Hi, I have a GA-G31M-ES2L motherboard that has a useful Dual Bios feature. Unfortunately it also comes with a really ugly Dual Bios logo on the POST screen, which I want to remove. May seem like a silly endeavor but it is the only thing standing between me and that nostalgic boot screen I remember from childhood.
I watched a nice video by Bits und Bolts on how to change the top right EPA logo, and I thought I could try something similar.
First step: backup up the current BIOS image. Uniflash doesn't work for my system (I don't think it supports it) - the Flash option itself is disabled, and its BIOS backup to file is incomplete. Next I tried Gigabyte's own @BIOS utility, and that output a 512 KB image which seems to be complete.
Running CBROM to display details of the original BIOS image gives this
Code:
CBROM V2.20 (C)Phoenix Technologies, Ltd 2001 All Rights Reserved.
******** ORIGBAK.BIN BIOS component ********
No. Item-Name Original-Size Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
================================================================================ 0. System BIOS 20000h(128.00K)1493Fh(82.31K)tt.BIN
1. XGROUP CODE 0E610h(57.52K)0A279h(40.62K)awardext.rom
2. ACPI table 042D4h(16.71K)0195Bh(6.34K)ACPITBL.BIN
3. EPA LOGO 0168Ch(5.64K)0030Dh(0.76K)AwardBmp.bmp
4. GROUP ROM[18] 03560h(13.34K)023F7h(8.99K)ggroup.bin
5. GROUP ROM[20] 028C0h(10.19K)01E8Dh(7.64K)ffgroup.bin
6. YGROUP ROM 0C300h(48.75K)06748h(25.82K)awardeyt.rom
7. GROUP ROM[22] 0F630h(61.55K)006A9h(1.67K)tgroup.bin
8. GROUP ROM[23] 0F630h(61.55K)0015Bh(0.34K)t1group.bin
9. GROUP ROM[24] 0F630h(61.55K)0055Eh(1.34K)t2group.bin
10. GROUP ROM[ 0] 078C0h(30.19K)02D5Ah(11.34K)_EN_CODE.BIN
11. VGA ROM[1] 0C000h(48.00K)078C6h(30.19K)BLB_1471.DAT
12. Other(4069:0000) 07400h(29.00K)07433h(29.05K)MEMINIT.BIN
13. PCI ROM[A] 0A800h(42.00K)06479h(25.12K)AR8131.lom
14. LOGO1 ROM 00B64h(2.85K)00520h(1.28K)dbios.bmp
15. Other(4067:0000) 022ADh(8.67K)00BD6h(2.96K)PPMINIT.ROM
16. OEM0 CODE 03006h(12.01K)022A6h(8.66K)SBF.BIN
Total compress code space = 66000h(408.00K)
Total compressed code size = 471B6h(284.43K)
Remain compress code space = 1EE4Ah(123.57K)
** Micro Code Information **
Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID
------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------------
SLOT1 0A 0F32|
Next I used "cbrom orig.bin /logo1 extract" to extract the EPA file (disguised as a bmp file) to disk. I used EPACoder 1.52 to convert it to a BMP, opened the BMP in paint, colored it all black, and then saved it. When I opened the modified BMP file in EPACoder, I got this: https://imgur.com/a/IEvDHlN ("Non-standard Image dimensions: "BiosLogo.bmp"! Load anyway?" -> OK -> Are you really sure? -> Yes)
My guess is that the dimensions of the energy star EPA logo and the dual bios logo are different, and the EPACoder application has been hardcoded to check if the uploaded BMP's dimension matches the standard energy star logo's dimensions.
Anyways, I convert it back to EPA and saved it. Then I used CBROM to add it back to the BIOS image:
Code:
>cbrom orig.bin /logo1 dbios.bmp
CBROM V2.20 (C)Phoenix Technologies, Ltd 2001 All Rights Reserved.
Adding dbios.bmp 2.0%
where I renamed the modded EPA file to "dbios.bmp" since that's the name the dual bios image file had in the original BIOS image.
The modded BIOS image gives following details in CBROM:
Code:
CBROM V2.20 (C)Phoenix Technologies, Ltd 2001 All Rights Reserved.
******** mod.bin BIOS component ********
No. Item-Name Original-Size Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
================================================================================ 0. System BIOS 20000h(128.00K)1493Fh(82.31K)tt.BIN
1. XGROUP CODE 0E610h(57.52K)0A279h(40.62K)awardext.rom
2. ACPI table 042D4h(16.71K)0195Bh(6.34K)ACPITBL.BIN
3. EPA LOGO 0168Ch(5.64K)0030Dh(0.76K)AwardBmp.bmp
4. GROUP ROM[18] 03560h(13.34K)023F7h(8.99K)ggroup.bin
5. GROUP ROM[20] 028C0h(10.19K)01E8Dh(7.64K)ffgroup.bin
6. YGROUP ROM 0C300h(48.75K)06748h(25.82K)awardeyt.rom
7. GROUP ROM[22] 0F630h(61.55K)006A9h(1.67K)tgroup.bin
8. GROUP ROM[23] 0F630h(61.55K)0015Bh(0.34K)t1group.bin
9. GROUP ROM[24] 0F630h(61.55K)0055Eh(1.34K)t2group.bin
10. GROUP ROM[ 0] 078C0h(30.19K)02D5Ah(11.34K)_EN_CODE.BIN
11. VGA ROM[1] 0C000h(48.00K)078C6h(30.19K)BLB_1471.DAT
12. Other(4069:0000) 07400h(29.00K)07433h(29.05K)MEMINIT.BIN
13. PCI ROM[A] 0A800h(42.00K)06479h(25.12K)AR8131.lom
14. Other(4067:0000) 022ADh(8.67K)00BD6h(2.96K)PPMINIT.ROM
15. OEM0 CODE 03006h(12.01K)022A6h(8.66K)SBF.BIN
16. LOGO1 ROM 00B64h(2.85K)0005Eh(0.09K)dbios.bmp
Total compress code space = 66000h(408.00K)
Total compressed code size = 46CF4h(283.24K)
Remain compress code space = 1F30Ch(124.76K)
** Micro Code Information **
Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID
------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------------
SLOT1 0A 0F32|
When I flash the original image to BIOS using Gigabyte's DOS flash utility, it goes normally and there are no issues. But when I flash the modded image to BIOS using the exact same procedure, I get this:
https://imgur.com/s8VkGic ("MAIN BIOS CHECKSUM ERROR!")
I don't understand what's going wrong. The changing compressed size of the logo1 EPA file shouldn't be an issue I think, since even in Bits und Bolts' video, his EPA logo file size changes (compare
https://youtu.be/t2MsCUewvNk? si=5zG6BQ8vSP6afdDw&t=406 vs.
https://youtu.be/t2MsCUewvNk?si=hKvq2TIw0nCMPXI6&t=424).
Anyone has any idea on how to solve this thing and finally get rid of that dual bios logo? Thanks
,
