BIOS UPGRADES NEEDED

[SLATER]

I NEED AN UPGRADE FOR MY AWARD MODULAR BIOS V4.51PG; I AM NOT ABLE TO FIND IT THE UNICORE.COM SITE IS WAIST. THERE4S ALSO ANOTHER INFORMATION IT SAYS OEM: VTECH BUT THE VTECH SITE GIVES NO INFORMATION ABOUT MOTHERBOARDS.PLEASE HELP ME

[Susan]

Do you have a model# or BIOS number from when it posts?

[Axel]

What Susan means, I think, is the ugly little character string that shows up at the bottom left of your screen after the RAM check processes. You can use your <pause> key to stop the boot then write it down - looks something like this

07/20/99-i430tx-p6add567-00

hit <enter> to continue to boot.

Few other things which can help out to identify what you need -

Does the mobo have an FCC sticker/number on it?

Does the BIOS chip have a s/n on the foil sticker, a model number, perhaps?

Does the board have relatively large block white letters near the center of the face of the board (I.E. the side the expansion slots are on?)

If we can identify the board by some other means, then we can hunt down the original board manufacturer, find their home site, and see if they have any BIOS upgrades there.

Kind of the scenic route to getting there, but occasionally more reliable than some tired, low tenure tech support type stuck on the phone during the holidays. Not to be down on them, been there myself, but I remember how much real knowledge I had when I still had to work on the phones during the holidays http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[SLATER]

thanks for your reply! here is the id string:
11/11/97-i430TX-SMC669-2A59IV3FC-00
but as i said before there is a form to fill up at the unicore.com site with this id string but after the form there's nothing
any way here is the id and hope youcan help me. thanks a lot!

[800XL]

That string points to Vtech and PCPartner. PCPartner just made the boards for Vtech I would assume. I think I can safely narrow it down to 4 choices that can be found on http://www.pcpartner.com.hk/bios/s7bios.htm#tx under the heading 'Intel 430TX'. You are going to have to look hard at the motherboard itself and try to match some number on it to one of those four motherboards.

I am wondering a bit why you are looking for a bios upgrade. Depending on your reason, the bios from PCPartner may not do what you need. They apparently last updated it in July of 1998 if I read their date code right. That means it might still not be Y2K compliant, and may not support large hard drives or newer CPU types. You never know. Let us know what your goal is and maybe we can figure out the best solution.

To get info from Unicore, you will really need to contact them with all the info you gave us. They need to know exactly what board you have before they can tell if they can upgrade it or not. If all else fails, give them a shot and see if they can at least tell you the make and model of the board.