K7S5A PRO Motherboard Bios question

  • Thread starter Thread starter David Dawson
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David Dawson

I have a K7S5A Pro Motherboard.
Is it possible for malware to re-write the bios on this board?
I haven't seen a jumper to inhibit write, so if there isn't one I guess I'd
need to get a spare bios chip just in case.

Anybody know about this? Can I inhibit writing the bios?

My normal OS is Debian Sarge and I run a firewall under iptables, but I need
to install XP on the other HD, so I don't want to lose the bios under some
darned virus or worm infection through Windows. I will run a firewall on it
too, but who knows if it will be compromised?


Thanx...,
 
David said:
I have a K7S5A Pro Motherboard.
Is it possible for malware to re-write the bios on this board?
I haven't seen a jumper to inhibit write, so if there isn't one I guess I'd
need to get a spare bios chip just in case.

Anybody know about this? Can I inhibit writing the bios?

My normal OS is Debian Sarge and I run a firewall under iptables, but I need
to install XP on the other HD, so I don't want to lose the bios under some
darned virus or worm infection through Windows. I will run a firewall on it
too, but who knows if it will be compromised?


Thanx...,
Click to expand...

Writing a spare BIOS chip is always a good idea. But there is a way
you can prevent a program from writing to your bios without much work.
There are two jumpers used on this MB for the purpose of selecting which
type chip your bios has. If you remove these chips, it removes the
voltage from pin #1 which is the enable voltage for writing to the chip.
Therefore, nothing can be written without this voltage present.
Simply write down their current position so that you can restore the
settings when you decide you want to upgrade the bios version.
 
Ken said:
Writing a spare BIOS chip is always a good idea. But there is a way
you can prevent a program from writing to your bios without much work.
There are two jumpers used on this MB for the purpose of selecting
which type chip your bios has. If you remove these chips, it removes
the voltage from pin #1 which is the enable voltage for writing to
the chip. Therefore, nothing can be written without this voltage
present. Simply write down their current position so that you can restore
the
settings when you decide you want to upgrade the bios version.
Click to expand...


There is a flaw in your plan, not so much a flaw as ruddy great hole. What
if, for whatever reason, he needs to flash the BIOS? If he removes the chips
the utility won't be able to write to it...
 
I have a K7S5A Pro Motherboard.
Is it possible for malware to re-write the bios on this board?
Click to expand...

I've never had this even since using old systems with win95.
All you have to do is copy a known good BIOs .rom to a floppy as per,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/awardflash.html
Covers AMI BIOS as well.

HTH :)


I haven't seen a jumper to inhibit write, so if there isn't one I guess I'd
need to get a spare bios chip just in case.

Anybody know about this? Can I inhibit writing the bios?

My normal OS is Debian Sarge and I run a firewall under iptables, but I need
to install XP on the other HD, so I don't want to lose the bios under some
darned virus or worm infection through Windows. I will run a firewall on it
too, but who knows if it will be compromised?


Thanx...,
Click to expand...



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Miss said:
There is a flaw in your plan, not so much a flaw as ruddy great hole. What
if, for whatever reason, he needs to flash the BIOS? If he removes the chips
the utility won't be able to write to it...
Click to expand...

I suggested he remove the JUMPERS, not the chip. When he decides he
needs to flash his current bios chip to a different version, he can
re-install the jumpers and he will then be able to flash it. Removing
the jumpers prevents a flash from taking place when he does not want it
to occur.
 
Ken said:
I suggested he remove the JUMPERS, not the chip. When he decides he
needs to flash his current bios chip to a different version, he can
re-install the jumpers and he will then be able to flash it. Removing
the jumpers prevents a flash from taking place when he does not want it
to occur.
Click to expand...

I just looked at my K7S5A MB and there are NO jumpers for the BIOS
chip. I was thinking of another MB I have. There is however a way to
accomplish the same thing. Pull the BIOS chip from its IC socket and
install it into a IC socket like the type mounted in the MB. Remove or
bend up the leg corresponding to pin #1 so that it does not connect and
push the IC socket with the EEPROM into the MB from where it was
removed. You will have removed the enable voltage from the EEPROM used
for bios. When you decide you wish to update the version of bios,
re-insert the EEPROM chip directly into the socket soldered into the MB.
 
Miss said:
There is a flaw in your plan, not so much a flaw as ruddy great hole. What
if, for whatever reason, he needs to flash the BIOS? If he removes the chips
the utility won't be able to write to it...
Click to expand...

A thousand apologies!!!!! I just looked up the data sheet on the
EEPROM in my K7S5A MB, and they no longer use pin #1 for the programing
voltage. Therefore, removing the voltage from it no longer prevents
programing of the chip as on some older EEPROMs.

The suggestion of programming a spare bios chip seems to be a good
strategy unless someone knows how to inhibit programming the chip. The
data sheet is at:
http://www.pmcflash.com/resource_center/docs/Pm37LV512 V1.3.pdf
 
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