CAN OF WORMS!

Recommended by Wim's BIOS...

I think I have all the pertinent info about my Award v4.51PG Bios. I wound up at the UNICORE web site from 2 or 3 different Bios upgrade web sites. My experience found the people at that web site to be the RUDEST, most UNCOOPERATIVE of any web site i've encountered in the passed 6yrs. So i'm looking for an alternative site to get my bios upgrade from. Any guidance or snide remarks accepted. THANX Y'all, Regards. TUBA4

I'm sure you'll find the help you need here, just follow the suggestions at:
http://www.wimsbios.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1249

[edwin]

Something else: the only stupid question is the one that wasn't asked, so fire away...

We all had to learn at one time, the most important thing is we never forget we did that...

Following is the info requested:
Bios string: 10/02/96-i430VX-2A59GJ1CC-00
Chipset: Intel Triton430VX rev 2
This is a custom built computer. Intel Pentium S 200mhz, 128mb Ram, USB-II, CD-rom, CDRW, Creative sound Blaster 32. 17" Dell (Sony) monitor. Secondary master is a Western digital caviar 3.2gb. Circa-1/96.

The problems i'm having involve the Maxtor 8.4gb hdd. When i installed it originally i had to use "Maxblast" to lie to the Bios in order to benefit from the full 8.4gb. I've fdisked/ formatted several times since. About a week ago when i turned my pc on, a warning came up stating that there was no "os" on the pc. With much scrambling on my part i finally managed to get it to boot into WIN98fe @ which time i moved all of my valuables over to D:\ which is a hdd (secondary master) & not a partition of C:\ which i did get done. Now i'm on my other pc. I've been to Maxtor.com, downloaded a couple of tools, ran them & found that the hdd is just fine.
I can't get WIN98fe or my new WIN98se to install. I can't get passed Win setup's scandisk because it is telling me that there are problems on D:\. I can only assume there is something on C:\ that the Maxtor tools couldn't remove. But , that's ok because i want to upgrade the BIOS, CPU, RAM & HDDs. To do that, 1st, i need to upgrade the BIOS.
When i first came to this web site, i must admit, I was over- whelmed by that "can of worms". So-much-so that i decided it would be more prudent to POST for help 1st.
The pc i'm on now is my DELL optilpex gxa 266mhz P-II MMX, 364mb RAM, 8.4gb hdd,3.2gb hdd, etc., circa "96 I think. I recently upgraded the BIOS on this & it was a breeze, even for this idiot. This PC has it's instability problems which i will deal with once i get my favorite PC up & running again.
AS always, I'm greatful for the help &/or the snide remarks. TUBA4

[NickS]

Can you also give us the BIOS OEM string, which appears in the top left of the memory count screen under the Award logo ? From "i430VX-2A59GJ1CC" it seems to be a Jetway J-656-VX of some kind, but not clear whether it is -A, -B, -C, or -D.

[edwin]

If you can tell us which I/O chip you have on that board (SMC/UMC/Holtek/LG) that could also help in further identification of your board.

Going to hunt for bioses for all (A,B.C,D) of them anyway.

[edwin]

http://www.jetway.com.tw/evisn/download/index.htm

VXA-A7.BIN (For Winbond 8738 I/O chip , 131K,Ver A7,08/06/98)
08/05/1998-i430VX-2A59GJ1CC-00
V.656VXA A7 08-05-1998

VXA-U5.BIN (For UMC I/O chip , 131K,Ver A7,08/06/98)
08/05/1998-i430VX,UMC866-2A59GJ1AC-00
V.656VXA U5 08-05-1998

VXB-C05.BIN (For GOLDSTAR I/O chip , 131K,Ver C05,08/06/98)
10/28/97-i430VX,PRIME3C-2A59GJ1BC-00
V.656VXB C5 10-28-1997

VXB-D7.BIN (For SMC 665 I/O chip , 131K,Ver A7,08/06/98)
08/05/1998-i430VX-2A59GJ1CC-00
V.656VXB D7 08-05-1998

VXC-M5.BIN (For SMC 669 I/O chip , 131K,Ver M5,08/06/98)
08/05/1998-i430VX-2A59GJ1CC-00
V.656VXC M5 08-05-1998

VXC-S7.BIN (For SMC 665 I/O chip , 131K,Ver S7,08/06/98)
08/05/1998-i430VX-2A59GJ1CC-00
V.656VXC S7 08-05-1998

VXC-W2.BIN (For WINBOND 877 I/O chip , 131K,Ver W2,08/06/98)
08/05/1998-i430VX-2A59GJ1CC-00
V.656VXC W2 08-05-1998

VXD-M50.BIN (For SMC 669 I/O chip , 131K,Ver M5,08/06/98)
08/03/1998-i430VX-2A59GJ1DC-00
V.656VXD M5.0 08-03-1998

VXD-S60.BIN (For SMC 665 I/O chip , 131K,Ver S6,08/06/98)
08/03/1998-i430VX-2A59GJ1CC-00
V.656VXD S6.0 08-03-1998

And they probably all can be patched up to 128GB.

[NickS]

All downloaded and more than half now patched

The info requested follows:
1) OEM Bios string- same as posted previously. However,
i found in the MOBO user manual (No name on it, 4"x 6" Green cover & about 40 pages),"ROM PCI/ISA BIOS
(2A59GJ19)" which is slightly different than what i posted previously.
2) I/O chip: "SMC 665GT rev.2 @ port 3F0h".
3) CPU is a Socket 7
4)Bios signon: "10/02/96-i430VX-2A59GJ1-00".
I just came from the JETWAY website & found what i believe to be the correct info/numbers for my MOBO
& BIOS. However i will not proceed until you confirm based
on the info i've provided. Not to mention, i couldn't make heads or tales out of the instructions i found there. Which is probably due to my very limited knowledge of computers. So i'm going to need detailed instructions for this upgrade.
I would never have found this info by myself , THANX.
TUBA4

[edwin]

V.656VXx line missing e.g. V.656VXA A7 08-05-1998 it's on the same screen as 10/02/96-i430VX-2A59GJ1CC-00

Once we have determined exactly which board you have you'll get an update file and instructions, we have helped out more first-time upgraders. You already know what a bios is and that is a plus compared to some others...

[NickS]

NickS wrote:

Can you also give us the BIOS OEM string, which appears in the top left of the memory count screen under the Award logo ?

@edwin: All those BIOSes are now patched with Rainbow's utility and posted in my folder. Note there's also a Holtek I/O version of one which also says "PRIME3" in the BIOS ID!

[Rainbow]

Holtek? I thought that it's LGC Prime3 chip.

[edwin]

Holtek has been second-sourcing a sh*tload of I/O-chips it wouldn't surprise me at all to find a relabeled LGS Prime.