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Thread ID: 84465 2007-11-06 20:57:00 Nvidia vga bios engineering release ruatuki (12890) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
608944 2007-11-06 20:57:00 I have come across a 'batch' of PCs that, on startup, report the VGA bios is 'Engineering Release- not for production use'. These machines are very new and purchased from a NZ retailer but are having an unusually high rate of Windows problems mostly to do with Windows system files.
What is an Engineering Release?
Is it common? Should it be used for a retail machine?
Could it be involved in the windows problems?

Motherboard is ASUS M2N-MX SE with integrated nvidia geforce 6100.
Thank you,
Rua.
ruatuki (12890)
608945 2007-11-06 21:06:00 Thats a possibility

Here's the same prob in a Nvidia forum (forums.nvidia.com)

I would see if theres a bios update for the card, or take the mobo back and get something else.
Speedy Gonzales (78)
608946 2007-11-06 23:01:00 Exact same thing happen to me with the Asus M2N-MX SE, System BIOS was v0201 (very old)

Updated to latest BIOS (0406), the engineering release message has gone away.

I always update motherboard to latest BIOS as soon as I buy it, unless there is a known problem with that BIOS and the configuration I may have, as such I never tested my M2N-MX SE with the 0201 BIOS in windows, but I had XP and Kubuntu 7.10 64bit installed for a while on the 0406 BIOS and never had a problem.

I say do a BIOS update, it will probably solve your problem.

File corruption could be caused by faulty/incompatible/wrongly setup memory (and the last 2 could be fixed by BIOS update) Run Memtest and see if that comes up with any problem
Agent_24 (57)
608947 2007-11-07 01:41:00 bios is 'Engineering Release- not for production use'. ?
Just means it didn't get its BIOS update before being shipped out.

Update to the latest BIOS.
pctek (84)
608948 2007-11-07 02:08:00 A friend of mine had the exact same problem. He ended up kicking up a fuss about it with computer retailer, and got a refund. somebody (208)
608949 2007-11-07 02:13:00 Too lazy to do a 10 second BIOS update, so waste even more time getting a refund? That's stupid Agent_24 (57)
608950 2007-11-07 03:20:00 Thank you Speedy,
I had seen this post but as it referred to another version of bios, didn't go too far with it.
I will try a BIOS first.
Why would a retailer source motherboards without production BIOS? Why would ASUS manufacture same?
Though the retailer would sort this before selling.
Cheers,
Rua.
ruatuki (12890)
608951 2007-11-07 03:26:00 I doubt the retailer would know that the mobos theyre selling with onboard video shouldnt be sold to the public.

Unless they actually built a system up using the mobo, connected everything else, and tested it.

And then repackaged it after. I dont think so.
Speedy Gonzales (78)
608952 2007-11-07 04:52:00 I have yet to see a motherboard that didn't get a BIOS update shortly after introduction to retail, only perhaps the very old ones where the BIOS may have been tested properly beforehand, even then I'm not sure

Whoever makes them, just wants to ship them ASAP, they don't worry about putting on the latest BIOS because the user can do that for free in the time it takes to download an flash

Provided the thing can boot a floppy or other media that holds BIOS update I wouldn't worry about it, it's not like the BIOS is actually that bad, just because it says engineering release. In fact a lot of BIOS probably are they just hide that message
Agent_24 (57)
608953 2007-11-07 05:05:00 I have yet to see a motherboard that didn't get a BIOS update shortly after introduction to retail, only perhaps the very old ones where the BIOS may have been tested properly beforehand, even then I'm not sure

Whoever makes them, just wants to ship them ASAP, they don't worry about putting on the latest BIOS because the user can do that for free in the time it takes to download an flash

Provided the thing can boot a floppy or other media that holds BIOS update I wouldn't worry about it, it's not like the BIOS is actually that bad, just because it says engineering release. In fact a lot of BIOS probably are they just hide that message

So it's ok for a car dealership to sell you a car with the tires deflated, because they can pump them up by themselves?
somebody (208)
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