modify bios so that it supports int13 extensions ( M537 v3.1 / PM8600A )

[KachiWachi]

Anything more happening on this?

I've just come into possession of a M537 (5/24/97S) (05/29/97-VXPro-UMC8670-2A5LAH09C-00) with unknown PWB Revision (until I open the case ) here at work. Currently has a P-166 in it and a working L2 (verified with CTCM and CacheChk). Might use it to replace my M520 (if the IT boys will give me an MMX CPU for it ).

Any reports from ekoing or Jan?? How about you Rainbow??

[Ondrej2005]

Hi All, back from vacation.

As I did the 128GB patch for ekoing, let me recap wat has happened so far.

Ekoing has an M537 V3.1 and approached me for a patched BIOS with K6-2 / K6-III and 128GB support. At that time he already upgraded to the Amptron PM8600A (86a123s.bin) BIOS (ID: 10/14/97-VXPro-UMC8670-2A5LAH09C-00), but this BIOS doesn't support the K6-2 and later AMD CPUs. In addition, the board has a lineair Vcore regulator and lowest Vcore of 2.5V so for the K6-2/-III a voltage regulator adaptor is needed. Alternately a K6-2 AHX (2.4V) could be used directly on the 2.5V Vcore.

I have an M537 beta BIOS 2a5lah09.bin with K6-2 support (ID: 02/19/98-VT82C580VP-UMC8-2A5LAH09C-00) and that can be patched for K6-III and K6+ support. I believe I got this BIOS from the, now dead, Award test site.
I did the 128GB patch on this BIOS and sent it to ekoing for testing. It works fine with a K6-2, however he got problems with detecting IDE drives. Both his 10GB and 120GB drive were not detected correctly. Using detection utilities it appeared the Int13 extensions are not enabled for these drives. Only the normal Int13 interface works, thereby limiting the usuable drive size to 8.4GB.
Using the 10GB and (32GB clipped) 120GB drive with the 86a123s BIOS works fine.

Both the original and the patched 2a5lah09 beta BIOS displayed the same problem. This let ekoing believe that this BIOS doesn't have the Int13 extensions. However the extensions ARE there, only the drives are not detected correctly.

Does anyone have a simular experience with the 2a5lah09 BIOS?

I will report back here with further developments.

Hi, does anyone have the latest bios for the PM8600A board please?

Both AWDFLASH and Uniflash 1.4 cannot detect the memory type. Screenshots cannot be inserted here...
Yesterday I found a tool called AWFB52B.EXE, so I'll try it today. But it's still a classic bios ver (86A0123S.BIN). Not the one that fixes the error with large disks

Add: I tried flashing it with the bios (86A0123S.BIN)I found and there is a tool: AWFB52B.EXE but version 5.2B gets stuck on boards with VIA chipset and somewhere they wrote that version Award Flash 4.51 / 4.60 should help