How do you perform a BIOS update on a Silicon Image SiI 0680 Ultra-133 Medley ATA RAID card?

[integramodder]

I downloaded the UPDFLASH utility from Silicon Image's [I.
When I open the UPDFLASH utility it asked whether this is infact for an add on card with a Y/N promt, when I enter "Y", it stalls on the next line with "Use PCI BIOS to scan" written.

I need to install the Vista Driver for the card but the driver requires the lastest BIOS.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Arcanedeath]

Not all of these cards had user upgradeable bioses, some of them were not eproms and were just roms so were not updateable, it depends on your specific card if its updateable or not.

 

[Jiggz]

This is what I found at Silicon Image Homepage. . ."f you have a 680/680A-based IDE controller board and want RAID functionality, you cannot simply download the RAID drivers to get RAID functionality. You must also modify the BIOS in the card. This can be done but depends on how your board maker has designed the card since Silicon Image does not make any cards for the retail market. The SiI0680/0680A does support FLASH memory BIOS as well as EPROM, but many board makers use EPROM to save cost.

To tell if your card uses EPROM, see if there is another smaller chip outside of the 680 controller chip. If the part number of that smaller chip begins with 27xxx, then you have EPROM BIOS and you cannot use the flash utility to upgrade your BIOS. You must use an EPROM programmer tool. If you do want to program your own BIOS, please note that the RAID BIOS is larger than the IDE BIOS and may not fit in the EPROM provided with your IDE card.

If your card does have a FLASH-based BIOS, then please go to the BIOS and flash utility related articles on the lower right. "

As you can see you need to find out first if you have a Flash based Bios or not to use their Flash Utility.

 

[Zap]

Are you trying to run it from a DOS window? You need to boot onto a DOS floppy disk to flash it, like you would a motherboard BIOS.

 

[Steve]

I had the same question a few years ago and emailed SiiG support, they determined from the chip number that it wasn't upgradable.

 

[integramodder]

Originally posted by: Jiggz
This is what I found at Silicon Image Homepage. . ."f you have a 680/680A-based IDE controller board and want RAID functionality, you cannot simply download the RAID drivers to get RAID functionality. You must also modify the BIOS in the card. This can be done but depends on how your board maker has designed the card since Silicon Image does not make any cards for the retail market. The SiI0680/0680A does support FLASH memory BIOS as well as EPROM, but many board makers use EPROM to save cost.

To tell if your card uses EPROM, see if there is another smaller chip outside of the 680 controller chip. If the part number of that smaller chip begins with 27xxx, then you have EPROM BIOS and you cannot use the flash utility to upgrade your BIOS. You must use an EPROM programmer tool. If you do want to program your own BIOS, please note that the RAID BIOS is larger than the IDE BIOS and may not fit in the EPROM provided with your IDE card.

If your card does have a FLASH-based BIOS, then please go to the BIOS and flash utility related articles on the lower right. "

As you can see you need to find out first if you have a Flash based Bios or not to use their Flash Utility.

Thanks,

I havent actually looked on the card, but I have the Syba Sil 0680 card. On their website FAQ, http://www.syba.com/support_download/faq/03/index.html, the second to last question for the SIL680 ATA133 Raid Controller Card is the following:
Q: Where can you find more information?
A: Please visit www.siliconimage.com for more firmware update and detailed technical issue.

This leads me to believe it is upgradeable, I will check it when I get home later to be sure.

 

[integramodder]

Originally posted by: Zap
Are you trying to run it from a DOS window? You need to boot onto a DOS floppy disk to flash it, like you would a motherboard BIOS.

I'm doing this from a command prompt in XP. I didn''t realize you needed to be in DOS.

How can I get a DOS prompt if my computer does not have a floppy drive?

Can I use NTFS Dos Pro 5.0 from Hiren's Boot Disc? [http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd]

 

[Jiggz]

Originally posted by: integramodder

Originally posted by: Jiggz
This is what I found at Silicon Image Homepage. . ."f you have a 680/680A-based IDE controller board and want RAID functionality, you cannot simply download the RAID drivers to get RAID functionality. You must also modify the BIOS in the card. This can be done but depends on how your board maker has designed the card since Silicon Image does not make any cards for the retail market. The SiI0680/0680A does support FLASH memory BIOS as well as EPROM, but many board makers use EPROM to save cost.

To tell if your card uses EPROM, see if there is another smaller chip outside of the 680 controller chip. If the part number of that smaller chip begins with 27xxx, then you have EPROM BIOS and you cannot use the flash utility to upgrade your BIOS. You must use an EPROM programmer tool. If you do want to program your own BIOS, please note that the RAID BIOS is larger than the IDE BIOS and may not fit in the EPROM provided with your IDE card.

If your card does have a FLASH-based BIOS, then please go to the BIOS and flash utility related articles on the lower right. "

As you can see you need to find out first if you have a Flash based Bios or not to use their Flash Utility.

Thanks,

I havent actually looked on the card, but I have the Syba Sil 0680 card. On their website FAQ, http://www.syba.com/support_download/faq/03/index.html, the second to last question for the SIL680 ATA133 Raid Controller Card is the following:
Q: Where can you find more information?
A: Please visit www.siliconimage.com for more firmware update and detailed technical issue.

This leads me to believe it is upgradeable, I will check it when I get home later to be sure.

It's a fair assumption that it is upgradeable. But at the end of the day, it's whether your card has that smaller chip with 27xx numbers on it. If this is present on your card then it is not upgradeable.