jumper, but it does absolutely nothing worth of value. Don't make me have to pull out the programmer...

Hi, I've been working on a Ready 9522, and have been looking for a BIOS file for this specific model but can't find it anywhere. Might I ask where you found the Microid Research file for this model? Thank you.