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Adding new CPU id's to AMI BIOS?
Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2003 3:53 pm
by lomax
Hi,
is it possible to hack the AMI BIOS to add support for new CPU's?
Apple_rom's pacther is only for AWARD...
I would like to upgrade my slot 1 mobo with an Upgradeware CPU upgrade, but the BIOS still needs to recognize the new CPU ID...
Thanks!
Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2003 5:47 pm
by ajzchips
What's your motherboard? Just asking because you may be an MSI owner with high chances of finding an AWARD BIOS for your board.
Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2003 11:40 pm
by lomax
Unfortunately, it's a FIC board. There is however an AWARD (beta) BIOS for revision 1.4 of this board, but I don't have that revision...
This is the board:
http://www.fic.com.tw/support/motherboa ... odel_id=15
lomax
Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 2:20 am
by ajzchips
You're not very generous as to your board's details
What PCB do you have? What BIOS are you using right now? What message are you seeing when booting? "Unknown CPU"?
Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 3:05 am
by Denniss
It might be easier to get a new mainboard+CPU+memory instead of using an overprized Upgrade CPU .
Example :
Asrock K7S8X+Duron1400+256MB PC-400/3200 40€/$ each
Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 4:48 pm
by lomax
@ajzchips: sorry
I don't have the Upgradeware yet, just trying to think ahead. So I don't get any messages, since I'm still running a Celeron Slot 1 300 @450 on that board.
I have BIOS version Q616 and I forgot which PCB revision, will open the pc later. But I definately know it's not v1.4.
@Deniss: The Upgradeware is €30 and a Celeron 1.x GHz around €30-40 I think, so it's still cheaper (I already have 256 MB memory).
Besides, I'm still interested in some AMI BIOS hacking, just to see if it's possible. I guess not though...
Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 5:30 pm
by Denniss
There is no Q616 bios !
If you have QC616 then upgrade to QC617 as this "C" or "F" in Bios version is used to show different PCB
Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 6:19 pm
by lomax
Oops you're right Deniss, of course I meant QC616 (and yes, I noticed there's a QC617 but there's no changelog for it, so I doubt extra processor ID's are added but one never knows, that's true).
I just checked the board, it's rev. 1.3
For the interested among us, the full ID string: 61-0729-001121-00111111-071595-VT691
But I guess the conclusion is that there's no way to add support for newer P3/Celerons?
Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2003 12:43 pm
by Ritchie
You seem to be reluctant to use the QC617 BIOS because of no documentation and rightly so. I once had a problem that upgrading a BIOS kept on introducing a unknown device, while reverting back to the original resolved the problem. Eventually when I tried downloading the BIOS just previous to the latest version, I was lucky to notice that a difference between the conventions used in the filenames corresponded to model numbers - the latest BIOS was actual for a slightly different model mainboard that had been incorrectly placed under the model which I was working on. That was from Gigabyte also which was a little surprising as they are generally a quite good quality manufacturer.
However, depending on the manufacturer, you may be able to be a little less concerned over whether documentation is supplied with a BIOS. For example, the BIOS update available for the Intel AL440LX mainboard does not have documentation available online, however given it is Intel I would think it would probably be fine and if giving it a try would just make sure that I had done a backup in case there was problems, as I would do with any BIOS upgrade and any manufacturer.
