--- George Sanders george.sanders@freezone.co.uk wrote:

Is it possible that Amstrad have locked down the E3 so tight to make sure it can't be hacked and they are laughing at this???

Im fairly sure Amstrad do have plans to introduce a bootloader that uses RSA signatures to ensure the software it runs is properly signed so as to stop you running your own software on the E3 but so far nobody seem to have gotten an E3 from the shops with a new bootloader so it doesent appear that there is any thing to stop you, that said i havent had the chance to try my E3 which i have just bought. Even if they did change the bootloader it isnt an overly difficult job to desolder the NOR flash and reprogram it with the older bootloader then resolder it onto the board, A £15 "gascat" gas soldering iron from maplin with the hot air attachment will do for desoldering surface mount chips if you are carefull and you can put them back on with a normal soldering iron and some solder wick. And for programming the chips there are several cheap programmers available, im not sure what NOR chip the E3 uses but if its supported then the willem programmer is quite a good one (www.willem.org) there are several clones of this design available on ebay too. en4rab

-- | .-. en4rab@yahoo.com | / \ .-. | / \ / \ .-. .-. _ _ +--/------------/----------/------/------/--/-//--- | / \ / \ / '-' '-' |/ '-' '-' -END OF TRANSMISSION-

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