Gigabyte GA-586SG Main Board

Questions that don't belong in the other forums.
Ritchie
BIOS Guru
Posts: 761
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 5:17 am

Just to report I have come across what appears to be a bug in the v1.15 BIOS for this board.

After spending much time checking jumpers, replacing ATA cables and experimenting with different BIOS options, I found the cause for the BIOS hanging after drive detection during POST. If I disable the pri ATA controller and enable the secondary controller, this is fine. If I enable the pri ATA controller and disable the secondary controller, this is also fine. If I enable both controllers, there is the hang. Further to the point, if I enable both controllers and disable the USB controller, I experience the hang. Specifically, to use both controllers I must have the USB controller enabled.

I am wondering if anyone has experience with this problem and knows whether the more recent 2.0g BIOS available from Gigabyte's website corrects this (what appears to be) bug. Gigabyte's website seems to document the latest BIOS as adding hard disk and CPU support, but there are probably other changes made that may or may not include a fix for this problem.

Thanks to anyone who can offer advise on this issue.
ajzchips
El cheapo dude
Posts: 3048
Joined: Sat Mar 23, 2002 12:41 pm
Location: Madrid, Spain

Instead of testing a buggy BIOS release, why don't you go ahead and flash the latest?
Ritchie
BIOS Guru
Posts: 761
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 5:17 am

Hi AJZ

That is probably what I will end up doing. I was hoping to confirm whether the latest BIOS will correct this problem but as you say probably the easiest way to find out is to flash the latest BIOS.

It also appears that the latest BIOS adds support for a K6-2 CPU I have available, so this as well as the correction of the HDD support bugs could be of value in the future.
Ritchie
BIOS Guru
Posts: 761
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 5:17 am

Just like to report that I have now tried the latest BIOS from Gigabyte several times, and each time have gone back to the previous release.

It appears that the latest BIOS has bugs which cause problems that the 1.15 BIOS does not exhibit, as well as video corruption where the earlier BIOS is fine.

In addition to the above, when I flash back the 1.15 BIOS, I get a verify error after the flash, however the 1.15 BIOS comes up OK after the reboot anyway. If I then reflash the 1.15 BIOS after that reboot, it then verifies OK.

It would be interesting to hear from anyone else who has experiences with the latest BIOS for this board. Based on my experiences I do not recommend the latest BIOS.


It should be noted that 32GB seems to be the limit with the v1.15 BIOS, however I do not intend to use a disk that large on the board so for me this is not a problem.

Also an AMD K6-2 350MHz CPU which I was hoping to try on the board seems to run fine, except with the v1.15 BIOS the description is reported differently. The v1.15 BIOS also accepts a double sided 256MB PC133 SDRAM on this board and detects and reports it's capacity correctly.
KURIAKI
Moderator
Posts: 1037
Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2004 9:37 pm
Location: Cancun, Mexico

I'm not sure, but looks like latest BIOS 2.0g is intended for PCB Rev. 2.2 (GA-5SG100) and 1.15 for PCB Rev. 1.6
I have a 2.0f BIOS if you want it:
GA-586SG REV. 2.0f
09/26/2000-SiS-5591-2A5IKG0AC-00
There are a PCB Rev. 2.0 too?
http://www.internetforen.de/viewtopic.p ... 93fc4fae11
More than 100,000 BIOS strings in my database just now!
http:/ /www.kuriaki.has.it/
http:/ /www.supportbios.info
------------------------------------------
Saludos desde Cancun, Mexico
KURIAKI
Ritchie
BIOS Guru
Posts: 761
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 5:17 am

Hi Kuriaki

Thanks for your prompt and informative response.

I also picked up information from the Gigabyte website that lead me to suspect the same as what you think. After seeing your response I had another look and the 2.0g BIOS is posted both under the SG100 and SG boards, making it look like Gigabyte has accidentally posted the 2.0g BIOS under the SG board as well as under the SG100 board where it appears to belong.


I have few further questions for you if you are able to help:

1) My board has the model number GA-586SG printed on it. Does a 586SG model number relate to board rev 1.6 and 586SG100 model number relate to a board rev 2.2?
2) Are you sure that the 2.0f BIOS is for the rev 1.6 mainboard?
3) Is the 2.0f BIOS you have a manufacturer (Gigabyte) BIOS or a patched BIOS?
KURIAKI
Moderator
Posts: 1037
Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2004 9:37 pm
Location: Cancun, Mexico

I have no good answers for you, sorry.
I think like you, 2.0f and 2.0g BIOS belongs to 5SG100 (586SG100).

5SG manual: 586sg.pdf (01/06/1998)
REV. 1.0 First Edition
SG100 manual: 5sg100_2_2_aug0598_b.pdf (08/05/1998)
REV. 2.0 Second Edition

5SG Support 60/66/75 MHz and 83MHz (optional)
5SG100 Support 60/66/75/83/95MHz and 100MHz (optional)

5SG PCB 1.0 and 1.6 are mentioned here :
http://es.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Fil ... xtable.htm
PCB 1.6 (BIOS 1.15) supports AMD K6-2

2.0f BIOS in not a patched BIOS:
http://kuriaki.myftp.org:8245/Archives/ ... 00_20f.zip
More than 100,000 BIOS strings in my database just now!
http:/ /www.kuriaki.has.it/
http:/ /www.supportbios.info
------------------------------------------
Saludos desde Cancun, Mexico
KURIAKI
Ritchie
BIOS Guru
Posts: 761
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 5:17 am

Thanks again Kuriaki

Sine it appears that v1.15 is the latest BIOS version for the SG, I will stick with that BIOS version.

v1.15 does everything I originally thought I might need a BIOS upgrade for, except for reporting the name/description of the CPU correctly, which is not a big issue.

And if I do later want to use a HDD greater than 32GB and the BIOS does not allow it, I can request the v1.15 BIOS be patched.

Ritchie
KURIAKI
Moderator
Posts: 1037
Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2004 9:37 pm
Location: Cancun, Mexico

More than 100,000 BIOS strings in my database just now!
http:/ /www.kuriaki.has.it/
http:/ /www.supportbios.info
------------------------------------------
Saludos desde Cancun, Mexico
KURIAKI
Ritchie
BIOS Guru
Posts: 761
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 5:17 am

Hi Kuriaki

Thanks for patching the BIOS so quickly and providing the link to it.

I will try to remember to provide feedback if and when I install this BIOS for larger HDD support (at present I do not require the larger HDD support).

Ritchie
KURIAKI
Moderator
Posts: 1037
Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2004 9:37 pm
Location: Cancun, Mexico

More than 100,000 BIOS strings in my database just now!
http:/ /www.kuriaki.has.it/
http:/ /www.supportbios.info
------------------------------------------
Saludos desde Cancun, Mexico
KURIAKI
Ritchie
BIOS Guru
Posts: 761
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 5:17 am

Thanks again
Denniss
BIOS Guru
Posts: 3153
Joined: Thu Mar 21, 2002 8:16 pm
Location: Near Hannover (CEBIT) Germany
Contact:

I had once both boards, the SG and the SG100. They are a little bit different and the 2.x Bios seems to be not backwards compatible.
My SG did either not boot at all or was very unstable with any of the 2.x Bios files I came across.
Ritchie
BIOS Guru
Posts: 761
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 5:17 am

I also noticed an old VGA card that I had running in the board, that seemed to be fine under the v1.15 BIOS, ran very hot under the v2.0g BIOS, as if it was running at the wrong voltage or at 4x mode instead of 2x, or something similar. It was almost too hot to touch around it's main chip area.
Ritchie
BIOS Guru
Posts: 761
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 5:17 am

I was going to make this post to let Kuriaki know that I have backed up the v1.10 BIOS for the SG board from a board I aquired that was running this version, since the Gigabyte site did not retain this older version on their website and in case Kuriaki wanted to archive this.

But I have checked the Gigabyte website in the last few days and have noted that all versions down to and including v1.10 are available for download, although I still regard v1.15 as the latest BIOS for this board.

Also it looks like Kuriaki already has the v.v10 as well, as well as several other versions.

I have no need to try the patched v1.15 yet as I am not currently running hard disks that large on the board, but if and when I try the patch I will provide feedback.
Post Reply