40GB: Microstar Ms-6116

[Geoffp]

Can someone help pls.

Am using the most recent AWARD BIOS for this M/B (4.51PG v 2.3) but cannot get over the the 32BG HDD limit.

Microstar have an AMI BIOS (1998 vintage!) on their website for this M/B & suggest it is possible to use the AWARD flash utility to apply the AMI BIOS.

Any suggestions/advice on whether to do this or not. Also will it get the full 40GB of my Seagate drive recognised or am I stuck with the 32GB.

At present, system will only recognise the drive when the 32GB size limitation jumper is installed.

[ajzchips]

Strange...

The release note for V2.2 says:
-Support IDE HDD size over 65G.
-Support Win2000 ACPI.

And V2.3 is dated: 2000-12-18, so you shouldn't have any problems with that HDD.

The AMI releases are a LOT older.

[Geoffp]

That's what I thought too ... if 63GB is OK then 40GB should be no problem.

However, the BIOS setup program doesn't see the disk unless it's jumpered back to 32GB - then all is fine.

Maybe I messed up flashing the BIOS. The bootup screen still tells me AWARD 4.51PG 1.0a but later on the v2.3 BIOS file name gets displayed.

[Rainbow]

Have you cleared CMOS after flashing?

[Denniss]

Do you have the 6116 with DIP switches or CPU PnP ?

[Geoffp]

Hi guys & thanks for responding.

It's the CPU Plug & Play MS-6116.

I haven't seen anywhere to clear the CMOS fully so I loaded the defaults & restarted, then used the IDE autodetect to identify the disk type. It still came up as 32GB.

I also tried setting the disk type to 49 then entered the HD parameters manually making sure that the MODE was set to LBA rather than AUTO. However it didn't seem to hold the manual settings so still no no joy.

I also tried using the SEAGATE disk manager. It reports a 40GB drive but when I try to set up a DDE, I get all sorts of warnings about not being able to do this on a dual boot machine (I have WIN98 on the C-Drive & XP Pro on the D-Drive) with the MBR not on the first drive (that's how XP set it up). When I try to put it on the second drive, Disk Manager tells me it's going to delete all my files.

[Rainbow]

Remove the 32GB clipping jumper and make sure that other jumpers are properly set.

[Geoffp]

Hi Rainbow,

The clipping jumper was already off when I made the previous post. Also, all other drives were disconnected & the 40GB drive set to master.

Changing the BIOS to 2.3 seems to have allowed the system to recognise the drive without the clipping jumper on but still only as a 32GB model. Changing the CHS settings manually won't hold on reboot.

I finally got around rather than solved the problem yesterday by creating a boot floppy & then using the new version of Seagate Diskwizard 2002 + Discwizard Starter to put the DDO on the boot floppy

[yoffedavid]

I had the same problem, so I bought IDE controller, and its working great.

insert the IDE controller card to the motherboard and connect the Hard Disk to the IDE controller and not to IDE in the motherboard.

That'a All.

[edwin]

Yep that is another method. The difference with ours: ours is free.