Urgent: Pegasos II needs Open Firmware update!

[Hammer]

Seems simple enough to me. God knows I've sent a few PC's to PC heaven

Luckily, my late model Gigabyte motherboards (e.g. GA-7N400 series) run with Dual-BIOS i.e. fitted with primary and backup BIOS.

[Hammer]

I seen minor** PC BIOS bugs before but this one takes the cake…

**bootable state, with BIOS settings workarounds e.g. setting to low performance bias settings.

[Hammer]

Hey , how many PC users would have the patience or knowledge to repair this with the instructions...

There are certain PC hackers that patches normal BIOS into “Uber’BIOS” (for extreme over clocking).

[Hammer]

I've worked with lots os PC stuff over the years and trust me,

What are you implying?

With X86 PC world, one could avoid certain brand and make if reliability is an issue.

they don't always work as advertised. I've seen some nasty stuff.

Does this “nasty stuff” have the ability to cause the system to stop from booting up?

[Hammer]

I was once instructed by a tech support person of a major motherbooard manufacturer to hot swap a bios chip. In other words I was told to boot the system by installing a bios chip from an identical board and start up the bios flashing program. I was then instructed to pull out the chip (whilst the power was on) and replace it with the original corrupted one to resume the flashing process.

That particular method was applied on some of the ruined Flash BIOS (e.g. flashing certain Uber’BIOS images) on certain nForce 2 motherboards. Gigabyte’s Dual-BIOS (socketed versions**) is very useful for that rescuing role. But some people likes to RMA their boards and get a 'free' upgrade to a newer motherboard revision e.g. A7N8X Rev 1.01 -> Rev 1.04/1.06 -> Rev 2.0.

Second method is via the use of certain NIC cards and modified/hacked NIC flashing software.

[Hammer]

I had a mobo which refused to boot when a big harddrive was attached, until the latest bios version was updated to handle it.

Doesn't it show a startup BIOS screen?

Those particular issues are inherited when dealing with old motherboards and a large hard disk.  Such problem can be workaround by plugging in a lesser capacity hard disk or switching the limiter on the hard disk.

My old Pentium II motherboards** still boots up to the normal BIOS screen even IF it doesn’t support 40GB HDs…

**
1. Lucktech, Luckystar Intel 440ZX/BX based,
2. PCchips(now Chaintech) BXPro, BXcel, SIS 5595 SIS 600, 'etc'

[Hammer]

Can't remember did it show up in BIOS or not. Maybe I didn't even check as it was so obvious the BIOS needed flashing. Anyway it is, it didn't boot

Does it render the PC unbootable** in a semi-permanent state?

**I define bootable PC with operating BIOS start-up screen.

Example of non-semi-permanent unbootable PC is when a blown SM56 PCI card plugged in and causes the PC not to show a BIOS startup screen. The PC will return to normal operation when the offending device is disconnected.

Levels of severity;
0. Bootable to BIOS startup screen with issues e.g. unsupported hard disk capacity.
1. Non-semi-permanent unbootable state, e.g. a plugged offending device which cause the PC not to show BIOS startup screen. Usually, unplugging the offending device will return the PC into normal operation.
2. Semi-permanent unbootable state e.g. ruined PC BIOS flash. Can’t return to bootable state with typical methods.
3. Permanent unbootable state e.g. blown circuits on motherboard.

I have encountered plenty of level 0 ‘severity’, usually occurs with older motherboards when upgrading client’s PCs (on the cheap). Few with level 1 ‘severity’ and rare on level 2 ‘severity’.

[Hammer]

If one was educated enough to know each individual flaw of each revision of each motherboard of each brand

Well, notice how most mainstream reviewers has stated that the 1st generation of the AMD K8 based motherboards is stable for normal use (not including over clocking activities).

[Hammer]

Not specifically that I have seen. My point is only that this is not an earth shattering defect. Most computer products are imperfect in one way or another whether the user can see it or not.

Depends on the level of severity. Can one compare AmigaOne’s problems with the 1st generation AMD K8 motherboards**? Careful with generalisation since late revisions of X86 motherboards has less “bugs” than the said products mentioned.

**Not including yet another VIA (again!!!) centric Hyperion 4in1 ver50 data corruption issues.

[Hammer]

@Hooligan_DCS
Can you remember the type of motherboard? (Reason: So we can watch for it).

I wouldn't call this bootable.

At least the machine was at non-semi-permanent unbootable state (level 1 severity).

[Hammer]

Provided of course that this brand doesn't include CPUs or commercial operating systems. Not much choice there.

Refer to the context i.e. only main board/motherboard scope.

As for CPU, one could avoid the early Intel Pentium III 1.13Ghz and Pentium Classic math flaws by selecting alternatives e.g. AMD.

commercial operating systems.

Of course, btw one should also include open source operating systems not just commercial ones.

[Hammer]

I once had a mobo with a f###ed up BIOS (can't think what else could do that),

Is the problem a manufacture defect (variance)  or design defect? Is issue duplicated to the rest of the manufactured motherboard batch?