120GB Hard Drive, Need New BIOS

[preet2u]

NIS240SHU : Just ignore stan's post .. the dude doesn't know what he's talkin' 'bout.

Firstly u haven't mentioned the model no. of ur Compaq Deskpro EP. U'll need to mention the excat model no. to get the right bios ..

U'll find the list drivers/bios updates for machices in the Compaq Deskpro EP series here

Also lemme know another thing .... In ur current XP installation ... What is the size of the HDD displayed as in the Management console .

To see this Right Click on My Computer > Manage >Disk Management
See the size displayed there .

 

[Apokalipse]

you will have to get a BIOS update first to get it to recognise drives bigger than 32 GB, then do a format which will include all 111 GB instead of 32GB, then install XP from the CD, the fresh install will create all the neccesary files for XP to run.
to get the update, you will need to know exactly what your mobo brand and make is, then searching all the updates available (usually from the manufacturers site) to find the one you need -> getting the BIOS to recognise larger drives

 

[Apokalipse]

oh and to find out what the board is, you will need to boot into your original hard drive (because that's the one that boots) and then right click on My Computer, go to hardware, device manager, then it should have it there

 

[NIS240SHU]

In disk management, 31.5GB is recognized.

Here is some additional info that I've found during my research. I haven't been able to find the string that is supposed to come up when you boot up while holding a keyboard key down. All that comes up is the RAM count. Anyway, below is the info.

The only name I could find on the board itself is Compaq. On a sticker on the board I found:

SP# 118053
DW#010328
AS#010233-101
REV.AY
P2153AYDAICBN4
ASSEMBLED IN MEXICO

I also found a squre chip on the board with pins on all sides that has "BIOS ROM" printed on the board near it. The info on that chip is:

278781
-101
9928EBM G
COMPAQ

From <F10> Setup I got:

System ROM Date: 2/10/99
System ROM Family: 686T2
System Board Revision: 01
System Serial Number: 6938CJM72456

From some other program I ran, it told me:

BIOS ROM Size: 256K
Main Circuit Board: 041Ch
Bus Clock: 100 Megahertz
BIOS: Compaq 686T2 02/10/99

That's it! I hope you guys can help in any way!

 

[preet2u]

Did u visit the link I posted earlier ..were there no updates there ..
n' secondly .. u haven't mention ur machine model inspite of mentioning all other details

 

[NIS240SHU]

I did check out that link, but I don't know the model of my PC. The front cover only mentions Deskpro, that's it.

Either way, it doesn't matter too much anymore. I've been corresponding with Jack from www.badflash.com and he said it's basically useless to try and update a Compaq's BIOS, and if you do try, it'll most likely not work and kill the PC.

He advised me to buy an IDE controller that he linked me to, so now I'm waiting for that. That should resolve my issue.

I really appreciate all your help. When I get a new PC I'll definitely build one myself so I don't have to deal with mass-produced crap.

Thanks again!

 

[preet2u]

.....mass-produced crap.

....

LOL ..that's what i would call branded machines