unknown mobo

[borisha]

i have tried to upgrade my bios and i found that i have some rare mobo : elite group or something like that. i tried to find my bios update on their site but it did not give any results. i have ami bios and i would like to upgrade it. what to do?

[Sterling_Aug]

http://www.wimsbios.com

[Peter M]

ummm ... ain't no bigger mainboard manufacturer than Elitegroup aka ECS ... if that's weird to you, so be it :)

http://www.ecs.com.tw is your starting point for everything available, even for the oldest stuff (apart from ancient 486 boards which they don't support anymore).

regards, Peter

[Nathan G.]

"ummm ... ain't no bigger mainboard manufacturer than Elitegroup aka ECS ... if that's weird to you, so be it"

hmm... seems to me ECS/Elitegroup boards are just rebadged PCchips motherboards to me? Am I wrong about that Peter? (Since you seem to be a specialist with Pcchips boards);) Does Elitegroup actually manufacture motherboards? (or just Distribute poorly supported products? lol)

While we are at it.... has Amptron always distrubuted PCchips boards under their name as well. I know they do now. Or was this just a recent,poor choice by Amptron?lol

I would suggest that the poster go to the PCChips "Lottery" page. http://www.stud.fernuni-hagen.de/q3998142/pcchips/
How appropriate to call it a flippin "lottery" since finding the correct BIOS for your PCChips board is like a easter egg hunt!(lot less fun thou) The Lottery page the most usefull page when trying to ID one of these POS boards. (Notice it is not even a PCChips supported site)
Hope I don't sound to harsh, but man I have seen way too many mis-flashed PCchips (Amptron/ECS whatever) boards and i feel it is due to lack of descent support from the actual "manufacturer"! Seems whoever actually made these boards intentionally did NOT MAKE THE BOARDS EASILY IDENTIFIABLE. Which makes all your help VERY MUCH appreciated Peter! Thanks! I have seen you all over the "net" helping people with these boards. PcChips..aka ECS/Elitegroups/Amptron and the other "rebadgers" should pay you for all your efforts! :)
Regards,
Nathan G.

[borisha]

i agree with you because when i opened my pc i found nothing that identifies mobo and i just can guess. there is no even a number visible and i just do not want anymore to upgrade my bios because my pc works fine. i will just probably wait until i buy some other board.

[Peter M]

Elitegroup and PC-Chips are actually one company. No rebadging going on, just two different brands within the same company to serve different markets. PC-Chips does nothing but large volume OEM business, while the Elitegroup outlet does single unit retail as well, and also offers some sort of end user support.

Making anonymized mainboards is PC-Chips business model. They sell the stuff to OEMs who then make some kind of brand box with them, and are supposed to offer the user support. However, much of the stuff turns up in supercheap noname computers on supermarket shelves, the buyers of which are usually stuck with zero support from the COMPUTER manufacturer, only to find that the MAINBOARD manufacturer doesn't do end user business ... and that's why sites like the Lottery exist.

So if you own one, you need to work and think like an OEM - know your stuff, know where to find drivers and BIOS updates. If you manage, you'll find that the products themselves are actually pretty good.

regards, Peter