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#11
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BIOS Update ?
On Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:52:29 -0400, Paul
wrote: From the first screen of the BIOS, I see: 09/04/2006-C51-MCP51-6A61HG0LC-00 That's at the very bottom line on the screen. Is that the "BIOS string" you were referring to? Yes, that's the BIOS string. If I Google that, I can sometimes find a reference to it. http://www.wimsbios.com/biosupdates/gigabyte.jsp Gigabyte GA-M55PLUS-S3G Athlon 1100 rev 0 FIB GA-M55PLUS-S3GV2 09/04/2006-C51-MCP51-6A61HG0LC-00 Confusing. Everything on that line looks right, except for the BIOS revision and the chipset. My board has the nVidia GeForce 6100 chipset. And if what I see near the top of the first BIOS screen is indicitive, the current BIOS revision is "FA". Maybe the list on that site is just not correct--but there is other confusion as well: On the corner of the board, I see "Rev. 1.2" But on the Gigabyte pages for BIOS updates, I see updates for boards of Revision 1.0, 2.1, and 3.0. No 1.2. So even without looking up the date of the BIOS, on the Gigabyte web site, I can guess at what release it might be (F1B). not "FIB"? One reason for using BIOS strings, is for tracing down motherboards which have no labels on the motherboard surface. Some of the PCChips branded motherboards, they have no label on the motherboard. For those motherboards, you use the BIOS string to try to figure out the motherboard information. Every little bit of information helps. I have the manual! It is definitely a Gigabyte GA-M55plus-S3G. What rev? The board says 1.2, but the Gigabyte page doesn't seem to know of a 1.2. Thank for your replies and suggestions. -- croy |
#12
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BIOS Update ?
croy wrote:
On Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:52:29 -0400, Paul wrote: From the first screen of the BIOS, I see: 09/04/2006-C51-MCP51-6A61HG0LC-00 That's at the very bottom line on the screen. Is that the "BIOS string" you were referring to? Yes, that's the BIOS string. If I Google that, I can sometimes find a reference to it. http://www.wimsbios.com/biosupdates/gigabyte.jsp Gigabyte GA-M55PLUS-S3G Athlon 1100 rev 0 FIB GA-M55PLUS-S3GV2 09/04/2006-C51-MCP51-6A61HG0LC-00 Confusing. Everything on that line looks right, except for the BIOS revision and the chipset. My board has the nVidia GeForce 6100 chipset. And if what I see near the top of the first BIOS screen is indicitive, the current BIOS revision is "FA". Maybe the list on that site is just not correct--but there is other confusion as well: On the corner of the board, I see "Rev. 1.2" But on the Gigabyte pages for BIOS updates, I see updates for boards of Revision 1.0, 2.1, and 3.0. No 1.2. So even without looking up the date of the BIOS, on the Gigabyte web site, I can guess at what release it might be (F1B). not "FIB"? One reason for using BIOS strings, is for tracing down motherboards which have no labels on the motherboard surface. Some of the PCChips branded motherboards, they have no label on the motherboard. For those motherboards, you use the BIOS string to try to figure out the motherboard information. Every little bit of information helps. I have the manual! It is definitely a Gigabyte GA-M55plus-S3G. What rev? The board says 1.2, but the Gigabyte page doesn't seem to know of a 1.2. Thank for your replies and suggestions. A possible explanation for the revision 1.2 is that, when a motherboard is designed, there is a prototype (1.0), a revision after that (1.1) and a final revision (1.2). The final revision is the one that goes into production. (That is apparently what Asus does. The other companies might do something similar.) The final revision must be cosmetically perfect, and no cuts and straps are allowed. That means, that any electrical changes, have to be perfected on the 1.1 board. They only make a few 1.0 and 1.1 boards, for usage in the laboratory. (Where I used to work, our minimum quantity was five boards of each. Even if we didn't use them all, we still made five of them.) For the 1.2, they might make 100,000 of those. Referring to the board as 1.0, is for marketing reasons. If the first board in a series was documented as 1.2, it would confuse the customers. When they make a revision 2 stream or revision 3 stream, the board may not go through as much development work. In some cases, all that has changed, is the silicon revision of the chipset might be different. The information on the wimsbios page would be volunteered by owners of the motherboard. Anything is possible with regard to the authenticity of the information. Paul |
#13
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BIOS Update ?
On Tue, 26 Mar 2013 17:34:49 -0700, croy
wrote: On Tue, 26 Mar 2013 21:59:48 +1100, Monty wrote: Croy, firstly an apology for a typo; When I told you where to find the motherboard revision number, I said next to the HDD connector. I meant to type FDD connector. That wasn't a problem until I read your correction. I hadn't actually looked for the revision because I "knew" it was a rev 1.0 board. But your note, above, prompted me to get down and look, just to verify, and what do I see? 1.2! I have always thought this was a 1.0 board--but now I can't remember why I thought that. This poses a new problem, as the Gigabyte pages don't even mention a rev 1.2. Only 1.0, 2.1, and 3.0. I bought this board myself, and have the manual. The manual is rev. 1001, which I vaguely remember being told is not the same as the board rev. I have uploaded a drawing of the motherboard (from the user manual) and highlighted the location of the revision number. You can see this drawing at http://preview.tinyurl.com/d7qn4vf That link didn't work for me. When I click on the "proceed to this site", I get a message stating, "Invalid or Deleted File". I'm assuming that in that file, you were indicating the very corner of the board, very close to a mounting or tooling hole. I have also uploaded a photo of the first page of my Gigabyte BIOS which shows the BIOS revision - F14. On Sunday, I upgraded my BIOS from F12 - using Q-Flash. This photo may be viewed at http://preview.tinyurl.com/cl7gy7n If you want to view the BIOS revision on your PC as it flashes past, just note where the F14 is on the screen on the photo mentioned above and try to watch that spot on your monitor. Failing that, you can always install Belarc Advisor, which will tell you the BIOS revision level. That page came up fine, but I in the photo I took of that screen on my machine the other day, it shows: "GA-M55plus-S3G FA" At the moment, I don't think you can update your BIOS to a later level. If my guess is correct, it is already at the latest level for your motherboard which current evidence (the BIOS rev FIB mentioned by Paul) suggests that your motherboard is rev 2.1. I looked at that page that Paul referenced, and just get more confused. The first GA-M55plus-S3G listed, carries no revision, and has a Athlon 1100 chipset, and has the same date referenced in the BIOS string, but what's that "V2" on the end of the BIOS Id? My board has the nVidia GE-Foce 6100 chipset, which matches the "rev. 1.x" version, 3 lines down, but the BIOS date doesn't match. It appears that it might be time to send a query to Gigabyte. But I now see they only list phone numbers on their page--no email address. Something to think about when I'm on the hunt for another MB! I still haven't spelt out the steps that I used to upgrade my bios level from F12 to F14. It basically involves using Q-Flash, a flash drive to hold at least 2MB (1MB for a backup file, 1MB for the update file) and about 5-10 minutes of your time. This writeup will not happen for a couple of days. I've watched a you-tube video that shows what looks like the process, and it looked pretty straight-forward. Last night I actually used Q-Flash to make a backup, and saved it to a floppy. I copied it over to a HDD after that, Looks like I can forget about writing up a procedure for updating bios. You probably noticed that the upgrade step is almost identical to the backup process. and used CTMC to tear it apart and examine all the pieces, but couldn't find anything the looked like a BIOS rev. Maybe the current rev actually is "FA", but I don't see that on the list for rev. 1.0 boards. Maybe this is a suitable occasion to speculate !!! Let us say that there was a typo made when typing "REV.2.1" to add to the nomenclature for the motherboard and someone typed "REV.1.2". This could then let us believe that we really do have a Rev 2.1 board and we could then use the 2.1 bioses. After all, the "1.2" board is using a 2.1 bios. In your case, this is bios Rev FA. I would guess that when you did a backup of your bios, the filename is M55PS3G.FA Well, that was the file that I got when I ran the Rev FA download executable "motherboard_bios_ga-m55plus-s3g_2.x_fa.exe". If you are a gambler you could download and install Rev FH bios. If you are not a gambler then you might leave the bios alone ! Your opening sentence began: "When I boot my computer, the first screen of the BIOS claims: "Award v6.00PG"." I Googled "Award v6.00PG" and all the pages that I viewed wanted to upgrade their bios from that level. I know that my initial response was not technically correct; I only attempted to give a conceptual description of how a bios revision level is not a name like "Award v6.00PG". Fortunately, this box is now running well enough that I can take my time with updating the BIOS. Thanks for the help and the time you've put in on this. Cheers, |
#14
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BIOS Update ?
On Wed, 27 Mar 2013 16:49:20 +1100, Monty
wrote: and used CTMC to tear it apart and examine all the pieces, but couldn't find anything the looked like a BIOS rev. Maybe the current rev actually is "FA", but I don't see that on the list for rev. 1.0 boards. Maybe this is a suitable occasion to speculate !!! Let us say that there was a typo made when typing "REV.2.1" to add to the nomenclature for the motherboard and someone typed "REV.1.2". This could then let us believe that we really do have a Rev 2.1 board and we could then use the 2.1 bioses. After all, the "1.2" board is using a 2.1 bios. In your case, this is bios Rev FA. I would guess that when you did a backup of your bios, the filename is M55PS3G.FA Well.... I had to go back and run Q-Flash again to be sure, because I had renamed the saved file. When I re-ran it, the filename field was blank--I was required to type something in Well, that was the file that I got when I ran the Rev FA download executable "motherboard_bios_ga-m55plus-s3g_2.x_fa.exe". If you are a gambler you could download and install Rev FH bios. If you are not a gambler then you might leave the bios alone ! I'm not really a gambler, but I am an idiot--does that count? ;-) Your opening sentence began: "When I boot my computer, the first screen of the BIOS claims: "Award v6.00PG"." Yeah, I didn't realise that somewhere a little further down it was telling me that the BIOS revision was "FA". I had only looked at the available updates for a REV: 1.0 board, and nothing like "FA" was listed. Now I see "FA" listed for the REV: 2.1 boards, and the initial BIOS was Revision "FA". I Googled "Award v6.00PG" and all the pages that I viewed wanted to upgrade their bios from that level. I led you astray. That idiot thing again. If the box continues running ok, I'm just gonna leave it. The descriptions of the BIOS updates on the Gigabyte pages are so terse that I have little idea of what may work better--or not. If the box gets too wonky, and I suspect it might have something to do with the BIOS, I'll just start looking for another board, and only play with flashing this one after the new board is in hand. Thanks again for your time. -- croy |
#15
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BIOS Update ?
On Tue, 26 Mar 2013 23:49:19 -0400, Paul
wrote: A possible explanation for the revision 1.2 is that, when a motherboard is designed, there is a prototype (1.0), a revision after that (1.1) and a final revision (1.2). The final revision is the one that goes into production. (That is apparently what Asus does. The other companies might do something similar.) The final revision must be cosmetically perfect, and no cuts and straps are allowed. That means, that any electrical changes, have to be perfected on the 1.1 board. They only make a few 1.0 and 1.1 boards, for usage in the laboratory. (Where I used to work, our minimum quantity was five boards of each. Even if we didn't use them all, we still made five of them.) For the 1.2, they might make 100,000 of those. Referring to the board as 1.0, is for marketing reasons. If the first board in a series was documented as 1.2, it would confuse the customers. When they make a revision 2 stream or revision 3 stream, the board may not go through as much development work. In some cases, all that has changed, is the silicon revision of the chipset might be different. What a treat to get a message from someone who is/was actually in the thick of it. After having worked in that arena, do you have a brand of boards that you prefer? The information on the wimsbios page would be volunteered by owners of the motherboard. Anything is possible with regard to the authenticity of the information. Understood. I ran Q-Flash, just to back up the current BIOS, hoping that it would suggest a filename that would include the revision, but it only offered me a place to type in a filename. When I un-lha'd it, the name was "m55ps3g.BIN" So now, I'm stuck with a questionable board revision, apparently running a "FA" BIOS revision. But the board is working again, so I think I'll just crawl back under my rock, and wait to come out until it *isn't* working. Then, when I get a new board in hand, I'll play around with this one until I either get a fresh BIOS rev on it, or have it smoking and curling on the edges! Thanks for your insights! -- croy |
#16
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BIOS Update ?
croy wrote:
snip What a treat to get a message from someone who is/was actually in the thick of it. After having worked in that arena, do you have a brand of boards that you prefer? This information, comes from a few interviews the enthusiast sites have done with the major motherboard makers. In one case, they gave a breakdown on the development process. In another, there was a short video, showing how a motherboard is tested at the factory. It's quite illuminating. It must take hundreds and hundreds of employees to test millions of motherboards per month. The testing is by hand, which is the amazing part (test person inserted stuff in motherboard, and the test lasts around 2 minutes). I'm a digital designer, but I've designed communications equipment. The difference is, the products I worked on, cost $100,000 each, and we sell very few of them. But I go through the same development process, as a motherboard does. My final "spin" has to be cut and strap free too. My initial prototype quantities vary from five to about thirty. (Those are for testing in the lab.) But it's the same style of development as with motherboards. And about the same level of complexity. How motherboard design differs from what I've done, is a motherboard designer first and foremost, has to be a "historian". You have to be aware of design decisions made twenty years ago. And preserve compatibility. Whereas for the things I've designed, they're largely constraint-free. The information on the wimsbios page would be volunteered by owners of the motherboard. Anything is possible with regard to the authenticity of the information. Understood. I ran Q-Flash, just to back up the current BIOS, hoping that it would suggest a filename that would include the revision, but it only offered me a place to type in a filename. When I un-lha'd it, the name was "m55ps3g.BIN" So now, I'm stuck with a questionable board revision, apparently running a "FA" BIOS revision. But the board is working again, so I think I'll just crawl back under my rock, and wait to come out until it *isn't* working. Then, when I get a new board in hand, I'll play around with this one until I either get a fresh BIOS rev on it, or have it smoking and curling on the edges! Thanks for your insights! If you use awdsplit, lha, and strings.exe, you can dump a lot of stuff in the BIOS into a text file for examination. You should be able to see the BIOS string that way. For AMI BIOS, you have to find a copy of mmtool for those. Award, you use awdsplit. http://groups.google.com/group/alt.c...c?dmode=source Paul |
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