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vholfx

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Hi,

I got a Universe Bios 3.3 for my MVS board and upon turning it on this is what I get (see image). I plugged the original bios back in and it works fine.

Is it a bad bios chip?

Thanks
 

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Either that or you plugged the chip in backwards!
 
out of curiosity,
what's the part number of each bios?
not the software, the actual chip part?

the bios uses 128k, but a lot of people use larger chips.
sooner or later someone will find a motherboard with the extra address lines floating!
 
I did not plug it in backwards, I triple checked because it's the first time I install a bios on the MVS.

Model is MV 1F (NEO-MVH SLOT1F).

Here's a picture of the original bios, in case it is useful at all.

I was going to just rule it out as a bad universe bios epromm, but the guy who sold it to me is telling me he needs to "check my MVS board and possibly mod it to take the bios". Which I find odd, as far as I know the universe bios is compatible with the MVS I have and I have not heard of any mods needed on the boards to take the chip. I could be wrong though, I'm new to this so yeah.
 

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Definitely compatible with MV1F, I installed one last week.

It's a dud chip, bad burn etc. He probably didn't erase it properly prior to burning.
 
That's what I thought right away, but the seller telling me he needs to check my PCB and fiddle with it made me weary, I might not trust him anymore, he might be just trying to get money swapping the bios and telling me had to do some mod/repair on my board. Lot's of those kind of folks around here.
 
There's no modification reqhired, so something isn't right there.

If you were local (Australia) I'd happily post one over.
 
did you not buy it from the official site?
 
o.k. so the original is a mask version of a 27c1024 - which we knew.
so what is the part number on the eprom?
 
27c240???
not even heard of that one.

well it will be using an extra pin that must be grounded or tied to 5v on the socket.
 
o.k. now i found it,
same as 27c4096 - 4 times the original size and with 2 extra pins that must be connected!
 
o.k. now i found it,
same as 27c4096 - 4 times the original size and with 2 extra pins that must be connected!
Wait, what do you mean 2 extra pins must be connected? connected to what and how?
 
Seems like a bad BIOS burn to me.
Those white boxes are pre-boot to bios.

With consideration to the V4 BIOs not available, out of curiosity, wouldn't somebody be able to just copy an existing V4 bios from a similar board and slot that sucker in?
Or are there restrictions from doing so?
 
@vholfx If you’re located in the US, I can flash a UniBIOS V3.3 chip for you for only the cost of parts and shipping.
 
With consideration to the V4 BIOs not available, out of curiosity, wouldn't somebody be able to just copy an existing V4 bios from a similar board and slot that sucker in?
Or are there restrictions from doing so?
No restrictions-the V4 UniBIOS chip isn’t locked down in any way. It’s just considered impolite to copy the latest available UniBIOS when the prior version is made freely available.
 
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