Flashing new bios.

[bobhowell]

I want to upgrade the bios on my hp a1130u to take a dual core processor upgrade. It has a MSI mb , MS 7093. MSI has a bios on their site, but the bios upgrade utility does not recognize the board or bios or something as it has a hp bios on it now. So, how do I make this up grade. I don't have a flopy drive. It has been 10 yrs since I did it this way. What is the best way to aviod problems.

The bios on MSI site is a rar file which is some new compressed format to me. I haven't opened it yet.

Thanks for any help

Bob Howell

 

[SerpentRoyal]

I would not cross flash an HP MB. HP does not make MB. Some are made by Asus, MSI, etc to HP's specs. Flashing a-non HP BIOS can render the board useless.

 

[tcsenter]

Do not use the MSI BIOS on any OEM versions of this board from HP, Compaq, Gateway, or eMachines. There are a few reports of cross-flashing with the MSI BIOS and while I didn't find any reporting that it killed the board, they were forced to revert back to the OEM BIOS because of functional/stability issues.

There is already a BIOS update from HP with a release date that is similar to MSI's latest BIOS: MS-7093/MS-7184 BIOS v3.47

In fact, the latest BIOS for this board from MSI, HP, and Gateway are all dated March 2006. I doubt that is just a coincidence. You can use MSI's CPU Support Chart for the MS-7093 as a guide: MS-7093 w/latest BIOS

 

[bobhowell]

I looked at the cpu support chart you refered to and saw the x2 4200+ I was looking at is listed as supported, I assumed it was with the MSI Bios 3.8, but not with HP 3.47 Bios. HP makes no mention of added dual processor support for that Bios, but I don't really know if that means it doesn't. What is your take on it?

 

[tcsenter]

There should be no problem with the X2 4200+. All S939 versions of this model are based on Toledo or Manchester and have been around since mid-2005.

 

[bobhowell]

I have been corresponding with a guy who has this upgrade and he is not sure if the second core is recognized. Sounds like a problem if he can't tell.

He is searching for patches to work this out. Can dual core support be implemented by patches if bios does not provide it?

Bob

 

[bobhowell]

This guy reports device manager shows two cores. Would this mean all is well and both are working?

 

[tcsenter]

This is using the latest HP BIOS?

Open the Task Manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del) > Performance Tab. If both cores are in use, it will show the CPU utilization for two cores.

The Computer [HAL] Type in Device Manager should also report ACPI Multiprocessor PC.