How do you shut up Betty?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Papaman
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Papaman

I have her disabled in the bios on my A7N8X Dlx.. but her disembodied voice
still haunts me!!!

Is there another way to shut her up?
 
Papaman said:
I have her disabled in the bios on my A7N8X Dlx.. but her disembodied voice
still haunts me!!!

Is there another way to shut her up?
Click to expand...

If no one else gives you an answer, here are some ideas, listed in
order of increasing violence:

1) The BIOS has both a "Speech POST Reporter" and a "POST Complete
Report" setting. Are they both disabled ?

2) Using the Voice Editor, fill all the voice samples with a DC
signal. In other words, don't plug in a microphone and make
short samples for each response, then write them back to the
EEPROM chip next to the Winbond hardware monitor. When the
Winbond chip tries to talk, each voice sample will be a
"flat line". (The Voice Editor is a 17MB or so download from
the Asus site, if you don't already have it.)

3) Another option is to unplug the 8 pin plastic DIP from its
socket. Turn off the power to the computer and unplug the power
from the wall. Use a pen knife or other small object to gently
pry the 8 pin plastic chip out of its socket. It is the chip
with the "GEN 1.02" paper label on it in the user manual.
Look in the lower left hand corner of the board. The chip
should be of type W55xx, where the xx corresponds to the size
of the device capacity wise. Store the chip in anti-static foam
and make note somewhere (like in your manual) of the orientation
of the chip, so you can put it back the correct way later.

Without the serial EEPROM in its socket, the Winbond chip won't
have any voice samples or any control scripts to run. AFAICT
the SDA and SCLK signals on the Winbond monitor will still allow
the BIOS to read the voltages for the Hardware Monitor function.

Verify that I have the correct chip here:

http://www.winbond-usa.com/products/winbond_products/pdfs/PCIC/w83791sd.pdf

What is not clear to me, is how the BIOS manages to implement the
control function over the Winbond chip. One way to do it, would be for
the BIOS to change some bit inside the W55xx chip, but due to the lack
of details in the "datasheet", it is hard to verify how it works.

4) The output is on pin 9 of the Winbond chip (48 pin device). It is
a current mode output. Shorting it to ground would stop Betty,
without damaging the chip. The current should be limited to 12ma.
Due to the tiny pins and tight spacing, it really isn't practical
to try this. If you short the wrong pin, something nasty could
happen.

HTH,
Paul
 
I have her disabled in the bios on my A7N8X Dlx.. but her disembodied voice
still haunts me!!!

Is there another way to shut her up?
Click to expand...
I've been married to my Betty for 53 years,if you ever find out how to
shut her up let me know. lol Thanks Granpa
 
Yes, there is another way to shut her up.. Install the Winbond Voice Editor
found on your CD that came with the motherboard. You can use it to
edit/delete the message you are hearing and then burn it to the chip.
BUT... That won't cure the cause of the problem. What is Betty saying?
If she is saying "system failed CPU test" then you need to check your power
supply. That was what cured mine, a power supply transplant. The 3.3V rail
was fluctuating out of spec. Now, if she's saying "system failed memory
test", then you need to check your Bios settings for the memory you have.
You can still shut her up with Winbond, but I would suggest curing the cause
of the message for peace of mind.

Hope this helps!!! Been there, done that..

Tocapet
 
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