40 GB: 62-0615-008031-00101111-071595-VT693

bdos · Fri Jul 12, 2002 9:39 pm

BIOS Manufacturer : American Megatrends
BIOS ID : 62-0615-008031-00101111-071595-VT693
BIOS Date : 06/15/01
BIOS OEM Signon :
BIOS ROM Size : 128K
Chipset : VIA 82C691 rev 34

Hi everyone!

I have a PII/PIII PPGA/FCPGA board with a 2001/6 AMI BIOS in it. Everyting works fine but the mobo doesn't see my 40 gig hdd, just as much as 33.8 of it in spite of that it is not award and that the bios upgrade is very new. (How can it be?) Neither the BIOS detection routines nor the "auto" function allows to use the full capacity of the harddisk.

The disk is not clipped in any way; it is on full capacity mode.

It came into my mind, what if I change the int13 module of my mobo to a new, other one (of course of the same chipset) which does the job.
It has an int13 module ver1.2. I found a bios with the same chipset but not the same manufacturer (2001/12 the bios date, it must work), it has a module with int13 v1.2 too, but slighly bigger in size with 187 bytes.
Might it work? Is there anyone who did something like that?

Thanks
bdos

Fri Jul 12, 2002 10:01 pm

Might be ZIDA CreateBXv/BXv98-AT board http://www.zida.com/product/createbxv-at.htm

bdos · Fri Jul 12, 2002 10:50 pm

No, it is V693, almost the same but with socket370:
http://www.zida.com/product/V693.htm
Thanks, but the problem is not around here...

bdos · Fri Jul 12, 2002 11:17 pm

Sorry, the problem solved suddenly. No problem with the bios, but with the hdd. There were some troubles in the partition table and the firmware I think (formerly the disk was formatted in a P1 with clipped down to 32gb with the maxtor disk configuring util). I put it in the P2/3 mobo so unclipped, but not reconfigured. After running this maxblast I think somehow it corrected the previous acts (like a miracle), and now the bios itself recognizes the hdd in its full size without any bios extensions or upgrades.

bdos · Sat Jul 13, 2002 2:18 am

The problem not solved so satisfactory, as I hoped. I was very happy, when got back my missing 7 gigs, and quickly put a linux on it. Grrrr...First time lilo started this new partition very nicely, but at second chance (I made some mods in lilo.conf though about what partitions to start etc.) it didn't work, and the bios didn't recognize the hdd well again! It was 33.8 gigs again...
I don't understand at all. It couldn't be a kind of EZ-BIOS issue, because:

-I didn't installed this at all
-Maxblast config util says this too
-The physical bios recognized the hdd

Huh. Any ideas someone, please? Is it a BIOS error, or something like a low-power issue (I have a couple of devices in my case)?
Strange it is, that only the maxblast could solve this problem again somehow by booting with the utility disk and running maxblast (but no changes made with it). Yet is it EZ-drive? But then how the bios saw the whole geometry? Maxblast says there is no EZ-drive installed...