BIOS Updates forum

Here is a challenge for y'all. I have this old system that I have been tryin to bring back to life for basic chat purposes. The system chipset info is Intel SB82371FB SZ997 and Intel SB82437FX66 with bios id 07/31/1995-2a-59cf54c-00. I have searched and found that it is a Triton board with Award Modular Bios v4.50G. When I got in to the cmos setup, I checked out the boot sequence and cdrom was not listed. Im not a custom to using floppy so I need ti use CDROM as one of my options. Are there any bios updates that will allow me to use cdrom or am I wasting my time? If you need more system info, please msg me or reply here.

Thanks in advance,
RzrsEdge

Ok, upon reading the forums in hopes of finding a solution, I seen the post of using a floppy so I took the advice, got a boot floppy for the OS I thought I was going to install and when I got in FDISK, I deleted my partitions and created new, when I done that, it seen EACH drive as 502 megs. I have 2 small drives in the system, a 1G Palladium and a 1.5G Maxtor. Now I am beginning to think its more trouble than its worth but I have to complete this to satisify my own curiousity. ANY Help would be greatly appreciated.

It's PC Chips M505/6/7 board. These boards often came with non-flashable chips - see what's printed on your chip (you might need to peel off the Award sticker).

The info on the chip itself is:

Award Software Inc. 1995
PCI/PNP 586
030993594 v__________

Not sure what kinda help that is gonna be though. As for the floppy install I was going to attempt, it failed. I created the floppy with the disk boot and it went fine til I went to setup and it kept sayin cd101 not ready. So that is out of the question too.

Thanks for the reply RainBow
RzrsEdge

Do as Rainbow says and post whatever's UNDER the sticker, on the chip itself.

Sorry bout that, newb here,

M507.10-1
9551

It it says M507, then it's not flashable. You'll need a flash EEPROM to replace it.

EEPROM? Whats that and what if I had another bios chip? Could I fit it inthe board and flash it to the board im tryin to use? the other flash chip I have says:

Winbond
W29C011A-15
915GN290655001UG

That chip is VERY likely to be compatible. Should work.

OK, KEWL! Now that I have a valid chip, where can I get the flash for it how to installi t and again...what is EEPROM? LOL

Your board is very old, and so I doubt that there is a BIOS update to enable CDROM Boot support. Mobo manufacturers usually cease providing BIOS upgrades for obsolete boards.

Also, you had better leave your system as is if you haven't done any hotflashing before.

The BIOS is at http://wims.rainbow-software.org. You can use the hot-flash method to flash the BIOS in the new chip.

Kewl thanks. I'll get the bios and give it a whirl. I just hope I dont fubar things up...lol

Don't worry... the original BIOS chip is unerasable

OK - Two things I noticed in the original posts.


1) If CD-ROM is not available for the boot order, I agree that yes you will require a BIOS upgrade to (hopefully) give you this option.


2) As I usually advise, make sure any data on the drive is backed up before you perform the following procedure. Otherwise you will lose it.

If you are saying that you have a 1.5GB HDD but can only create partitions of 500MB, then the FX chipset will allow you to set the full 1.5GB partition. What you need to try is the following:
a) Start PC, enter into BIOS setup, run the drive detection. The PC should detect your drive at 1.5GB or whatever the full drive size is.
b) Save and exit and reboot. Boot using a floppy 98 startup disk containing FDISK.
c) Once booted to command prompt, run FDISK and delete the partitions on the 1.5GB drive, even if those partitions are less than the full drive size. At this stage if I remember correctly FDISK is showing the drive size according to the partitions on it, not according to the full drive size. If this is true, ignore this factor.
d) DO NOT recreate any new partitions at this stage. This is critical. Exit FDISK and reboot as advised.
e) Upon rebooting, enter into the BIOS setup again. You will note that because the partitions on the drive were different to the drive size FDISK has tricked the BIOS into thinking that the total drive size was smaller than actual.
f) While in the BIOS setup, run the drive detection again.
g) Save and exit and reboot again, again booting using the floppy 98 startup disk.
h) Once booted to the command prompt again, run FDISK. You should note that FDISK now reports the entire *actual* drive size as available for setting up partitions. You may now create a partition occupying the entire drive space if you wish, or if not, divide the available space up however you choose.
i) Once finished with FDISK, exit and reboot as advised.
j) When you enter into the BIOS setup in the future, you should now note that the BIOS should report the actual drive size correctly, as it is no longer mismatched with how FDISK sees it. But you may now once again boot using the floppy 98 startup disk and format your partitions, which should format the actual drive size if you have created one partition out of the entire drive space.


The above information is based on a recent learning experience of may own.