BIOS Updates forum

I am trying to upgrade a neighbor's PB Multimedia E153. It has 32MB of RAM, 1GB hard drive. I want to upgrade both.

However, before I do the hard drive, make sure the BIOS supports a modern hard drive.

BIOS Version is 1.00.08 DN0R which appears to be a PB OEM version of Intel Orlando.

PB does not offer any US support but I did see a patch to 1.00.12 DN0R. No readme file.

How do I verify that the machine has the right MB, the patch says it has a PB680.

Also, would a good tech feel confident in upgrading this BIOS? I will have the neighbor do a complete backup first.

Thank you .

Both files have DN0R at the end - that means that they're both for the same Intel OEM board. Intel boards usually have recovery jumper.
I think that the RAM upgrade should be without any problems, with the HDD - don't know - some Intel boards have 2GB BIOS limit, but I hope that this is new enough to be better.

Two questions:

First off, short of putting in a large hard drive and seeing if it works, how do I find out if the BIOS takes a large hard drive?

Does this Mbd take SIMMs or DIMMs. Old enough to take either.

Thanks!!!

This should be your board

There are 4 SIMM sockets, you currently have either 2x16MB modules or 4x8MB.
edwin should know more about Intel boards.

Are SIMMS even available any more? Depending on the configuration, I either have to get 32 MB (if the 2 slots have 16MB chips each) or 64 MB (if they have 4 x 8MB). All that to upgrade a 150MHZ PC and it may not be worth it.

If available, where and approximate street rate for 32MB and 64 MB.

Thank you so much!!!

128MB max (4 pieces of 32MB):
http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/pb/mb/680.htm

BIOS update + instructions:
http://www.pbnec.nl/support/itemnr/REFBIOS00240700.html

memory prices for 32MB SIMMs:
http://www.pricewatch.com/1/33/4590-1.htm

harddisk drive size suported:
funny, this one was never asked before. There is a list for regular Intel boards, but this board isn't mentioned because it was only made for OEMs. But, if we take a look at the list we see that every pentium 1 board (from the Advanced/ZP (oldest) to the newest with an AMI bios (NX440LX) have a limit of 8.4GB.
http://support.intel.com/support/mother ... d_size.htm

I think it is safe to assume your board falls in that category (up to 8.4GB).

Even Ray's page doesn't have info on harddisk size for the PB680 board, he is considered THE standard:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/ ... pb680.html