13GB: AST Advantage! 623
Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 4:25 pm
I have this really old AST computer and a non recognized 13GB hard drive from WD. The BIOS appears to be AST's own, but upon closer examination turns out to be a customised Award BIOS.
AST distributes BIOS upgrades by downloadable floppy images. There seems to be just one single big file that takes up the entire floppy, but the BIOS is only 64KB in size. Also, the built in SiS graphics card's BIOS is included on that same floppy image. There is no DOS or any recognizable system on the floppy.
The BIOS upgrade procedure is performed by first going to the BIOS settings by pressing <CTRL+ALT+ESC>, then to the menu Update BIOS. A text screen tells you to put your upgrade floppy into the drive, turn the computer off and then on. If everything goes as it should, the screen stays black, a very short read of the floppy is performed, and two long beeps are heard. Then you should turn off the computer and remove the BIOS upgrade floppy.
I must say that this unusual procedure is quite intimidating. But all went well. Now I have version 1.04.03 of AST's BIOS. Instead of 1.02. The VGA BIOS is updated as well.
The only problem being that I went through all that just for the sake of being able to use that big 13GB hard disk on this system. No go.
I have tried Western Digital's EZ-drive, but it doesn't work well with NT4. I have also tried two different IDE enhancing add-on boards, but they're too old as well. One is limited to about 8GB and the other to even less.
My system's AST service number is:
501974-219
(The don't bother calling them poetic names like "Advantage!" etc.)
Here is some information on my BIOS:
http://www.ari-service.com/bulletin/sb/0281sb.htm
And here it can be downloaded
ftp://ftp.ari-service.com/D-bios/05576035.EXE
Here is the text string found in the beginning of the BIOS which tells us that it in fact is an Award BIOS. Only the AST part is displayed during post:
(c) COPYRIGHT 1984,1987A w a r d Software Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED IBM IS A TRADEMARK OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP.þZA S T BIOS Rel. 1.04.03
Copyright (c) A S T Research, Inc. 1997
All Rights Reserved
If someone is interested in helping me out with this I can instead of the floppy image send him a 64KB file containing only the BIOS. Here's my email address:
thickdick@bigfoot.com
I know that someone will say "Go buy another computer" or "Get another drive", but neither is an option at the moment.
Regards, Dick
AST distributes BIOS upgrades by downloadable floppy images. There seems to be just one single big file that takes up the entire floppy, but the BIOS is only 64KB in size. Also, the built in SiS graphics card's BIOS is included on that same floppy image. There is no DOS or any recognizable system on the floppy.
The BIOS upgrade procedure is performed by first going to the BIOS settings by pressing <CTRL+ALT+ESC>, then to the menu Update BIOS. A text screen tells you to put your upgrade floppy into the drive, turn the computer off and then on. If everything goes as it should, the screen stays black, a very short read of the floppy is performed, and two long beeps are heard. Then you should turn off the computer and remove the BIOS upgrade floppy.
I must say that this unusual procedure is quite intimidating. But all went well. Now I have version 1.04.03 of AST's BIOS. Instead of 1.02. The VGA BIOS is updated as well.
The only problem being that I went through all that just for the sake of being able to use that big 13GB hard disk on this system. No go.
I have tried Western Digital's EZ-drive, but it doesn't work well with NT4. I have also tried two different IDE enhancing add-on boards, but they're too old as well. One is limited to about 8GB and the other to even less.
My system's AST service number is:
501974-219
(The don't bother calling them poetic names like "Advantage!" etc.)
Here is some information on my BIOS:
http://www.ari-service.com/bulletin/sb/0281sb.htm
And here it can be downloaded
ftp://ftp.ari-service.com/D-bios/05576035.EXE
Here is the text string found in the beginning of the BIOS which tells us that it in fact is an Award BIOS. Only the AST part is displayed during post:
(c) COPYRIGHT 1984,1987A w a r d Software Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED IBM IS A TRADEMARK OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP.þZA S T BIOS Rel. 1.04.03
Copyright (c) A S T Research, Inc. 1997
All Rights Reserved
If someone is interested in helping me out with this I can instead of the floppy image send him a 64KB file containing only the BIOS. Here's my email address:
thickdick@bigfoot.com
I know that someone will say "Go buy another computer" or "Get another drive", but neither is an option at the moment.
Regards, Dick