VCS BIOS Related Discussions

[joeatari1]

4 hours ago, Dr Luveno said:

Thanks!  I hope so too.  I really like the hardware design, this really would have been perfect.  Support has escalated my case, we'll see what else they come up with.  

Just a thought, where do you live?  What kind of keyboard do you use?  The VCS currently only supports the U.S. QWERTY keyboard.  If you are using a QWERTZ or AZERTY keyboard the VCS will not recognize it.

[Dr Luveno]

1 minute ago, joeatari1 said:

Just a thought, where do you live?  What kind of keyboard do you use?  The VCS currently only supports the U.S. QWERTY keyboard.  If you are using a QWERTZ or AZERTY keyboard the VCS will not recognize it.

It's definitely not the keyboard, as I figured out the BIOS has an onscreen keyboard that you can use, and that didn't work with the celebrate password either.

[leech]

13 hours ago, Dr Luveno said:

I successfully installed Debian on the external drive on the VCS, but could not get the VCS to boot from it, with the VCS instead just booting into the onboard OS.

I think it has to be in a specific USB port, to auto boot, doesn't it?  Mine right now needs to have a keyboard, and I have to press escape as I boot so I can boot off the Debian installed internally.

[zzip]

15 hours ago, justclaws said:

I'm not disputing what you say, I'm just expressing my inability to understand what is happening,
in these very isolated cases. I think it's 4 users now, I've seen, across the net. Atari give out this
password, it's not leaked, and they have committed not to change it, so it's not a moving target.

Is there a list of all the passwords they have used?  I think there was at least one between Piano and the current?     I wonder if the BIOS attempt to update the password fails leaving it stuck on an older password?

[Zoyx]

31 minutes ago, zzip said:

Is there a list of all the passwords they have used?  I think there was at least one between Piano and the current?     I wonder if the BIOS attempt to update the password fails leaving it stuck on an older password?

Those are the only two that I know of.

[zzip]

47 minutes ago, Zoyx said:

Those are the only two that I know of.

I thought there was a password that made reference to voiding you warranty?  Or was that a joke?

[justclaws]

On 12/1/2021 at 2:18 AM, Dr Luveno said:

Unless I get a Hail Mary from somewhere, I'm going to have to return the VCS to Micro Center.  

Everything was sealed, when you got it, yes?
I wonder if it's a previous return, and somebody else had changed the password before.

Oh, and did you try just pressing <enter> with no password? One person said that worked for them, which is equally bizarre.
The only other solution is the very risky paper-clip fix, described before, but that's super risky.

I have on other idea, for you, but I have to check it first.

[leech]

Always check capslock!  Ha, not saying you didn't, but that happened to a co-worker earlier, and has certainly happened to me (which is why I love my Roccat keyboards that don't have Capslock).

[Dr Luveno]

It was a brand-new unit from Micro Center.  Empty password does not work either.

 

It's definitely not a typo or keyboard error, as I was able to use the on-screen keyboard to eliminate any ambiguity there.  

 

[Dr Luveno]

Returned it last night.  I really wanted it to work out, but I guess it wasn't the device for what I wanted/needed.

 

[john_q_atari]

On 11/30/2021 at 3:44 PM, Dr Luveno said:

That's the kinda thing an idiot would have on his luggage!

No. That would be 00000 ?

[leech]

1 hour ago, Dr Luveno said:

Returned it last night.  I really wanted it to work out, but I guess it wasn't the device for what I wanted/needed.

 

Shame, as it's a fun little device.  I actually haven't bothered unlocking my bios password actually.  I think I tried it before it was changed, but haven't since.

[Dr Luveno]

28 minutes ago, leech said:

Shame, as it's a fun little device.  I actually haven't bothered unlocking my bios password actually.  I think I tried it before it was changed, but haven't since.

Agreed, I really loved the look of it, and the APU horsepower was perfect for what I needed.

 

I'll be on the lookout for an equivalent-or-better mini-PC, but it won't have the look nor the $250 cost I was able to snag the VCS at.  I might give it another whirl if I see it blown out for $100 or something someday in the future.

[leech]

8 minutes ago, Dr Luveno said:

Agreed, I really loved the look of it, and the APU horsepower was perfect for what I needed.

 

I'll be on the lookout for an equivalent-or-better mini-PC, but it won't have the look nor the $250 cost I was able to snag the VCS at.  I might give it another whirl if I see it blown out for $100 or something someday in the future.

Cost of things is really weird.  Like the MiSTer for example.  Far less actual power than the Atari VCS.  Yet costs as much or more.  But the use cases are different.   The VCS can (with peripherals) be a pretty cheap PC.  The MiSTer can be as well... if you don't mind your PC being a midrange ST or Amiga or a 90mhz 486.  ?

[Tidus79001]

On 11/26/2021 at 10:29 PM, imajeff said:

Still nobody here has a passw after the "celebrate" one? I searched the other threads but only this one seems current (until now). I wish they let users have control of their own computers, like they said they would.

 

On 11/29/2021 at 6:57 PM, Dr Luveno said:

The "Atar!C3l3br8te$50Ye4r$" password does NOT work for me.  

 

I picked up a VCS 800 with the idea of using it as an upgrade to my Celeron J4125-based Batocera box. I plugged in the VCS and played around with it stock, letting it update and everything. After having my fun with the out-of-the-box experience, I went off to go play with Batocera on it.

 

I went to boot Batocera via USB, and I was a bit surprised by getting prevented from doing so due to security policy, but figured that was just something I could reconfigure in the BIOS. I hop into the BIOS (now updated to v23) and get password prompted. A little bit of Googling later, I see the "piano" and "celebrate" passwords and have at it. Nothing works. Small case "L", upper case "I" and so on. I used three different keyboards, different USB slots for them, no luck.  I contacted support and they confirmed that the "celebrate" password should work.

 

Doing some more Googling, apparently I'm not the only one dealing with this, but it appears inconsistent, with some folks being able to get in with the "celebrate" password and others not. I'll be driving back later this week to return this, unless someone has other ideas on how I can get Batocera booted on this thing.  I know I could install Ubuntu and Retropie, but Retropie it is a bit more janky than I'd prefer (it's what I had on my Celeron J4125 box before going with Batocera).

Reflashing the Atari VCS BIOS using the Atari VCS recovery image resolved the issue of the password not being accept for the Black Walnut console hat I purchased from Micro Center

There is a step you have to do that isn't in the guide, and you will need a keyboard for this.  If you don't have a keyboard it will only flash the Atari OS not resolve the issue.

 

• You need to use the keyboard and select the flash BIOS.  It downgraded the BIOS from 1.0.23 to 1.0.21
• You shouldn't need to reimage the Atari OS, but I did that as my first step before the BIOS.  If you find just fleshing the BIOS doesn't work then reimage the Atari OS, power off & then on again and flash the Atari VCS BIOS before the system boots into the Atari OS.  After that boot into the Atari OS and let the system update the BIOS.

I hope this helps anyone else who had the same issue of the BIOS password not being accepted.  The Atari VCS is a really amazing device and is shaping up to be a great console as well as the perfect entertainment PC solution for the living room.

Edited December 4, 2021 by Tidus79001

[Dr Luveno]

7 minutes ago, Tidus79001 said:

 

Reflashing the Atari VCS BIOS using the Atari VCS recovery image resolved the issue of the password not being accept for the Black Walnut console hat I purchased from Micro Center

There is a step you have to do that isn't in the guide, and you will need a keyboard for this.  If you don't have a keyboard it will only flash the Atari OS not resolve the issue.

 

• You need to use the keyboard and select the flash BIOS.  It downgraded the BIOS from 1.0.23 to 1.0.21
• You shouldn't need to reimage the Atari OS, but I did that as my first step before the BIOS.  If you find just fleshing the BIOS doesn't work then reimage the Atari OS, power off & then on again and flash the Atari VCS BIOS before the system boots into the Atari OS.  After that boot into the Atari OS and let the system update the BIOS.

I hope this helps anyone else who had the same issue of the BIOS password not being accepted.  The Atari VCS is a really amazing device and is shaping up to be a great console as well as the perfect entertainment PC solution for the living room.

Ooof, I just returned it last night.  Where's the BIOS flash utility and associated downloads?

 

Disabling secure boot aside, I guess my second issue would have been having to manually select PC Mode to go into Batocera, as opposed to just having the machine boot up as a Batocera-first machine?

 

[Tidus79001]

1 minute ago, Dr Luveno said:

Ooof, I just returned it last night.  Where's the BIOS flash utility and associated downloads?

 

Disabling secure boot aside, I guess my second issue would have been having to manually select PC Mode to go into Batocera, as opposed to just having the machine boot up as a Batocera-first machine?

 

I'll send you the details in PM

[Zoyx]

After I disabled secure boot, I installed a boot loader on my USB drive. The boot loader menu let me select Atari OS, Windows that was installed on the internal m.2 drive, and Ubuntu on the USB drive.

 

Are you on the pre-order list for the Steam Deck? That seems like a better deal than the Atari right now.

[zzip]

On 12/4/2021 at 3:07 PM, Tidus79001 said:

 

Reflashing the Atari VCS BIOS using the Atari VCS recovery image resolved the issue of the password not being accept for the Black Walnut console hat I purchased from Micro Center

There is a step you have to do that isn't in the guide, and you will need a keyboard for this.  If you don't have a keyboard it will only flash the Atari OS not resolve the issue.

 

• You need to use the keyboard and select the flash BIOS.  It downgraded the BIOS from 1.0.23 to 1.0.21
• You shouldn't need to reimage the Atari OS, but I did that as my first step before the BIOS.  If you find just fleshing the BIOS doesn't work then reimage the Atari OS, power off & then on again and flash the Atari VCS BIOS before the system boots into the Atari OS.  After that boot into the Atari OS and let the system update the BIOS.

I hope this helps anyone else who had the same issue of the BIOS password not being accepted.  The Atari VCS is a really amazing device and is shaping up to be a great console as well as the perfect entertainment PC solution for the living room.

Awesome, this info needs to be stickied!  

[zzip]

On 12/4/2021 at 3:17 PM, Dr Luveno said:

Disabling secure boot aside, I guess my second issue would have been having to manually select PC Mode to go into Batocera, as opposed to just having the machine boot up as a Batocera-first machine?

 

Depends on where you install Batocera,   if you put it on USB, it should boot by default when it's plugged in.   You could also set up a nice boot manager like reFind or Grub (that's easier than the built-in BIOS one) to choose which environment to boot into.

[Tidus79001]

On 12/4/2021 at 3:17 PM, Dr Luveno said:

Ooof, I just returned it last night.  Where's the BIOS flash utility and associated downloads?

 

Disabling secure boot aside, I guess my second issue would have been having to manually select PC Mode to go into Batocera, as opposed to just having the machine boot up as a Batocera-first machine?

 

Did you get another Atari VCS and manage to get BIOS access?

[NISMOPC]

Another MicroCenter owner here. I upgraded memory to 16GB DDR 3200 and added a 240GB M2 internal SSD yesterday. I was able to downgrade BIOS to 21 to use celebrate password and increase memory speed, etc., but after reboot BIOS was updated to 23 and now BIOS password does not work. ?

 

I also tried reinstalling OS/BIOS via USB stick which worked just fine, but during boot up it updated again and password is invalid.

[Tidus79001]

4 minutes ago, NISMOPC said:

Another MicroCenter owner here. I upgraded memory to 16GB DDR 3200 and added a 240GB M2 internal SSD yesterday. I was able to downgrade BIOS to 21 to use celebrate password and increase memory speed, etc., but after reboot BIOS was updated to 23 and now BIOS password does not work. ?

 

I also tried reinstalling OS/BIOS via USB stick which worked just fine, but during boot up it updated again and password is invalid.

Hmmm, that is odd.  My password remained the celebrate password after being update again to 1.0.23.  Not sure why you would be getting a different one, but maybe it depends on you OS build as to what password gets set on the next BIOS flash.  Did you flash only the BIOS or did you reimage eMMCthe with a fresh copy of the Atari OS?  I did both as I discovery that OS refresh doesn't include the reflash of the BIOS as both are separate process that can be launched.

[NISMOPC]

1 minute ago, Tidus79001 said:

Hmmm, that is odd.  My password remained the celebrate password after being update again to 1.0.23.  Not sure why you would be getting a different one, but maybe it depends on you OS build as to what password gets set on the next BIOS flash.  Did you flash only the BIOS or did you reimage eMMCthe with a fresh copy of the Atari OS?  I did both as I discovery that OS refresh doesn't include the reflash of the BIOS as both are separate process that can be launched.

I tried both ways. Well actually multiple ways and the same occurred no matter which way I did it. I'll give it another try today after work. Maybe I overlooked something on my end.

[zzip]

4 hours ago, NISMOPC said:

Another MicroCenter owner here. I upgraded memory to 16GB DDR 3200 and added a 240GB M2 internal SSD yesterday. I was able to downgrade BIOS to 21 to use celebrate password and increase memory speed, etc., but after reboot BIOS was updated to 23 and now BIOS password does not work. ?

 

I also tried reinstalling OS/BIOS via USB stick which worked just fine, but during boot up it updated again and password is invalid.

Do the BIOS changes you make under 21 keep when it upgrades to 23?