(OT) Need help with bios issue.

Hi all,
I know that this is not the proper group for this but I'm at a loss here.
My brother-in-law is trying to install Win 2000 Pro on a HP 6640C which is
approx. 3 years old. I think it's a 533 Mhz. I am "helping" him over the
phone. At the beginning of the installation it's giving him a "bios needs to
be upgraded..." message. I didn't anticipate this problem before formatting
his hd and he has no other pc at home. I have searched around for a bios
update but can't find a thing.
Any ideas or is Win 2000 not feasible on this machine? Btw he added RAM and
it now has 320 mb.
Thanks for any help.
Gary

Gary,
Sounds like it is an ASPI (I think that is the right abbreviation)
issue. It deals with how the power management works. I am not sure what bios
to tell you try but I would disable all the power management functions in
the bios and see if that will help to get you past the windows setup error
message until you can either see the system or find some utility that can
identify exactly which motherboard and bios he has.
What OS did it ship from HP with? If it is 3 Years old and a home system it
probably had Windows Me on it. You could always install what he started with
and at least that would get your brother up and running until you can get
more information. I hope this helps.
Vic
"algae" wrote in message
news:Ib0Rb.268412$JQ1.128598@pd7tw1no...
Hi all,
I know that this is not the proper group for this but I'm at a loss here.
My brother-in-law is trying to install Win 2000 Pro on a HP 6640C which is
approx. 3 years old. I think it's a 533 Mhz. I am "helping" him over the
phone. At the beginning of the installation it's giving him a "bios needs
to
be upgraded..." message. I didn't anticipate this problem before
formatting
his hd and he has no other pc at home. I have searched around for a bios
update but can't find a thing.
Any ideas or is Win 2000 not feasible on this machine? Btw he added RAM
and
it now has 320 mb.
Thanks for any help.
Gary

Thanks Vic. Finding any bios updates from HP for these older machines seems
almost impossible. However it turns out that by removing 64 mb of Ram and
doing the install with 256 mb seems to have done the trick. At least it was
a few minutes ago It had Win 98 SE on it previously. I will keep your
suggestions in mind in case anything goes awry.
Thanks again.
Gary
"Vic" wrote in message
news:JD0Rb.41706$zP6.18085@okepread02...
Gary,
Sounds like it is an ASPI (I think that is the right abbreviation)
issue. It deals with how the power management works. I am not sure what
bios
to tell you try but I would disable all the power management functions in
the bios and see if that will help to get you past the windows setup error
message until you can either see the system or find some utility that can
identify exactly which motherboard and bios he has.
What OS did it ship from HP with? If it is 3 Years old and a home system
it
probably had Windows Me on it. You could always install what he started
with
and at least that would get your brother up and running until you can get
more information. I hope this helps.
Vic
"algae" wrote in message
news:Ib0Rb.268412$JQ1.128598@pd7tw1no...
Hi all,
I know that this is not the proper group for this but I'm at a loss
here.
My brother-in-law is trying to install Win 2000 Pro on a HP 6640C which
is
approx. 3 years old. I think it's a 533 Mhz. I am "helping" him over the
phone. At the beginning of the installation it's giving him a "bios
needs
to
be upgraded..." message. I didn't anticipate this problem before
formatting
his hd and he has no other pc at home. I have searched around for a bios
update but can't find a thing.
Any ideas or is Win 2000 not feasible on this machine? Btw he added RAM
and
it now has 320 mb.
Thanks for any help.
Gary