Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

[Koda]

So I got this board from my cousin, its a Foxconn A7VMX AM2/AM2+ mobo. Checking the pics from the manufacturer's website it shows the chip in the socket and the mobo I got is without that chip and the socket is empty. Normally I would test the mobo to see but I'm having a hard time finding a AM2 CPU to test it. Does anyone know what this chip is and will the mobo work without it? I'm hoping it's for some non critical features. Here are some pics from the net showing where the chip is located.

[spleenharvester]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

Looks like it could be the BIOS chip mate? You can get replacements and they look pretty similar.

[Gabriel]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

I guess you are missing the bios chip, 8Mb flash eeprom.

[Time2Retire]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

Can't really tell from the pics, but it look like you need something like this:

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/flash-...chips/7117972/

[Koda]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

Wrong, that is not the bios as the bios is located at the top right corner of the mobo next to the ram slots. look at this pic, bios chip market with green, label clearly reads AmiBios 636 and some other stuff. I would think a bios to a more advanced mobo wouldn't be on a dip-8 chip. Maybe some sort of backup?

[Per Hansson]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

The thing you marked in green is not a BIOS chip, it's probably the legacy controller for things like PS/2, Serial and such stuff (ISA based)

The small 8 legged IC is the BIOS, it is a SPI based BIOS (SPI stands for Serial Peripheral Interface and explains how it needs so few legs to do it's work, it's like SATA for your HDD to make a crude comparison)

[shovenose]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

I will agree with Koda here, that the BIOS is up by the RAM. Just try it! If you need an AM2 CPU I've got some, send me a PM and I'll send one your way cheap.

[Koda]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

Per Hansson I would agree with you had I not located the BIOS chip already but it is there and I can read actually
shovenose thanks for the offer and I would take you up on it but I'm from Macedonia and no paypal here
Do you accept moneybookers/skrill?

[Uranium-235]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

could be a nic bootrom

[Time2Retire]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

You may be right. If you zoom in on this picture, you can see the first two letters on the sticker are "AM", as in AMIBIOS.

http://i00.i.aliimg.com/wsphoto/v0/6...ect-What-s.jpg

Here's another pic, without a sticker on the chip:

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/upload...D%E6%8E%A2.jpg

[Koda]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

You may be right. If you zoom in on this picture, you can see the first two letters on the sticker are "AM", as in AMIBIOS.

The thing is I know I'm right, I read the sticker on the chip and it clearly says AMIBIOS. Now I'm trying to find out if the spi is a critical component that would stop the mobo from booting or not.

[Time2Retire]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

The thing is I know I'm right, I read the sticker on the chip and it clearly says AMIBIOS. Now I'm trying to find out if the spi is a critical component that would stop the mobo from booting or not.

If you look at when I posted that comment, it was at the same time you posted yours. Be a little gracious, will you!

[Gabriel]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

The chip in top right corner is not the bios chip, it's a general purpose I/O chip for lpc,fdc,kbc,acpi and for hardware monitoring.

The chip in top right corner is not a 8Mb flash eeprom.

Take the sticker off the chip and post the markings on it, pretty sure it will be a ITE I/O chip compatible to Winbond 83627.

[mariushm]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

SPI is not a component, it's a communication protocol through which data from a flash or eeprom chip is sent or received.
If it's not a bios chip, it could be something else.

I would suggest following the traces from that socket and see where they go, but it's quite possible they go inside the board, in some layer you can't visually see.

Can't really imagine what would be in a DIP format nowadays other than flash/eprom chips (like the bios chip but not bios)

I would also say it's some kind of firmware chip, maybe for firmware for an extra sata controller that is optional on that board, or maybe for boot from lan for the network card?

PS. And I agree with Gabriel - that chip with lots of pins near the ram is the chip that handles legacy stuff like ps 2, serial, and stuff like temperature sensors and all kinds of minor stuff .. the sticker may say "amibios" but that may very well be put there because it was the only large enough area to put the sticker on. It doesn't mean it's the BIOS chip.

[mariushm]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

OK, found this review of the "sister" of your motherboard, the Foxconn A7GMX:

http://article.tech-labs.ru/28_7263_2.html

If you check the pictures, it clearly says "SPI_SOCKET" on the board where the socket is. That's definitely a EEPROM/FLASH chip
If you try hard, you can probably also read the exact part number from the pictures.

And if you still think that chip with lots of pins is the bios chip, have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_I/O - you can see the ITE chip in the pictures on that page, it's a series of chips that's very popular for io chips.

[Gabriel]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

Wrong, that is not the bios as the bios is located at the top right corner of the mobo next to the ram slots. look at this pic, bios chip market with green, label clearly reads AmiBios 636 and some other stuff. I would think a bios to a more advanced mobo wouldn't be on a dip-8 chip. Maybe some sort of backup?

A 8-pin dip is good enough for bios, even the Maximus V Extreme uses 8 pins dip for bios but a 64Mb chip instead for 8Mb chip as yours.

could be a nic bootrom

Bootroms are normally on 8 pin soic's close the controller itself.

The thing is I know I'm right, I read the sticker on the chip and it clearly says AMIBIOS. Now I'm trying to find out if the spi is a critical component that would stop the mobo from booting or not.

The board will not post missing this chip.

The sticker is there because thats the only place they could place it, I have seen the same on MSI boards too.

[Phaihn]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

I have a few amd Sempron am2 cpus I replaced with Athlon 64x2 cpus.

[Koda]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

Ok guys, I stipulate to the fact that the SPI chip is the BIOS and that the mobo would not boot without it. Next step, suggest chip replacements, will any run of the mill SPI flash rom chip work or does it have to be the one chosen by the mobo manufacturer?

[Gabriel]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

You could buy a chip on ebay pre programmed - bios chip

[gilly1984]

Re: Empty SPI socket on Foxconn motherboard, will it work?

I have one of them on a dead foxconn mobo. Its a winbond chip.

Not sure of what numbers are written on it but could find out if you need it.