Elpina??? mobo, 10 years old running ok with WXP-SP2!!!

[multig]

Hi mates,

I have 3 PCs at home:
1) The older one (10 years):
MB Elpina MVP3 + S, PC100 AGP Pro, 9827 BA/E-VO, Rev.3.0, Socket Super 7,
AMD K6-2 550 Mhz. 384 Mb. RAM (its full supported configuration)

2) The medium age one (5 years):
MB Asus A7V-E,
AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.4 Ghz., 1024 Mb. RAM (its full supported configuration)

3) The newest one (2 months):
MB Biostar K8M80-M2,
AMD Athlon 64X2 4,200+, 1024 Mb. Ram.

As you may see I was always hocked with AMD.

Referring to the Elpina mobo it doesn’t recognize a 40 Gb. HD, but I still not sure if it is the same as the PCChips M577 or Amptron 9900, so I'm afraid to flash its bios with 990309J2.BIN.
And reading the Jan’s document it causes me more doubts due he says that 990309J2 patch must be made over the 990306s and even I don’t know if this is the bios the Elpina actually has.

Even I don’t know if the eprom chip itself could be flashed.
It reads:
Award PCI/PNP 586
S/N 11501609 1997
And has a sticker over it which reads:
BURNS-IN
24HR

The actual (it has never been upgraded) full Elpina bios info that I got running BiosAgent.exe from Unicore.com is:

String: 07/15/1998-577 + ITE8661-2A5LEH0AC-00
Release: 07/11/1998 S
Date: 07/15/98
Type: Award Modular Bios v4.51PG
Award Plug n Play Bios extension v1.0A
Chipset: VIA 82C597 rev 4
Super IO: ITE 8661/SiS 6801 rev 2 found at port 0279h

Sending above info to Unicore.com (they seems to be the official Award bios upgrade seller) they say that have a new bios at 29.95 Bucks!!!! but I don’t know if it’s newest than 990309J2.

So I need your support helping me to clear up all these doubts.

[KachiWachi]

OP has the same question posted here (scroll down a bit) -

http://www.k6plus.com/index.php?name=PN ... pic&t=1936

multig - Please check that post for my response.

Thanks.

[BiosMan]

KachiWachi, thanks for your attentiveness in this!
OP also send me the same question per private mail. This was my answer:

That Elpina MB is indeed the same as the PCChips M577 and Amptron PM9900. The 07/15/1998-577+ITE8661-2A5LEH0AC-00 BIOS you have now is the original Release for the M577 / PM9900. I have a copy of this BIOS and the later 990306s from PCChips and 990309s from Ampron are compatible with your 980711s BIOS, and so is my patched 990309J2 version. So yes, you can flash my 990309J2.BIN on your Elpina board.
Note that I've pached the latest 990309s BIOS for the identical Amptron PM9900 board, instead of the latest 990306s for the M577. Amptron's 990309s appeared to work more stable on the M577.

As a consequence, you will see that the BIOS will have a PM9900 ID after flashing instead of M577 but this is just cosmetic. However the Awdflash program may complain that the patched BIOS isn't suitable for your board because of the different ID. The exact message will be: "The program file's part number does not match with your system". In this case you can force the flash with the command:
Awdflash 990309J2.BIN /Py /Sn
The /Py (Program yes) switch cause the BIOS-ID compare to be skipped.
Take the usual precautions when you flash the BIOS.

To rule-out any incorrect BIOS setting after the flash, select LOAD BEST PERFORMANCE DEFAULTS in the BIOS Setup main menu. Then adjust the BIOS options as required, like setting "OnChip USB" to Enabled (CHIPSET FEATURES SETUP menu) and Enabling "Assign IRQ For VGA" and set "PNP OS Installed" to "No".
(PNP/PCI CONFIGURATION menu). You may also like to set the four IDE UDMA options to Auto (INTEGRATED PERIPHERALS menu) for optimum harddisk performance.

Now you should able to use the 40GB drive without problems.

Greetings, Jan.

[multig]

KachiWachi:
I’ve received an email directly from Jam who kindly is clearing up all my doubts about Elpina and the possibility of flashing it.

Anyway as I see that you have Jam flashed your vintage board, any advice or warning you may post here is most appreciate.



Biosman:
I truly thank your help. I’ll reply you.

[KachiWachi]

None.

The patched BIOS works like a charm.

Thanks.