Genius G540 EPROM programmer: what’s inside and initial startup

Buying a G540 programmer

I have been collecting old EPROM chips for many years. Now I was curious what data these hold exactly. I am not looking for program data but more for character maps, hidden “Easter eggs” . Something like this Hack a day ((Hack a day on hidden photographs in old Mac ROM chips )) post.

So I went to ebay an bought one of this widespread available “Genius G540 ((G540 programmer on ebay))” EPROM programmers.

It came in a cardboard box and this were the contents

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Content of the Box: programmer, USB cable, QC card and a CD-R with the software on it
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The programmer: The built quality is surprisingly high. A flawless injection molded case and a good 3M-branded ZIF socket.
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Back of the programmer: Note the misspelled url

Of course I could not resist and opened the programmer.

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The PCB looks well build too
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back of the PCB
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detail of the PCB

 

Too bad I noticed the seal of warranty only after screwing the programmer back together.

Now to the software installation process.

I refrained from using the drivers from the CD-R and instead downloaded them from the stg51 website ((Driver & Software download page on the stg51 website))

The installation instruction is awful but it gets to the point and I had no problem installing the software. There were even (unsigned of course) x64 drivers for Windows.

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The installation guide. Awful English, even worse than my English ;-)

 

 Testing the programmer (reading an EPROM)

To test the programmer I picked an 512 kbit  EPROM from an Auerswald PBX.

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By clicking on select in the toolbar (3rd icon) this dialog shows up
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After confirming the chip by clicking “OK” this dialog with addition information is displayed telling you how to insert the chip
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I did as I was told…
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… and pressed the “read” button in the tool bar (4th from the right). The LED on the programmer started to blink and the progress bar showed the progress.
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After reading the EPROM the window is empty but the contents of the EPROM are in the program cache. So you need to press the “Save” button in the toolbar. I selected a binary format.
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Opening the binary file in Notepad2: looks good

 

 

 

 

18 thoughts on “Genius G540 EPROM programmer: what’s inside and initial startup”

  1. Hello friend.l have these g540 but you can’t type any chips numbers on it. Do you have any one can do that?

    1. @Joe Kimbriel
      The driver worked for my Win7 x64 computer but I’ve had the same problem when I tried to install the Programmer on an other computer. I haven’t figured out what’s the reason behind this.

        1. bummer! I have not used it with windows 10 yet. If I get to try it I will update my post.
          Thx for the feedback

  2. Did you try to burn this 27c512? The eprom needs 12v to enter in program mode so I dont know how it is working…. DC-DC Upstep?

  3. Hello,
    My Programmer wont be recognized by windows anymore, after normal use some days start ticking…
    it to be looks to be dead only Led is on but nothing else,

  4. Hi ,
    anyone got software for windows 7 ultimate 32 BIT? i tried to install original version G450 V 4.1 but cant connect to device. here my email >fauzi_intel@yahoo.com
    really need help. TQ

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