Please help identify my MB and recommend a BIOS upgrade

xydna · Wed Dec 13, 2006 5:44 pm

Hi guys, need your help here.

From BIOS Agent:
BIOS Date : 03/14/05
BIOS Manufacturer : Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
BIOS ID : 03/14/2005-RS400/M1573D-6A7K5G0AC-00
BIOS OEM Signon : Aspire T630 / AP F3 R01-A4
BIOS ROM Size : 512K
Chipset : ALi M5249 rev 0
Super I/O Chip : ITE 8712F rev 7 found at port 2Eh

From CTBios 1.5 found on this site, the OEM is listed as from Gigabyte.

My computer is an Acer Aspire T630 and I could not find any product updates on my local acer support website.
However, I manage to find a BIOS update on Acer's UK site (http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/de ... .html#bios) where the BIOS version is Version R01-B0.
The problem is I am not sure if this is suitable for my motherboard as even though the computer model is the same, the computer hardware for the same model may be different in different countries.

So is this BIOS version suitable for my computer or you guys have a newer BIOS to recommend me?

The reason I am trying to upgrade my MB BIOS is because I am having problems with the drivers of a new graphics card I just bought. Have removed all previous graphic drivers and updated all other drivers, PSU is also new. BIOS upgrade is my last resort and not sure if it will work.

Sorry for the long post.
Thanks a lot for helping this noob here!!!

Wed Dec 13, 2006 9:34 pm

What video card are you trying to fit?

xydna · Thu Dec 14, 2006 7:30 am

Hi,

I am trying to fit a Leadtek Winfast 7600GT (PCI-E). Only encountered problems upon installing the graphic drivers (tried various onces, even tweaked ones). Seems to be fine in "safe mode" and "VGA mode".
Upon installing the graphic drivers, at the windows logon screen, the top left part of the screen will be missing and the mouse cursor will be a big white pixelated square. After a while, windows will then hang and I will have to manually shut down my PC.

Thanks a lot!

Regards.
xydna

Fri Dec 15, 2006 11:14 pm

Sounds like a typically underpowered power supply like in so many branded systems, they will skimp on everything. You did connect the extra power connector on the card I hope as that is mandatory.

xydna · Sun Dec 17, 2006 1:10 pm

Hi Edwin,

Thanks for replying.

This card 7600GT does not have a power connector, it draws its power solely from the PCI-E slot.

Yar, I did suspect a underpowered power supply and hence I have change it already before posting here. Its a Coolermaster 380W PSU with a dual 12V rail of 25A. I think that should be enough (Min power listed on the card is 300W with 22A for SLI, I am not running SLI and hence the requirement should be lower) but the problem is still there.

Any other ideas what could be causing this? Do I need to upgrade my BIOS as a last resort?

Many thanks for helping me out here. Really appreciate it.

Regards.
xydna

Sun Dec 17, 2006 2:20 pm

you are having problems with the driver? what os are you using, which driver (version also) and what's the exact problem?

Unholy · Mon Dec 18, 2006 2:39 pm

If you are using windows XP thats your problem. Chances are your drivers are still in your registy. XP puts a lock on them so that everytime you try to remove them it appears that they are gone, but if you refresh they will still be there. There are programs out there that are made to clean the registry of video card drivers. This didn't work on my system because of XP locking it, so the only other thing to do (at least to my knowledge) is to do a system recovery to get a fresh registry.

xydna · Wed Dec 20, 2006 6:16 am

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the reply.

CP:
I am using windows XP. I have tried all the different drivers from the 80s version to the latest (90s) and even tweaked drivers obtained from guru3d.com. After installing the drivers and system restart, I will get stuck at the windows login screen. Top left part of the screen is missing and the mouse cursor is a big white pixelated square. System will hang shortly after and hence I am unable to login and will have to reboot into safe mode to uninstall the drivers.

Unholy:
I used DriverCleaner Pro to uninstall my drivers. Yes, the program fails to clean the registry totally as XP locks it cos the same registry files will appear everytime I run DriverCleaner. What I did was to manually unlock those registry files as indicated by DriverCleaner and remove them myself. This seems to work as the files did not appear again after scanning with DriverCleaner. Again, the same problems arise upon installing the graphic drivers.

So I am still stuck. Not sure if its the motherboard BIOS compatibilty problems (Is there even such a thing? Forgive me for my ignorance) and if i need to upgrade my BIOS or any other things.

Thanks again guys, for the help.

BiosMan · Wed Dec 20, 2006 2:52 pm

Does this board support PCI-E?

I'm not familiar with the difference between PCI and PCI-E, but since this seems like a good time to bring this up, can anyone provide an explanation?

Thanks.

Unholy · Wed Dec 20, 2006 8:47 pm

PCI and PCI-E are two different types of slots. The E stand for Express. PCI-E is a newer technology and is faster than PCI.

xydna · Thu Dec 21, 2006 8:05 am

Yar,

This motherboard support PCI-E and the card is a PCI-E card.

Anybody else can help??? Ha, I do not to end up buying a "white elephant".

Could this be a faulty card? Too bad I do not have another computer to try.

xydna

Thu Dec 21, 2006 8:22 am

That is always possible. Is there nobody near you you with a system you can test that card at?

BiosMan · Thu Dec 21, 2006 4:27 pm

Thank you for your concise explanation Unholy.

xydna · Sat Dec 23, 2006 11:08 am

Hi guys,

Thanks for all your help.
I have send the card to my local distributer and they have agreed to change the card for me (have to wait about 2 months for a replacement though,

)
It was a brand new card and hence I did not suspect a hardware fault. First thought was I did something wrong, so sorry for all the trouble.

Thanks.