Changing from Phoenix to Award Bios

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oklamba
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Is it principally possible to change from a Phoenix bios to an Award Bios?
I have a Olivetti Echos P120 Notebook with Phoenix Bios in a very rudamentary version and i want to have a bios by which it is possible to boot from cd-rom.
Thanks for help
oklamba
ajzchips
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Only possible if both Phoenix and AWARD BIOSes are designed for that particular laptop...
Ritchie
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Do you have the latest BIOS on the laptop?

If not, maybe the latest BIOS may support booting from CD.

Also, if you have one hard drive, you can assume the CD-ROM will be drive D. I am not so sure that this works, but you could try changing the boot order so that drive "D" rather than the CD-ROM shows as first in the boot order.
oklamba
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Thanks fo your answer,
unfortunately in my Phoenix Bios I can only boot from A: or C:, not from D:
Allthough I updated my Phoenix bios to the latest possible update version for this Olivetti Echos P120 notebook
Phoenix Bios Version 4.04 1.32.1

kr
klambauer

Ritchie wrote:Do you have the latest BIOS on the laptop?

If not, maybe the latest BIOS may support booting from CD.

Also, if you have one hard drive, you can assume the CD-ROM will be drive D. I am not so sure that this works, but you could try changing the boot order so that drive "D" rather than the CD-ROM shows as first in the boot order.
frehley88310
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I'm very interested in this one! I bought an MSI K7N420Pro Motherboard off of Ebay for $7. It works fine, but it has no overclocking support or CPU support over an XP1800 because it came from a MicronPC (Phoenix Bios)!

I would like to flash it to the Award 2.8 version available from MSI, but I'm afraid of killing this board since I just bought it (and I'm cheap).

Has anyone ever changed bios brands like this before? The board is labeled perfectly, so I know exactly what it is...
NickS
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frehley88310 wrote:I'm very interested in this one! I bought an MSI K7N420Pro Motherboard off of Ebay for $7. It works fine, but it has no overclocking support or CPU support over an XP1800 because it came from a MicronPC (Phoenix Bios)!

I would like to flash it to the Award 2.8 version available from MSI, but I'm afraid of killing this board since I just bought it (and I'm cheap).

Has anyone ever changed bios brands like this before? The board is labeled perfectly, so I know exactly what it is...
Yes, it is possible if the on-board hardware is the same. However, you should really have started your own thread about this (I know the title of this one is rather generic). MSI are well-known for supplying the same board to OEMs who then put different BIOSes into them; though sometimes different chips can be fitted in the same space or chips may not be included. If the board has a socketed BIOS you have a fallback route....
Tested patched BIOSes. Untested patched BIOSes.
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Ritchie
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Oklamba

* Are you interested in being able to boot from CD so that you can install Windows 2000 or XP? If so, Windows 2000 has a folder on the CD to make a set of boot disks from which to install Windows 2000 from floppies - I assume Windows XP and some of the other bootable CDs would have something similar. Therefore if you are wanting to achieve something that you think you cannot achieve without booting from CDs this may be a workaround - but if you simply want the functionality of being able to boot from a CD I have no suggestions at present. Note I would not recommend installing anything more than Windows 98 on a Pentium 120MHz system anyway.
* Also, I do not like the idea of changing from one BIOS type to another, but if for the sake of argument you can do so in this situation, this may or may not solve your problem. If another BIOS type has an image of similar vintage to the latest one which you have now installed, you will probably find the functionality and limitations to be similar, however if you can obtain a much newer BIOS in another BIOS type, maybe some things such as boot options will be improved upon.
Jonty
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Hi,

Please can you let me know how / where you found the Phoenix Bios update? I am searching, so far fruitlessly, for an update for the Phoenix Bios on my elderly Olivetti Echos 200SM. Any help / pointers would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Jonathan


[quote="oklamba"]Thanks fo your answer,
unfortunately in my Phoenix Bios I can only boot from A: or C:, not from D:
Allthough I updated my Phoenix bios to the latest possible update version for this Olivetti Echos P120 notebook
Phoenix Bios Version 4.04 1.32.1

kr
klambauer
Ritchie
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I wish I could see this latest BIOS in action. It is so unusual that you cannot set to boot from CD that either or both the laptop and BIOS must be very old. I can understand that the original BIOS on a P120 machine may not support booting from CD, but it would be a pity if BIOS updates made available since then have not been updated to support CD booting.

Without CD booting, installing 2000 or XP becomes difficult. Probably not a good idea for a P120 machine anyway. I would be running 98SE at best and the maximum HDD supported by the sounds of this BIOS would probably be not that much either.
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