I need the latest BIOS upgrade for Bios string-03/08/1999-i440ZX-W977TF-2A69KF9DC-00
I have captured the BIOS information with CTBIOS on my system:
BIOS-Info, c't/Andreas Stiller, V. 1.5 10/00
Computer ID : FC, SubTyp: 01, BIOS-Level: 0
Rechnertyp : AT-3, Konfigurationsbyte $74
Maustreiber : Microsoft kompatibel, Version: 08.22
Maustyp :
Bus : ISA/PCI
Hauptspeicher : 640 KB, davon verfügbar : 640 KB
Extended Memory : 65472 KB
BIOS Datum : 03/08/99
PCI-BIOS gefunden : Version 02.10, 32-Bit-PCI-BIOS Revision:0
PCI-Busse : 2, Konfig-Mech.: 1, Special-Cycle-Mech.: 1
Award BIOS gefunden : Award Modular BIOS v4.51PG
Award ID-String : 03/08/1999-i440ZX-W977TF-2A69KF9DC-00
Board/BIOS-Version : FOR ZX-6AP2 PCI/ISA/AGP MODE VER:1.0
OEM : FORDLIAN
URL : http://www.redfoxusa.com
Chipset : i440ZX-W977TF //Intel 440BX
INT-13h BIOS Extension: ja, Version:1.x, Fknt 41..48 unterstützt
PnP (ACFG,ESCD,DMI) : PnP V1.0/ESCD, DMI V 2.2, SM V2.2, APM V1.2
Weiter mit D)MI-Info,E)SCD-Info, sonst Exit:
Now, I also have come across a link which does have the upgrade for my BIOS. The question is: Is it the correct one? If so, do I go ahead and flash my BIOS? Finally, what's the correct way to flash the bios and what precautions to take before hand to arm yourself for a incorrect flash? Please advice.......
Link:http://wims.rainbow-software.org/index. ... 0&count=40
email:dreambouy111@hotmail.com
80GB: 03/08/1999-i440ZX-W977TF-2A69KF9DC-00
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Denniss
- BIOS Guru
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- Joined: Thu Mar 21, 2002 8:16 pm
- Location: Near Hannover (CEBIT) Germany
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The listed Fordlian ZX6-AP2 Bios is the same version as your but patched to support HDD up to 128GB .
How to flash your Bios please visit the Collected Wisdom section or read the Bios FAQ from the main page
How to flash your Bios please visit the Collected Wisdom section or read the Bios FAQ from the main page
Thanks Denniss
Very kind of you to roll over your eyes on my question ...................and to answer..............thanks a bunch............
It's my only occassion where i have been forced to do a BIOS upgrade and that's why that little apprehension.............
So thanks again...............
Very kind of you to roll over your eyes on my question ...................and to answer..............thanks a bunch............
It's my only occassion where i have been forced to do a BIOS upgrade and that's why that little apprehension.............
So thanks again...............
I think we are talking about two different possible BIOS upgrades here if I read this thread correctly - a manufacturer update and a Wim's update.
I think I found it in another thread that Wim's BIOS patches are not performed the same way as the manufacturers perform them and therefore Wim's patches can in some cases be slightly buggy. It is for this reason to at least investigate or even try a manufacturer update first, to see if the manufacturer update provides the support for the drive size required. This way you have the cleanest BIOS. If the manufacturer update does not give the support required you can then consider a Wim's patch, which is slightly risky, and may or may not, but in most cases will, provide the support for the drive size you require, even if it is close to 128GB.
Thats not to say anything negative about Wim's patches - from what I read Wim's patches work in pretty much all cases with none or minor problems. I am just saying that if it looks like a manufactuer update will do the trick, try that path first.
Anyway, all that said, what BIOS image did you try and did it work?
I think I found it in another thread that Wim's BIOS patches are not performed the same way as the manufacturers perform them and therefore Wim's patches can in some cases be slightly buggy. It is for this reason to at least investigate or even try a manufacturer update first, to see if the manufacturer update provides the support for the drive size required. This way you have the cleanest BIOS. If the manufacturer update does not give the support required you can then consider a Wim's patch, which is slightly risky, and may or may not, but in most cases will, provide the support for the drive size you require, even if it is close to 128GB.
Thats not to say anything negative about Wim's patches - from what I read Wim's patches work in pretty much all cases with none or minor problems. I am just saying that if it looks like a manufactuer update will do the trick, try that path first.
Anyway, all that said, what BIOS image did you try and did it work?
Hi Ritchi
Wim's update or Manufacturer's update has put me in a dilemma. I mean, Wim's update has put me in a quandry if they do make bios updates.
Let me clarify the details that I have collected and what I understand from this whole bios flash upgrades. Award as you know makes bios for OEM vendors. We can say that those bios's are standard and passed on to OEM vendors or Manufacturer's. Manufacturer's as they know best about their system, customize the Award standard bios according to their own system requirements. So, if one has to flash the bios, he must first find if the Manufacturer is providing an update for the given bios or not. If not, then search at award's website if they provide a update for the said bios. And if still not, then you are at the mercy of site's like wim's who I guess work out the patches with all the given subroutines in bios to support different issues. However, I must mention that I am not sure about the last statement about wim's making the bios update. The question is does wim's make bios updates? Anyway, let's proceed.
In my case, I first searched the Wim's website which helped me to collect all the system information regarding my bios chipset, motherboard manufacturer etc. The site also provides links to my manufacturer fordlian but there wasn't any bios upgrade. Finally, a search in google gave me the link http://wims.rainbow-software.org/index. ... 0&count=40
which said, it provides the patch for hard drive support. Reading all the details I felt this is the right bios flash. Now, I required the flash utility. I downloaded UniFlash, read all about it. They do commit sincerely about the various tests that they have conducted with bios flash updates on which specific bios chipset and motherboard. UniFlash also cautions you if they haven't conducted a test for a given chipset. So, that did help me, as it had a mention for my bios update being tested and successful.
Finally, I took the precautions of preparing a boot floopy, with autoexec.bat file pointing to my backup bios update binary file on the floppy disc. If anything went wrong, insert the floppy and you have restored your original bios binary file provided that you have not overwritten the boot block while flashing. All prepared, I took the courage to run Uniflash and flashed my bios ZX6-AP2. You know what, I was very scared during the whole process but as the UniFlash bell went off after flashing, I knew it's done. Yes, the flash has worked and everything is running properly on the system with my hard drive recognized to it's full size. It's also giving me all the details during the initial boot up screen about the latest bios update. Alas........Kudos to UniFlash, Wim's for providing the bios update. These guys are really working upto their potential to provide the updates as I understand the difficulties in writting sub-routines. UniFlash does all the testing with all permutations and combinations for various bios flash. Wim's on the other hand make you aware about the whole bios fundamentals.
However, there is still one thing I haven't figured out. The idea about explaining the whole scenario was to make you understand if what I understand about this whole bios issue is correct or not. Secondly, if there is something more I should understand about bios flashes's. I am still not sure whether Wim's make and provide the bios update's for us or Who makes it?.........Though I went ahead and flashed my bios from the Wim's site. Let me know.
Thanks
Sachx10
Wim's update or Manufacturer's update has put me in a dilemma. I mean, Wim's update has put me in a quandry if they do make bios updates.
Let me clarify the details that I have collected and what I understand from this whole bios flash upgrades. Award as you know makes bios for OEM vendors. We can say that those bios's are standard and passed on to OEM vendors or Manufacturer's. Manufacturer's as they know best about their system, customize the Award standard bios according to their own system requirements. So, if one has to flash the bios, he must first find if the Manufacturer is providing an update for the given bios or not. If not, then search at award's website if they provide a update for the said bios. And if still not, then you are at the mercy of site's like wim's who I guess work out the patches with all the given subroutines in bios to support different issues. However, I must mention that I am not sure about the last statement about wim's making the bios update. The question is does wim's make bios updates? Anyway, let's proceed.
In my case, I first searched the Wim's website which helped me to collect all the system information regarding my bios chipset, motherboard manufacturer etc. The site also provides links to my manufacturer fordlian but there wasn't any bios upgrade. Finally, a search in google gave me the link http://wims.rainbow-software.org/index. ... 0&count=40
which said, it provides the patch for hard drive support. Reading all the details I felt this is the right bios flash. Now, I required the flash utility. I downloaded UniFlash, read all about it. They do commit sincerely about the various tests that they have conducted with bios flash updates on which specific bios chipset and motherboard. UniFlash also cautions you if they haven't conducted a test for a given chipset. So, that did help me, as it had a mention for my bios update being tested and successful.
Finally, I took the precautions of preparing a boot floopy, with autoexec.bat file pointing to my backup bios update binary file on the floppy disc. If anything went wrong, insert the floppy and you have restored your original bios binary file provided that you have not overwritten the boot block while flashing. All prepared, I took the courage to run Uniflash and flashed my bios ZX6-AP2. You know what, I was very scared during the whole process but as the UniFlash bell went off after flashing, I knew it's done. Yes, the flash has worked and everything is running properly on the system with my hard drive recognized to it's full size. It's also giving me all the details during the initial boot up screen about the latest bios update. Alas........Kudos to UniFlash, Wim's for providing the bios update. These guys are really working upto their potential to provide the updates as I understand the difficulties in writting sub-routines. UniFlash does all the testing with all permutations and combinations for various bios flash. Wim's on the other hand make you aware about the whole bios fundamentals.
However, there is still one thing I haven't figured out. The idea about explaining the whole scenario was to make you understand if what I understand about this whole bios issue is correct or not. Secondly, if there is something more I should understand about bios flashes's. I am still not sure whether Wim's make and provide the bios update's for us or Who makes it?.........Though I went ahead and flashed my bios from the Wim's site. Let me know.
Thanks
Sachx10
Sorry about what I posted if it was misleading - I should perhaps have been clearer in what I said as AJZCHIPS pointed out that while manufacturers would be more likely to make a BIOS update, perhaps from scratch, the WIMSBIOS team patches existing BIOS images and DO NOT make them from scratch as manufacturers may.
Out of curiousity, in your topic title you posted ??GB. Now that your BIOS is updated, are you now using a hard disk drive that you were unable to correctly detect before, or any other hardware that you previously could not support, or did you just want to flash the latest image so that you have support for the highest drive capacity that the latest image supports?
Out of curiousity, in your topic title you posted ??GB. Now that your BIOS is updated, are you now using a hard disk drive that you were unable to correctly detect before, or any other hardware that you previously could not support, or did you just want to flash the latest image so that you have support for the highest drive capacity that the latest image supports?
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soupy
- Absentee administrator
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Actually, manufacturers just license the appropriate code and modify it or have it modified to suit their needs.Ritchie wrote:Sorry about what I posted if it was misleading - I should perhaps have been clearer in what I said as AJZCHIPS pointed out that while manufacturers would be more likely to make a BIOS update, perhaps from scratch, the WIMSBIOS team patches existing BIOS images and DO NOT make them from scratch as manufacturers may.
That was me. If someone doesn't specify the HDD size, I leave them a little hint. Sometimes they take it, sometimes not.Out of curiousity, in your topic title you posted ??GB.
Flash your BIOS at your own risk.
Thanks for clarifying that Soupy.
I half suspected manufacturers may modify the BIOS as you explained. Like when a software vendor writes computer software and then releases the next version - it is in most cases a modified and improved version of the original code rather than a complete rewrite. But I guess the bottom line is that basically, manufacturer BIOS updates are modified in a way that is more likely to result in a sucessful and fault free update than Wim's BIOS updates, which are also modified on existing BIOSs but in a different way to manufacturer updates.
I half suspected manufacturers may modify the BIOS as you explained. Like when a software vendor writes computer software and then releases the next version - it is in most cases a modified and improved version of the original code rather than a complete rewrite. But I guess the bottom line is that basically, manufacturer BIOS updates are modified in a way that is more likely to result in a sucessful and fault free update than Wim's BIOS updates, which are also modified on existing BIOSs but in a different way to manufacturer updates.
Hi ritchie,
My New 80GB hard drive was not getting recognized with that old bios. It use to hang during startup. Now, after a successful flash, the bios is recognizing the new 80GB hard drive. That's all was there for this issue.
Actully the new bios is the same one as the old one, only the patch is updated for Hard drive recognition. So there is no as such new feature in the new bios.
However, I was still fiddling with that ACPI feature which is supported by the bios but is not installed in Windows 2000. I forced the ACPI installation in Windows 2000 but the system turns unstable. So I had to revert back to APM, but APM does not give me the standby feature in Windows 2000. One of the Microsoft Articles says that Windows 2000 will only give you the standby feature if it detects the battery on your system and is only mean't for laptop. Since my system is a desktop and there is no battery, I guess standby feature is not there in Windows 2000.
I know the question is out of this forum. However being a techie, it's interesting to deal with various intracacies of Computer system. Any idea?
Thanks
Bye
sachx10
My New 80GB hard drive was not getting recognized with that old bios. It use to hang during startup. Now, after a successful flash, the bios is recognizing the new 80GB hard drive. That's all was there for this issue.
Actully the new bios is the same one as the old one, only the patch is updated for Hard drive recognition. So there is no as such new feature in the new bios.
However, I was still fiddling with that ACPI feature which is supported by the bios but is not installed in Windows 2000. I forced the ACPI installation in Windows 2000 but the system turns unstable. So I had to revert back to APM, but APM does not give me the standby feature in Windows 2000. One of the Microsoft Articles says that Windows 2000 will only give you the standby feature if it detects the battery on your system and is only mean't for laptop. Since my system is a desktop and there is no battery, I guess standby feature is not there in Windows 2000.
I know the question is out of this forum. However being a techie, it's interesting to deal with various intracacies of Computer system. Any idea?
Thanks
Bye
sachx10
