bios flash? (gateway [intel-oem] bios to intel bios)

[kef7]

Is it possible to flash the bios in this mobo (gateway "bryant" mobo) link to mobo

more info here
(intel oem, 3rd mobo from bottom of page)


from the gateway bios to an pure intel bios? (this one appears to be closest match:
CA810E

I already tried using the CA810E with the iflash program in dos and got two errors "invalid reserved string in flash image header" and "the flash data image read from disk was found to be not valid"

thanks in advance

 

[kef7]

bump

 

[kef7]

bump

 

[mindless1]

Consult the manual on the intel page you linked... Bios Recovery Option is what you want.
Briefly, you create the bootable bios flash disk as if it were the intel board, with the bios image as a *.bin file IIRC, then open up the system, move the jumper to recovery mode, power up the system with bootable floppy in it, wait till you're SURE it's done then power off and replace jumper. Pretty risky unless you're sure the intel bios will work, but then again the same procedure should work to reflash the Gateway bios... just be sure you have the second disk with Gatway bios ready if needed.

 

[kef7]

I must be doing something wrong when creating the boot disk. From following the instructions at intels site it sounded like expanding the .bat file onto a floppy would make it bootable. When I check the contents of the floppy after doing this there are no files with a .bin extension. When I try to use this disk I get "non-system" disk errors. What could I be doing wrong?

 

[mindless1]

I'm guessing that the intel download was a self-extracting file...
The contents of that should be extracted to an already bootable floppy.

From what I remember, there could be a bunch of bios files, like *.bi0, .bi1, .bi2, etc Then there maybe an "iflash" program (or similar) that's ran from an autoexec.bat file... in other words, you might have been OK except you didn't start with a bootable floppy.

Take that floppy you have and enter the command at a DOS prompt:
sys a:

(Just be sure you do the same to a second floppy with the original Gateway bios too, in case you need revert back to the old bios). Out of curiosity, what benefit is there to the intel bios?

 

[kef7]

Thanks for the quick reply.

The total size of the self-extracted bios files is around 1.18mb. An ms-dos startup disk (made in xp) is 555kb and an old 95 boot disk I found lying around was just under 1 mb.

I know some of those files aren't essential for what I'm doing but don't know for sure which are needed and which I can erase in order to fit on a 1.44 floppy. (i did a google search for "minimum files needed for boot floppy" but only had time to check a couple of hits tonight; will look at more tomorrow)

Not sure if there will be any tangible benefits to flashing to the intel bios; currently with the gateway bios it takes forever to boot up and in general has flaky performance. Perhaps flashing would help this? This mobo is in a system I just have lying around for testing various hardware and such so if I fry the mobo flashing I'm only out the $20 I paid for it. (and just as well would force me to buy something decent!)

 

[mindless1]

Gateway BIOS is Intel BIOS... Intel sends the bios and a configuration tool or two, Gateway chooses what "features" to make hidden or available, but same underlying code, bugs, fixes per version. You might be able to compare version release notes for both and see which releases correspond to each other. In general Gateway seems to choose not to release the later BIOS versions for their products, the last Intel version is typically the newest there is.

The bootable floppy will have:

IO.SYS (can't be just copied, must be properly written to front of disk with special util or tools like "sys", "format /s" command, etc)
Command.com
MSDOS.SYS

Sometimes there will also be "drvspace.bin", but it's only needed for accessing drivespace-compressed volumes, can be deleted to free up 68KB.

Simplier solution is to use intel's NT bootable floppy maker (83KB)... I'd link to it on Intel's site if i knew where it was, but far easier to just put on server for you, then u can just put it in a folder, extract, see the Readme.txt:

http://216.71.121.115/usr_1034/MK_BOOTZ.EXE

It's a handy little tool to have around, you might want it keep it after swapping the bios.

 

[kef7]

Thanks for the boot disk file. However, I think I'm still out of luck. After making the boot disk and copying the bios files over to it; I then pulled the bios recovery jumper on the mobo and booted it. With that jumper removed there is no video display so I can't see what it is doing/not doing but it emits a beeping noise. I thought I read somewhere on intel site that means the flash wasn't succesful.

For the heck of it I also tried without removing the jumper so I could see what was happening. It flashes the error message fast but I think it says "invalid reserved string in flash image header" and "the flash data image read from disk was found to be not valid".

The intel bios is about 4 months newer than the gateway bios but perhaps it isn't possible to flash the intel bios.

 

[mindless1]

I do know that it will beep (maybe only once) when it's working, but I don't know about repeated beeping. I do know that booting with the configuration jumper in it's normal position isn't the same, I've previously flashed an old Gateway AL440LX to the Intel AL440LX bios and found that the jumper had to be changed to do it. It may be easy to tell whether the intel bios "took", because they often replace the Gateway splash logo with an intel logo, but YMMV.

Perhaps your particular motherboard just won't accept it, I don't know what to suggest from here, except to review this intel page and be sure that all the files from the intel bios are decompressed, none in package-for-download format still, but from your accounts it seems that this isn't the problem.

There is another option, but I hesitated to mention it before because it's more risky, I try not to risk other people's hardware if it can be avoided... you could open up the bios file with a hex editor, search for and change the intel vendor id string to match that of gateway, and then the flasher "should" be satisfied. I once tried this and ended up with a dead board. Well, it was easily enough recovered by reflashing the Gateway bios, but you'd be taking a risk. On second thought, maybe after editing the bios and having the board seem "dead", I might have then used the recovery jumper to flash the (unedited original version of) intel bios, NOT the gateway bios... I just can't remember, it was many moons and many motherboards ago. Here is some help in that area, I think it found it in a newsgroup post a few years ago, perhaps a google search with some of the text stings might find that post for you:

I have an OEM version of the AL440LX motherboard from a company such as DELL or NEC. Can I use the BIOS updates from the Intel Site?
I get the following error message when I try to update my BIOS using the BIOS from Intel's site:
(H 48):Invalid reserved string in flash image header
What does this mean and what am I doing wrong?

When the Intel program starts to upgrade the BIOS, it checks the BIOS header. In the header:

4A4LL0X0.86A.0031.P14



Here are some of the BIOS codes for various OEM's which use the AL440LX:

04A Sony
05A Micron
10A Dell
11A NEC
15A Gateway
21A Hewlett Packard
86A Intel


The .86A indicates that the BIOS is from Intel. However, on an OEM machine, the BIOS header is different. Here is an example of one of the Dell headers:

4A4LL0X0.10A.0027.P09.9803261356

The .10A indicates that the BIOS is from Dell, and that the BIOS version is P09. Using the normal upgrade utility, you won't be able to upgrade the BIOS because of this check. However, there is a way to bypass this check. The motherboard has a feature that allows it to do an emergency recovery of the BIOS in case something goes wrong. To use this feature, you have to remove the configuration jumper and put the BIOS disk in the drive. When your machine boots, it will start reading from the floppy, and start loading whatever BIOS is on the disk (provided it is a BIOS for the AL440LX) without doing the 86A check. The computer will indicate success with a series of beeps, and there will be no indications on your monitor during this phase. Before I give you the detailed instructions on what you need to do, the disclaimer monster has to rear it's ugly head:

Using the BIOS from Intel will probably void the warranty on your computer from your manufacturer; check with the manufacturer and their policy. You should check with them first for a BIOS update. If your manufacturer hasn't been able to help or hasn't provided any BIOS upgrades, you can use the Intel BIOS; just make sure the BIOS addresses the problem you're having by reading the readme file included with each BIOS upgrade.

Now that that ugliness has been taken care of, first try upgrading the BIOS using the Intel program on the BIOS upgrade disk. If this doesn't work, you can do one of two things: modify the BIOS files using a hex editor, or load the BIOS using the BIOS recovery method. If you know how to use a hex editor, you can edit the four BIOS files ending in .bio, bi1, bi2, and .bi3. The beginning of each file contains the BIOS header. Edit this header to match the maker of your motherboard. So, if you want to load an Intel BIOS on a Dell computer, you would change the .86A to a .10A. This process also works in reverse. If you aren't comfortable using a hex editor to modify the BIOS files, you should use the BIOS recovery method.

Again, you should note that this will probably negate or at least affect the warranty on your computer from your manufacturer. But, if you've reached this point they probably haven't been much help so far. And of course, who is to say that you can't use the same procedure to reflash the OEM BIOS if something goes wrong? Just a warning.

 

[kef7]

Looks like I'll just live with the long boot times and flaky performance.

I thought about using the hex editor but figure it is beyond me and don't have the time to learn it. (actually too lazy)

Ironically, I recognize that message concerning the 440lx!! That guy (bill something?) had a very informative page all about the 440lx boards a few yrs ago. After reading that page I flashed my mobo and upgraded from a p2 300 to a cel533 w/ a powerleap adaptor.

Thanks for your help.