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Thread ID: 54814 2005-02-23 04:10:00 Upgrading BIOS? Edward (31) Press F1
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327526 2005-02-23 04:10:00 Hi everyone. I've decided it's not enough for the old computer to be stuck with 32gb not even seeable by BIOS, so it's time for a BIOS upgrade. Except I don't know what BIOS it actually has. In the BIOS screen, up the top it says

"ROM PCI/ISA BIOS (2a59im2z)
CMOS SETUP UTILITY
AWARD SOFTWARE, INC"

and down the bottom,

"Copyright 1992-1994 Award Software"

It hasn't got any dire information on it, so if it dies, i'll be a little upset but no real damage would be done.

On to the questions. I'm getting Windows 98 on it, so I can use any diagnostis tools on that, so how can I find out what BIOS I'm using? And how do I actually update the BIOS? (Can boot from CD & write CDs)
Edward (31)
327527 2005-02-23 04:19:00 The 32GB limit may not be a limit of the BIOS.

It's also the limit for 98. To get higher u'll have to update to 2000/XP.

Most BIOS'es have that. You need to find out the brand/model of the motherboard..

Try this, to see what your motherboard brand/model is.

http://www.lavalys.com/ The Home version.

It's better to find the BIOS update and make a system disk then copy whats in the BIOS update (usually a zip file) to the floppy. Then change the bootdisk in BIOS to floppy and boot from the floppy. After it has updated the BIOS (if there's a later version). Change the bootdisk back to hard drive.
Speedy Gonzales (78)
327528 2005-02-23 04:20:00 Is it a brand name computer? Do you have any idea what motherboard it has? PaulD (232)
327529 2005-02-23 04:35:00 It's a LTS (Lowes Tech System) box

I've got the mobo manual around here somewhere... I'll try and find it now
Edward (31)
327530 2005-02-23 04:41:00 The 32GB limit may not be a limit of the BIOS .

It's also the limit for 98 . To get higher u'll have to update to 2000/XP .



Wrong! Win98 has some FAT32 size problems but not 32G that's a 2K and XP limit to encourage you to use NTFS .
PaulD (232)
327531 2005-02-23 04:50:00 Try here

www.microsoft.com

Its a limit of FAT32 - volume size
Speedy Gonzales (78)
327532 2005-02-23 05:32:00 That's an XP reference. This is for Win 98
support.microsoft.com
Large volumes end up with huge cluster sizes.
PaulD (232)
327533 2005-02-23 05:40:00 Well its actually for 98 and other OS's. Speedy Gonzales (78)
327534 2005-02-23 05:49:00 I've also got Windows ME which I hope supports 32gb < * HDs, and I can install that if I need to Edward (31)
327535 2005-02-23 05:54:00 Well anything under NT/2k/XP are similar . XP/2K/NT can use NTFS .

95/98/ME cant read NTFS .
Speedy Gonzales (78)
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