CDRom Drive not recognised on bootup

[lonktwond]

The CDrom Drive is not recognised during bootup in the system in my sig.....
The drive is a Diamond Data 40x Drive .
gee it's cold in Auckland today . thanks for reading .

Edited: even though the CDrom drive was not shown in the Bios I was able to use it when I installed the OS .
So I can probably initialise it somehow when I get to use the OS later .
Thankyou

[Rainbow]

Your BIOS is probably too old to support booting from CD-ROM. There is no other reason for BIOS to detect CD-ROM drives.

[lonktwond]

can I upgrade the Award 4.50 PG Bios ?
I see there are 4.5... versions up to 4.6 .
Is that possible for this system to upgrade to any of those , would you like a link to see them ? or will I need a manufacturers bios update because MEC don't have an updates .

[KURIAKI]

You own a very old OEM board for Micro Equipment Corporation (MEC), an Abit PH5.
I don't know any upgrade from MEC, maybe they are out of business.
Abit BIOS updates can work with your motherboard... or not.
It's so risky.

[lonktwond]

MEC have no updates for Bios for the MEC PH50705C board on their website .
I'm hoping an Abit pH5 bios update will suit .
the : pgh5_d6.bin
or pgh5_d7.bin
or the pgh5s_d8.bin

[Denniss]

The E0 Bios should be suitable for your board if you want to try Abit Retail Bios
http://fae.abit.com.tw/download/bios/ph5/ph5e0.exe
Use Uniflash as flashprog

[KURIAKI]

PH5

Filename: PGH5D8.EXE
Date: 5/13/1996
ID: D8
Award BIOS modified to Rev: 4.51
Only adaptable to SMC37C653 Super I/O chipset.
Only adaptable to PH5 Rev: 1.5

Filename: PH5E0.EXE
Date: 5/13/1996
ID: E0
Award BIOS modified to Rev: 4.51
Only adaptable to SMC37C653 Super I/O chipset.

Filename: PH5D9.EXE
Date: 5/13/1996
ID: D9
Award BIOS modified to Rev: 4.51
Only adaptable to SMC37C665IR, SMC37C665GT and SMC1665IR Super I/O chipsets.

[lonktwond]

Thankyou Kuriaki this is good news

The chipset in the board is : SMC FDC 37C653QF P
B9523 - B243
6J75881 - 0
By your post I could not use ph5_d9.bin ,
or pgh5_d8.bin

so the ID: E0 which should not be used on the v1.5 board , I can use .
I have not seen a v1.5 board anywhere else yet .

what about the bios : pgh5_d6.bin
pgh5_d7.bin
pgh5s_d8.bin
would they be ok for the v1.4 board . Can you show me somewhere to look .

[KURIAKI]

No additional information, sorry:
http://web.archive.org/web/199801142253 ... oado06.htm

[KURIAKI]

The chipset in the board is : SMC FDC 37C653QF P
B9523 - B243
6J75881 - 0
By your post I could not use ph5_d9.bin ,
or pgh5_d8.bin

Yes, 8 and 9 are intended for SiS 5511 chipset version.

what about the bios : pgh5_d6.bin
pgh5_d7.bin
pgh5s_d8.bin
would they be ok for the v1.4 board.

6, 7 and 8 for SiS 5511B chipset version, like yours.
BIOS strings for pgh5_d6.bin and pgh5_d7.bin are:
04/19/96-SiS-5511B-5513-2A5IDA1CC-D6
04/19/96-SiS-5511B-5513-2A5IDA1CC-D7

BIOS string for pgh5_d8.bin is:
04/24/96-SiS-5511B-5513-2A5IDA1FC-D8

[lonktwond]

the board I have the PH5(0705C) v1.4 manufactured by MEC (gone) is practically identical to the Abit PH5 board so I am fairly confident inclusive of my ignorance of this computer , that the ph5e0.exe is an available update that is possibly suitable at this stage .
still , I am trying to use a faulty harddrive to setup with and the power LED remains red .

edited: the hard drive may be the problem , it has a bad block and I try formatting it whenever I get a minute to spare hoping it will repair itself .
And too I'm trying to use 40 wire cables which is not helping that red light change to green .
I'll try 80 wire cables before I try a new hard drive .
...now maybe I read only 40 wire cables work with some older motherboards .
.. I'll find out very soon .

[lonktwond]

well I tried a newer hard drive and the power on LED has not changed from red .
I keep checking the board jumpers and cables and I'm pretty sure they are ok .
I'm stumped now . Maybe this is why the board got chucked eh !
The PSU is good , I tested it with a voltmeter , just a 12V rail , but it's 12.24V's , I'll try the 5V rail later though to be sure .

Thanks for reading , I'll try another motherboard in the box .
I must get a motherboard with a manual that is about the version on the board and not a different version !