clevo 668 bios hell

[Random Element]

Hi all just stumbled on this placewhile looking for a bios for a laptop that has been sitting on a shelf for ages.

It's a CLEVO 668 multimedia notebook thing, and it's driving me up the wall.

The bios is made by SystemSoft. Insyde bought all there bios IPs and so they are supposed to carry on with producing updates but i just can't find any updates from them.

I have no idea as to what program to use because all the info at the CLEVO website about the bios has gone. http://www.clevo.com.tw/download/ftpOut ... submit=+GO+

Maybe Insyde and Clevo had words.

I've updated ATI graphcards and a few motherboards and never messed up but i'm becoming desperate when it comes to this.

The 668 is not recognising any hdd properly.

know matter what the size of the drive is from 2gig to 40gig and even if I create the 0vmakfil suspend to disk space and format it on my pc using 2.5 to 3.5 ide adaptor then put the hard drive in the laptop it still will not recognise the suspend to disk file/partition or the formated partitions. I have tried the overlay utilities but still no joy from the laptop.

I've found a systemsoft bios utilitiy called sysodeco. Do you know how to use it. I'll give it a go. Going to try and make a backup of the bios then scan it, see if it's been infected. Clean it then put it flash it back.

If anyone has experience of Systemsoft/Insyde bioses then I would gladly like to hear from you about there bioses.

Has anyone got a link to a site with actual systemsoft/Insyde bios files.

I hate this bios

[Sharedoc]

I don't have any knowledge of this notebook/bios.

Just a few questions you did not specify in your message:

(1) Does it still recognize the original harddisk?
(2) Is there any setup menu, and is there any HDD detect/setup?

[Random Element]

hi to answer your questions

1 )I thought it was knackerd so i think I replaced it with various size disks from 520MB to 40GB and got rid of the original when I moved to a new flat i think.

2) the bios is so basic there is no setup menu for it.

this is some of the post screen info

SystemSoft BIOS for Intel 430TX Version 1.01 ( 2482-00)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
System Soft plug-nPlay BIOS Ver 1.17.01
this is the info from ctbios

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 : nicht gefunden
Bus : ISA/PCI
Hauptspeicher : 640 KB, davon verf

[Sharedoc]

Still some additional questions:

Is the manufacturer still in business? Did you try to contact them?

Sounds weird that there is no setup. Are you sure?

[Random Element]

Yeah the manufacturer is still in business but has pulled all the bioses from there support pages which is quite weird.

Insyde who now own everything to do with systemsoft bioses just tell you to get intouch with the pc seller.

And yeah I'm sure there's no hdd setup option because i've been and tried everything every option ....i've tried everything believe me.

In the manual which is not a lot of help it just says that the harddrive is auto sensed.

I'll mail the various service centers.

Also Uniflash couldn't see or backup the bios correctly.

[Sharedoc]

Whatabout finding a similar computer and cloning its hard disk with Symantec Ghost?

[Random Element]

this is a description of the cmos which I got from 668 Alldatasheet.com

NO Part no Description Manufacture PDF
1 AM29F002BT-120 2 Megabit (256 K x 8-Bit) CMOS 5.0 Volt-only Boot Sector Flash Memory Advanced Micro Devices

The cmos is mad by AMD

Finding a fresh bios from a similar notebook is my main priority but to find a file or someone with knowlegde about the clevo 66 range bios is proving to be the hardest thing I've ever done not unless all you want to do is buy batteries.

Found this just now https://www.redhat.com/archives/redhat- ... 00547.html
quite interesting. It say's that systemsoft has various LBA modes in there bioses which I can't seem to get access to from this bios.

Going to try a find a prog called ATAINIT.EXE
http://www.datalinks.com/INFO-SOFTWARE.htm
description "ATAINIT.EXE This DOS only utility places a hard disk partition table onto a blank ATA drive. It is basically the same as FDISK that is used with a standard hard drive. ATAINIT.EXE should only be used to reformat a drive or recreate the partition if problems are experienced. This utility is menu driven and requires input for: drive designation, cylinder, head and sector information."

No joy with the atainit.exe prog.

[Random Element]

1st email reply

Dear Sir,
Maybe you should know the Clevo 668 is one very old model, it supports HDD noly upto 6GB.
Best regards
Xu

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Gesendet: Sonntag, 1. Mai 2005 00:24
An: service@goldenstar-computer.de
Betreff: clevo 668 bios updates

I have replied to this email becuase it looks like Xu has done his home work.

--------------------------------------------------------------

2nd email reply


Dear Customer:

For safely and security reason that's
why manufactory did not allow end-user
or none distributors to flash bios by
themselves. Therefore, I will suggest you
to back to the company that you purchased
(seller) to do the service for you.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT
GOLDEN STAR COMPUTER
CLEVO USA CONTRACT SERVICE CENTER
Tel:909-598-2263
Fax:909-598-0015
Email:support@goldenstarusa.com
*************************************************
the laptop is seven years old for gods sake!

[Sharedoc]

Did you already try harddisks <6GB

[Random Element]

To answer your question no I haven't got that size hdd but i do have something better.

I seem to have stumbled into a gold mine.

http://mobokive.dyndns.org/Archive/Kapok/
driver and stuff for the Clevo Kapok notebooks


http://mobokive.dyndns.org/Archive/Kapok/660/index.txt
a list of all drivers and utilities.

http://mobokive.dyndns.org/Archive/Kapok/660/Bios/
a list of bios fileS.

http://mobokive.dyndns.org/Archive/Kapok/
A link to other oldschool Kapok notebooks Drivers and stuff

My notebook comes under the general range of the 660 model it seems.

The Flash Utility is telling me I have a 440bx chipset but when I boot up the bios says I have a 430tx chipset
The pgm flash utility is giving me an error like " The cpu is a pentium II,but used the wrong bios! Flash it? (F/N)_ "
I have flashed it already but it was the exact same bios as the one on the 668.
There is something wrong with the bios and the chipsets I think.

Maybe the privious owner flashed the wrong file.

[Random Element]

I'm going to see if I can build a new ide cable.

If it's not the bios and it's not the cable then I just dont know.

Now where's a website that has tips on re-wiring and mini ide connection.

[KachiWachi]

Sounds like you need to open the box and see what you really have in there...

[Random Element]

About a month ago I bought a clevo laptop for spares on the Bay of E and the two laptops caddies kind of shared the same connection which was a centronics mini connection thing as a junction from the IDE to the motherboard.

Well in order to see if there was a problem with the connection I had to open up the 668 to get into the guts so i could fit a different size caddy in it.
Guess what? I can see a 3GB drive now instead of the bios saying it's a 1GB drive. So it looks like it was the original caddy connection afterall that was messing things up.

Now it's time to try bigger drives.

It can recognise 32 out of 40 gig it seems, not sure if that's an error or its max cap.

Just need to shave a bit of plastic off and we will see.

Hey can anyone get access to the kapok ftp because I can't.

Just went to http://www.mobokive.com/ and the Server Status if Offline. So i'll just have to wait.