Finding (or rather trying to find) a vomit box BIOS.

blakerwry

blakerwry

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Hey guys... I sucessfully managed to upgrade the bios in the motherboard mentioned http://storageforum.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1322&... i found out that this board actually had 2 different version of BIOS... one was AMI and one was Award... doh!

aparently the newest AMI BIOS (which i just installed) does not support HDD's larger than 32GB and will not even detect my 40gb Cudda ATA IV... I tried manually entering the HDD params w/ no success.... If i set the 32GB clip jumper on the HDD the machine boots up instantly...

The BIOS I had on it could not be written to disk so I was unable to save it prior to flashing the "new" BIOS....

I am temporarily using a FastTrak66 controller to use the HDD, but I would like to find a copy of the NEC/Packard bell BIOS that I had on the system.


This motherboard was manuf. by MSI as a ms6156 Ver. 1.0 BX7, but was sold by Packard bell as model PB911 and was also included in some NEC "ready" series pII computers.

I have searched on NEC's, Packard bell's, and google for BIOS upgrades to this motherboard... unfortunately it has been in vain because I have not been able to secure the BIOS update. I know that PB at one time had a BIOS update on their support site because I downloaded it and installed it ~two years ago. The BIOS update I'm looking for would be for a PB911.

Does anybody know any good sites where i could find BIOS updates for this board?

Is it possible I could take the Award BIOS from the same model board and swap it with the AMI BIOS? thus allowing use of the newer BIOS revisions that MSI made for the award model boards.

Thx
 
blakerwry

blakerwry

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Fushigi said:
Try http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/bios/bos/spt_bos_detail.php?UID=259&NAME=MS-6156BX perhaps?

I searched MSI's site for 6156 and it seems like there is an Intel chipset board (6156BX) and a VIA chipset board (6156VA) and a ZX chipset version. I don't recall an Intel ZX chip.

- Fushigi
Click to expand...

Like I said... I flashed it with the newest AMI bios version from MSI.... that version from MSI, while having more options, aparently is incapable of handling >32GB HDD's... something that the NEC/PB BIOS handled fine.


When I looked through the change log of MSI's the only thing mentioned about HDD's was >65GB HDD support (Note: that this was for the Award BIOS version only)... so i just assumed that the original limit was 65gb.... but we all know what happens when you ass-u-me.

This is the whole reason I want a copy of the PB/NEC BIOS.... while it has zip for options, it does have support for "large" HDD's... something that I really want.
 
blakerwry

blakerwry

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Blah... I was researching the 32GB hardware limitation... aparently this is supposed to be an Award only thing(a problem with their core code)??? but I have an AMI BIOS???

AMI supported greater than 32GB HDD's before they existed (back in JAN 1998)... I don't think this motherboard was even produced until 1999.....

The funny thing is... with just the single drive installed... set as either master or slave on either channel the computer would freeze on HDD detection... I set the 32GB clip and presto everything works... seems like the 32GB limitation to me...

8GB is not that big of a deal... it's just that I already have a running OS and I don't want to potentially screw it up.


I am going to try IBM's tools to limit the UDMA mode.... don't know what else to try....
 
T

time

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You can see from their website that the AMI BIOS hasn't been maintained like the Award version.

In any case, just download the latest Award and the corresponding flash utility. AFAIK, the "part number does not match" message can be ignored (in this instance!). I tried this with an earlier HX board from MSI, going from Award to AMI and back again.

BUT IT MAY ALSO FAIL AND YOUR MOTHERBOARD WILL DIE.

You have been warned. :)
 
blakerwry

blakerwry

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time said:
AFAIK, the "part number does not match" message can be ignored (in this instance!).
Click to expand...

no it cant... as i said in the other post the award BIOS flashing program either freezes or boots me back to DOS after giving me this message... not really something you can ignore...


*lol, i didnt realize that 1st link didnt work HERE is the correct URL
 
blakerwry

blakerwry

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hehe.. somebody on EBAY is selling 100 of these things for $30 + $18 S&H... in the picture they show the award BIOS version....

I have to say this has been an excellent, stable motherboard.. but it has pretty much reached the end of its lifetime and would not be worth the $48 to me.. maybe to someone else perhaps.
 
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