Wiwynn open compute board bios repair/replace upgrade.

[Klee]

I can't find a jumper to reset the bios, tried removing the battery for a while but the board is still dead so I am hoping there is a bios reset somewheres on the board.

Anybody know if it does?

I know where the bios chip is and I really prefer not to try to jump pins on the chip itself.

 

[JSchuricht]

Pull the battery and short the battery terminals for a few seconds.

 

[Klee]

Pull the battery and short the battery terminals for a few seconds.

Yep, already tried that right after I posted the question.

I just don't know if the bios is corrupted or if the board is bad.

How interchangeable are the Quanta's and Wiwynn's, are the nodes swappable?

I can get a Quanta board pretty cheap, I know they will physically interchange I just don't know if they can be swapped.

I contacted the seller of the Wiwynn server to see if they would sell me a bare board.

 

[Klee]

I swapped bios chips on one of the working nodes with the chip from the node that does not boot and now it has the same problem so its looks like the bios is bad and not the board.


I have been wanting to get a bios programmer for a long time and now I guess its the time.

 

[Klee]

Well I ordered a couple of bios chips and a programmer off ebay so I should have the dead node working in a few days.

 

[Marsh]

Before the prom chip programmer, if the bios chip is in a socket,
may be you could hot swap the "bad" bios chip to flash it.

 

[Klee]

Before the prom chip programmer, if the bios chip is in a socket,
may be you could hot swap the "bad" bios chip to flash it.

I tried that, it did not work.

I had to use a pci-e mining riser to get the video card away from the slot riser in order to access the bios chip.

That took a pci-e usb riser and a powered pci-e powered by another power supply.

The bios chip sits in one of those sockets with the doors that latch it into place.

I was able to get windows 7 booting fine but as soon as I released the chip it would immediately shut down.

So I spent less than $20.00 on two bios chips and a cheap programmer.

On the plus side, mining with gpu's on it might just be doable.

 

[voxadam]

Are you able to get the system to boot with a modern GPU? I was under the impression that something about these machines (e.g. firmware whitelists) precluded using them with new GPUs.

 

[Patriot]

Just a note on your setup.... Antistatic bags are conductive... that is how they are anti-static... the surface doesn't build up a charge because it is all 1 conductive surface...

 

[Klee]

Just a note on your setup.... Antistatic bags are conductive... that is how they are anti-static... the surface doesn't build up a charge because it is all 1 conductive surface...

Not according to my multi-meter, I tested a few a while back and zero conductivity on all of them.

And to double check I just tested them again and its the same.

 

[Klee]

I have received my replacement and unflashed bios chips, two of them, so I'm just waiting on the cheap usb programmer.

 

[RackGears]

I have issue with modern GPU GTX 710 DDR5 2GB. It doesn't work. I need to use debug console for output. I doubt if the firmware/bios could support them.

 

[Klee]

Supposed to receive the programmer tomorrow........taking long enough.

 

[Klee]

I have issue with modern GPU GTX 710 DDR5 2GB. It doesn't work. I need to use debug console for output. I doubt if the firmware/bios could support them.

Updating the bios for v2 cpu's and some newer stuff, raid cards, nvme drives seems to be doable on older boards, I have not seen anyone online that has modded a bios to use a newer gpu on older boards that only works with older gpu's.

 

[Klee]

Are you able to get the system to boot with a modern GPU? I was under the impression that something about these machines (e.g. firmware whitelists) precluded using them with new GPUs.

Thats an old Dell oem AMD pcie video card, have not tried any newer.

 

[RackGears]

Updating the bios for v2 cpu's and some newer stuff, raid cards, nvme drives seems to be doable on older boards, I have not seen anyone online that has modded a bios to use a newer gpu on older boards that only works with older gpu's.

Make sense. Will buy some old cards from second sale

 

[MiniKnight]

Aren't these cheaper than a bios programmer?

 

[Klee]

Aren't these cheaper than a bios programmer?

What is cheaper?

 

[MiniKnight]

What is cheaper?

The barebones systems.

 

[Klee]

The barebones systems.

Nope, when I said cheap programmer I meant cheap programmer !!

$6.32 with FREE shipping !!

I had to solder the chip adapter pins to the chip adapter.

And the silkscreen chip orientation was backwards on the adapter so that meant that the 3.3 v input was on the ground pin and the 3.3 v pin was grounded out.

I have never felt a bios chip get that hot before.

Yep one chip deaded.

But after I found a video on youtube the the guy mentions that issue, I tried another and it detects the chip correctly now.