New EpiaM bios v1.16 who's gonna to try it first?

momanz · 10-19-2004, 12:21 AM

Just tried to upload the new EpiaM bios and my floppy drive started giving me read errors just as I launched the flash program.... talk about cutting is close

Anyhow, here's the link the via page, who wants to try this first?

http://www.viaembedded.com/product/D...therboardId=81

rando · 10-19-2004, 01:37 AM

It would be nice if they'd give a bit more description about what changed. All it says is "Update new VGA BIOS."

mpattonm · 10-19-2004, 04:12 AM

do some search.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/software-software-development/27295-new-yet-not-officially-unreleased-epia-m-vga-drivers.html

rando · 10-19-2004, 11:19 AM

Gotcha, so this the formal release of the BETA BIOS discussed in that thread.

b_nom · 10-19-2004, 11:26 AM

So how about the drivers for 2000/XP? The ones on that link apparently only support 9x/Me

momanz · 10-19-2004, 03:19 PM

Busted... I didn't make the connection... ;-)

I just hopped on the via site saw there was a new bios and though maybe, just maybe we'd finally have 800x480. Once I find a working floppy drive I'll update and post the results. I'm currently running linux on my system so there may be a magic modline out there, but I'm not betting the bank on it. I did have 848x480 running at one point and it looked aweful.

-momanz

mpattonm · 10-20-2004, 03:52 AM

no 800x480 with BIOS 1.16. Its beeing worked on.

b_nom · 10-20-2004, 08:38 AM

There's some people on the ViaForums that have been reporting issues with this BIOS release

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3

I haven't jumped on it yet, I guess I'll wait till they upload XP drivers.

Sick-B0y · 10-22-2004, 12:18 PM

F*in Via sucks a$$. I flashed mine to 1.16 and the board $h*t a brick. What a lame company.

rgardjr · 10-22-2004, 07:22 PM

I emailed via about the "*[Note] This BIOS needs working with below new VGA driver* Update new VGA BIOS" that wasn't present on the download page where the bios was placed. Got this response:
Told I could get it here:
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=2&Type=1

But if it doesn't do 800x480 and there's a pretty decent chance that the motherboard might end up as a paperweight I'll pass for now.

rgardjr · 10-22-2004, 07:36 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Sick-B0y

F*in Via sucks a$$. I flashed mine to 1.16 and the board $h*t a brick. What a lame company.

About the only thing I can offer to help you out here is what I've read about elsewhere. One thing that people mentioned about trying to fix the bois is this. Disconnect everything except a floppy drive. Create a dos boot disk with the flash utility and bios you want to flash. See if you can get it to boot off just floppy. People mentioned that some bios versions have a fail safe mode that doesn't include video or hard drive support. If the floppy spins up you're in luck. You may have to reflash without video-so you'll have to use another computer to see exactly what you need to type. Good Luck! I hope what I just typed makes sense