Question about updating mobo if anyone can give me some guidence..

GameAddict · Aug 28, 2002

First time I have ever tried to upgrade mobo drivers so I'm a bit nervous and a little confused.

I have a ASUS A7V266-E VIA KT 266A 4xagp mobo

Since I have had the system about 5 months I always get the following message when booting up system on 2nd page of boot up, it passes quickly but it says something like this

""Ultra BIOS 100 version 2.01.0

Detecting \ ""<--spins for a few seconds and gives me following message:
""Ultra BIOS is not installed because their are no drivers attached.""
And then boots up windows.

I pulled up this site looking for new drivers:

http://download.asus.com.tw/mb_dl_menu.asp
EDIT: The site dosen't seem to work for that link but the info is accurate.

And noticed the following availabel for download:

2.00.0 (Build 18) Promise Ultra 100 IDE Controller Driver V2.00.0 (Build 18)

You guys think I should d/l and install that? I have no clue what its for but sounds like what I'm missing.

And I belive my BIOS version is 1004B, its hard to tell because the screen goes by so fast.
On the same site it has version 1010 and 1009. 1009 says its for new proscessors and 1010 says AMD XP 2300+. Since I have a XP 2000 think I should go with the 1009 or 1010 verson?

Thanks again all. You guys are a great help to someone who's not sure where to go

Vehementi · Aug 28, 2002

Download the 1010 version; drivers are cumulative; whatever changes are made in 1009 are included in 1010.

If you have a 2nd IDE channel array than you should download those drivers. That's what they're for. They're optional.

You're going to have to flash the BIOS.

This quote is from me posting on this thread.

I have the same board as you - A7V266. I've flashed my BIOS before. It's very simple to do - ASUS even provides your "dummies guide to flashing BIOS" on their site. All you need is the flashing utility, which can be found here , and an image file (this is what your BIOS will actually be written as) which is the 1010 driver. Copy both of these files to a bootable system floppy disk, record both the full name of the flash utility and the full name of the track image, and shut down your computer. Open your case and look for the CMOS battery. There should be a jumper right next to it that says CLR_RTC. First, unplug your computer, then remove the battery. After you do this, replace the battery, and short the jumper by placing a jumper block over both pins. Then replug your computer, and boot it using the system disk with the track image and flashing utility on them. Wait for all the drivers to load, and when A:/> is displayed, type in the name of the flash utility you recorded earlier, and press enter. Then select the option that involves flashing the motherboard BIOS. It will ask you for the full name of the track image, so type in A:/(name of image).awd. It will then flash the BIOS.
There aren't any BIOS updates to support chips of a higher speed, although there should (or even will) be some later on down the road with the XP 2100+ coming out next week and the 2200+ maybe in a matter of a month, about. The exact speed the A7V266-E is capable of handling is unknown to me. The FSB can be overclocked very high, and still run stable, as with the multiplier, so I don't believe you'll need a BIOS revision for any future Socket-A based Athlon.
Those horror stories were probably from me, they mostly involve older system boards, where flashing the BIOS was very risky. Today's boards can be flashed incident free dozens of times, if nothing goes wrong during the flash. (power outage...:dead: )
Good luck if you plan on flashing your BIOS. It's very easy.

Didou · Aug 29, 2002

You get that message from the onboard Promise IDE/RAID chip.

It gives you such a message because you don't have any IDE drives connected to it. As such, you do not need to install drivers for it since you don't use it.

There's a way to deactivate it from the BIOS but I don't remember how. I'll reboot someday & find out & post it here for you.

Didou · Aug 29, 2002

It seems you can't disable the Promise chip from within the BIOS.

If you want to disable it anyways ( in order to win about 10 seconds in bootup for example ), you have to flash the BIOS with a BIOS file that doesn't have the Promise parts in it.

Head on to this site -> A7V Troubleshooting

In this section -> A7V Troubleshooting ( A7V266-e BIOSes ), there's the 1005e Beta 15 BIOS which seems to disable the onboard Promise chipset.

Before attempting anything, remember that flashing a BIOS is very risky & could result in your system not posting anymore. Visit the site & take your time to read the FAQs, the articles, the How-Tos, etc...

Do not rush this at all.

The flashing tools are available here -> ftp.asuscom.de
Myself I use Aflash207.

GameAddict · Aug 30, 2002

Thanks for the help all

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Question about updating mobo if anyone can give me some guidence..

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