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BIOS help for Seanix Columbia II

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 11:10 pm
by PLP Canada
Hello,

Found this forum when looking for BIOS options for a Seanix Columbia II motherboard. It is a 440BX based board, and we're trying to install a Powerleap PL-iP3/T adapter with a 1.3GHz Tualatin Celeron processor. As you can guess from the username, I work with Powerleap Products Canada.

To try and make a long story short, we have a customer (School District) with a large number of these systems. We have had the board tested with a UN**** BIOS, and it will allow it to run the Tualatin Celeron CPU. (Very stable with a PC Mark score of 2800, up from the original PII 350 at 800) Problem is, UN**** want (at least in my opinion) an outrageous amount for their BIOS. This is not one developed specially for this system, but a "stock" BIOS that works. (I suspect it is a generic 440BX BIOS they use.) To elaborate on the cost issue, it's not a matter of purchasing the BIOS outright. They want to license it depending on the number of systems. As the school district has a fair number of these, the cost it ridiculous. (Especially since their IT budget is limited.)

What I am looking for, is someone who is able to patch the existing BIOS (AMI and available here: http://www.seanix.com/downloads/Drivers/cbx_bios.zip ) We don't have someone on staff who can do this, and I'm left with either trying to deal with UN****, or looking for help somewhere like here. We're not adverse to paying for someone to do the work, but when I called UN**** initially and asked about using a BIOS on multiple systems, I was told the cost was $40-$60(US) it wasn't a problem to use on multiple machines. It seems that once they found out there were potentially a large number of systems, $$$ flashed before their eyes. If we are not able to find an alternative, I suspect the schools will either decide not to upgrade to faster processors, or they will need to do fewer systems.

Any help or suggestions is appreciated.

Thanks,

Rick

Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2005 4:44 am
by ajzchips
...sent you something to your email. Please check and try it out.

Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2005 12:38 am
by PLP Canada
ajzchips,

Will try to have it checked out this week. Thanks so much for the help.
Can you give me a rough idea of what you have done, and what changes you have made? (I'm assuming it's the original BIOS with modifications?)

Thanks again,

Rick

Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2005 5:24 am
by ajzchips
I simply used BP's utility, version 6, alpha 10 release, on the original BIOS. It supports AMI BIOS patching, although the success rate isn't as high as on AWARD BIOSes; that's why I mentioned having an EEPROM burner just in case.

Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2005 4:22 pm
by soupy
I'm sure PowerLeap will be eager to advertise on Wim's BIOS Page, now, eh?:)