bios v1005 FINAL for ASUS a7v is out

[Grego]

It can be downloaded from www.slota.com

I havent flashed my bios yet, and has not been able to find any releasenotes, but I will in a short while.

Just thought I'd mention it!

I just read, that some people have big problems with this release, so use it at your own risk, I think Ill wait a little while.

[This message has been edited by Grego (edited 06 December 2000).]

[alessandro]

This bios is FULL of bugs!!!!

Don't ever try to flash it unless you don't have anything connected in the main IDE controler and then again the bios will crash if you access it(BOOT option).

Wait for a TRUE 1005 final from ASUS.de!!

..pauls if you wait from ASUS Taiwan to update their bios to 1005 wait at least 1 year .
They still have only the 1004 series



[This message has been edited by alessandro (edited 07 December 2000).]

[Grego]

I have now had the time to search the web for more about this bios, and Im rather sorry that I started this thread, since it seems it's a new kind of kamikaze bios

I wont use it, and hope nobody will.

[xortam]

Say Paul ... why is that the German ASUS site posts these BIOS updates before the other countries? Are the BIOSes developed there? I directed my buddy to use the Beta 1013 P2B-XX BIOS to fix his large IDE disk (75 GB) problem. Good ASUS site also for P2B coppermine support if you can wade through without understanding German. So what's the connection?

[Helevitia]

I was one of the unlucky souls who updated to this BIOS. Everything that Paul has written is true. Do not use it. I backed down to 1005.03e and it works fine.

Dave

[Grego]

It's just too weird that a totally screwed bios is released as a non-beta release, are they smoking crack????

[paulcs]

Xortam, I've heard that Asus BIOS's are developed in Germany. The German FTP site is a great place for updates and beta releases. And it is updated much more frequently than Asus's many other sites.

I've seen Asus do some confounding things in the past, but this takes the cake. I could almost understand if this was a beta, but too many people are having problems for a BIOS christened "Final." To tell you the truth, the problems seem to me to be too severe for a beta release.

I think someone is asleep at the wheel.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[paulcs]

Oops. Somebody woke up. Here's a revision to 1005, Ver. 1005a, which is posted on AMD Zone. I don't know anything about it, and I don't know where Chris got it, but it supposively fixes the 1005 Final bugs.

http://www.amdzone.com/files/bios/asus/a7v/1005a.zip

I'll see if I can find out more.

Edit: "You must have revision 1.04 of the A7V for the bios clock multiplier options to work."

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[This message has been edited by paulcs (edited 07 December 2000).]

[paulcs]

Asus has posted the fixed BIOS:


ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Socket_A/VIA_Chipset/Apollo_KT133/A7V/

Some people are reporting that it always defaults to Optimal. I guess if you're running at Optimal, it's not a bad deal. I'm not sure how wide spread this issue is. Someone on the Asus newsgroup wrote:

"Set the system setting to normal reboot or just change a menu and it will go
back to optimal."

Someone responded and claimed to have the same issue, although he didn't care.

I've seen a lot of positive feedback as well.

Again, if you're using a revision of the board before 1.04, you may lose multiplier settings.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[paulcs]

I don't have this motherboard, but I've been following developments because the problems reported have been so severe.

Several users reported incomplete flashes. They claim the flash only makes it to the 3BFF address when it should make it to 3FFF.

Some users who have had successful flashes claim that Asus have modified the instructions for flashing and that if you don't follow the instructions precisely, you're screwed. Unfortunately, the instructions are in German. (The file originated on Asus's German FTP site, so this shouldn't be a surprise.) Some German speakers claimed they understood and followed the directions and still had problems.

One of the problems involves severe screen corruption or reboots if you attempt to access certain screens in the BIOS--including the Boot screen. Because there are problems associated with the BIOS and the ATA controllers, this has compounded the problem. Others have reported lockups when moving from screen to screen.

I don't detect the "nitwit factor" amongst the people who have been experiencing problems. To the contrary, I've seen several USENET posts from people who claim success with the BIOS, insisting it works "perfectly," and then they list bugs encountered after the flash. (I'm not sure why people confuse the expressions "works perfectly" and "completely stable" with "malfunctioning.") However, some people claim it is working bug-free and has fixed issues they were having.

Personally, I'd stay away from it until Asus Taiwan endorses it on their website and clarifies exactly what the new flashing procedure is. If you decide to go for it, you probably should have a backup of your old BIOS on hand, just in case. If you're using W2K, you should have a boot disk on hand that will allow you to boot into DOS. If you cannot boot at all, you should remove all devices from the secondary IDE and the onboard Promise controllers.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[alessandro]

revision 1.04????

Does this revision board exist????
If yes then we (the 1.02 revision users) are just beta testers

[paulcs]

Apparently, there is a Revision 1.06 of the board in Europe.

You're not a beta tester, alessandro. You are an "early adopter."

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[alessandro]

Beta tester is not exactly what i meant.
Try guinea pigs.
Yes we must be test rats for bugs on the 1.02
revision so the 1.04 and up users get a bug free board(with soft multiplier option that works ).........just kidding

[Grego]

I have rev. 1.01p so I guess Im the master guinea pig