Bios Update(Award Modular BIOS)

[NickS]

I can find only a partial match on that BIOS ID - Vtech/PC-Partner.
If this is correct, there could be a part number printed on the board.
Also, is the VIA chipset on the board VT82C686B and VT82C694T?

[KURIAKI]

PC Partner AP133TAS3-T205C (PCB ID 111Y502T)
http://www.pcpartner.com/support/man/via/t205.pdf
There aren't any BIOS update for it, sorry.
I'm not sure this is the right picture:

Chipset: VIA 82C691 rev 196

help me please.
thanks alot

[NickS]

PC Partner AP133TAS3-T205C (PCB ID 111Y502T)

Yes, that is the nearest match I found on Edwin's saved PC-Partner table but the bizarre thing is that the string for the BIOS listed there states "11/10/2001-694T-686A-6A6LJPRXC-00 BIOS-2M" which is why I was asking for confirmation of the chipset.

[NickS]

I found a closer match in the p205t BIOS at PCPartner but there is still a difference;

02/18/2002-694T-686A-6A6LJPRXC-00
BIOS-2M (2K020218)

Are you sure about the "B" in your BIOS?

[KURIAKI]

All these BIOS files has the option to change the BIOS string from 686A to 686B according to the motherboard chipset.

[NickS]

All these BIOS files has the option to change the BIOS string from 686A to 686B according to the motherboard chipset.

Yes, his string says 686B. The BIOS on the PC-Partner site says 686A, the PC-Partner table says that the board should have 686B chip with BIOS string saying 686A. This kind of confusion can result in dead boards, like with the Biostar M6VBE BIOS 7/99 version where the string says 692 but the BIOS firmware and the board are apparently 693; use that BIOS on the 692 board and you could stop it working. That's why I would like coco8 to send me his BIOS....

[Denniss]

686A and 686B are pincopatible, the 686B just has some more functions and higher UDMA modes. There are several mainboard using the same layout and revision but replacing the 686a with 686B in later versions without problems. Just the Bios has to autodetect whether 686a or B to change Bios-ID or just activate the additional functions.
Seen this in EVS K7VZA Rev 1.0, later versions still had KT-133 but swapped 686A for 686B.

Considering that there can be several different versions of the board, could replacing a 686A with a 686B introduce the problem that sometimes occurrs where incomptatible UDMA modes are chosen by the BIOS?

[Denniss]

AFAIK this was a bug of 4.51PG Award Bios with late 1997/early 1998 Bios kernel, the 686A/B or 596A/B should not be affected