Version 3.14 for A8AE-LE

[yarm]

can someone please send me this BIOS as well? Thanks.

[aeliv]

I too would appreciate a copy of BIOS v3.14. Thanks!

[Lone1438]

I purchased this Compaq SR1650NX and it's constantly running at 30%, Is it possible I need to upgrade to 3.14? I am currently running 3.13, It's unbearable to watch movies, hell, I can't. HP keeps telling me to reinstall my OS.

[Towermax]

I purchased this Compaq SR1650NX and it's constantly running at 30%, Is it possible I need to upgrade to 3.14? I am currently running 3.13, It's unbearable to watch movies, hell, I can't. HP keeps telling me to reinstall my OS.

I doubt that re-installing will help. I cloned my drive to another drive, and then did a complete destructive re-install of XP Home using the HP/Compaq recovery system. The system was restored to the as-sold state, but I still had CPU utilization from 50-80%.

If you use Process Explorer, you will see that the CPU usage is due to excessive hardware interrupts--and that means a fundamental driver/bios/hardware conflict. Tracking it further, using Microsoft's RATTV3, the hardware interrupts were all coming from the atapi driver--atapi.sys. Deleting and re-installing all the IDE controllers via Device Manager and/or regedit did not fix the problem. Neither did replacing all the drive cables, switching out the hard drive, or changing SATA/IDE ports.

My take is that there is some conflict between BIOS 3.13 and the HP/Compaq customized version of XP Home. (Just for fun, I did a clean install of XP Professional on another cloned drive, and there was no CPU usage problem.)

The only solution that worked with the HP/Compaq version of XP Home was BIOS 3.14, which quickly and easily solved the problem.

You can get Process Explorer here:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/processexplorer.mspx

You might want to use Process Explorer to determine if you've got the same problem--it's possible that something else is wrong with your system, such as a bad SATA/IDE cable.

[Towermax]

Regarding the 3.14 bios, I suspect it's for the HP/Compaq Media Center systems that use the same A8AE-LE motherboard or a version of it. I say this because:

- The AMD Away driver is used in conjunction with "AMD Live," which is multimedia-related.

- The Media Center systems are sold with higher powered processors than my SR1710NX which has a 2GHz Sempron. The Media Center systems come with an exhaust fan mounted at the rear.

After installing 3.14, I had two problems. The first was the unknown driver problem solved with the AMD Away driver discussed earlier in this thread.

The second problem was that on booting, I was getting a warning that the system fan had failed. Only thing is, there is no system fan installed on this model! (Also, the system would not let me into the BIOS setup screens--it wanted the fan problem fixed first!)

The fix for this problem was to install an exhaust fan at the rear of the system and plug it in to the CHA_FAN 1 connector on the motherboard. The 3.14 bios is obviously monitoring this fan connector--and expects to see about 1200 RPMs reported.

I say 1200 RPM, because I tried two slower, quieter fans and still got a warning. When I finally installed a faster fan, the warning went away, and the system booted normally and I was again able to access the BIOS setup.

HP is obviously customizing these bioses significantly for the different models that use this motherboard. I understand why they hide so many BIOS options, but life would be much easier if they just gave us a little more control.

Your system may or may not have been sold with an exhaust fan, but if you are getting the "system fan failed" warning after installing 3.14---well, now you know what to do.

[edwin]

Thanks for this important bit of info.

It's about time HP releases a non-MCE version of the bios that actually works as good as the 3.14 MCE one.

[ripdizzled]

Hey edwin...can you send me the 3.14 bios also. I have a Compaq SR1630NX with Amberine M motherboard and am using 3.13 which is making my fans loud. It would be much appreciated.

[OmniSoulz]

Can you send to me as well? This will make my GF's machine run much better

[Runner1979]

Well, I have been wrestling with this problem with hardware interrupts for up to three weeks. I found this thread by way of google, but was wondering if I could get a copy of 3.14 as well. Thanks in advance for all you're doing for the community.

Mark

[edwin]

Well, I have been wrestling with this problem with hardware interrupts for up to three weeks. I found this thread by way of google, but was wondering if I could get a copy of 3.14 as well. Thanks in advance for all you're doing for the community.

Mark

Ah, we are getting famous
Both of you got mail

[Runner1979]

I can't believe this, but I think I just solved this problem! I determined that a device in device manager called "Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio" is the culprit in my case.

I loaded Windows Media Center fresh, not from HP's restore and it worked fine. I hooked up the old drive as a slave and used its drivers to install while running Process Explorer. Lo and behold as soon as I installed the driver for the UUA Bus Driver, the CPU spiked and I was getting my hardware interrupts.

I removed the drives and hooked back up my original image, went into windows and disabled that driver. All is back to normal and I'm still on 3.13. I'll probably flash it before the night's out however.

I want to thank you again Edwin for this post and the help you've given. At least we aren't suffering alone

[Towermax]

Runner1979, thanks for the info.

A few questions to help pinpoint this issue:

- If I understand correctly, your system originally came with Windows Media Center?
- Did it also come with an exhaust fan installed at the rear?
- What CPU did it come with?

[Runner1979]

1) Yes, it was preloaded with Windows Media Edition.
2) There is an exhaust fan present in the case
3) The CPU is an AMD Athlon 64bit processor, but the exact speed I am not sure of as I'm at work and not in front of it.

[Runner1979]

AMD 64 3200+ processor

[Magtacularly]

I was wondering if i could get a copy of 3.14? Ever since I updated to 3.13 I have tried reformatting with those stupid restore CDs, working with msconfig and stripping the PC down the bare essentials, but nothing has worked. CPU usage is around 65-70% even in safe mode. Thanks.