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please help

Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2002 5:29 pm
by keymaster
My elderly neighbour has a motherboard with AB-SM5 -A on it ..which I assume to be an abit SM5a on abit site it says to flash using awdflash with file it5v5
when I try to flash message comes up file is wrong for hardware flash failed....wot am I doing wrong..cannot find other file on abit site.
please help this bios flash virgin with neighbours old PC
thanks
Roy

Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2002 5:52 pm
by Rainbow
Does the board have "2A59GA1FC" or "2A59GA1EC" in BIOS ID string?
The latest BIOSes are:
01/21/98-i430VX-Ali5123-2A59GA1EC-CP at ftp://ftp.abit.com.tw/pub/download/bios/sm5/it5vcp.exe
and
09/08/97-i430VX-Ali5123-2A59GA1FC-4Y at ftp://ftp.abit.com.tw/pub/download/bios/sm5/sm54y.exe.

If you're looking for big HDD support, we can patch one of these BIOSes.

part 2 he he

Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2002 6:44 pm
by keymaster
Hi
thanx for reply, I tried both of these files..I am not only looking for large hard drive support I want to fit a cyrex m11 300mhz chip multiplier only goes to 3.5 at present which is 3.5 x 66 I believe 233 not 300

Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2002 6:56 pm
by Denniss
a Cyrix M2-300 does not run at 300MHz - usually 233 or 225MHz depending on version used - M2-300 is a speed grade compared to Intel Pentium .
Have a look what's printed onto the M2 - either 66x3.5 or 75x3 .

Latest FC Bios is CQ - same date as CP but 2A59GA1FC-CQ and not EC-CP
http://fae.abit.com.tw/download/bios/sm5-a/index-e.htm

Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2002 8:00 pm
by keymaster
thank you very much...forget about these old chips...
however it still needs flashing and I must be doing something wrong

Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2002 8:16 pm
by Rainbow
First get the correct BIOS (E or F in ID string). Then get flash utility (older Awdflash or the latest UniFlash), boot into real mode DOS and flash.

Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2002 2:24 pm
by keymaster
string is --> 2A59GA1EC

do I take the file from above post for this , will this enable me to use a 3 gig drive.
thanks again for everything
kindest wishes
Roy

Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2002 2:40 pm
by Rainbow
So get the it5vcp file. It should support HDDs up to 32GB without patching.

still wont work

Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2002 9:49 pm
by keymaster
Hi
tried again using that file with awdflash, I still get error saying "the program files part number does not match with your system"
at top it says " for i430vx-ali5123-2a59ga1ec- 02/24/97 flash type - m+1c 28f1000ap/ 12v

does the motherboard need chucking in bin
thanks again
Roy

Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2002 9:54 pm
by Rainbow
You get that error because the last two characters of the ID strings are changed (Abit used them to identify BIOS version). You can ignore the error. If the Awdflash does not allow you to continue, get another version or use UniFlash.

update

Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2002 10:59 pm
by keymaster
Hi
it wont continue..I will try uniflash then
thanks again
Roy

Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2002 2:07 am
by keymaster
Hi its all done now.....just want to thank u all
cheers
Roy

Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2002 7:33 am
by Rainbow
Have you used UniFlash?