Ok, good sign.

Don't go away yet. I'm gonna MOD it further and try to enable ACPI.

Here we go:

ACPI Function moved to the right side of the screen.

Well look at that 🤣

Now I just got to pull out the PCI SATA card and confirm that Gateway doesn't hang!

Also I have attached UNIFLASH and the AUTOEXEC.BAT I use for blind / input free flashing.

great read so far!
I was lucky that the 591p has the ACPI option by default, it solved my MPU problems...
Mau1wurf1977, if it works you should probably leave an overnight memtest running just to ensure that the bios mod didn't break anything... 🤣

F**K YEAH!!!!

Finally.

I bet it was MODBIN version. Awesome.

Now yes, you do gotta set that Roland MPU-401 on IRQ9 and see if ACPI is still there or not. There's always the possibility they hid ACPI because it couldn't be disabled anymore.

Bad news 😒

The game still hangs when run from the SATA drive. Works fine from the IDE>CF drive like before.

So it appears the setting doesn't actually do anything.

🙁

Oh well...

Sorry mate. I guess for me the competition for my Gaming Machine will be between the DFI K6XV3+/66 and the IWill XA100Plus.

Yea quite bummed...

Ordered two BIOS chips for the AOpen board. Unlike the others it uses a 2 Megabit flash chip and I don't have another one. Hopefully the board is still ok 😒

EDIT: Are you sure the IWill has an ACPI setting? I'm quite sure it doesn't...

Might check quickly...

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Yea quite bummed... […]
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Yea quite bummed...

Ordered two BIOS chips for the AOpen board. Unlike the others it uses a 2 Megabit flash chip and I don't have another one. Hopefully the board is still ok 😒

EDIT: Are you sure the IWill has an ACPI setting? I'm quite sure it doesn't...

Might check quickly...

Latest BIOS has it enabled!

Dang I'll check it out right away 😀

One thing about the IWill, the FDD and IDE headers have ALL the pins. So newer cables won't fit. Just a little detail.

What is good about it though: FSB adjustment through BIOS! Absolutely terrific.

What BIOS version have you got for this board?

The one I use I have attached in this old thread: Super Socket 7 - VIA MVP3 or ALi Aladdin V?

OMG it does. It's in the bottom right corner. I never saw it and it was there all along 😵

Will test the PCI SATA card right away with the setting on and off...

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Dang I'll check it out right away :) […]
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Dang I'll check it out right away 😀

One thing about the IWill, the FDD and IDE headers have ALL the pins. So newer cables won't fit. Just a little detail.

What is good about it though: FSB adjustment through BIOS! Absolutely terrific.

What BIOS version have you got for this board?

The one I use I have attached in this old thread: Super Socket 7 - VIA MVP3 or ALi Aladdin V?

I think i have enough cables to get away from that problem.

Yep, changing FSB through BIOS is awesome. Almost as awesome as my QDI Titanium IB+. AT Board, very advanced. I believe it is the besy AT S7 board ever made. Rock solid. Does not support 100MHZ FSB though. But allows to change core voltage, multiplier and FSB on the BIOS, no jumper configurations at all.

EDIT: One of the things i like in the IWill or DFI is that you can assign IRQ by individual PCI slot.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

OMG it does. It's in the bottom right corner. I never saw it and it was there all along :dead: […]
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OMG it does. It's in the bottom right corner. I never saw it and it was there all along 😵

Will test the PCI SATA card right away with the setting on and off...

I'm modding that BIOS as we speak!

EDIT:Removed the file as this MOD rendered the board very unstable.

Will upload stable version below!

Ha that's cute.

Well looks like 2 of my 3 SS7 boards have that ACPI switch.

Dang. I think I will have to revisit my "Ultimate Time-Machine Project" and report about these findings...

A project for my next holidays though, nothing in the near future...

Also the IWill board couldn't blind-flash. It wouldn't boot from the floppy, whereas the 5AX did just fine. Interesting these subtle differences...

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

I think I will have to revisit my "Ultimate Time-Machine Project" and report about these findings...

I'll be waiting. 😎

BTW, does Gateway lock up with PCI SATA controller on this board?

IWill XA100Plus MODDED BIOS STABLE.

This BIOS has been personally tested by me and it's working very well, but as always:

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

What have you changed?

I got a new case coming with 2x 3.5 and 4x 5.25 bays.

Then I saw an image of an old AT tower which had 2x 2.5 and 6!x 5.25 bays 😵

But in the ATX size it seems 2/4 bays is the most one can hope for.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

What have you changed? […]
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What have you changed?

I got a new case coming with 2x 3.5 and 4x 5.25 bays.

Then I saw an image of an old AT tower which had 2x 2.5 and 6!x 5.25 bays 😵

But in the ATX size it seems 2/4 bays is the most one can hope for.

I had activated all the stuff that was hidden. In the new version i pretty much just made ACPI sit in a new position and something else i can't remember. Anyway it's stable as a rock now!

A case with 2/4 bays? I'd say that's more than enough! Actually that would be perfect for me. I had to remove my SATA drawer to accomodate my internal ZIP drive which comes very handy at times. A ZIP is much more reliable than floppies, is fast enough and has more than enough space to carry data from one machine to another.

What ATX case/model are we talking about?

Can you guys delete your bad not-working BIOSes then? 😀