on 9/4/03 9:57 AM, Jeff Walther at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Unfortunately, I've never written the details down. There are three > or four surface mount resistors that require moving. When I do > this, I just set the Promise card next to my VST card and move them > accordingly. I've never noted which resistors and I've seen at least > two versions of the Promise card with slight variations in the > required modifications. > > One of the resistors is under the Flash chip. So that must be > removed. The easiest way would be to clip the pins and then > desolder the (32) pins one by one, but then you'd need a replacement > chip and some way to program it. So I usually do this the hard way > and get all 32 pins to come loose at once so I can reuse the chip. A > replacement can run $10 or more, which kills any economy in this > conversion. > > One version of the Promise card has a 66 MHz half can oscillator on > the board which must be removed. Another version does not. > > Once all the resistors are in place, getting the firmware in place is > still a pain. The firmware updater from VST will not update the > card unless it already has VST firmware on it. > > So, what I do is to install a socket where the Flash chip goes. > Then plug in a programmed Flash chip from a real VST card. Then > install the card in a computer and run the flash updater, but stop at > the last step before it updates the firmware. > > Then oh so carefully, with the machine turned on, and the Promise > card in the PCI slot, pull the flash chip from the socket and install > the flash chip that you desoldered from the card). Then click on > the last button in the firmware updater, and it will program the VST > firmware into the chip which formerly had PC firmware on board. > > You can see that in addition to the difficult desoldering, you really > need to have an original (or copy) VST card already in hand, because > you need a programmed flash chip in order to fool the firmware > updater into working. > > Jeff Walther
Sounds like it would be easier to get a software wiz to decompile and remove the code from the updater that checks for the VST firmware. My 2� Shawn -- SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED] | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
