BIOS Updates forum

Dear Wimsbios,

I have just bought a Maxtor 80Gigabyte Hard Drive which my PC (Home) will not recognise fully.
ie I have to set the jumper to CLI position for the PC to recognise 32GB. If the jumper is set to any other position the PC "hangs" when booting up.

The operating system is Win 98 with a PIII processor and 440BX chipset. Mobo is a MS-6156

To overcome my problem I have been thinking of upgrading the BIOS which appears to be more difficult than one would hope.

Listed below are the details of my PC when using a BIOS wizard.



Tests Results
Comments
Plug & Play Test Passed BIOS currently supports latest version 1.0
PCI Test Passed BIOS currently supports latest version 2.1
PCI IRQ Routing Table Test Passed BIOS currently supports this feature
Enhanced Hard Disk Drive Test Passed BIOS currently supports this feature
SMBIOS (DMI) Test See Comments BIOS supports minimum version 2.1. Latest is version 2.3
ACPI Test Passed BIOS currently supports latest version 1.0
APM Test Passed BIOS currently supports latest version 1.2
Supports booting from CD-ROM Yes BIOS currently supports this feature
Supports ESCD Yes BIOS currently supports this feature
Can be updated (flashed) Yes BIOS currently supports this feature
Can be Shadowed Yes BIOS currently supports this feature
BIOS Chip in Socket No BIOS doesn't support this feature
Supports Selective Booting Yes BIOS currently supports this feature
Supports LS-120 Booting No BIOS doesn't support this feature
Supports ZIP Booting No BIOS doesn't support this feature
Supports Network Booting See Comments The testing of this feature is not supported by the current DMI version

BIOS Information :-
BIOS Manufacturer American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS ID 61-0209-001169-00111111-071595-440BX
BIOS Date 15/07/95
BIOS ROM Size 256K
BIOS OEM Signon
Chipset Intel 440BX/ZX rev3
Super I/O Chip Winbond 83977TF found at port 3F0h


The number of my PC is :- 61-0209-001169-00111111-071595-440BX-1440B000-H

The exact version of mobo is MS-6156 VER 1.0 BX7

The only upgrade that specifies that it can cope with increased sizes of
Hard Drive is the Award BIOS v1.6 which I have tried but the message
"The program file's part number does not match with your system" when the utility window has opened. After the window has opened and before the above message appears, within the window, it says Flash Type - Winbond 29C020 /5V

Can you tell me if it is possible to upgrade to allow my PC to see all of
the 80GB, and if so, which version to use and how to go about it without harming the PC?


If there is any more information you need please don't hesitate to contact
me.



Many thanks

Jim.

Is there a A6156BX .... bios version indicator visible at boot screen just below AMI Logo ?
MSI-6156 with AMI-Bios usually comes out of OEM-System - have you tried to contact your system builder ?

Denniss,

Thnx 4 replying so quickly.

The No you are looking for is: A615601 V2.2B3 020999

The PC vendor was TINY and unless you are a Bank Manager
phoning them tends to increase my debt and get nothing in return!

Jim

Please try these options with 32GB clip removed :
1)Use IDE HDD Autodetection in bios
2)Set the port the 80GB is installed to Auto and LBA
3)Enter HDD parameters shown on the HDD/manual/Maxtor website manually and activate LBA - maybe only 8GB are shown in the setup but important is the size reported at boot-up

It might be possible to crossflash to Award Bios - choose the correct chipset as the 6156 comes with BX ZX and VIA chipset

I have tried once more to enter the details of the new hard drive but the system "hangs" when booting up.

I have also tried flashing the BIOS with MS-6156 BXV1.6.z19 (241kB)
download but because mine is apparently AMI and not AWARD when the utility opens and I enter the w6156ims.160 file name the following error message appears: "The program file's part number does not match with your system".

Any more ideas?

The alternative is a generic flash utility like
Uniflash
or (apparently)
http://www.asus.com/mb/ezflash.htm
These should allow you to flash the Award BIOS over anything (flash the boot block as well).

However, the real question is why it isn't working with the AMI BIOS as that was not known to have the 32GB bug. At what point does it hang ? If it shows the capacity of the drive correctly in the power-on self test but hangs loading Windows, you may have to re-install as changing drive parameters can change the apparent layout of the HDD.

The system hangs when the self test tries to establish the parameters of the 80GB hard disk.
So if you are suggesting I try Uniflash or Ezflash with the Award bios v1.6
great, but do think there might be problems.
Whats the boot block?

There can always be problems when flashing a BIOS but the potential benefits outweigh the risks for most people.

The boot block is a bit of the BIOS ROM which normally remains unchanged by updates; among other things it checks the integrity of the BIOS ROM and and allows the the BIOS to load from diskette if a corrupted BIOS is detected. Typically flash utilities will come up with error messages such as "boot block mismatch" if there is a difference, so you will need to say that you do want to flash the boot block as well.

Which flash utility would you suggest I try?

Our favourite is Uniflash, maintained and improved by Rainbow, but there is also http://www.asus.com/mb/ezflash.htm.

Nick,
The only upgrade that specifies that it can cope with increased sizes of
Hard Drive is the Award BIOS v1.6 which I have tried but the message
"The program file's part number does not match with your system" when the utility window has opened. After the window has opened and before the above message appears, within the window, it says Flash Type - Winbond 29C020 /5V
I have noticed that reading the .doc file on Uniflash v1.29 it says under
MISSING:- Boot Block on Winbond W29C020 can be flashed even if the Boot Block protection is enabled on the chip - AMIFLASH v8.15.02 can do it but UniFlash can't (I don't know how to do it)
Does this mean that I cannot use Uniflash?

Jim.

Jim Rowe wrote:Nick,
The only upgrade that specifies that it can cope with increased sizes of
Hard Drive is the Award BIOS v1.6 which I have tried but the message
"The program file's part number does not match with your system" when the utility window has opened.

That is because the Award flasher compares the BIOS ID in the Award BIOS image with the info from the AMI BIOS and they don't match. Not surprising. In fact, some MSI FLASH.DOC files tell you to use the AMI flasher to write the Award BIOS over AMI.

After the window has opened and before the above message appears, within the window, it says Flash Type - Winbond 29C020 /5V
I have noticed that reading the .doc file on Uniflash v1.29 it says under
MISSING:- Boot Block on Winbond W29C020 can be flashed even if the Boot Block protection is enabled on the chip - AMIFLASH v8.15.02 can do it but UniFlash can't (I don't know how to do it)
Does this mean that I cannot use Uniflash?

It means you can only use Uniflash if the Boot Block protection has not been set on the flash chip, which you will not be able to tell until you flash. WHy not try the latest AMI flasher ?

Nick,
I tried amiflash but it didn,t want to know.
I've just tried uniflash and thats b****red the PC.
During the process of flashing using uniflash it came up with the message
"BOOTBLOCK MISMATCH!! PROCEED ANYWAY [Y,N]".
I pressed Y and it started the flash process. Having completed the process
I exitted uniflash and rebooted.
Now all I get are beeps from the PC.

Any ideas?

Did you clear the CMOS after flashing ?

You should flash it INCLUDING bootblock...
Try holding Ctrl+Home when powering on. Does it read from floppy?