BIOS Updates forum

Hi,
I've an old MotherBoard Biostar MB8500TTD. I downloaded from wims.rainbow-software.org the TTD0616B patched bios (to solve the >32 GB disk bug). The problem is that the CBROM utility reports a strange error:

******** TTD0616B.BIN BIOS component ********

No. Item-Name Original-Size Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
===============================================================================
0. System BIOS 20000h(128.00K) 14C63h(83.10K) original.tmp
1. EPA pattern 00642h(1.56K) 002A1h(0.66K) awardepa.epa
2. Other(1401:2008) 00000h(0.00K) 400030h(4096.05Kd\util\ncr307.16kv_

Total compress code space = 1A000h(104.00K)
Total compressed code size = 414F34h(4179.80K)
Remain compress code space = 050CCh(-4075.80K)

*****************************************************
As you can see, the item number 2 (that in the original biostar non patched bios is the NCR ROM ... ncr307.16k) is not reported correctly and also the information in the following lines (space/size) are incorrect.
I also tried to check the patched BIOS with the awdbedit tool and is says that the file cannot be loaded since awdbedit is "Unable to determine the layout of the file table within the BIOS image".

I also downloaded the non tested versions of the pathed BIOS (from the same URL above /nicks and /rainbow) and I got the same problem with both CBROM and awdbedit.

Now the questions are:
1) Is it a problem or not?
2) Will I find problems flashing my mobo with those BIOS's? Do I need a precise version of awdflash.exe that understand that BIOS "file table"?
2) As far as I know, ncr307.17k should deal with SCSI I/F. If I flash those BIOS, will I have problems with SCSI components?

Thanks very much to anyone who will give me some info.

Bye bye, Marco.

Yes, the BIOS looks to be broken. It was tested, so probably the SCSI BIOS is affected (which is used only with NCR PCI SCSI cards that don't have their own BIOS). Check this http://wims.rainbow-software.org/rainbo ... 00TTD).zip - it's there for some time already, should work up to 128GB but it's UNTESTED.

@Rainbow -

So if you don't have an NCR PCI SCSI card in your system and never plan to, can you safely remove this module for more room in Flash ROM for "other patching"?

Why was this module included in so many BIOSes to begin with? Not everyone uses an NCR SCSI card...

Thank's Rainbow,

I saw 2 untested BIOS BIN for my MB8500TTD: the one you suggested me and another one under the /nicks directory.

What are the differences between the two bios? Do both support up to 128GB HDD?

I know both are untested, but wich one should I try?

Thank's, Marco.

The one he suggested. The one in the \nicks directory has the same problem, as it is the tested one patched for 128GB.

KachiWachi wrote:So if you don't have an NCR PCI SCSI card in your system and never plan to, can you safely remove this module for more room in Flash ROM for "other patching"?

Yes, you can remove it.

Why was this module included in so many BIOSes to begin with? Not everyone uses an NCR SCSI card...

Most probably because there were cheap NCR SCSI cards without BIOS sold by motherboard manufacturers as add-on options (I've never seen one - only in my Asus P2B manual). IIRC, there were BIOS-less cards with Matrox (G400?) chips available as add-on for some GigaByte boards.

Thanks Rainbow.

I know when Jan patched my BIOS there were space issues. Perhaps if/when there are future mods, I will have that module removed to gain additional code space.

Thanks to the OP for letting me vent this here in his post.

Hi

I've flashed my MB 8500 TTD with the untested BIOS got from Rainbow directory. So far so good. The PC reboots fine and both windows 95 and linux (mandrake 10.1 community) work fine. I'm still using a 20 GB HDD and as soon as I will buy a new (bigger) one I'll let you know if the patch works.

Bye, Marco.

Hi again,
I've installed a 80 GB Maxtor HDD on my MB-8500TTD with the patched bios (the untested version in the Rainbow directory). It works fine and it recognize the HDD correcly.

I saw the old broken version of the BIOS for MB-8500TTD has been already replaced with this latest version in the http://wims.rainbow-software.org site. This note is then just to confirm it works with HDD > 64GB.

I thanks Rainbow for its patched BIOS.

Bye Bye, Marco.