80 GB: 03/26/1999-691-596-W877-2A6LFNMAC-00

[TomasHanson]

Hello everybody,

I've got a problem with an older machine I want to upgrade with
a bigger hdd (>= 80 GB).
The Board is from Enmic (former NMC)

HDD: WD800JB
Board: NMC 6VAX (VIA VT691) - Pentium II - Slot1
Award Modular Bios V4.51PG
BIOS ID: 03/26/1999-691-596-W877-2A6LFNMAC-00
->latest Bios from NMC for this Board.
Location:
http://www.enmic.de/_downloads/bios/6VAX_19990326.zip

(I couldn't find out the version, but the bios is the lastest from NMC
for this board!)

The hdd isn't recognized by the bios. I already tested a 40GB Model, but
this hdd isn't recognized, too. So I think this BIOS has the 32 GB bug.

If anybody has a solution, please help.

Thanks and greetings

Tomas Hanson

[NickS]

Looking at it now.....

[NickS]

Patched version available for you to try at the "untested" link in my signature. Please give us feedback!

[TomasHanson]

Thanks NickS,

I already downloaded it and will check it during weekend.

Greetings

Tomas Hanson

[TomasHanson]

Hello NickS,

the flashing was somewhat hard to complete. I'd already forgotten
that the mainboard has some problems with its FDC-Controller, which
makes it sometimes impossible to access disk-drives. I remember, that
this controller worked in the past (sometimes ), but during weekend
it refused to work at all. I nearly was about to hotflash this flashrom
in an other mainboard. But then I flashed it from a bootable cd.

The patched BIOS works fine. I could boot up a LINUX located at the WD800JB
harddrive without a problem. I had already tested other Operating Systems
(Win98,2k,XP), but first of all I need some place to store a backup of
this hdd. So this could take some time, sorry.
I will post the results in the next two weeks.

Also there's something interesting to mention, at the summary-screen
of the devices and settings above the PCI device-listing, the WD800JB
(capable of UATA100) is listed with UDMA5 (I think this is the same as
UATA100). I thought this screen displays the actual settings of the devices.
Am I right here?
But this is no problem at all, cause the hdd is accessed via UDMA2 (which is
the maximum of the VT82C596 Southbridge).

Many thanks for patching the BIOS.

Greetings

Tomas Hanson

[NickS]

Thanks for the feedback so far!

The configuration display may display the UDMA mode information it reads from the drive, but some versions of the Award BIOS allowed the drive to run at its maximum UDMA rate although the chipset did not support it (e.g. the BIOS on my PC-Chips M577). This would result in hangs and timeouts. In this case the HDD had to be set to declare itself capable of Mode 2 maximum using the HDD manufacturer's utility.

[TomasHanson]

Hi NickS,

I got a backup-place for my data and checked some operating
systems with the patched BIOS.
Windows 98, 2000 Pro and XP Pro install perfectly,
no props., no hangs, nothing at all.
I could fully access the space of the hdd above 64GB.
So this BIOS-Patch works 100%.

Great work!;-)

Thanks again.

Greetings

Tomas Hanson


BTW, would it be possible to patch two other bioses,
too.
If yes, I could mail you the bioses. This is, because
one of them is from a Single Board Computer from Microdesign
(I think this company was bought by some bigger com.) called AAIO586S,
and the latest BIOS isn't available on the web.
So I would read the BIOS with uniflash.
The other board is a P6F77 from Freetech.

On the other side, if you want, I could make new threads for
these boards, too.

[NickS]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, you can email me the SBC BIOS - please put "Wim's BIOS" in the title of the email. I suppose it would be "cleaner" to start a new thread for the Freecom, but as long as you can post the current BIOS ID and message (or email me the current BIOS and I can post them) a search will find it.

[A-S]

I greet the administrators and all the members forum.
That I can find awd64gb.exe?
From http://wims.rainbow-software.org/nicks/ENMIC%206VAX.zip
I lowered the file bin but awd64gb.exe I could not him find nowhere

[edwin]

awd64gb.exe is written by rainbow and is an internal test utility for these bioses. It will NOT be released to the public.