Onboard Highpoint HPT370/370a BIOS update

Antoneo

Diamond Member
May 25, 2001
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I have an Epox 4g4a+ with what seems to be a Highpoint HPT370/370a IDE RAID controller. I'm trying to update its BIOS to the latest version and can't.

Here's what I did:
I went to Highpoint's website and downloaded the latest version v2.351 and made a DOS bootable floppy. Placed the BIOS folder into the floppy. Restart computer and booted from floppy. Typed "load.exe 3xxv2351.p4e" and it tells me no EPROM to load or something like that. The funny thing is shouldn't the BIOS file be an image type?

Did anyone get theirs to flash to the latest BIOS version?
 

boomerang

Lifer
Jun 19, 2000
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When the RAID controller is built into the board, you can only use the updates provided by the motherboard manufacturer. It would be incorporated into a BIOS upgrade for that board. However mobo manufacturers do not typically update the BIOS for a RAID contoller. They may have a BIOS update, but the RAID usually remains the same. You're usually stuck with what ya got.

The files at the Highpoint site are for their chips on PCI cards.
 

Antoneo

Diamond Member
May 25, 2001
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Originally posted by: boomerang
When the RAID controller is built into the board, you can only use the updates provided by the motherboard manufacturer. It would be incorporated into a BIOS upgrade for that board. However mobo manufacturers do not typically update the BIOS for a RAID contoller. They may have a BIOS update, but the RAID usually remains the same. You're usually stuck with what ya got.

The files at the Highpoint site are for their chips on PCI cards.
Eh, I wouldn't say that ;).

After some searching on google, I found out that you can "mod" your bios. I used a program from AWARD called CBROM v2.07 and successfully replaced the highpoint bios with the most recent one. :) I hope this helps someone else out.
 

boomerang

Lifer
Jun 19, 2000
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Hey, that's good to know. Wish I'd known of this a few years back. I could have put it to use. Glad you were able to get what you wanted! :)
 

RaiderJ

Diamond Member
Apr 29, 2001
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Cool, didn't know you could upgrade on-board RAID chips w/o the motherboard BIOS updates..... I'm using version 2.34.. any improvements with the newer versions?
 

Antoneo

Diamond Member
May 25, 2001
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Originally posted by: RaiderJ
Cool, didn't know you could upgrade on-board RAID chips w/o the motherboard BIOS updates..... I'm using version 2.34.. any improvements with the newer versions?
Yep, because the Highpoint controller is integrated into the motherboard, its bios is also integrated with the bios of the motherboard it self.

I made a couple of threads regarding my apparent problems with my three Seagate 200GB PATA drives on the Highpoint controller. According to the SeaTools, all of them had bad sectors which is very very unusual. They failed both the quick and full diagnostic tests citing bad sectors. In additional the full diagnostic tests got stuck at the same point (68%). This behavior to me suggested that there was something else at fault and I narrowed it down to the Highpoint IDE RAID controller. It already had a problem before when I first installed the Seagate drives and Windows XP would crash during boot up. A motherboard update (which incidently contained only an update of the Highpoint BIOS) resolved that problem. That particular update brought my Highpoint controller's BIOS to version 2.32.

After using CBROM to update the Highpoint BIOS to version 2.51, I ran the SeaTools and all of the drives passed the quick test. There was a note to one of the BIOS versions past 2.32 that the write failure problem was corrected. I was getting "Delayed write errors" in Windows XP as well which was the reason for scanning my disks. Hopefully that has been resolved as well.
 

boomerang

Lifer
Jun 19, 2000
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Great work! You should try to contact Seagate to let them know what you've learned.
 

Antoneo

Diamond Member
May 25, 2001
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Originally posted by: boomerang
Great work! You should try to contact Seagate to let them know what you've learned.
Yep, I emailed them the information :).
 

RaiderJ

Diamond Member
Apr 29, 2001
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Very interesting! Haven't had any problems with my WD RAID, but then there is always tomorrow....