BIOS Updates forum

Hi all,
I want to upgrade my bios, so i ran the ctbios utility and got this:
award modular bios v4.51pg
award id string 03/31/97- i430vx - 2a59gsmec-00
board bios version - P5VDgsme >Evaluation Rom - Not for sale
oem - San Li
url - http://www.superpower.com/tw/bios.htm (defunct)
chipset - i430vx Intel Triton - vx

I downloaded the latest award flash utility (awd812) and had an upgraded bios sent to me from "motherboards.org" to be able to use a HDD greater than 8.4Gb.

I then made a clean bootdisk with the following on it:
awd812.exe
p5vd.bin (new bios)
backup.bin (current bios)

When i ran awd812 i got these messages:

"Image file is NOT original bios"
"bios image file checksum not zero"
"check to see if FDD & HDD error occured. Aviod using file saved from M/B directly"
"unknown flash" in the flash type

It then asked if i wanted to make a backup of my bios, i said "No" as i already had one. Then it asked me if i wanted to proceed with the flash. again i said 'No" ( not sure if it would stuuf the bios, because of the messages i got )

Is there an upgrade available for this bios ? As i dont have any manual or documentation for the board.

Cheers
LiNuts
P.S. sorry for the long post, but i put as much info as i had

The only BIOS I found is at http://th2chips.host.sk/superpower/586vx/index.html
Running this through Rainbow's patcher:

awd64gb wrote:BIOS ID string: 07/29/97-i430VX-2A59GSMFC-00
BIOS OEM string: 586VD Ver.B 07/29/1997
INT13h Extensions...Present: old-style
Old-style code found at 7433
=> 32GB bug patched successfully

so it already supports HDD >8.4GB and can be (is) patched for HDD to 128GB.

However, this BIOS is 2A59GSMFC which may or may not be significant - the Ver.B may be a PCB revision. Don't use this one yet. Anyone else got a better match ? The earliest BIOS listed on the web archive must be this one.
[edit] Looking at http://web.archive.org/web/199802180333 ... w/bios.htm again, the bios at th2.host.sk must be BIOS version B for the board as no PCB versions are listed, unlike the 586VP.

Can you zip and email your existing BIOS to me ?

There's a BETA BIOS which looks better:
09/30/97-i430VX-2A59GSMEC-00
(2a59gsme) EVALUATION ROM - NOT FOR SALE

HDD > 8.4GB support in a 7/1997 Award BIOS... I wouldn't be too confident.

LiNuts wrote:I am starting to think that my bios might be write protected, because i used the Uniflash utility and asked it to redetect my flash bios, and it couldn't, got the same message "unkown flash" "have you disabled write protect"

That's normally in the CMOS or a jumper near the BIOS ROM depending on your motherboard, though I believe some ROMs need to have the programming voltage applied to be identified - I think Rainbow has mentioned connecting a pin to 12V on one type[edit]I was confusoing that with boot block protection - see here.

Puzzled: I took the backup.bin that LiNuts sent me and it says

BIOS ID string: 03/31/97-i430VX-2A59GSMEC-00
BIOS OEM string: P5VD

but the original post said;

id string 03/31/97- i430vx - 2a59gsmec-00
board bios version - P5VDgsme >Evaluation Rom - Not for sale

Something seems to have changed.....or does ctbios look in a different place than MODBIN for the OEM message ?

The file backup.bin was obtained by issuing this:
"awd753 /Pn /Sy backup.bin"

When i ran the ctbios utility, that's when i got the stuff abour an Evaluation rom, and the oem was San Li.

NickS: I have sent you the "upgraded bios" for you to look at.
Cheers
LiNuts

There is a bug in some of the utilities, displaying the string as fixed-length, ignoring the null character as OEM ID end marker.

O.K. i have found an award flash utility that does not give me the "unknown flash" message, it is awd535a.exe and gives my flash type as "28f010 /12v" ( I'm presuming that this is my flash bios).

I have not tried to use it to flash the bios (p5vd) that i was sent. So when i hear back from NickS, i'll give it a go and let you know how i went with it.

Cheers
LiNuts

Isn't that a very old version of Awdflash? Some display 28F010/12V when they are unable to detect anything. Then if the BIOS is not write protected, it will be corrupted.

Rainbow wrote:Isn't that a very old version of Awdflash? Some display 28F010/12V when they are unable to detect anything. Then if the BIOS is not write protected, it will be corrupted.

O.K. thanks Rainbow, I guess i'm back to square one , So your recommendation would be not to use it ?.

Cheers
LiNuts

What's the Flash ROM type? Remove the Award sticker (if any) and post what's printed on the chip.

I was wondering why I didn't get any response, now I see why

That was me sending you the bios...

edwin: yeah thanks, i haven't forgoten, i'm just trying to find a flasher to use. Then i was going to let you know the result.

every flash utility i have tried gives an "unknown flash" (even UniFlash). So i'm going to try and remove the sticker on the award chip and see if the bios is flashable or not.

If it isn't flashable, is it possible to replace the bios chip with a better one, remembering that this crappy p5vd board has no documentation whatsoever.

Cheers
LiNuts