40GB: 04/07/1999-i440BX-W977-2A69KA1JC

40GB: 04/07/1999-i440BX-W977-2A69KA1JC

by **jamin** » Thu Aug 01, 2002 3:11 pm

Hi there,

I have no idea what I am doing, but I want to update my BIOS ...

I have a new Maxtor 40GB HDD that wont detect with my current BIOS. The details of my board, chipset and BIOS are ::

BIOS Date: 04/07/99
BIOS Type: Award Modular BIOS v4.51PG
BIOS ID: 04/07/1999-i440BX-W977-2A69KA1JC
BIOS Eval: GREEN AGP/PCI/ISA SYSTEM
Chipset: Intel 440BX/ZX rev 3

Can any one tell me what to do, or show me where to go from here?

Thanks in advance,

Jamin.

by **NickS** » Thu Aug 01, 2002 4:02 pm

Hi Jamin
If you look at the main Wim's BIOS site there is an FAQ which helps with this.
Ignoring the FAQ for a moment, you have an Award BIOS, so if you click on "Award BIOS IDs" it tells you how they break down. The last bit, 2A69KA1JC, splits into 2A69K=Intel BX/ZX chipset, A1= Abit, and JC is defined by the manufacturer, hopefully indicating which board.

Having found A1 in the list=Abit, click on Abit and it takes you to the "Manufacturers links" page. There's a list of IDs there; unfortunately, 2A69KA1JC is not found. Taking another approach, a search on Google for "2A69KA1JC" turns up a Matrox Meteor-II PC Compatibility List which identifies it as Abit BX6. SO then it's off to ABit at the url given in the Manufacturer's Links to find "Downloads"/"BIOS"/"PX6" where there is a choice of BIOSes. The latest two support discs >40 Gb. WHile you're at ABit, download any other stuff for PX6 which will help you confirm that it is your board.

Hope that helps.
update: downloaded that BIOS and the string says 2A69KA1AC which is what the list in Wim's says for BX6. The Matrox info may be wrong, so don't flash until we've found more info.

by **NickS** » Thu Aug 01, 2002 4:18 pm

OK, your mobo appears to be BX6 V2.0 with the 2Mbit flash chip. the latest bios at ABit is version QR (BRXQR.exe) with BIOS ID

04/26/2000-i440BX-W977-2A69KA1JC-QR. Read all the instructions about how to flash....

by **jamin** » Thu Aug 01, 2002 4:22 pm

Wow! Thanks for the speedy response!

I forget that when its 2:30 am here (New Zealand) its gonna be about 2:30pm there! (GMT+12)

Any way, I followed you instructions, got the bios file, but am apprehensive as to what I do now ...

I know that nothing will happen without a prompt, so I run the file. It creates a *.BIN file. Now that I have the *.BIN file (the new BIOS?) I need a FLASHER to install it, right? And, will the FLASHER give the option to back up my original BIOS?

Thanks again for your help! Is much appreciated!

Jaimn.

by **jamin** » Thu Aug 01, 2002 4:23 pm

IGNORE ABOVE!!! s**t that was quick! Thanks again!

by **jamin** » Thu Aug 01, 2002 6:03 pm

Sorry to bug you again ...

After fighting with Windows 2000 for an hour, I gave up trying to make a boot disk that would actually work, and booted in safe mode with command prompt support (effectively the same as booting off floppy into DOS).

Once there, I followed all instructions (a:\awdflash bx6_qs.bin old.bin), the flash software loaded but keeps giving me the following error ::

Fail - Due to EMM386 or QEMM !

I have since discovered that flash utilities wont run in a EMM or QEMM environment ... so, how the hell do you boot off floppy into dos with a win2k system? (the windows help system shows you how to create a boot disk, but it creates a set-up disk ... no dos. Another part of help says a boot disk will need a couple of files, which I located, copied to floppy, but on boot was told those vary files were not there .... )

I'm running out of hair! What do you think I should do next?

Thanks again!

by **ajzchips** » Thu Aug 01, 2002 6:53 pm

Use the DRDOS bootdisk at www.bootdisk.com to create one. It's recommended for BIOS flashing.

Regarding your hair, perhaps some Aloe Vera based lotion will do the trick.

by **Denniss** » Fri Aug 02, 2002 2:15 am

To be sure with the Board identification either look at the board for the number printed or use the two letters missing at the of the posted Bios-ID to identify your board as BX6 or BX6 Rev 2 - it should be an older bios of one of these boards with these two letters .
From your Biosdate I would assume these two missing letters are KH

by **jamin** » Fri Aug 02, 2002 4:42 am

*// denniss

you are exactly right ... so what does it mean? (excuse my ignorance!)

*// ajzchips

Cheers, tryin' that as we speak ... as for the hair, thanks for the advice, but I thought Echinacea was the new aloe vera? (little joke - my country has just gone through the try annual government elections, and a once small far left wing liberal party called "The Greens" are gaining a ever increasing popularity ... their main issues are "ban anything nuclear", "ban genetic engineering" - currently our big thing - "legalise pot" - also currently our big thing - and "rub some Echinacea on it!")

by **jamin** » Fri Aug 02, 2002 5:33 am

ok ... new problem ... feeling a bit dumb, 'cos you can just use a simple win9x boot disk to boot into dos before win2k gets a bar in ...

Anyway, got the flasher software going, but at the end of the process it came back with the following message::

The program file's part number does not match with your system

Which part of the ID if any is the part number?
04/07/1999-i440BX-W977-2A69KA1JC-KH

so now what?

cheers again ...

by **NickS** » Fri Aug 02, 2002 9:54 am

i440BX-W977-2A69KA1JC-KH

The problem is that although what Deniss says is right in general, it doesn't hold for Abit. In Abit's case they used to change the last two letters with each version (take a look at the names of the BX6 BIOSes on the Abit site, or check out the BIOS ID info for Abit on the Wim's BIOS main site). As a result the flash utility also gets upset; it expects only the date string at the start to change. So it will tell you it's the wrong ID, even though it's the right BIOS.