Ask Aussie - unidentified mobo

~PJ~ · Post by **~PJ~** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 6:11 pm

The complete BIOS string is;
06/21/96-i430VX-2A59Ht5BC-00
It also says
Award Modular BIOS v4.51PG
and
Award Plug and Play BIOS Estension v1.0A

The t5 identifies it as a Tyan board - it's nearly a S1469
[http://th99.piloti.dyndns.org/m/S-T/34137.htm]
but there are only 3PCI slots instead of 4,
1 DIMM instead of 2,
and the BIOS chip is situated between the PCI and the ISA slots.
There are other minor differences in positioning of jumpers.

At present it is refusing to recognise either the FDD or CDROM, both in DOS and in Windows 98, so trying to use an identification program is impractical.
There are no identifying marks on the mobo.

Chip appears to be;
ALi M5818 B1
G629 AG1137 - which I can't track down either...
Cheers!

Post by **evasive** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 8:08 pm

Not at all a Tyan board. Check the bios string carefully. There should be only uppercase letters there. Yours has a lowercase "t" and the chipset designator is wrong. i430VX should be 2a59G, not 2A59H. This is an illegal bios used by PC Chips/Hsin Tech. You most likely have a variant of the M520 board.

http://www.stud.fernuni-hagen.de/q3998142/pcchips/

Aussie · Post by **Aussie** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 10:39 pm

i430VX-2A59Ht5BC-00 boards:-

3 PCI, 4 ISA, 4 Simm, 1 Dimm, 1 USB = PcChips M520 or Skywell SW5100.

3 PCI, 4 ISA, 4 Simm, 1 Dimm, No USB = Amptron PM7900 or Skywell M520.

4 PCI, 3 ISA, 4 Simm, 1 Dimm, No USB = Amptron PM8800.

4 PCI, 3 ISA, 4 Simm, 2 Dimm (or 4 Simm, No Dimm), optional USB = Pine PT-7502 (3 versions).

3 PCI, 4 ISA, 4 Simm, 1 Dimm, 2 USB = Houston Tech M520.

These are all variations of the same board.

Amptron PM7900.

PM7900 product page with links to manual etc:-
http://www.amptron.com/html/pm7900.html

PcChips M520.

M520 manual (German language):-
http://www.rd-computer.de/pc-chips/manual/m520.exe

Aussie

~PJ~ · Post by **~PJ~** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 4:27 am

Thanks very much for that.
Have checked and double checked the BIOS string - that is what it says. What exactly is an 'illegal BIOS'? Does it mean the BIOS is faulty?
Any clues about the non-recognition of FDD and CDROM? Can I change / update the BIOS without the drives?

Aussie · Post by **Aussie** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 4:46 am

The bios software used on the board was "pirated" that is the license was most likely not paid for, the bios is not faulty.

Can I change / update the BIOS without the drives?

No.

If you have another motherboard that is the same or similar you could do a "hot swap" to flash the bios or you could send the bios chip away to be reprogrammed with an eprom burner or you could buy a replacement bios chip outright.

Aussie

~PJ~ · Post by **~PJ~** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 5:20 am

I didn't know you could buy replacement BIOS chips. Where do I get them from?

Aussie · Post by **Aussie** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 5:30 am

http://www.badflash.com/

http://www.recoverybios.com/

http://www.biosworld.com/

http://www.firmware.com/

http://www.biosman.com/

Aussie

~PJ~ · Post by **~PJ~** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 10:15 am

I have a horrid feeling I'm going to really show my ignorance, but the BIOS chips in the following;
http://www.recoverybios.com/

Do they actually come ready to put in, or do you need the BIOS program?
It just seems that when they charge 18E to repair a chip and then sell a new chip for 4.8E...

Tau · Post by **Tau** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 12:07 pm

I would expect the 4.8E to be for an unprogrammed chip, so you would be looking at 4.8E + 18E for the whole lot, eg chip and programming.

Post by **evasive** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 1:07 pm

http://www.badflash.com would be cheaper then ($19 for chip and programming).