Thread: BIOS Update

Hi everyone.
I have an old computer here and I'm resinatlling the OS. I have one PCI device with a bang on it - PCI Bus 0, device 31, function 3. From what I can tell, this means I need to update the BIOS. I have some sites here at Intel, and I'm just wondering if anyone who is familiar with these sorts of things can verify for me that I am heading in the right direction and help me choose which one I should do?

Intel Board D815EEA AAA10383-205
BIOS: Intel Corp. A04 08/29/2000

It appears I need to flash the BIOS with this:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Filt...=eng&strOSs=38
IFLASH BIOS EA-P11.EXE

But I see a few former releases here:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Filt...eng&sType=prev

Do I need to do these first?

Or, have I not chosen the correct part? Or, am I totally wrong and should be looking at something else?

Thanks for the help - I've never done this before and I'm a bit unsure - and I don't want to kill my firend's computer!

I guess what I need to know is - are the updates cumulative? or do I need to do each one separately? Thanks.

Well, since everyone seems to be on vacation here, I went ahead and updated the BIOS with A11, assuming that these updates are cumulative. Still, no luck with the bang on the PCI device. Then I noticed that the CD-RW drive only reads - it won't write. Well, it has a [generic?] driver loaded from MicroSoft. I need a driver for this thing - can anyone help me? I had backed up all the drivers (using DriverMagician Lite) that are not included with W2k before I reformatted, and there is nothing for the 40MAXX. There is nothing on the manufacturer's web site and they don't respond to my email requests to tech support:

Memorex 40MAXX 1248AJ

I have flashed the thing from ZWS1 to ZWS4, but I can't find a driver for it to make it write CDs! How frustrating....

Thanks for any help.

Google search 1st hit
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...e+Search&meta=

Hi Ferret.
Been there....been to the first 20 hits of google and yahoo.......that's a firmware update. But, I can't get this CD-RW to write. I have Adaptec easy CD Creator 4 installed, which is what they were using to burn CDs and it won't work - doesn't recognize the drive as a writer. Then I installed Burn & Go to see if that would solve the problem, but I get a similar error message - for some reason the software is not recognizing this drive as a reader/writer. I don't understand, as it was writing before I added the new HDD and reinstalled the OS. Any thoughts?

UPDATE: From what I understand, the windows drivers only handle the "read" function. It is the burning software that actually handles the burning function. Memorex finally answered and said that the basic drivers are included in W2k (read only). When I went through the integral "test" in Burn & Go, it found the 40MAXX and got all the speed/write data from it and said it "passed". But when I try to write anything, it says there is no supported drive in the system. So, I thought perhaps I needed to enable DMA. Well, I've tried enabling "DMA if available" on all IDE/ATAPI devices through Device Manager and it doesn't make a difference.

Have any other ideas? I am still getting this PCI device error (no drivers loaded) at each startup too (see beginning of post) - do you think there's any relationship?

Well, I keep plodding along....

I compared a Belarc Advisor printout pre-HDD swap to the current configuration and saw there was an Intel 82801BA Bus Master IDE Controller originally installed that was not in the current configuration. I then I installed Everest Home Edition v2.20 to try and figure out what PCI device was missing a driver. All I knew was Bus 0, device 31, function 3 - that's all Device Manager would tell me. Through the Everest program I was able to determine that the device with the bang was indeed the Intel SMBus Controller, because it listed the same callout of 0/31/3. I then went searching through the install wizard and finally got the driver installed and the bang disappeared - WHEW!.

Now on to the Memorex 40MAXX CD-RW. They finally found the original software that came with the drive - it is Roxio v5 Easy CD Creator. It even had Memorex on the disk. I installed the software. Now, I know this drive was writing because I made a "driver backup" disk before I removed the old HDD. Upon opening the program I received an error "Easy CD Creator Engine initialization has failed: (could not load CDR4).

Then, the program continued to open. I selected make data disk, and dragged a folder into the window to be burned. When I clicked record here is the error I got: "There are no supported CD-Recorders available. Ensure that your CD-Recorder is powered on and that all cables are properly connected. You may also need to update Easy CD Creator to recognize your CD-Recorder. To update select....blah blah...." I really thought there was a link between these two issues - it seemed to make sense.

I'm going to shutdown and reseat all the connectors to this CD-RW drive. Maybe between that and the reboot my problems will be solved....any other ideas for me anyone?