Unlock ACER MCP61PM-AM BIOS

I've been reading some posts that show sucessful bios unlocking. My Acer box (I know I know... retail comps suck but this thing was dirt cheap) doesn't have any options for clock adjustment and the option I need the most is in the RAID setup. When you enable RAID on this motherboard it enables it on ALL ports by default with NO option to disable on specific ports (just want to set up a raid array on ports 2 and 3). I have uploaded the bios to http://rapidshare.com/files/83259071/awdbios.bin.html. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

I did see that there is a modded bios for the Gateway version of this board. I tried flashing it with Winflash and gave an error that the bios file doesn't support bios locking(?).

 

Lol, here's some stuff your BIOS has hidden:
This is under Advanced BIOS Features:

Fid = Multiplier (goes from 4x to 25x)
Vid = Voltage (vcore) (goes from 0.3875v to 1.55v)

Some more stuff This is all you really need to overclock! All blacked-out options are hidden.
This is under advanced chipset:

CPU frequency = HTT (goes from 200 to 300)
K8<->NB HT Speed = HT (LDR) Multiplier, goes from 1x to 5x

 

Any hope on the RAID issue I mentioned?

 

I think there might be a chance. I could try enabling choosing disabled or enabled for each SATA port.

 

:d:d

 

Alright, I've modded the BIOS successfully as far as I can tell.

The link to the mod:
--removed due to bad result --

Changes:
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• Unlocks CPU Multiplier and CPU Voltage under Advanced BIOS Features -> CPU Feature
• Unlocks CPU Frequency (HTT), K8<->NB HT Speed (LDR Multi), K8<->NB HT Width (HT Width), and DRAM Configuration (with RAM settings, such as mem divider) all under Advanced Chipset Features
• Unhidden Spread Spectrum settings under Advanced Chipset Features
• Enables you to choose which drives to enable RAID

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Note: There is NO guarantee that this BIOS will work properly. I will NOT be held responsible if flashing goes wrong, or if the BIOS doesn't work on your system (or kills it). Flash at your own risk!

 

I'll let you know how it goes! Thanks!

 

Sigh... displays the video card post but won't go any further. Tried clearing the CMOS... no luck. Guess I'll have to borrow my friend's flash programmer (lucky this flash chip is socketed).

 

Hmm. Did you use WinFlash to flash it? If so, that might be the problem.

I'd use either a DOS-based flashing tool, or a built-in one in the BIOS.

 

Also, it's possible that your BIOS has a "fail-safe mode" and a backup BIOS. It should allow you to boot up your system and re-flash it. I see a "BIOS BootBlock" feature in your BIOS, and it's enabled by default.

You can also try taking out the CMOS Battery for 5 minutes or so, and putting it back in. See if your system boots up then.

 

How would the 'fail-safe mode' work. I tried taking out the battery, no-go.

 

Well, according to some article, it works by itself; the "bootblock code" does a checksum on the BIOS, and if it fails (indicating a corrupt BIOS), it would run off of the BootBlock code, and let you stick a floppy with the original BIOS and the flash tool on it to re-flash.

 

Found some articles about the recovery mode... that seemed to be broken as well since it never accessed the floppy drive. BUT... turns out another one of my motherboards was able to hotflash the chip... so I'm back up with the factory bios file. Guess I'll tempt fate and try flashing the mod file you sent me again to see if I get the same results. I'm not sure that it was winflash since it does do a verify and it passed all the way through (didn't crash).

 

No-go... something about this modded file it doesn't like.

 

BTW... which program are you using for these modifications? (If you can tell me).

 

Modbin6. It might be a problem with v2.01.02.

I just re-did the mod with v2.01.01 if you want to test:
http://rapidshare.com/files/83383841/M61MOD2.BIN.html

You're lucky that you have hot-flash available to you

Let me take that previous link off so someone else doesn't kill their board.

Changes in the new mod are the same, except I also unlocked "CPU temperature threshold" inside HardWare Monitor, and that I used v2.01.01.

 

This one works! Still a little strangeness in the RAID settings... I can set the specific ports to disable but then certain actions will reset them all to enable. I'll try to get a better description but I did get it to finally work. Thanks a lot!

 

No problem. I guess it was definitely a Modbin v2.01.02 problem.

Btw, did you use WinFlash or something else to flash it successfully?

I myself have not tested WinFlash, so I'd like to know

 

Flashed with Winflash, worked fine.