Slight BIOS incompatibility and RAM

Is your memory not fully recognized? (Intel VX chipset Memory recognition)
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rob8000
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Joined: Thu Sep 13, 2007 2:41 am

Hi guys,

About four months ago my PC had a BIOS failure. The computer halted at boot time with a "BIOS checksum error" message. I could not even boot from diskette. I searched A LOT but could not find a replacement for that exact EEPROM model. Finally I contacted a technician who gave me an Award BIOS for a SY-7vba-133U My motherboard is a SY-7vba-133 (without the U) but it was the only choice I had.
Now the computer boots OK, but it has two problems:

1) Pressing the reset button or doing a software reboot (e.g. with the start menu in Windows) does not work: the system goes to some kind of "suspend mode" where the display and HDD is turned off but the power supply cooler keeps working. But pressing alt-ctrl-supr does fine, and rebooting after changing the BIOS setup ("Save changes and exit (Y/N)" also works OK.

2) Only a half of the RAM is detected. I have 256 MB installed, but only 128 are found and counted by the BIOS. (Windows's system info shows 512MB ;) ) Because of the lack of RAM, Windows XP keeps paging to disk *all* the time.

So, my questions for the knowledgeable are: Why is this happening?
What are my alternatives to fix this?

Many thanks for your help.
rob8000
New visitors - please read the rules.
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Sep 13, 2007 2:41 am

Another related question:

The 7vba-133U BIOS is stored in a SST 39SF020 EEPROM.
The original BIOS was stored in a MX 29F002NTPC-12 EEPROM.

I tried running AWDFLASH <original BIOS Image> <backup BIOS Image> (I planned to cancel it
just before the actual flashing) but it complained that "the program file's part number does not match with your system!", so I won't be able to flash it this way. AFAICS Uniflash doesn't seem to have a problem with this mismatch.

My question: is there a technical obstacle to write a BIOS image (.bin) to a SST 39SF020 when it's supposed to be flashed to a MX 29F002NTPC-12? In other words: how could the compatibility between both be determined?

Sorry for the possibly dumb questions, but I really have no clue about electronics. Thanks for any help.
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