Saturday, October 05, 2013

Creative Live (SB0220) EEprom Update

After some attempts to update my soundcard driver, under Windows Seven, I lost it. Looking at internet, I discover that that was possible on special circumstances, when the EEprom of the card, which contains special configuration data (MODEL, but I think that maybe vendor) get lost by incorrect data being written by the drivers working with bad behavior. A way to fix this, as said on some sites, was to desold the eeprom 93c64 and rewrite it outside the Sound Blaster Live card.
So I did that. And it work great! I follow the instructions of this website.
A note: my original eeprom was with mistake data. The board was one SB0220. I try in every way to install drivers to it, but always the software tell that the hardware was incompatible, or not present. I give up for some time, and desold the eeprom with hope to write it further. Since I didn't had an JEDEC socket to put the chip, I solder wires to the small part and re-write it on a protoboard, with a different version of the ROM. I use the original CT4760 from the above website, because I was unable to know if it was work or not, or if the problem was on the board.
Since I did not have at time any thought of how adjust my AN589 programmer to write 93c64 chips, I decide try to mount the most simple available programmer that I could find on web.
I create a programmer based on the SERIAL MICROWIRE BUS EEPROM. The site contains schematics and everything else to build the programmer easily. It work pretty well, as the software on Windows XP.
After some tests, and using a external power supply, I get it working and rewrite the eeprom.
Resolder it on the board, and voilà! It got bad in work. However the PCI report it as a RAID board. But after instaling the driver it work properly, and even do not said that the card is not present, or create background noise(a common problem when install wrong driver before). I thing that there are something bad solder on the board. I even do no if the EMU10K is with bad solder. I will try resolder the SMD sooner.
But now I try several drivers, and all them seen to work properly. Good for me! :)