O' Motherboard (SS7 - FIC VA-503+) and Windows XP Problem of Shutting Down

[LiLxJohnny]

Has anyone been successful in installing Windows XP into an old motherboard like the FIC VA-503+ without any problems?

Apparently, I was able to do so which I thought was pretty cool, but then I am not able to successfully shutdown. The system seems to just "hang" there at where Windows XP tells you that "Windows is shutting down" but never does it get to the point where it tells me that it is safe to turn off the computer.

I know that it may have to do with some of the ACPI Power Management Features of the VA-503+ which this motherboard lacks or is incompatible with XP.

I remember back when I try to install windows 2000, I couldn't get pass the point where the OS is trying to detect all of my hardware and I resolved the problem by loading the bios defaults in the motherboard. I didn't need to do it for this system because apparently XP detects it just fine without the need to load up the bios defaults.

LMK if anyone has done anything to this motherboard to get it working with XP or am I really stuck with Windows 2000 as the latest OS to run on a aging SS7 motherboard.

BTW if you did resolve the problem, what bios rev are you using? drivers? etc. Thanks

Here is my setup:
FIC VA-503+
K6-2 500mhz
G200 AGP
SB PCI128
Adaptec 2940U
2x Seagate Barracudas
AT Power supply

 

[tcsenter]

Can't guarantee anything, but I've made available an APM-only version BIOS for 503+ that REMOVES ACPI support from the BIOS, thus prevents Windows from installing with ACPI. This seems to have worked for many folks, but YMMV. You can google search the keywords 'va-503' and 'APM' to find many discussions about this.

You may need to drag and drop the link into the URL box, txt file gives useful information:

JE4331-APM for VA-503+

JE4333-APM for VA-503+

As the name implies, these modded BIOS versions are based on FIC BETA BIOS JE4331 and JE4333 discussed on FIC's VA-503+ FAQ. Some report having to hit F7 or some key like that during XP setup to invoke a menu, and from there you can select 'Standard PC (APM)' instead of ACPI PC (something like that, I've never had to do that myself so I've never actually seen the menu, just recalling what others have told me). Good luck.

 

[LiLxJohnny]

Are these BIOS files your own? Meaning you rewrote the BIOS file in order to remove the ACPI features? or were these from the FIC website.

And also, where would you press F5 in the windows xp installation process when you first boot up using the CD to be able to select the option for "Standard computer"??

Thanks

 

[tcsenter]

<< Are these BIOS files your own? Meaning you rewrote the BIOS file in order to remove the ACPI features? or were these from the FIC website. >>

"As the name implies, these modded BIOS versions are based on FIC BETA BIOS JE4331 and JE4333 discussed on FIC's VA-503+ FAQ."

<< And also, where would you press F5 in the windows xp installation process when you first boot up using the CD to be able to select the option for "Standard computer"?? >>

"I've never had to do that myself so I've never actually seen the menu, just recalling what others have told me."

"You can google search the keywords 'va-503' and 'APM' to find many discussions about this."

Google Search Results

 

[LiLxJohnny]

O .. thanks

I'm kinda hesitant about flashing a "modding" bios.. Has it worked for you?

I just need to know that before I went and flash it .. I just dont want to potentially break a motherboard

Thanks again for your input in this , its been very useful

Johnny

 

[tcsenter]

<< I'm kinda hesitant about flashing a "modding" bios.. Has it worked for you? >>

It has worked for me and the few dozen others who have used it and were nice enough to inform me of their experience. It seems to have solved many people's install, shutdown, restart, or standby problems. About a dozen people have reported it solved nothing for them, but it didn't 'create' any new problems, either, with the exception of one person who updated to my BIOS directly from one of the earliest BIOS versions available, skipping about six BIOS updates. Between his version and my version, FIC had changed the actual Award BIOS build and altered the IRQ routing table. When he updated to my BIOS, these fundamental changes caused Win2K to freak out, which we determined would have happened whether or not he used the modded BIOS or FIC's.

History of this BIOS mod:

FIC had already released an "APM-only" BIOS update for the VA-503+ which 'solved' many reported problems with ACPI; version JP4329 (see FIC's 503+ FAQ). However, this BIOS did not support the K6-II+ or K6-III+ 'mobile' CPUs, nor did it incorporate support for larger HDD's and a few other fixes that were found in newer BIOS versions.

After comparing them, it turns out that ACPI support is added via a seperate option ROM (or module), which can be removed from the BIOS ROM file using Award's CBROM and MODBIN utilities. That's what I did, I took JE4330, JE4331, and JE4333 (as they were released) and removed the ACPI option ROM from the system BIOS. This has no affect at all on the main system BIOS.

Understand that this was all happening just after the release of W2K and well before the release of XP. FIC never intended for the VA-503+ or PA-2013 to support W2K or XP. If you ask FIC about it they will flat-out say "upgrade to new motherboard" if you want to use either OS. There are many people who are using XP with the 503+. Some report having to use my BIOS before XP would install, others report no problems with the FIC version. There are still others who report no success getting XP to install or run on their 503+ no matter what they tried.

You may want to try posting to alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.fic for assistance, to which I was a frequent contributor, but I parted with my old SS7 boards several months ago and no longer frequent the newsgroup. I've personally never attempted to use either Win2K or XP on these SS7 boards, but I used NT4-SP6 on several of them without a problem.

As it says in the TXT file accompanied with the BIOS:

"Unofficial, unsupported, BETA BIOS - Use at your own risk!"

 

[LiLxJohnny]

I'll try it tonight and get back to you on it .. thanks

Anymore suggestions? or recommendations?

 

[tcsenter]

<< Anymore suggestions? or recommendations >>

Yep, alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.fic

JE4333 supports HDD > 32GB, JE4331 does not.

 

[LiLxJohnny]

Just last night, I flashed it with the JE4333 beta bios and still it doesn't work. Now I'm wondering if its a problem with one of the hardware. I'm going to see if I can remove all the cards and have only the G200 in there.