Looking for BIOS Update

In ,
Ben Myers typed on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:37:57 -0400:
Boris wrote:
Hi,

Yes, set it up just like you described. No luck.

F12 gets me nothing.

F8 gets me the Troubleshooting and Advanced Startup screen with
Start Up options, as it should, such as Safe Mode, Enable Boot
Logging, Debugging Mode, etc.

F10 is weird. It gets me the BIOS screen, with the a message as if
I've just made changes to the BIOS settings, "Do you want to save
changes and exit?"

F1 gets me the BIOS setup screen, as it should.

By the way, when the machine boots up, it never shows "Hit F8 for
Boot Options", or "Hit F1 for Setup" in the upper right hand corner,
even if I have it set to go through the long POST, where it shows
everything it finds as it boots up. The long boot does show that it
found the CD-ROM when set to boot from CD-ROM.

I think the book is closed on trying to get this to boot from CD-ROM.

Maybe the CD-ROM drive is bad? The Intel D850 motherboards are new
enough that they should allow booting from CD-ROM. Most any P4 system
can, and even some P3 systems... Ben

Did you try pressing the ESC key as soon as the screen lites up? As on
my Gateways and Asus netbooks, this pops up the BIOS boot menu. And it
shows all devices that the BIOS can see and allows which one you want to
boot from.

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 702G8 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2

Ben Myers wrote in
:

Boris wrote:
Ben Myers wrote in
:

Boris wrote:
Ben Myers wrote in
:

Boris wrote:
Justin Thompson wrote in
:

On Sat, 3 Oct 2009 17:06:08 +0000 (UTC), Boris
wrote:

I've got P4, E4600, 1.6MHz desktop.

The BIOS is version GB85010A.15A.0044.P12. I'm looking for an
update, but all I can find is the P13 version here.

http://support.gateway.com/support/d...e.asp?id=16167
&dscr=Pentium%204%20BIOS%20update%20GB85010A%20P13 &uid=223985369

Anyone know where I can find the P12 version?

Thanks.
Silly question - im sure - but you say you looking for an update
- you have found an update... but then say you dont want it???

im confused

I cant see any release notes from the link - so not sure what
changed in v13, but in general - you should expect a later
version to be better, more stable, recognise more CPUs etc. so
why you not want it?

Cheers

Hi,

I'm not aware that the P13 version is an update of the P12. I've
always seen updates called out at v.1, v.2, etc. But maybe
you're right. I'm not familiar with how Gateway numbers updates.
Are you sure?

Thanks.
With the Intel motherboards used in Gateway systems, Gateway
follows the same conventions as Intel does. P13 IS the latest,
last and only update for your Intel D850 motherboard. Note also
that the BIOS is slightly customized, but only with a Gateway
identifier. You CANNOT use a GENERIC BIOS update from the Intel
web site for this board... Ben Myers
Nice to see you, Ben.

I went into the BIOS and read the event log. There was one listing
that said CMOS battery failure, but just one. There were a lot
keyboard failure listings. I don't know why, because the keyboard
always came up fine on the POST screen, and operated properly all
the time when in Windows. But, since the CMOS battery was probably
the original battery from circa 2001, I replaced it, thinking that
that might cure my inability to boot from CD. Nope.

Curiosity got to me, and I decided to clear the BIOS. I did, by
removing the motherboard BIOS jumper, but still no boot from CD.

Finally, I downloaded the BIOS update on the Gateway site. I was
running with version P12, and the newest version was P13, dated
August 2001. I had to put it on a FAT floppy (not NT), and the
instructions said to boot from this floppy. When I tried, I got
invalid BOOT diskette, insert proper diskette in A. Oh, no. I
used the Win98SE floppy to boot up the machine into DOS, and then
removed the Win98SE floppy, and inserted the BIOS 'boot' disk. I
logged on to it, and clicked on the autoexec.bat on the floppy.
The BIOS update program came up, and I installed the update
successfully. When the update was completed, the instructions on
screen were to remove the floppy and press enter, and the machine
was supposed to reboot. I'm not sure how this was supposed to
happen, since the machine was set to boot from floppy, and there
would be no floppy in the machine. But I removed the boot floppy,
and pressed enter. The screen said no operating system found on C
(normally it would say invalid BOOT diskette if there's no floppy
in A, and set to boot from floppy). I had to press the power
button off, and restart into the BIOS (keeping my fingers crossed
the BIOS upgrade worked -- it did report BIOS versin P13), and set
to boot from the hard drive. I did, and it booted up just fine. I
then restarted and set to boot from CD, but it still wouldn't boot
from the XP CD. Oh, well. I tried. I'm calling it quits trying to
solve this. It may be a hardware problem that I just can't
diagnose, and it's not all the important. The only time I'd need to
start from CD is if I was going to do a clean install. Maybe I'll
just make an image of the system before I gunk it up too much. Oh,
wonder if I have to be able to boot from CD to install an image.

By the way, I just installed a Linksys WMP54G wireless adapter card
in the machine. I didn't use the Linksys install CD, but instead
let Windows install it's native drivers and networking interface.
It works just fine, with excellent signal strength. Previously, I
had it connected to a D-link wireless router, but sitting right
next to the router connected with an ethernet cable. I was going
to run ethernet into the garage, which is the final destination for
this machine, but I thought I'd try a wireless card. I hope the
signal is still good when I move it into the gargage, about 30'
away. We'll see. If not, I'll run ethernet. (I don't mind
running the cable, I just hate putting the connectors on. My eyes
aren't what they used to be g.)

Here are the items that the update addressed, per the readme.txt
file within the update folder:

Reason for Update

Option to enable or disable the ISA Enable Bit on PCI bridges.
Adds D-stepping core support for latest generation processors.
Adds WFM 2.0 Remote Lockout support.
Adds support for the Security Freeze Lock command on resume from S3
to IDE devices that support the Security feature set.
Adds workaround for Windows 98 SE issue where ATAPI devices are not
reprogrammed on resume from Suspend-to-RAM (S3).
Implements Force Network Boot feature that allows users to force
the computer to start to network by pressing a hot key.
Fixes issue where the computer was always reporting 80-conductor
IDE cable type (regardless of actual cable type) when certain ATAPI
devices were connected as the slave device on an IDE channel.
Adds support for PCI IDE Bus Mastering (DMA) for BIOS INT 13h hard
disk reads and writes on IDE devices that support IDE Bus
Mastering. Adds Mode 5 (UDMA/100) option to the IDE UDMA Mode.
Corrects functionality of IDE PIO Mode.
Fixes issue where BIOS was incorrectly reporting UDMA modes on IDE
devices that do not support UDMA.
Sets ISA ENABLE bits on PCI bridges that do not have VGA behind
them. Adds support for doing 32-bit IDE PIO mode data transfers
inside BIOS INT 13h.
Fixes issue where ATAPI Removable Devices that support UDMA modes
were not getting programmed for UDMA mode.
Updates the display of the processor BIOS update information to
account for the new naming convention.
Adds the display of UDMA mode for ARMD.
Sets Wake on Modem Ring default to Power On.
Fixes an issue where the Fault Tolerant Boot Block Test would fail
and not be able to boot if ECC was enabled during the test.
Fixes the incorrect display of hard disk drive capacity for larger
hard disk drives.

Boris
Did you change the boot order priority in the last screen of the
BIOS CMOS setup to boot first from CD, then from floppy, and then
from hard disk? If so, the computer should boot from CD. If not,
pressing F12 with a modern BIOS gets it to present a choice of boot
devices, from which you select one... Ben Myers


Hi,

Yes, set it up just like you described. No luck.

F12 gets me nothing.

F8 gets me the Troubleshooting and Advanced Startup screen with Start
Up options, as it should, such as Safe Mode, Enable Boot Logging,
Debugging Mode, etc.

F10 is weird. It gets me the BIOS screen, with the a message as if
I've just made changes to the BIOS settings, "Do you want to save
changes and exit?"

F1 gets me the BIOS setup screen, as it should.

By the way, when the machine boots up, it never shows "Hit F8 for
Boot Options", or "Hit F1 for Setup" in the upper right hand corner,
even if I have it set to go through the long POST, where it shows
everything it finds as it boots up. The long boot does show that it
found the CD-ROM when set to boot from CD-ROM.

I think the book is closed on trying to get this to boot from CD-ROM.

Maybe the CD-ROM drive is bad? The Intel D850 motherboards are new
enough that they should allow booting from CD-ROM. Most any P4 system
can, and even some P3 systems... Ben

Hi,

One of the first things I did after discovering that I couldn't boot from
CD-ROM in this P4 was to install a known good CD-ROM from another my
Dim4550, that did boot properly in the Dim4550. But, it wouldn't boot
while in the P4.

"BillW50" wrote in
:

In ,
Ben Myers typed on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:37:57 -0400:
Boris wrote:
Hi,

Yes, set it up just like you described. No luck.

F12 gets me nothing.

F8 gets me the Troubleshooting and Advanced Startup screen with
Start Up options, as it should, such as Safe Mode, Enable Boot
Logging, Debugging Mode, etc.

F10 is weird. It gets me the BIOS screen, with the a message as if
I've just made changes to the BIOS settings, "Do you want to save
changes and exit?"

F1 gets me the BIOS setup screen, as it should.

By the way, when the machine boots up, it never shows "Hit F8 for
Boot Options", or "Hit F1 for Setup" in the upper right hand corner,
even if I have it set to go through the long POST, where it shows
everything it finds as it boots up. The long boot does show that it
found the CD-ROM when set to boot from CD-ROM.

I think the book is closed on trying to get this to boot from
CD-ROM.

Maybe the CD-ROM drive is bad? The Intel D850 motherboards are new
enough that they should allow booting from CD-ROM. Most any P4
system can, and even some P3 systems... Ben

Did you try pressing the ESC key as soon as the screen lites up? As on
my Gateways and Asus netbooks, this pops up the BIOS boot menu. And it
shows all devices that the BIOS can see and allows which one you want
to boot from.


I just tried that. Seems that it ignores the ESC key (probably supposed
to), and just boots normally to Windows.

In . 213,
Boris typed on Tue, 6 Oct 2009 17:25:18 +0000 (UTC):
I just tried that. Seems that it ignores the ESC key (probably
supposed to), and just boots normally to Windows.

Well before you give up, the rest of the function keys that you haven't
tried yet. Also worth trying is holding down one of the following: DEL,
Insert, Tab, Shift, or CTRL right after the screen lites up are also
sometimes used to get to other menus like the BIOS boot menu.

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 702G8 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2

In . 213,
Boris typed on Tue, 6 Oct 2009 17:25:18 +0000 (UTC):
I just tried that. Seems that it ignores the ESC key (probably
supposed to), and just boots normally to Windows.

Well before you give up, the rest of the function keys that you haven't
tried yet. Also worth trying is holding down one of the following: DEL,
Insert, Tab, Shift, or CTRL right after the screen lites up are also
sometimes used to get to other menus like the BIOS boot menu.

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 702G8 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2

"BillW50" wrote in -
september.org:

In . 213,
Boris typed on Tue, 6 Oct 2009 17:25:18 +0000 (UTC):
I just tried that. Seems that it ignores the ESC key (probably
supposed to), and just boots normally to Windows.

Well before you give up, the rest of the function keys that you haven't
tried yet. Also worth trying is holding down one of the following: DEL,
Insert, Tab, Shift, or CTRL right after the screen lites up are also
sometimes used to get to other menus like the BIOS boot menu.


I tried them all:

F1, BIOS Setup Utility
F2, boots to Windows normally
F3, boots to Windows normally
F4, boots to Windows normally
F5, give Windows Advanced Menu Setup (Safe Boot, etc.)
F6, boots to Windows normally
F7, boots to Windows normally
F8, boots to Windows normally
F9, boots to Windows normally
F10, BIOS Setup Utility
F11, boots to Windows normally
F12, boots to Windows normally
Del, BIOS Setup Utility
ESC, boots to Windows normally
Del, boots to Windows normally
ALT, boots to Windows normally
Shift, boots to Windows normally
Pause/Break, nothing ever comes up, not even cursor against all black
screen, held for a minute, when released, still nothing

Boris wrote:
"BillW50" wrote in -
september.org:

In . 213,
Boris typed on Tue, 6 Oct 2009 17:25:18 +0000 (UTC):
I just tried that. Seems that it ignores the ESC key (probably
supposed to), and just boots normally to Windows.
Well before you give up, the rest of the function keys that you haven't
tried yet. Also worth trying is holding down one of the following: DEL,
Insert, Tab, Shift, or CTRL right after the screen lites up are also
sometimes used to get to other menus like the BIOS boot menu.


I tried them all:

F1, BIOS Setup Utility
F2, boots to Windows normally
F3, boots to Windows normally
F4, boots to Windows normally
F5, give Windows Advanced Menu Setup (Safe Boot, etc.)
F6, boots to Windows normally
F7, boots to Windows normally
F8, boots to Windows normally
F9, boots to Windows normally
F10, BIOS Setup Utility
F11, boots to Windows normally
F12, boots to Windows normally
Del, BIOS Setup Utility
ESC, boots to Windows normally
Del, boots to Windows normally
ALT, boots to Windows normally
Shift, boots to Windows normally
Pause/Break, nothing ever comes up, not even cursor against all black
screen, held for a minute, when released, still nothing

This is the way the BIOS setup works on Intel D850-series motherboards
(and many other Intel D845 and D865 boards). I worked on a Gateway
board like yours some time ago, and I am nearly 100% certain that
Gateway did not screw around with the Intel BIOS code. I know of no
instance when a Gateway BIOS setup behaved differently from a generic
Intel one. Gateway never had the software engineering expertise to
modify BIOS code.

Okay. So press F1 to enter the BIOS Setup Utility, then use the right
arrow key to highlight the Boot menu. When the word Boot is
highlighted, press Enter.

The Boot submenu will allow you to choose the order in which the BIOS
tries to boot from devices. The default is to try to boot from floppy,
then CD-ROM, then hard drive, then network adapter.

You can find the technical manual for your motherboard on the Intel web
site in the category of archived (e.g. older) motherboards. It is worth
reading, even if it tells you more than you need to know.

In summary, your board is capable of booting from a CD-ROM. You just
have not figured out how to get it to happen. Perhaps the above will
help... Ben Myers

Ben Myers wrote in
:

Boris wrote:
"BillW50" wrote in -
september.org:

In . 213,
Boris typed on Tue, 6 Oct 2009 17:25:18 +0000 (UTC):
I just tried that. Seems that it ignores the ESC key (probably
supposed to), and just boots normally to Windows.
Well before you give up, the rest of the function keys that you
haven't tried yet. Also worth trying is holding down one of the
following: DEL, Insert, Tab, Shift, or CTRL right after the screen
lites up are also sometimes used to get to other menus like the BIOS
boot menu.


I tried them all:

F1, BIOS Setup Utility
F2, boots to Windows normally
F3, boots to Windows normally
F4, boots to Windows normally
F5, give Windows Advanced Menu Setup (Safe Boot, etc.)
F6, boots to Windows normally
F7, boots to Windows normally
F8, boots to Windows normally
F9, boots to Windows normally
F10, BIOS Setup Utility
F11, boots to Windows normally
F12, boots to Windows normally
Del, BIOS Setup Utility
ESC, boots to Windows normally
Del, boots to Windows normally
ALT, boots to Windows normally
Shift, boots to Windows normally
Pause/Break, nothing ever comes up, not even cursor against all black
screen, held for a minute, when released, still nothing

This is the way the BIOS setup works on Intel D850-series motherboards
(and many other Intel D845 and D865 boards). I worked on a Gateway
board like yours some time ago, and I am nearly 100% certain that
Gateway did not screw around with the Intel BIOS code. I know of no
instance when a Gateway BIOS setup behaved differently from a generic
Intel one. Gateway never had the software engineering expertise to
modify BIOS code.

Okay. So press F1 to enter the BIOS Setup Utility, then use the right
arrow key to highlight the Boot menu. When the word Boot is
highlighted, press Enter.

The Boot submenu will allow you to choose the order in which the BIOS
tries to boot from devices. The default is to try to boot from
floppy, then CD-ROM, then hard drive, then network adapter.

You can find the technical manual for your motherboard on the Intel
web site in the category of archived (e.g. older) motherboards. It is
worth reading, even if it tells you more than you need to know.

In summary, your board is capable of booting from a CD-ROM. You just
have not figured out how to get it to happen. Perhaps the above will
help... Ben Myers


Hi, Ben,

I went he

http://www.intel.com/support/motherb.../CS-012681.htm

and ran the tool. I got:

"No Intel® Desktop Board was detected in this system."

The instructions say, "If you get the message that an Intel desktop
board was not detected, you likely have an OEM desktop board."

I do have the Gateway E4600 System Manual, and it has very little
information about the BIOS screens. All it says is to press F1 to enter
the BIOS Setup Utility. I've done this many times, and set it as you've
suggested, with no luck. I have BIOS version GB85010A.15A.0011P13. I
updated from P12 a few days ago.The Gateway System Manual says I have an
Intel 850 chipset and an Intel Pentium 4 fc-pga Socket 423 processor
with a 400 MHz system.

The GB850 motherboards listed by Intel are :
D850EMD2
D850EMV2
D850GB
D850MD
D850MV

I checked all the manuals for the above boards, and they all say to
press F2 to enter the BIOS Setup Utility. My Gateway System Manual says
to press F1.

I'm at my wits end with this, because it should be as simple as going
into the BIOS Setup Utility, to the BOOT menu, and setting to boot from
ATAPI-CD. I've done this with many, many machines, including older
Gateways (PII). This should be a no brainer.

I do appreciate all the feed back.

Boris

Boris wrote:
Ben Myers wrote in
:

Boris wrote:
"BillW50" wrote in -
september.org:

In . 213,
Boris typed on Tue, 6 Oct 2009 17:25:18 +0000 (UTC):
I just tried that. Seems that it ignores the ESC key (probably
supposed to), and just boots normally to Windows.
Well before you give up, the rest of the function keys that you
haven't tried yet. Also worth trying is holding down one of the
following: DEL, Insert, Tab, Shift, or CTRL right after the screen
lites up are also sometimes used to get to other menus like the BIOS
boot menu.

I tried them all:

F1, BIOS Setup Utility
F2, boots to Windows normally
F3, boots to Windows normally
F4, boots to Windows normally
F5, give Windows Advanced Menu Setup (Safe Boot, etc.)
F6, boots to Windows normally
F7, boots to Windows normally
F8, boots to Windows normally
F9, boots to Windows normally
F10, BIOS Setup Utility
F11, boots to Windows normally
F12, boots to Windows normally
Del, BIOS Setup Utility
ESC, boots to Windows normally
Del, boots to Windows normally
ALT, boots to Windows normally
Shift, boots to Windows normally
Pause/Break, nothing ever comes up, not even cursor against all black
screen, held for a minute, when released, still nothing
This is the way the BIOS setup works on Intel D850-series motherboards
(and many other Intel D845 and D865 boards). I worked on a Gateway
board like yours some time ago, and I am nearly 100% certain that
Gateway did not screw around with the Intel BIOS code. I know of no
instance when a Gateway BIOS setup behaved differently from a generic
Intel one. Gateway never had the software engineering expertise to
modify BIOS code.

Okay. So press F1 to enter the BIOS Setup Utility, then use the right
arrow key to highlight the Boot menu. When the word Boot is
highlighted, press Enter.

The Boot submenu will allow you to choose the order in which the BIOS
tries to boot from devices. The default is to try to boot from
floppy, then CD-ROM, then hard drive, then network adapter.

You can find the technical manual for your motherboard on the Intel
web site in the category of archived (e.g. older) motherboards. It is
worth reading, even if it tells you more than you need to know.

In summary, your board is capable of booting from a CD-ROM. You just
have not figured out how to get it to happen. Perhaps the above will
help... Ben Myers


Hi, Ben,

I went he

http://www.intel.com/support/motherb.../CS-012681.htm

and ran the tool. I got:

"No Intel® Desktop Board was detected in this system."

The instructions say, "If you get the message that an Intel desktop
board was not detected, you likely have an OEM desktop board."

I do have the Gateway E4600 System Manual, and it has very little
information about the BIOS screens. All it says is to press F1 to enter
the BIOS Setup Utility. I've done this many times, and set it as you've
suggested, with no luck. I have BIOS version GB85010A.15A.0011P13. I
updated from P12 a few days ago.The Gateway System Manual says I have an
Intel 850 chipset and an Intel Pentium 4 fc-pga Socket 423 processor
with a 400 MHz system.

The GB850 motherboards listed by Intel are :
D850EMD2
D850EMV2
D850GB
D850MD
D850MV

I checked all the manuals for the above boards, and they all say to
press F2 to enter the BIOS Setup Utility. My Gateway System Manual says
to press F1.

I'm at my wits end with this, because it should be as simple as going
into the BIOS Setup Utility, to the BOOT menu, and setting to boot from
ATAPI-CD. I've done this with many, many machines, including older
Gateways (PII). This should be a no brainer.

I do appreciate all the feed back.

Boris


Boris,

From the BIOS code, the E4600 board is a D850GB.

Last ditch try. Unplug from wall. Remove the CR2032 battery. Let
system sit there for a half hour. Put battery back in. You will surely
be prompted to enter the BIOS setup because the CMOS settings have
become corrupted due to loss of battery power to keep them OK.

Even before the last ditch try, power up the system and quickly hold
down several keys on the keyboard at once. This should cause a keyboard
error with the chance to enter the BIOS CMOS setup... Ben Myers

In .213,
Boris typed on Wed, 7 Oct 2009 04:04:05 +0000 (UTC):
"BillW50" wrote in -
september.org:

In . 213,
Boris typed on Tue, 6 Oct 2009 17:25:18 +0000 (UTC):
I just tried that. Seems that it ignores the ESC key (probably
supposed to), and just boots normally to Windows.

Well before you give up, the rest of the function keys that you
haven't tried yet. Also worth trying is holding down one of the
following: DEL, Insert, Tab, Shift, or CTRL right after the screen
lites up are also sometimes used to get to other menus like the BIOS
boot menu.


I tried them all:

F1, BIOS Setup Utility
F2, boots to Windows normally
F3, boots to Windows normally
F4, boots to Windows normally
F5, give Windows Advanced Menu Setup (Safe Boot, etc.)
F6, boots to Windows normally
F7, boots to Windows normally
F8, boots to Windows normally
F9, boots to Windows normally
F10, BIOS Setup Utility
F11, boots to Windows normally
F12, boots to Windows normally
Del, BIOS Setup Utility
ESC, boots to Windows normally
Del, boots to Windows normally
ALT, boots to Windows normally
Shift, boots to Windows normally
Pause/Break, nothing ever comes up, not even cursor against all black
screen, held for a minute, when released, still nothing

Both F8 or the CTRL key should show the Windows start menu. Holding down
the shift key while Windows boots should stop all programs from
auto-running.

The Pause/Break key should freeze the screen output. And it will set
there until another key is pressed. It only works in the BIOS and DOS
though, maybe at the Command Prompt too under Windows. The old way to do
the very same is CTRL-Q to freeze and CTRL-S to continue. These keys
should still work today.

Back in the early days, graphic cards were so slow that you could see a
list scrolling on the screen. Usually too fast to read, but slow enough
that you can pause and continue the list. Not too handy nowadays, as you
have to be really quick before the screen starts to scroll off and you
missed a lot of what you wanted to read. Although they put a switch
later on for most of those commands anyway to help in these cases. Like
"dir /p" for example.

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 702G8 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2