120GB: ECS P5VX-B-00

[rmdaber]

I have a Western Digital 120GB HDD that I am trying to get to run on an ECS P5VX-B motherboard. The BIOS will not recognise the full capacity of the drive, only 8.4GB.

I have extracted the original BIOS image and used BP to patch it. The report file from which reads:

Code: Select all

Found 1Mbit BIOS!

1. New CPU Support           :Unknow P1-BIOS!
2. P3-detect error           : not request to fixed.
3. New Koeffs Support        : not request to fixed.
4. 32Gb-problem(32g)         : not found.
5. Some HDD detect-problem   : -> fixed.
6. "MB"/"GB" string search   : -> fixed.
7. 65Gb-problem (1-st step)  : -> fixed.
8. 65Gb-problem (2-nd step)  : -> fixed.
9. Error display Freq>999MHz : not request to fixed.
10.Error display Koefs>9.5x  : not found.
11.New Stepping Support      : not request to fixed.
12.Tualatin L2-init error    : not found.
13.New Freq in Setup open    : not found.

14.Set "Y" as default on exit: -> fixed.


Write Allocate addinng: not found.
UDMA for "big"-HDD on UDMA33_only_MB fix: not found.

After flashing the patched file the problem still exists. Apart from using an IDE adapter card or layering software, does anyone have any fixes to get past the 8.4GB barrier?

[ajzchips]

You have to find a more recent version of your P5VXB BIOS first.
ftp://ftp.ecs.com.tw/bios/

Both V1.5 and 2.1 are patchable.

You should have posted both your BIOS ID string and message to make it easier for us.

[rmdaber]

Sorry about not posting the BIOS string and message.

The original BIOS string read:

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08/09/96-i430VX-P5VX-B-00

The original message read:

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P5VX-B Ver 1.4 08/09/1996

Flash ROM chip is SST 29EE010/5V

Thanks for the URL for ECS ftp site. I downloaded V1.5c and flashed it, just to make sure that it was OK before I patched it. It worked fine. I then patched with bp (using /m), the output is given below:

Code: Select all

1. New CPU Support           :for skip this step press "s" or any another key fo
r continue...s2. P3-detect error           : not request to fixed.
3. New Koeffs Support        :for skip this step press "s" or any another key fo
r continue...s4. 32Gb-problem(32g)         :for skip this step press "s" or any
another key for continue...  -> fixed.
5. Some HDD detect-problem   :for skip this step press "s" or any another key fo
r continue...  -> fixed.
6. "MB"/"GB" string search   :for skip this step press "s" or any another key fo
r continue...  -> fixed.
7. 65Gb-problem (1-st step)  : -> fixed.
8. 65Gb-problem (2-nd step)  : -> fixed.
9. Error display Freq>999MHz : not request to fixed.
10.Error display Koefs>9.5x  : not found.
11.New Stepping Support      : not request to fixed.
12.Tualatin L2-init error    : not found.
13.New Freq in Setup open    : not found.
for skip this step press "s" or any another key for continue...s
14.Set "Y" as default on exit:for skip this step press "s" or any another key fo
r continue...CBROM V2.07 (C)Award Software 2000 All Rights Reserved.
Adding modul.tmp  24.3%
CBROM V2.07 (C)Award Software 2000 All Rights Reserved.
Adding start.tmp  87.5%

After flashing the patched image, the board recognised my WD 120Gb HDD with no problems.

I decided not to use V2.1h, because I was concerned that it unzipped to a file named Tx-B21h, which didn't seem to fit in with name of the board. Perhaps I was being a little over cautious.

Thank you very much for the help.

[Ritchie]

I decided not to use V2.1h, because I was concerned that it unzipped to a file named Tx-B21h, which didn't seem to fit in with name of the board. Perhaps I was being a little over cautious.

I agree that normally an unexpected filename would not be a concern. But maybe you had good reason to be over cautious.

A friend of mine has a machine with the Gigabyte GA-5486-AL mobo (a 486 PCI board). Every time the latest BIOS was applied, an unknown device appeared in device manager. Eventually I looked at the previous BIOS download available, and noticed a difference in the filenames that seemed to indicate that the latest BIOS was for a different model board. Applying that earlier BIOS solved that unknown device problem. As far as I can tell, BIOS images for that board are no longer available from Gigabyte, so I apparently solved the problem at the right time.