sotec 3120x 384mb Limit

Don't ask how to hack password. (BIOS Passwords)
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learner
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First, I am sorry i did post this in the wrong section of the forum, as this is related to my notebook, and ram.

I have a sotec 3120x notebook,(now it is call averatec, and the product is discontinued). It officially support only 384mb, but I have recently bought a piece of pc133 512mb memory to add to it as i heard a lot of people got it working.

At the first try when it was plug in, the computer boots, and works, and still works even when i push the memory load beyond 384mb to the 400+mb. However, once i shutdown(and restart), or straight restart. It stop work, simply a black screen comes up and nothing appears. when i take out the ram, it works again.

I have been looking for a utiliy to back up my bios, so that i can try to flash it with a bios update from the motherboard manufacturer( averatec/sotec don't have update for this). However, i have find none that is useful as up to this point in time. The bios is a AMI BIOS, and the memory is a Kingmax 512mb, with 8 chip on each side. I have try the AMI flashing program from dos, and it says my bios is not flashable, but when i check it with other programs(sandra, amidiag, etc) it say it is flashable. Maybe i will try another version later.

But does anyone know any program that i can use to backup my AMI bios? Or does anyone have any suggestion as to what I can do to fix it. Please help, anyone!!!
edwin
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uniflash for the backup of your bios. once you have done that, email the backup file to me so I can verify if it's a valid bios backup. This may also help in getting the correct bios update file.
edwin/evasive

Do not assume anything

System error, strike any user to continue...
learner
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Thanks for replying. The bios file is already on its way.

Just as an update, I updated the bios last night with the one from twinhead after i saw that even uniflash display it as a twinhead notebook with the right model that the bios was for.

The result was that the computer still runs fine, and nothing seems wrong, except the bios logo from sotec is gone now, and windows detect that i got a new modem card, but the hardware wizard take care of it already. However, the ram still don't work. Now i guess it couldn't be a bios problem anymore, and i guess if i can't find ways around, i will need to return the ram and stuck with the 15% restocking fees. But please, I did like to hear from you about what you can find out from the bios. Plz let me know. thnx again.
edwin
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Yeah that is indeed a valid bios file you sent to me. What version do you have now on the twinhead?
edwin/evasive

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System error, strike any user to continue...
learner
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It is the r1.10 i have now, and that is what it shows when it boots. But Sandra don't show any such information. The link to it is http://web.twinhead.com.tw/pub/nb/N222S ... s8r110.exe
tinker
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learner wrote:It is the r1.10 i have now, and that is what it shows when it boots. But Sandra don't show any such information. The link to it is http://web.twinhead.com.tw/pub/nb/N222S ... s8r110.exe
I've also been trying to upgrade the BIOS on my Sotec 3120, but I haven't had as much luck as you. My goal is different from yours, I'm trying to boot from a USB HDD. The original BIOS only allows one to boot from a USB FDD. Could you please answer some questions I have?

How did you find out that the Mobo manufacturer was twinhead?

After the upgrade, could you boot from a USB HDD?

Everest reported my mobo id as
62-0213-009999-00202222-071595-SIS630$1AASL0000_SYSTEM version R.101 SOTEC US
Is that similar to yours?

Any help you could give is greatly appreciated.
learner
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How did you find out that the Mobo manufacturer was twinhead?
well, the first hint i got was from Sandra, which report the mobo(can't remember whether it was the bios or the mobo) was made by twinhead, and even the model number was shown, although in some part of the report, it did shown the name sotec.
After that, i checked the twinhead site for this model name, which happen to have a laptop(can't remember mobo or laptop, sorry) with that model name. So i searched the specs of it, and the pics galleries of it on the web, and it happens to be that laptop have the exact same look as the sotec 3120x(except the logo).
Also, if you look up wikipedia(not sure if the article is still there) for averatec, you will see lines mentioning that averatec is sotec, and they have in the past repackage laptops made by other companies to sell under their name. and that is all the evidence i can find to convince me of the origin of this laptop mobo.
After the upgrade, could you boot from a USB HDD?
When i just checked now, there is no usb hdd option on the boot setting, it have only four choice for each boot device-"ide0, cdrom, usb fdd, and disable". The only new features that i find on this update was that it now includes a option for S.M.A.R.T, and autodim monitor(which isn't supported in my case). So it didn't bring anything useful to me, and i guess it won't help at all to achieve your goal.
Everest reported my mobo id as
62-0213-009999-00202222-071595-SIS630$1AASL0000_SYSTEM version R.101 SOTEC US
Is that similar to yours?
As for this, i am sorry that i cannot give you the information about my system before the bios flashing---i don't have them. I can only provide you with the info after the bios flashing, and yes, i have a similar id some where in my sandra report, but not identical, i will paste the whole output below for you:

Code: Select all

SiSoftware Sandra

System
Manufacturer : Twinhead
Model : N222S8
Version : 1.0
Serial Number : 00000000
ID : 00000000-00000000-00000000-00000000

System Chassis
Manufacturer : Uknown Chassis Manufacture
Type : Notebook
Can be locked : No
Version : Version 1.00
Serial Number : 123456890
Asset Tag : 0123ABC

Mainboard
Manufacturer : Twinhead
MP Support : No
Model : N222S8
Version : 1.0
Serial Number : 00000000
System BIOS : 62-0213-009999-00101111-071595-SIS630

On-board Devices
SiS 630s : Video Adapter (Enabled)
SiS 630s Ethernet link : Ethernet Adapter (Enabled)
SiS 630s Audio : Sound Adapter (Enabled)
Smart Link MDC Card : Other (Enabled)

Memory Controller
Error Detection Method : ECC
Error Correction Capability : 1-bit
Supported/Current Memory Interleave : 1-way / 1-way
Number of Memory Slots : 2
Maximum Installable Memory : 512MB
Maximum Module Size : 256MB
Supported SDRAM Speeds : PC66, PC100
Supported Memory Types : DIMM, SDRAM
Supported Memory Voltages : +3.3V

Physical/BIOS Memory Banks
ROW-0 (RASL-0 RASL-7) : 128MB DIMM SDRAM Single-bank
ROW-1 (RASL-0 RASL-7) : 128MB DIMM SDRAM Single-bank

Chipset 1
Model : Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) SiS630 CPU to PCI Bridge
Bus(es) : AGP PCI CardBus USB i2c/SMBus
Front Side Bus Speed : 1x 133MHz (133MHz data rate)
Maximum FSB Speed / Max Memory Speed : 1x 133MHz / 1x 133MHz
Width : 64-bit
IO Queue Depth : 2 request(s)

Logical/Chipset 1 Memory Banks
Bank 0 : 128MB SDRAM 3-3-3-0 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS)
Bank 1 : 128MB SDRAM 3-3-3-0 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS)
Shared Memory : 16MB
Speed : 1x 133MHz (133MHz data rate)
Multiplier : 1/1x
Width : 64-bit
Memory Controller in Processor : No
Power Save Mode : No
Fixed Hole Present : No

AGP Bus(es) on Hub 1
Version : 2.00
Speed : 4x
Fast-Writes Enabled : No
Fast-Writes Support : Yes
Side Band Enabled : Yes
Aperture Size : 64MB

PCI Bus(es) on Hub 1
Version : 2.10
Number of Bridges : 1
PCI Bus 0 : PCI (1/1x PCIClk)

LPC Hub Controller 1
Model : Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) SiS PCI to ISA Bridge (LPC Bridge)
ACPI Power Management Enabled : Yes
Multiplier : 1/4x

USB Controller 1
Model : Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) SiS5597/8 Universal Serial Bus Controller
Version : 1.00
Interface : OHCI
Channels : 3
Supported Speed(s) : Low (1.5Mbps) Full (12Mbps) 
Legacy Emulation Enabled : No

USB Controller 2
Model : Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) SiS5597/8 Universal Serial Bus Controller
Version : 1.00
Interface : OHCI
Channels : 3
Supported Speed(s) : Low (1.5Mbps) Full (12Mbps) 
Legacy Emulation Enabled : No

CardBus/PCMCIA Controller 1
Model : O2 Micro Inc OZ6912/711E0 SmartCardBus Controller

System SMBus Controller 1
Model : SiS 5595 Internal SMBus
Advanced TCO Mode Enabled : No
Slave Device Enabled : No
PEC Support : No

Expansion Slot(s)
MiniPCI (1h) : PCI 32-bit +3.3V Shared PME Full-Length (Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) SiS PCI to ISA Bridge (LPC Bridge))
PCMCIA1 (2h) : PCI 32-bit +3.3V Shared PME Full-Length (Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) Virtual PCI to PCI Bridge)

Port Connector(s)
USB - USB : USB - USB / USB
VGA Port - VGA Port : Video - DB-15 pin male / DB-15 pin male
Microphone - Microphone : Audio - Mini-jack / Mini-jack
IEEE1394 - IEEE1394 : FireWire/1394 - FireWire/1394 / None
I hope this helps, and just to remind you, my laptop is the 3120x, not 3120 which support more memory capacity then the 3120x. My best advice to you is to not update with the bios i had, since it won't help in booting usb hdd(and very dangerous to update with wrong bios), and i don't think this option is supported in this model of laptop.
tinker
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Thanks for your prompt and detailed reply.

The motherboard is exactly the same as mine, so I probably have the 3120x as well.

You are right, it isn't worth trying to upgrade. There is no advantage and many possible problems.
goofin
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I was having some power management issues with my sotec. I decided to flash the bios with this Twinhead bios upgrade. I made a recovery with uniflash and went for it. It flashed just fine. Logged into windows and immediately had to get a few drivers. The laptop responds so much better. I'm really surprised on the performance increase. I had already upgraded the memory to 512 because others said they had, I can really tell it now. Only one problem. On boot I get "invalid hibernation partition" error. That is the memory to hard drive write on hibernation most computers have now. I have 3 ntfs partitions, set up just they way I like it, and the only support I can find to resolve this issue involves a special formatting diskette before installing windows. Other then that small, very quick, insignificant error on boot....my notebook runs like a champ.
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