FIC AZ31 (oem UWAVE)

[shinji]

I've recently acquired a Compaq Presario 5003R. The board says UWAVE and has the 786K1 system rom like the other boards. I have also compared boards and it seems to have the Compaq version of the FIC AZ31 board. The only difference I see is that the bios is soldered on rather than socketed like it is in the retail one. /

Now then my question is were there any issues with flashing the retail bios replacing the compaq one? If so what were the issues? Did it brick it or did it just have some odd issues afterwards? Thanks.

P.S. - I realize this is a really old thread however I believe that creating one isn't needed if one already exists.

P.S. - The board contains the April 2002 bios that is available on HP's website. I made the update and it originally had one from Sept 2000 on it before I did the update. Seems to added a couple of things including fixing drive size detection.

[edwin]

OK, I figured out the solution for my mobo....

Hope it works for yours.

The original download works, but you gotta add some switches to it.

http://www.fic.com.tw/support/download. ... info=vdb41

Download the zip file and extract the files to a DOS bootable floppy....
I created a batch file called "flash.bat" with the following:

flash73 vdb41.bin /py/sn/f/cc/r

Boot from the floppy and type "flash"

It will reprogram it, then reboot automatically. Remove the floppy and when it reboots, enter CMOS setup and load the optimized defaults. Then reboot again.

You will see a lot of new options in the BIOS now and you can install Win2K/WinXP!!

http://www.bootdisk.com for the drflash no drivers DOS boot disk and that should get you going.

[shinji]

Have you verified that it works yourself? I saw that post but didn't really see any additional "success" messages. I'd rather it not fail for me as if it does then I will need to hunt down another board that will fit the case.

Edit:
I thought to try to backup the bios first before updating it just in case. Immediately got the following warning.

System was not new AWARD BIOS version !
Please updata ROM BIOS first ....

Any ideas? Do you think it would be safe to update or do you think I should hunt down another board first to make sure I have a fail safe.

[edwin]

hmm, hunt down another board. maybe uniflash works. have to find a link to it first though.