AMI BIOS mod for 32GB Limit?

Recommended by Wim's BIOS...

I've recently updated the AMI BIOS for my M571 v3.2a motherboard to include the latest version of the VGA ROM code (v1.13) and would like to modify it to enable >32GB HDD support as well.

My question is this: I've seen quite a few posts about modding the Award BIOS - has anybody done any mods to any AMI BIOS code in this regard? Any information, guidance, or even anecdotal information is welcome.

Thanks,
Bear

[ajzchips]

When AMI provided support for HDDs > 8GB, they didn't offer a buggy BIOS.

Then only mention of buggy AMI BIOSes has been for "some" HDDs over 64GB, as can be seen in the release notes for certain Gigabyte motherboards.

In theory, AMI fixed the 8GB barrier to support HDDs upto 128GB.

While AMI may have provided an update for BIOS > 32GB, PCChips never got that update into the BIOS for the M571. Therefore, what I am working on is hacking the INT-13 module in the BIOS to support > 32GB for this particular board.

I've already extracted the module but I am not proficient with MASM yet. (Actually I'm a mainframe assembler programmer). Because I haven't done much x86 Assembler, I acquired a BIOS Savior so that I hopefully can recover in the event of a bad flash.

[ajzchips]

But, Bear, AFAIK, there was no such thing as the 32GB barrier/bug for AMI BIOSes.

Actually the bug existed for AMI as well but it was corrected for BIOS's created after January 1, 1998 - much sooner than Award made the same correction. However, PCChips (the manufacturer) never applied the update to the BIOS for the M571 - the original one was released before that 1/1/1998 date. This problem is pretty well known to most M571 v3.2a/v7.0 owners, and has been discussed at length on the EYO and PCChips BBS forums. In some instances, manually entering the settings for drives >32GB will work and in other instances it does not; in all instances the autodetection fails.

The truth is that PCChips royally screwed up the BIOS for that particular board several times, never once getting the correct VGA ROM into the BIOS. If you look at the release sequence for the M571 BIOS, the embedded VGA ROM code goes from v1.03 to v1.04a, then to v1.10 and then back to v1.04a. The final version of the ROM code from SiS was v1.13, which was the version I merged into the BIOS I did back in February. PCChips never released a BIOS for the M571 containing that latest version of the code.

My guess is that they probably screwed up in a similar fashion with the IDE problem by simply not including the latest version of the code. I've been thinking that if I can find a 5598-based board from another manufacturer that used an AMI BIOS, I might be able simply to pull the module from it. The hard part has been finding out who (besides PCChips) made 5598-based boards. Or if I can't locate suitable code that is compatible with the chipset, my only alternative may be to debug the code I've got.

[Denniss]

Maybe it is possible to use an INT13 module from a newer Pentium-3 or Athlon Board to use it with the M571 .
Please only try that if you have a spare Bioschip !

I may give that a try (or one of the INT13 modules for one of the other SiS chipsets) if I can't find one specifically for the 5598. Coincidentally, I'm using a BIOS Savior to ensure I have a recovery path, and actually I have four of these boards. Although I would consider it a last resort, I probably could do some hot-swapping if I had to.

[Rainbow]

I will try this on M726 when I get a CPU...

[edwin]

It seems there are quite a few SBCs using the sis5598 chipset and an AMI bios, I expect those to be bug-free by now.

http://www.acrosser.com/products/ar-b1578.htm

http://www.acrosser.com/products/ar-b1579.htm

http://www.lanner-usa.com/IndustrialCom ... em=AP-545V
although no bios found for this one yet.

Excellent, edwin! Thanks for the input. I've downloaded the BIOS for those two boards and they were both updated in 2001. I'm looking forward to checking them out more closely.

Someone is using the Jetway J571 on his GCT-8STB (was posted somewhere here recently).
The GCT-8STB itself seems to be produced by PCChips more or less the same time, the M571 was made.
Both (GCT-8STB and J571) are AWARD releases.

Bye
Thomas

[ajzchips]

The 8ST had an Award BIOS, but the 8STB carried AMI...