Hello,
Found this forum when looking for BIOS options for a Seanix Columbia II motherboard. It is a 440BX based board, and we're trying to install a Powerleap PL-iP3/T adapter with a 1.3GHz Tualatin Celeron processor. As you can guess from the username, I work with Powerleap Products Canada.
To try and make a long story short, we have a customer (School District) with a large number of these systems. We have had the board tested with a UN**** BIOS, and it will allow it to run the Tualatin Celeron CPU. (Very stable with a PC Mark score of 2800, up from the original PII 350 at 800) Problem is, UN**** want (at least in my opinion) an outrageous amount for their BIOS. This is not one developed specially for this system, but a "stock" BIOS that works. (I suspect it is a generic 440BX BIOS they use.) To elaborate on the cost issue, it's not a matter of purchasing the BIOS outright. They want to license it depending on the number of systems. As the school district has a fair number of these, the cost it ridiculous. (Especially since their IT budget is limited.)
What I am looking for, is someone who is able to patch the existing BIOS (AMI and available here: http://www.seanix.com/downloads/Drivers/cbx_bios.zip ) We don't have someone on staff who can do this, and I'm left with either trying to deal with UN****, or looking for help somewhere like here. We're not adverse to paying for someone to do the work, but when I called UN**** initially and asked about using a BIOS on multiple systems, I was told the cost was $40-$60(US) it wasn't a problem to use on multiple machines. It seems that once they found out there were potentially a large number of systems, $$$ flashed before their eyes. If we are not able to find an alternative, I suspect the schools will either decide not to upgrade to faster processors, or they will need to do fewer systems.
Any help or suggestions is appreciated.
Thanks,
Rick
BIOS help for Seanix Columbia II
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ajzchips,
Will try to have it checked out this week. Thanks so much for the help.
Can you give me a rough idea of what you have done, and what changes you have made? (I'm assuming it's the original BIOS with modifications?)
Thanks again,
Rick
Will try to have it checked out this week. Thanks so much for the help.
Can you give me a rough idea of what you have done, and what changes you have made? (I'm assuming it's the original BIOS with modifications?)
Thanks again,
Rick
I simply used BP's utility, version 6, alpha 10 release, on the original BIOS. It supports AMI BIOS patching, although the success rate isn't as high as on AWARD BIOSes; that's why I mentioned having an EEPROM burner just in case.