Can you install a wrong BIOS?

[CmdrScott]

Hi all

I found this site late lastnight and it looks very promising.
My problem is I have a gigbyte board GA-7ZX. The manual says
M807. I used a bios agent to find what bios is in it now,
ID.6A6LME19C
Date. 09/16/00
Bios signon. 09/16/2000-M807-6A6LME19C-00
Bios type. Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
super I/O. VIA 686 rev 34 found at port 7h
Chipset. VIA 82C305 rev 3
OEM Signon. Release 09/16/2000 W

I am running windows ME now, but I was running win's 98 se.
I have a 900mhz athlon, 128 meg's mem, 40 gig western/useing 80 pin cables, have a 32x cdrom & a hp cd-burner. ( the burner is on the sec IDE & the 32x is with the hd) set hd-master,cd-rom slave,The hd runs at 66 and the cd-rom runds at 33, Voodoo 5 agp video card.

My problem is this sys keeps locking up on me. dose not matter what I am doing. It can happen at startup to playing a game to checking email.

I tried flashing update the bios. Then it wouldn't even respond. I reinstall the old bios, but it keeps locking up. It can happen one after another or not happen for hours or maybe a day.


Can anyone point me in the right direction????

[Ammok]

First off, i don't think your bios is the problem. If you flash with a "wrong" bios i would expect to get get no post.

If I understand you, you have the 66 HDD on the same cable as the 33 CD ROM? If you have, pay attention to the next bit, if not, ignore me.

The ide channel will default to the lowest UDMA speed of the lowest speed device on it. So if you mix 33 and 66 you effectively run at 33 and lose the 66.

I am guessing you have a four speed HP Burner running at 33.

I would recommend( although there should be nothing wrong with your current configuration) that you put the burner and the CD Rom on the same IDE channel and leave the HDD on its own.

Run for a few days to see if it clears the system hanging problem.

If not post back to this spot and we can try something else. I will point out that Win98 and Me are prone to sudden death hang ups, but if we try your hardware first perhaps you can get some joy out of this.

[Toejam31]

Originally posted by Ammok

[The ide channel will default to the lowest UDMA speed of the lowest speed device on it. So if you mix 33 and 66 you effectively run at 33 and lose the 66.

This is not entirely correct. With the use of modern IDE controllers and chipsets, unless PIO-Mode only devices are placed on the same cable as a DMA device, devices can run independently at different speeds.

Independent Device Timing

Toejam31

My Rig: Toejam31's Tantalizing Tantric Toy
Second Rig: Toey's Dynamite DDR Duron

[Ammok]

He's got a GA-7ZX, does this have a "more modern ide controller and chipset" then?

[NDD]

Did you check the temps ? Especially of the CPU ?
Try going to BIOS and loading "Fail Safe" settings.

[Toejam31]

Originally posted by Ammok
He's got a GA-7ZX, does this have a "more modern ide controller and chipset" then?

Yes, sir ... it does.

Toejam31

My Rig: Toejam31's Tantalizing Tantric Toy
Second Rig: Toey's Dynamite DDR Duron

[bassman]

Originally posted by Ammok

The ide channel will default to the lowest UDMA speed of the lowest speed device on it. So if you mix 33 and 66 you effectively run at 33 and lose the 66.

As Toejam said, this limitation only exists if both or any of the devices are functioning in PIO mode; if they're both in UDMA mode, this won't affect them.

[CmdrScott]

I have put both cd-rom's on the 2nd IDE ran scandisk & defrag. Also checked for virus's. It did run fine for about an hour, and then started loking up again. The temps are both in the norm.
I do show 3 IDE conrolers thow.
1. primary
2.Secandary
3.Via bus master PCI IDE conroller

I looked in my book to find about the Bios and it says I have to use AMINF321.EXE
I downloaded it and it says

Chipset type - VIA VT8363/686
Flashpart - winbond 49F002U
ERROR 2 - file dose not exist

I am getting really frustated with this boad. I don't know if I did it or the board is not right.
How can I get the RIGHT bios for this board and know it is for this board. I have never had this problem before.
And I am running the same thing on my 450mhz computer and it's never locked up once.
At one point on a lockup it booted up and said that my hd was not fats 32 and the partition was not reconizable. But I alt-ctrl-deleted and it was fine...


H E L P I'm gojng crazy!!

[cyclone2]

This should be the latest bios for the GA-7ZX / GA-7ZX-1
Be sure its not another version like the GA-7ZXR / GA-7ZXR-C [mine ]

Here is instructions http://www.giga-byte.com/support/procedure1.htm and flash program http://ftp.gigabyte.com.tw/support/temp/flash855.zip
At least you have the "dual bios" if anything goes wrong

Also check your CPU fan and make sure its sitting flush with your chip and not plugged with dust

[CmdrScott]

Well guys....I am now talking to you from my 450mhz.
I flashed the bios as directed in the directions.....
but now I have the Black Screen of Death!
It checks the sys, witch says its ok. Then it checks the NV Ram, witch I have never heard of.... And thats were it stops!
It will not go any farther. Can't even get it to access the floppy to put in the old bios.

I now believe that board is useless, unless someone has an Idea.
Thanks for the help though. I now believe the problem was with the bios. On boot up of this machine I have single IRQ's instead of doubles. My port's 9 and 11 only have 1 thing assigned to them now. And I have a 14/15 for my IDEs.

Maybe some one can help at this point. But I won't hold my breath...

Once again Thanks to all that have tried to help!!!

[Ammok]

Oh dear, try


http://www.flashbios.org/


but it could also have a number of other things, heat as mentioned, bad hdd, virus etc.

hope you get it working again.

[cyclone2]

Do you not have the Gigabyte "dual bios"???
You should........... and its menu should come up during boot, if it does'nt refer to your manual on how to get it to go back to original bios

[CmdrScott]

Well Guys... I made it back. It took 2 days and 3 formats & Fdisk's
and 6 hours of the mb unpluged from no power and removed the cmos batt. The Bios that gigabyte says is for this board is eather wrong, or my board is messed up. I got my old bios put back in and it seams to work ok for now. I think I will leave wellenough alone for this board and buy another on.
The bios I have in dosen't say any thing about dual bios. But the othr bios did. I also had a cpu fan burn out in the middle of all this to make matters worse. So now I'm useing the bios monitors and the temp will shut off at 140 deg. F I know this is a low temp. But I don't want to take any chances for awhile. I also noted that the other bios would not let me put in some drivers. It would constinly go threw a start & reboot cycle.. Weird..

But thanks to all..


CmdrScott