Adding new CPU id's to AMI BIOS?

lomax · BIOS Newbie Joined: 22 Mar 2003 Posts: 16

Hi,

is it possible to hack the AMI BIOS to add support for new CPU's?
Apple_rom's pacther is only for AWARD...

I would like to upgrade my slot 1 mobo with an Upgradeware CPU upgrade, but the BIOS still needs to recognize the new CPU ID...

Thanks!

ajzchips · Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2003 3:47 pm Post subject:

What's your motherboard? Just asking because you may be an MSI owner with high chances of finding an AWARD BIOS for your board.
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lomax · BIOS Newbie Joined: 22 Mar 2003 Posts: 16

Unfortunately, it's a FIC board. There is however an AWARD (beta) BIOS for revision 1.4 of this board, but I don't have that revision...

This is the board: http://www.fic.com.tw/support/motherboard/bios.aspx?model_id=15

lomax

ajzchips · Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 12:20 am Post subject:

You're not very generous as to your board's details Wink

What PCB do you have? What BIOS are you using right now? What message are you seeing when booting? "Unknown CPU"?
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Denniss · Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 1:05 am Post subject:

It might be easier to get a new mainboard+CPU+memory instead of using an overprized Upgrade CPU .
Example :
Asrock K7S8X+Duron1400+256MB PC-400/3200 40€/$ each
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lomax · BIOS Newbie Joined: 22 Mar 2003 Posts: 16

@ajzchips: sorry Smile

I don't have the Upgradeware yet, just trying to think ahead. So I don't get any messages, since I'm still running a Celeron Slot 1 300 @450 on that board.
I have BIOS version Q616 and I forgot which PCB revision, will open the pc later. But I definately know it's not v1.4.

@Deniss: The Upgradeware is €30 and a Celeron 1.x GHz around €30-40 I think, so it's still cheaper (I already have 256 MB memory).
Besides, I'm still interested in some AMI BIOS hacking, just to see if it's possible. I guess not though...

Denniss · Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 3:30 pm Post subject:

There is no Q616 bios !

If you have QC616 then upgrade to QC617 as this "C" or "F" in Bios version is used to show different PCB
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lomax · BIOS Newbie Joined: 22 Mar 2003 Posts: 16

Oops you're right Deniss, of course I meant QC616 (and yes, I noticed there's a QC617 but there's no changelog for it, so I doubt extra processor ID's are added but one never knows, that's true).

I just checked the board, it's rev. 1.3
For the interested among us, the full ID string: 61-0729-001121-00111111-071595-VT691

But I guess the conclusion is that there's no way to add support for newer P3/Celerons?

Ritchie · BIOS Guru Joined: 30 Oct 2002 Posts: 761

You seem to be reluctant to use the QC617 BIOS because of no documentation and rightly so. I once had a problem that upgrading a BIOS kept on introducing a unknown device, while reverting back to the original resolved the problem. Eventually when I tried downloading the BIOS just previous to the latest version, I was lucky to notice that a difference between the conventions used in the filenames corresponded to model numbers - the latest BIOS was actual for a slightly different model mainboard that had been incorrectly placed under the model which I was working on. That was from Gigabyte also which was a little surprising as they are generally a quite good quality manufacturer.

However, depending on the manufacturer, you may be able to be a little less concerned over whether documentation is supplied with a BIOS. For example, the BIOS update available for the Intel AL440LX mainboard does not have documentation available online, however given it is Intel I would think it would probably be fine and if giving it a try would just make sure that I had done a backup in case there was problems, as I would do with any BIOS upgrade and any manufacturer.