I've got a question related to the SiS-530 chipset, but wasn't sure if I needed to start a new thread.....
Motherboard is a SOYO SY-5SSM and I recently upgraded it with the latest bios off the manufacturer's website.
BIOS Date: 12/16/99
BIOS Type: Award Modular BIOS v4.51PG
BIOS ID: 12/16/1999-SiS-530-2A5IMS29C-00
BIOS Eval: SSM-2DB1
Chipset: SiS 530 rev 2
Superio: ITE 8661/SiS 6801 rev 2 found at port 279h
I tried to installed Win XP and it fails every time. After the first step of verifying and copying files from the installation CD to the hard drive (WD Caviar 120GB), Win XP restarts, displays the splash screen and reboots, the same three steps over and over and over again.
I found information related to my problem posted on a website forum where SOYO's tech support stated that the problem is in the BIOS and that the motherboard can only run win95, 98, 98SE, NT, but not XP and not ME... It doesn't make sense since NT and XP are similar OS's.
Which option is the best?
Use another Award Bios from a similar SOYO motherboard
Find a patch for the current Award Bios
Crossflash to a Megatrend Bios and patch it
I think the board administrators probably will tell you that you should have started a new thread for this issue.
However, basically, although I believe that BIOS bugs can cause O/S compatibility issues, if you had not recieved that advise my immediate feeling would be that an mainboard or CD/DVD drive problem might be causing your problems, which may still be possible. Although I'm not sure if they (really) exist, I don't personally like the idea of different BIOS images for different O/Ss.
Ritchie.... I'll create a new thread for this, thanks.
Ajzchips... I disabled ACPI in the BIOS and the problem still continues. I also disabled Video BIOS Shadow, System BIOS Cache, and CPU to PCI Write Buffer but got the same result.
I did want to mention that the link provided earlier only gives you the SiS 530 datasheet (0530DS10.pdf)...you also need to get one for the SiS 5595 (can be found by searching for SiS5595-2.0.pdf).