...more like...what can this motherboard do...M5ATC Rev 1.0

Sat Oct 05, 2002 4:22 am

Taken from the M726 BIOS release notes:

NEW RELEASE
FILE NAME : 990320S.ROM
CHECKSUM : B170 H
FIX BUG : Support 1543 & 1543C Chipset.

Sat Oct 05, 2002 6:10 am

OK...remember...not a M726 here...Biostar M5ATC Rev 1.0.

To avoid confusion, here is a picture of the installed chipset... It's a plain M1543/31 -B1... not a "C" ...correct?

Sat Oct 05, 2002 8:21 pm

OK...back to the CDROM problem.

I re-flashed to the last *official* BIOS release from Biostar, thinking there may be an issue with CDROM's in the patched version from here. I also cleared the CMOS and reset everything up from scratch. It seems whenever the system re-enumerates the drive setup (for whatever reason), the CDROM goes to this funky name. UDMA has been disabled for all PCI-IDE channels in the BIOS. I've also tried deleting all CDROM entries in the Registry, yet it still comes back with the funky name when it re-enumerates. I also tried swapping IDE channels, and making it a slave drive, but it did the same thing wherever it was found.

Any thoughts? Could this be the CDROM itself, and why would it report correctly upon initial setup (scratch load of Win98SE), but not in subsequent re-enumerations?

Mon Oct 14, 2002 10:56 pm

Hmmm... no more help???

Tue Oct 15, 2002 6:20 pm

Setup win98 but do NOT enable DMA on the CDROM (both in BIOS and in Windows). Please report back how it behaves. We may be looking at a bigger bug in the 1543 non-C version here...

Wed Oct 16, 2002 2:20 pm

Been there, done that.

This last go-around, I didn't enable Windows DMA on the CD, and it held, when I was paying attention to it. I have done other stuff since then and haven't looked, but this morning I did and it had switched to the goofy name.

I've been playing with HDTach and getting results for my drives, so somewhere along the line it blew up. I will reload Windows again when I'm done and try to see what causes it to go goofy.

I do know that after a clean Win98SE install, Windows DMA is not selected on any of the installed drives.

Perhaps when I get home I'll post a screen shot of what the Registry Entry looks like when the name goes goofy...maybe that will help some.

Thanks!!

Tue Oct 29, 2002 10:54 pm

ISTA has a new POST here on this board... http://www.wimsbios.net/phpBB2/viewtopi ... 8664#10296

Now he didn't have that IRQ routing error that I have (see page 2)...

Last night I tried another known good CDROM on the channel. It POST's OK, but with Windows loaded, it showed a "Yellow Bang" for the Secondary Controller, and the CDROM wasn't there. Removing the CDROM put the Controller back in action.

I'm wondering if I have a bad Controller or something and that's what is causing the CD to lose it's identity... seeing that it posted IRQ 0 and not 15...

Thoughts??

Sun Jan 26, 2003 5:04 pm

Just revisiting this, since my girlfriend really wants her computer back

!!

I moved the CDROM back to my trusty testbed M520 which holds the name and DMA mode just fine. For some reason, it does think some of my CD-R's are Audio Disks, but that is another matter (any thoughts on that one??).

Anyone have any ideas on why the M5ATC would have problems with the CDROM? I'm back on the patched large HD support BIOS found here. I'm wondering if the controller could have problems with certain devices...just 'cause this is electronics...you know?? Anyone ever run into that on other motherboards?

Sun Jan 26, 2003 5:15 pm

CD-R's as Audio CD? Looks like it can't read them properly (dirty lens?)

Mon Jan 27, 2003 5:47 pm

Thing is, it has read all the other ones I have tried in it, be they purchased program CD's or even ones I have burnt. This one a friend of mine did...it reads OK in my system and in a few others we tried around work.

Any other thoughts...on this and on the hardware issue...???

Mon Jan 27, 2003 7:52 pm

Had something similar until it struck me the ones it could not read were 700MB and the ones it did read were 650MB. This was on a slightly older CDROM (Vuego 16-speed).

Mon Jan 27, 2003 8:20 pm

Vuego = Acer Vuego = horrible crap. I've seen 4x, 8x and 52x or (something like that), all had random problems with reading CDs (cleaning did not help). I bought recently 8x one cheap, at least this one seems to work after cleaning...

Tue Jan 28, 2003 3:18 pm

This one is a TORiSAN CDR_S18, PIO MODE 3, DMA Capable, 8X, installed alone on IDE port 2 as Master. Never had a problem with it in my DFI or the M520 (both i430VX based)...just in the Biostar with the ALi chipset...

However...the only discs I've put in it are 700MB...can't tell what the commercial ones may be...but that is an interesting thought edwin, since the one in question is an Imation 700MB disc...

Fri Jan 31, 2003 6:59 pm

Seems I'm not the only one with CDROM trouble on this board...see this Google Post......and this one, though not exactly my problem...

BiosMan · Mon Apr 19, 2004 7:42 pm

Hi all...

Working on this guy again. I had a question on the ALi 1531 B1/1543 B1 chipset as to whether it has seperate CPU and RAM bus clocks.

The CPU bus can be set for 60/66/75/83MHz, but the manual doesn't say whether this is also affects the RAM bus speed or not.

For example, the manual says you can run a Cyrix 6x86MII PR-233+ (166 MHz) at 83MHz*2. It doesn't say however, if you need to run a PC100 DIMM for this to work, or if "normal" 60nS EDO SIMM will be OK.

Anyone have a clue??