Updating Amiga 2088 Bridgeboard Firmware

Hello all,

I need assistance in upgrading my Commodore 2088 Bridgeboard (revision 3) to 3.6.1. It has a NMC27C128Q EPROM which I have erased and I have the latest binary for it. On my Willem GQ-4X4 EPROM burner, the closest match to the chip is a NMC27C128B in the database. It writes to the chip okay but when the card is fired up in the A2000 it can't find the janus.library, so the BIOS probably isn't working.

I have successfully reburnt my GVP HC+8 series 2 from version 3.15 to version 4.15, and that worked after writing twice to the chip with the second burn being with an offset of 0x4000. I'm assuming this doesn't need to be done to the 27C128 as it is smaller?

Thanks in advance.

The BIOS of the A2088XT is a 16 kB XT BIOS, so it uses the complete space in the 27C128 EPROM. The data check after burning is OK?

Yes, it verifies it as all good. I even tried a burn on the slowest write speed. Still not working.

obvious question.... did the bridgeboard work before when using the original bios? and if so you've learned a valuable lesson... never overwrite an original EPROM with something else, always use a new blank chip. that way you can go back to the old chip if things dont work.
also, try writing the original ROM back to the EPROM. you can find the file on the net, just google "380788-04"
FYI any upgrade BIOS for the 2088 will not give you anything you didn't have before. They are just bug fixes for obscure situations with other obscure hardware that you will never see now anyway. Just stay with the original BIOS.
Also FYI, Willem programmers are known to be suspect, especially the types that are powered from the USB port. Try burning it using a better quality EPROM programmer.
If you don't have one, find someone local who does. As a last resort, I'm over in WA and I have 8 EPROM programmers, so I can do it if you're desperate. In that case send me a PM.

Quick question. What other Zorro II cards do you have in your A2000? If all the 8MB of autoconfig space is used by other cards, the bridgeboard won't work.

I also have an A2088 bridgeboard which I'm going to modify to run at 9.54 MHz. I'll also upgrade the BIOS to the latest version as I have an EPROM programmer.

Might be a good time to start work on it now....

@A400Bear: That is exactly what the problem turned out to be. I changed my GVP HC+8 Series II card, with the jumpers, from 8MB to 6MB and my upgraded BIOS worked!

@Fordave1: I can't say I have had any problems with my Willem burner and I don't use an external power supply. I do realise that it in most cases a firmware update isn't needed for most hardware but I do like to do it for completeness and I do like tinkering. As for using the original chip, no big issue, I'm sure there is always someone that can help out if an issue arises, so no lesson learned, I will do it again since the eprom burning process wasn't an issue like I first suspected