PC-Chips MoBo: How do I determine which Model No.

[Herkulese]

I am working on a PC for a friend and would like to update the BIOS. In order to find a newer BIOS, I need to determine the model number of this MoBo.

It is a PC-Chips MoBo as follows:
Form Factor: Baby AT
CPU Style: Slot-1
Chip Set: ALI Aladdin Pro (BXcel) (M1621)
FSB Support: 66mhz / 100mhz
Card Slots: 4 PCI / 2 ISA / 1 AGP (2x)
Mem Slots: 3 SDRam
Riser Card: 2 USB, 1 IR, 1 PS2 Mouse
Label at Bottom of Last ISA Slot: 97L89154979
BIOS String: 61-0805-001437-00111111-ALI1621-725000-H (Release Date 08-05-1998) S
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I have a PPGA Celeron 366, mounted on an ABIT 370SP Slotket, that has been running perfectly at 100FSB (550mhz) an my Suns ABIT BH-6. It is, however, a bit flaky on this board. It would not get through an install of Win2K until I set the Voltage on the slotket to 2.2 volts, but then it froze when installing the new video drivers.

I have the multiplier on the board set at 5.5x but the BIOS reads this CPU as running at 500mhz. Sandra 2001, however, reports it, correctly, as running at 550mhz.

Is this board not good enough to run this chip at 550 or could there be a power supply problem? The PS is a new generic 250 watt, that I bought a couple of years ago, but never used.
________________

Are there any other, cheap, AT, Slot-1 or Socket 370 boards, available, that would run this CPU at 550?

 

[Draknor]

Identify PCChips Mainboard

Looks like the M729...

 

[Herkulese]

Draknor,

Thanks for the link. I checked it out, and it sure does look like an M729.

If I find a BIOS upgrade for an M729, what would be the likely hood that it would work?

 

[Draknor]

Good luck finding a BIOS update

PcChips seems to have removed a lot of their older files from their FTP (I'm looking for a manual for the M730, myself). Try & find a product info page on the M729 just to be safe; there was a sight called PCChips Interrogator or something that let you figure out which board you have; I can't remember the URL right now, but I know I found it on Google; you might try searching there...

 

[Herkulese]

I am still not sure about this board. The BIOS string from the link you supplied was exactly right, but when I did a search for M729 and actually found a picture of the board, it turned out to have only 3 PCI slots, where mine has 4 PCI slots.

 

[Peter]

There weren't too many ALi chipset boards from them, 725 and 729 (they look the same, the 725 having a very early revision ALi 1621 that won't do 100 MHz), the much smaller 726 that IIRC has ISA PnP sound on (C-Media 8330 in disguise as "SoundPro"), and the socket+slot combo 726MRT which also has a PCI sound/modem combo chip on (a C-Media 8738).

regards, Peter

 

[nork]

draknor has a thread and I left him a bunch of websites where there is info on pc chips mobos

this is in addition
http://www.plasma-online.de/index.h...ish/identify/serial/mainboard/mb_pcchips.html

 

[Herkulese]

I must correct my last post. This board does not have 4 PCI slots. It only have 3 PCI slots, mtching the M725 and M729. It also has the ALI Aladdin BXCel (66/100) chipset, like the M729, and the the BIOS string matches exactly to the one listed on the Plasma site for the M729. This MoBo has to be the M729.

Now I need to see if there is a new BIOS for it. The release date for the one that I have is 08-05-1998. Does anyone have any ideas on a BIOS update? I hope that I can find one at WimsBIOS or BadFlash. I am of to find out.

Thank you all so much for the assistance. I thought that this would be a hopeless case.
______________

BTW, what about the fact that with the Celeron 366 at 550, Win2k is buggy while Win98SE seems Rock Solid. Keep in mind that I ran this CPU at 550 on an ABIT BH-6 for over a year with no problems at all.

 

[Iron Woode]

There is a BIOS for that board on the PCChips's TW website.

linky

11th down on the far left.

 

[Herkulese]

Irom Woode

Thanks for the link. I had forgotten that thay had this one, until I went back and looked.

In the past, I have had trouble with PC Chips BIOS files not working with the Flasher that they stated to be used, and had to find the similar board from Amptron and use the BIOS upgrade for that board. Does anyone know if this is a good BIOS and which Flash utility should be used to install it?

If it is not good, is there a similar board from Amptron that has a BIOS upgrade that would work?

 

[Peter]

The BIOS files from Amptron are identical, except for the occasional name string patch. Regarding the utility program to use, it's best to use the program that originally came with the board. If that's lost, you need to try the current one and go back from there. Make sure you have a few generations of the program at hand before you try - because once you failed, you can't reboot until you get it right, else the machine will be dead.

regards, Peter

 

[Herkulese]

I checked Amptrons site and they do not list this board for BIOS updates. They have the 726's but not the 729.
I am trying to download the file from PC Chips but it brings me to the FTP page then when I click on BIOS the Page Not Found page is displayed.

 

[Peter]

Well if you're behind a firewall, there might be no ftp for you ... otherwise, the PC-Chips ftp server is quite slow at certain time of day.

 

[Herkulese]

I found the 990224s.rom file at sensiblecomputers.com. I also received a copy from badflash.com.

 

[nork]

Herkules, hope you dont mind but you mentioned having problems getting your pc chips board bios to upgrade and I am having the same problem with my pc chipsM728LMR. I tried the amibios aminf332 and aminf333, with bios upgrade 0109135. I get an error message. I was wondering if it s the same error message as you are getting.
This is the error message.

chipset type ALI M1621/1543
FLASHPART - EON 29F002T/NT
ERROR 2 - FILE DOES NOT EXIST

Wonder if you have any advice for me on this.

thanks
Don

P.s. If I shouldnt be putting this here please pm me and I will take it out. I am new here and only trying to talk to someone who knows what he is talking about and you know about pc chips boards.

I have found a bunch of places and got lots of info and such but never able to get the bios upgrade to work and am stuck at the 8.6 gig hard drive because of the bios.

 

[Herkulese]

Nork,

There is absoluteley no problem with you puting your question here. The more the marrier.

I ran into exactly the same problem. I entered the name of the flash utility, without the BIOS file, planning to enter the BIOS file when asked for it, just like I would do with an Award BIOS. I then got the exact same screen that you posted here, different numbers, but the same lines of info. When I entered the Flash file followed by a space and the BIOS file, the program continued to run.

The problem that I, then, had was that the BIOS tag was wrong. Following are the lines that I got on this run:

>Chipset Type ALi M1621/1543
>Old Bios - Release 08/05/1998 S
>New Bios - Release 02/24/1999 S
>Old Bios Tag is <725000> -- New Bios Tag is <M729_v1.2 - 5123
>Error 9 - The Bios Tag is incorrect
>Press [Enter} to continue or [Esc] to Abort...

Anyone have any ideas on this one?

 

[nork]

thanks!


Tell me, is your computer still operating, which i hope it is?
Or did the bios prog screw up the original bios?

Thanks
Don

 

[Peter]

nork, this is an RTFM issue ... you must state the BIOS filename on the command line, how else should that program know what file to use? You be glad it doesn't try to guess ...

herkulese, what you see there is the safety check. BIOS ID tag of the current and new BIOS are compared, and a warning given if they don't match. Please double check whether you got a 725 or 729 board there. (725 is 66-MHz-only.)

If you're absolutely sure you got a 729 there, hit enter to continue.

regards, Peter

 

[Herkulese]

Nork,

Yes, my computer is still running, as I did not hit the enter key. I looked at that screen off and on for over an hour with my finger on the enter key, but decided that I had better wait a get verification.

Peter,

Thanks for the clarification.

Yes, this has to be am M729, as it has the BXcel, 66/100FSB, chipset. The M726 also has the BXCel chipset but has a completely different layout. Plasma Online also shows the exact same BIOS string as mine for the M729.

 

[nork]

Peter, I did RTFM. I have flashed bios's before, just cant seem to do this one. The pc chips tutorial on running the ami bios states 2 ways of installing the new bios and I tried both of them to no avail. Neither of them mentions the way you are suggesting. The bios program couldnt have installed anything else as all that was available to it was the .rom file that was on the floppy along with the bios prog.

Would you mind typing out the command so I will understand exactly?

Thanks

Don

 

[Herkulese]

<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">This may sound ignorant, but what is RTFM?

I have updated many bios' on both AMD and Intel platforms, 486 through Athlon, but have not come across this acronym before.</SPAN>

 

[nork]

read the f**king manual

I am only telling you what it means, it was not my comment, although I'm sure he meant no harm, just having fun.


Like I told him I read the manual (2) and still I couldnt get the bios to work.
From the sound of it, maybe I'm lucky it didnt work. Pc chips may or may not have given me the correct bios upgrade, I dont trust their poor website very much. Their bios manual is the pits, obviously, it wont work the way they say to do it.

Don

 

[Herkulese]

I did not find a manual. I guess I will need to look closer.
____________________________________________________

BTW, Did you type the command as follows (your file names may be different):

A:/> Amifn814 990224s.rom?

The reason that I ask is that wheh I first tried it, I typed:

A:/> Amifn814

and expected to be asked for the BIOS file. Instead, I got the same error that you did. When I entered both the Flash and Bios File, the program went ahead and ran.

 

[Peter]

Well older AMIFL utility releases did have an interactive mode with nice color menus and stuff, but with the BIOS files growing bigger, this was removed because all that stuff has to fit into memory available to DOS ...

 

[nork]

TO hercules:

I think that is what Peter is saying above.
So when I have time I will do it and keep my fingers crossed, I guess. I went to the pc chips website and downloaded what it says is the appropriate bios, it says to ignore the numbers on the end, just go by the first numbers when looking for the bios.
What I mean is, by mobo is the 728LMR and on the website is 728 by itself of 728 maybe with an L and with the MR. The website says to ignore that so I downloaded the 728 bios.

Between tonite and tomorrow night I will give it a try the way you and peter are suggesting, which I believe to be the same.


Also, on the pc chips website you will find the "manual" if you look hard enough. But like I said, it isnt much good unless I read it wrong. Matter of fact, here is a copy of what I got from there. I copied it to a text file:

NOTE: Flashing a Bios is risky and might leave you with a dead system.
DO NOT flash, if your system is working without problems.
I can't be responsible for the accuracy of this information, nor can I promise that you'll be able to solve all of your problems.
Further, you must consider and understand you do any modifications at your own risk.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The usual procedure
Emergency procdure with AMI-Bios
Emergency procdure with AWARD-Bios
Other ways out
Getting a replacement chip
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The usual procedure

This is a step by setp guide.
Keep in mind, that your mileage may vary!

Identify your board model. Sometimes you even need to know the PCB-Layer Revision or some other technical data. If you are unsure: STOP!.
Get the Bios-Image for your board. Make sure, it is downloaded correct.
Create a bootable system disk, using Dos 6.2x, Win 9x or Caldera Dos.
Remove all files except io.sys, msdos.sys and command.com.
Keep in mind, that there are hidden files like drvspace.bin
Put a suitable flash programm on it.
Which one to choose? Check disks/cds that came with your board.
Nothing there, check if the manufacturer recommends a special version.
A flasher version from the time, the board was availabe is usually the best choice.
Check here for a particular AMI or AWARD flasher version.
Put the new Bios image on it. Check that windows hasn't screwed up the filename.
It should be a true Dos 8+3 name. Also check the file-attributes and remove any write protection.
Reboot and Enter the Bios Setup.
Set boot order to A: first and disable the "Internal" and "External" caches and "USB".
Best: Note all the current settings.
Save and Exit.
The PC should now boot from that floppy.
Start the flashprg with the parameter "/?" (without the quotes) and check the options.
Nearly all flasher version will give you the opportunity to save the current Bios to file.
This is, what you should do now.
Now start the flasher and flash the new Bios, using either a menu or command-line switches.
After a succesful flash, re-enter the Bios-setup and check all values.
Sometimes it is necessary to clear the cmos to bring the board with the new Bios back to life.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Emergency procdure with AMI-Bios

Put a known working bios-image on a freshly formatted disk.
Name the file "AMIBOOT.ROM"
Insert the floppy and power up.
You may need to press "Ctrl"+"Home" to activate the emergency flash routine.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Emergency procdure with AWARD-Bios


Put an autoexec.bat on that boot-disk you made.
it should contain one single line, which starts the flasher with all required parameters.
The parameters do vary from version to version, but you should have checked them already.
Insert the floppy and power up.
You may need install an ISA FDC, sinces sometimes the onboard FDC will not work.
Usually you won't see anything, unless you install an ISA VGA-Card.
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Other ways out
Hot-swap. Read the FAQ at Wim's Bios Page.
Flash services, like Flashbios (NL), Badflash (US) or Segor (DE).
A local electronics or pc shop may also be able to help you.
Buy a new flash-chip from the motherboard manufacturer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Getting a replacement chip
For 486 and early 586 boards (FX,VX and Opti-based) a small list does exist.
Which chip type to use, depends on the Letter appended to the Release Date of the Bios.

No Letter
Any type, because this is designed for a (E)PROM.
I
Intel 28F001BX flash chip only.
S
SST 29EE010 (5V)
Winbond 29EE011 (5V)
ATMEL 29C010 (5V)
intel 28F001BX (12V)
MX28F1000PPC (12 V)
L
MX28F1000PL (12 V)
MX28F1000PC (12 V)
DO NOT USE THIS LIST FOR BOARDS WHICH ALREADY HAVE A FLASH CHIP!
If you need to replace a chip on a board which already has a flashable chip, just buy exact the same model (Access time could be faster, no problem with that).
If you can't get hold of such a chip, you may wish to read the Bios-revision history for that very particular Bios you are going to install.
Sometimes you find additional chip-types mentioned there, which will be supported from a particular release version onward.
Example from such a file:


File name :e2k1201s.rom
check sum :2D89h
Release date :2000/12/01
ECN :SNG-2K0207

1. Support MAXTOR 36GB HDD.
2. Support Silentboot function.
3. Added BIOSLOCK function.
4. Support SST 49LF004 FWH flash parts.
5. Support Cyrix ¢» CPU.
6. Updated Microcode (686).
7. Added 66MHz CPU table 66*12 maximum.


Got it?

Just in case your board came equipped with an 2MBit-ASD chip, Winbond 29C020 chips will work as replacement. ASD seems to be some sort of OEM (or licensed from Winbond).



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Thanks

Don