TL866II Bios Programmer

[bigbeark]

Well, I see that I last posted on the subject of BIOS programmers Many years ago now. At that time I bought a Willem Programmer 5.0 which has the Parallel port and USB connectors. I never figured out how this was intended to work whether it was powered from the USB, the Parallel port on the card, or both. I never found a printer cable to make it work so that was a waste of $50.

There is now the TL866II programmer which has only the USB connectivity. Phil's Computer Lab on YouTube has a demonstration of the use of this new programmer.

Has anyone used on of these newer ones?

I note that there are very cheap programmers that can flash soldered on bios chips using a spring clip. These fit only 25-series BIOS chips which are physically smaller than the older removable chips. Apparently most modern motherboards use this type of BIOS chip. If you brick your motherboard the only way of recovering is to use one of these clamp-on flashers.

Interested to know your thoughts.

I have at least two boards with corrupted BIOSes.

My dead Abit UL8 is now giving a BIOS code 14 on my PCI Bios reader card.
The next code would be 16 which is Bad Checksum on the BIOS.

I have a P3TDLR Super-Micro board which also has a scrambled BIOS

[stj]

Re: TL866II Bios Programmer

866-II+ is a damned good programmer with regular software updates.
i have one - works in windows AND Linux.

it comes in 2 versions,
standard with the green chipsocket, and black edition with an ARIES socket.
the black one is much higher quality.

the official shop is here:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32992209964.html

and the software is released on the forum here:
http://forums.xgecu.com/viewthread.php?tid=20&page=1

[piernov]

Re: TL866II Bios Programmer

I have both an RT809F and a TL866II, and yes they are good products with decent software (unlike CH341A).
They work for all 24-series and 25-series EEPROM, and they support a bunch of other stuff like the PLCC32 chips (get a socket for that) if you work with older desktop boards and the parallel DIP chips if you work with even older boards, or desktop monitor ISP programming for the RT809F and TSOP48 NAND for the TL866II (RT809F is supposed to support them as well but it didn't work for me).

I'd definitely recommend against using a clip. Better always desolder the chip and put it inside a SOIC8 200mil socket (or solder it onto an adapter board) to flash it.

[bigbeark]

Re: TL866II Bios Programmer

Thanks so much, stj and pternov!

I found what I need on the recommended site. There's a black socket model with 2 cards attac to the main socket: A PLCC socketed card which will take the removable BIOS chip common to all my 939 and 775 boards, and another one to which you can solder the newer style 6-leg soldered in place BIOS chips. Cost is about $53USD.

I found instructions for the T56 programmer on the forum page, but not for the TL866II.
I downloaded the Install software but the PDF that supposedly contains English Instructions was unreadable.

I am assuming you guys have loaded the software and the result is an applet you can click on that starts a GUI in English that you use to program your chip.

I did not see any mention of Linux compatibility on the site.

Please comment.

[stj]

Re: TL866II Bios Programmer

you install the software and it has an icon to start it like any other program.
instructions arent really needed - the software is clear - also runs a demo mode without the programmer.

to use Linux you need wine and a special dll you add to the programmers folder from here:
https://github.com/radiomanV/TL866

[mon2]

Re: TL866II Bios Programmer

@bigbeark, do you still own the PARALLEL port programmer?

Just googled for more information about that unit and some of the details are:

1) the parallel port cable should be a DB25M to DB25F with straight through wiring. Keep this short as possible for the best signal integrity. This cable should be with 25 wires, fully loaded. Consider a PARALLEL cable and NOT a serial cable extension which will not offer the proper shielding.

2) the power source is from:

a) the USB cable

OR

b) the barrel (coax) power jack with 9-12 VDC in

3) Next, this design is bit-banging to communicate with the target device to be programmed over the parallel port interface. Respectively, the parallel port will most likely be legacy style (ie. 378h, 278h, 3bch I/O addresses). This means that the parallel port should be ONBOARD the motherboard for the best results.

Although rare, they still exist. Add on ports will ONLY work if there are supporting device drivers for this widget to operate at non-legacy i/o ranges (ie. 4068h, etc.). This could get difficult.

The docs state that the port should be configured for EPP mode but suspecting highly that PS2 mode will work which is a bidirectional interface.

EPP demands a handshake and an intelligent state machine on the programmer which I do not immediately see onboard.

The USB programmer may be the best solution and know that you can buy some for $20 CAD or less on amazon.ca - we did this recently. The same programmer is under $10 in Shenzhen.

Hope this helps.

PS: We have been designing add-on adapters for the PC industry for the past 35+ years and OEM to all the big players in the PC industry. Have numerous parallel port adapters (PCI, uPCI, PCIe) with different features on the market. Shout back if you need any assistance. BTW - We are in Windsor and build locally and in Markham.

[bigbeark]

Re: TL866II Bios Programmer

thanks stj and mon2. Yes I still have the parallel port programmer but I would need both a PLCC32 add-on card plus the parallel cable so I agree the USB programmer is my best bet.

[stj]

Re: TL866II Bios Programmer

with PLCC adapters, be a bit carefull.
there are 2 types.
28pin dil to 32pin plcc,
32pin dil to 32pin plcc

you need the one that matches the chip in dil form.
generally, 8k-64k is 28pin, 128k-1M is 32pin

i have lots of adapters - some home made.
they can add up fast if your not carefull - specially if you also need soic and tsop