Just installed the UniBios!... (Piggyback)

Hello all,

As some of you may know, I'm pretty new to the neo scene. When I got my AES, I knew the first thing to get would be Razoola's excellent Unibios so I put in an order as soon as I could, then I looked at getting the mod professionally installed. (not wanting to hurt my AES) I contacted a few people and the best option seemed to be oldschoolgamer.ca, his price was very reasonable and in his e-mails he came across as incredibly helpful and friendly. However, with me being in the UK I didn't want to send my newly acquired console all the way to Canada and back...The other option was a neo specialist in London but they were quite expensive...So, I decided to have a crack at the install myself. I got hold of a cheapo Soldering iron, some 15k resistors and a 40-pin socket hoping initially to do the 'socket' install...But after much reading up and practising on an old PCB I decided that the socket method was out of my league...so, it was piggyback all the way.

The unibios arrived from Raz this morning so I set about the task immediately. The hardest part was cutting Pin-2 on the original BIOS. I had to do this with a razor blade making slight sawing motions. It seemed to take forever!, but it was the only option. Once this was done, I just followed the rest of the 'piggyback' instructions from the site. I only have very basic soldering skills, so I just took my time with the whole procedure and used the bare minimum of solder. Eventually I was all set...



...Admittedly it's not the best soldering job in the world, but I'm quite happy with it myself and it does the job so what more can I ask?

All that was left was to reassemble the neo, put in a game and power-on...



..You can just about see the serial number part on-screen, which is a nice touch I thought.

I just thought I'd post this for all the people who are unsure as to whether to install the unibios manually. It worked out alright for me, but I'd also like to say that if you have even the slightest doubt about installing the unibios yourself, let one of the pro's do it cos if you bust your neo, you'll end up sending it to the pro's anyway.

Thanks for reading...

Congratulations on installing the bios. This can be a tricky procedure.

Just a tip, you may want to resolder the wire at Pin #20. It looks to be dangerously close to Pin #19.

Once again, nice job!

Congratulations Dude
I wish I could do the same but since I don't have any idea of soldering, I just go to the pros.

For those that don't have the desolder equipment, you know you could also piggy-back the socket rather than the chip that way you can still upgrade easily in the future.

Jeff

JMKurtz said:

For those that don't have the desolder equipment, you know you could also piggy-back the socket rather than the chip that way you can still upgrade easily in the future.

Jeff

Click to expand...

Interesting....
Whare do I get the socket from?

HellioN said:

Interesting....
Whare do I get the socket from?

Click to expand...

Radio Shack sells 40-Pin sockets for a buck or two.

JMKurtz said:

For those that don't have the desolder equipment, you know you could also piggy-back the socket rather than the chip that way you can still upgrade easily in the future.

Jeff

Click to expand...

Jeff that is a really smart idea! It's a real bitch desoldering the old bios chip sometimes, especially the ground pins. How would I disable the old bios? Would I need to cut one of the pins that provides power to the chip?

Adamaki said:

Jeff that is a really smart idea! It's a real bitch desoldering the old bios chip sometimes, especially the ground pins. How would I disable the old bios? Would I need to cut one of the pins that provides power to the chip?

Click to expand...

You basically do the same piggyback mod but instead of putting the new chip on top you put the socket on top. Once done you simply place the new chip into the socket. You could even make a small switch to swap between the original bios and the one thats in the socket.

Raz

The same way you would mount the top chip. Disable the old bios by cutting Pin 2 and connect to +5v then bend out pin 2 of the socket and connect it to ground. Once done, just pop in a chip.

I don't do it this way since I have the tools to remove the bios, but for those that ask, this is how I tell them they should do it if they don't have the equipment to remove the old bios and still want to be able to upgrade easily in the future (if needed).

Jeff

Adamaki said:

Jeff that is a really smart idea! It's a real bitch desoldering the old bios chip sometimes, especially the ground pins. How would I disable the old bios? Would I need to cut one of the pins that provides power to the chip?

Click to expand...

This is the only one I can find, Will it work?
http://www.radioshack.com/product.a...name=CTLG_011_002_002_000&product_id=276-1996

HellioN said:

This is the only one I can find, Will it work?
http://www.radioshack.com/product.a...name=CTLG_011_002_002_000&product_id=276-1996

Click to expand...

You know, the one I sometimes purchase from RS is, in fact, the only 40-Pin IC socket they carry (at least in my area); but the picture connected to your link does not cosmetically represent the piece you *need*.

I'm just about positive that the Part # is correct. I'd go to one of their brick & mortar stores just to make sure.

Believe me I have no intentions of ordering such A small part over the net.
Shipping it would probibly cost more that the socket itself.
Their is1 in walking distance to my house.
I was basically just trying to get an idea of what to look for when I get off my ass & go.

HellioN said:

Beleive me I have no intentions of ordering such A small parot over the net.
Shipping it would probibly cost more that the socket itself.
Their are 3 in my area (1 in walking distance the outher 2 are A 5-10 min. drive away.)
I was basically just trying to get an idea of what to look for when I get off my ass & go.

Click to expand...

Ok, that sounds good. Simply ask the sales person where the IC sockets are. Like I said earlier, there's only (1) type of 40-Pin socket at my local RSs.

Good luck on the hunt.

Ebs said:

Hello all,

As some of you may know, I'm pretty new to the neo scene. When I got my AES, I knew the first thing to get would be Razoola's excellent Unibios so I put in an order as soon as I could, then I looked at getting the mod professionally installed. (not wanting to hurt my AES) I contacted a few people and the best option seemed to be oldschoolgamer.ca, his price was very reasonable and in his e-mails he came across as incredibly helpful and friendly. However, with me being in the UK I didn't want to send my newly acquired console all the way to Canada and back...The other option was a neo specialist in London but they were quite expensive...So, I decided to have a crack at the install myself. I got hold of a cheapo Soldering iron, some 15k resistors and a 40-pin socket hoping initially to do the 'socket' install...But after much reading up and practising on an old PCB I decided that the socket method was out of my league...so, it was piggyback all the way.

The unibios arrived from Raz this morning so I set about the task immediately. The hardest part was cutting Pin-2 on the original BIOS. I had to do this with a razor blade making slight sawing motions. It seemed to take forever!, but it was the only option. Once this was done, I just followed the rest of the 'piggyback' instructions from the site. I only have very basic soldering skills, so I just took my time with the whole procedure and used the bare minimum of solder. Eventually I was all set...

...Admittedly it's not the best soldering job in the world, but I'm quite happy with it myself and it does the job so what more can I ask?

All that was left was to reassemble the neo, put in a game and power-on...

..You can just about see the serial number part on-screen, which is a nice touch I thought.

I just thought I'd post this for all the people who are unsure as to whether to install the unibios manually. It worked out alright for me, but I'd also like to say that if you have even the slightest doubt about installing the unibios yourself, let one of the pro's do it cos if you bust your neo, you'll end up sending it to the pro's anyway.

Thanks for reading...

Click to expand...

Congrats, Ebs I once try to installed a uni-bios on my neo-geo aes console but its a bloody hell, I mean the soldering don't work good it wouldn't melt the pins and I almost end up ruining my neo-geo system.

got a link to how to piggy back

werejag said:

got a link to how to piggy back

Click to expand...

is this a question?

there are instructions to be found on the universe bios website i believe. Or you can google universe bios piggyback.

cheers,
-DT

i just performed the "piggyback" mod and got the garbled screen of death. I used a 10k 1/4 watt resistor instead of a 15k because i looked all over town and nobody had em'. However, the packaging says there is a 5% tolerance. Is it the resistor or did i just completely fuck up my AES? Ahhhhhhh help...

chazbc24 said:

i just performed the "piggyback" mod and got the garbled screen of death. I used a 10k 1/4 watt resistor instead of a 15k because i looked all over town and nobody had em'. However, the packaging says there is a 5% tolerance. Is it the resistor or did i just completely fuck up my AES? Ahhhhhhh help...

Click to expand...

Could be both. Could be the resistor and could also be you cut one of the 3 traces by pin 2 of the stock bios. What error do you get exactly?

I switched to the proper resistor. Still got nothing. When i apply pressure to the front side of the chip (the side with pins 1-20) it starts to function properly, however unibios won't work. should i give up and try to salvage?

Sounds like you didn't install it correctly. Did you solder all the legs down good? Also post a pic if you can.