I've never seen a zappa without the async L2 cache outlines printed on the board. This board has Pipeline Burst Cache, which I also have never seen on a Zappa.
Ahh, it's an Intel Aladdin motherboard. It uses bios that end in the BROT extention, like 1.00.10 BROT.

https://dfarq.homeip.net/why-intel-stopped-ma … g-motherboards/ first picture on this link shows it.

Mr-Bios archive has two Intel Alladin bios:
V097B50G - Intel Advanced/AL Alladdin 3.46
V097E50G - Intel Advanced/AL Alladdin 3.46

Not sure what the difference is with the above two.

Yes an Intel OEM Aladdin. You do not need main BIOS support for >8GB if using a SCSI adapter as the SCSI Adapter takes over and then it is dependent on it's bios, if Adaptec 2940 series anything under about v1.23 will not support above 8GB.
All BIOS should allow booting from a SCSI adapter (have one in my Turbo XT, running a 200MB SCSI HD), if not there is more wrong than first guesses...

shawnmos wrote on 2023-08-03, 19:54:

Has anyone tried to flash a Mr. BIOS image for an Intel Advanced/ZP (Zappa) motherboard onto the Gateway 2000 P5-120? As far as I know it's an Intel Advanced/ZP (Zappa) board though there may be some differences. The layout of the gateway board is definitely a little different than what's pictured here: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel- … vanced-zp-zappa

On second thoughts I am not sure it is an Intel Alladin.
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel- … nced-al-alladin

I don't think the above board ever came with Pipeline burst cache in OEM versions, the layout is too different and the bios versions end in .CA0U.

It claims to be a variant of the Intel Advanced/ZE (Zappa-E)
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel- … nced-ze-zappa-e

This board also never came with PBC in any known OEM version and looks quite different to yours but the bios ver does end in .BRO (without the T)

Could you attach a good quality picture of your board, front/ back and what is the bios version, it shoud say somewhere when you enter the bios.
It would be good to add this motherboard to the theretroweb.com.

Hmm found a better set pictures and the Gateway references, if the pics are the same board is def an Intel (they use the AA #, and had a plant in Ireland)...
MBDSAC009ADWW is the P-120, MBDSAC010ADWW is the P-133. Same board. And they did a P-100 also using same board.
Gateway archive: P-120:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050101002722/htt … /MC009Dnv.shtml
http://web.archive.org/web/20050103084329/htt … /MC009DTC.shtml
the cache reference does say soldered pipeline....
and member imi has one (or had back in June 2019 in his huge collection Re: Vogons members average motherboard collection size)

Horun wrote on 2023-08-05, 20:57:

Hmm found a better set pictures and the Gateway references, if the pics are the same board is def an Intel (they use the AA #, a […]
Show full quote

Hmm found a better set pictures and the Gateway references, if the pics are the same board is def an Intel (they use the AA #, and had a plant in Ireland)...
MBDSAC009ADWW is the P-120, MBDSAC010ADWW is the P-133. Same board. And they did a P-100 also using same board.
Gateway archive: P-120:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050101002722/htt … /MC009Dnv.shtml
http://web.archive.org/web/20050103084329/htt … /MC009DTC.shtml
the cache reference does say soldered pipeline....
and member imi has one (or had back in June 2019 in his huge collection Re: Vogons members average motherboard collection size)

That's definitely my board. I ended up flashing the Mr. Bios Alladin/Tahiti INTL50G v3.30 as it seems to be more appropriate for this board. I didn't really see any functional difference between INTL50G vs INTL50I though I didn't use either long as I ended up going back to the Gateway BIOS, which is 1.00.10.BR0T I believe. I can upload this somewhere if someone wants it.

I went back to the Gateway BIOS because I was having issues with resource conflicts. Seems Mr. BIOS doesn't properly support PnP. In addition, it doesn't support booting from CD, while the Gateway BIOS does.

As for my original issue, while this board may support booting from SCSI it doesn't support booting from an IDE/SATA card unless the onboard IDE is disabled. I purchased another SATA controller that also has IDE (Promise SATA150) thinking I could make use of CD booting but I was sadly mistaken as it doesn't support ATAPI devices. It does recognize the CD drive when in windows so I guess that's good enough for now. I am able to boot off of a 128GB ssd with no issue and the controller's bios gets around the size limit.

Also, does anyone know if there is preferred order to arrange PCI graphics card, PCI SATA card, PCI USB2.0 card, and ISA Sound Blaster 16?

Hey bit of a bump here. I recently acquired a Gateway 2000 with the same board (133 Pentium seems to be the only difference). I attempted to install both the 3.28 (properly .br0t) and the 3.30 found here: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel- … ze-zappa-e#bios but have run into a show-stopping issue.

Both MR BIOSes fail to actually boot. They'll post, check memory and devices, but then at the end I'll get a "BIOS is disabled" message and the PC will refuse to go further. It'll just stop. I can enter the BIOS and check settings but it won't actually boot. Meaning I can't load up a floppy with the original Gateway BIOS and flash back. I can flash between the 2 MR-BIOSes via the jumpers and a rescue diskette but I don't have a proper BIOS image for the Gateway that will work with the MR-BIOS flashback utility (shame on me--though I do have an original 1.00.10.BR0T update, which contains a whole lot of bios looking files, they just can't be used by the MR BIOS emergency flash utility...).

Anybody ever run into this with a MR BIOS? What could be the issue? or shawnmos, if you ever save an image of your 1.00.10.BR0T please let me know how I could get that from you! I might be able to flash to that if I had a proper one to run with the MR BIOS recovery jumper/utility. Thanks!

Such a beautiful PC and would be such a shame to end up with a bricked mobo

guyjin37 wrote on 2024-02-24, 04:12:

Hey bit of a bump here. I recently acquired a Gateway 2000 with the same board (133 Pentium seems to be the only difference). I […]
Show full quote

Hey bit of a bump here. I recently acquired a Gateway 2000 with the same board (133 Pentium seems to be the only difference). I attempted to install both the 3.28 (properly .br0t) and the 3.30 found here: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel- … ze-zappa-e#bios but have run into a show-stopping issue.

Both MR BIOSes fail to actually boot. They'll post, check memory and devices, but then at the end I'll get a "BIOS is disabled" message and the PC will refuse to go further. It'll just stop. I can enter the BIOS and check settings but it won't actually boot. Meaning I can't load up a floppy with the original Gateway BIOS and flash back. I can flash between the 2 MR-BIOSes via the jumpers and a rescue diskette but I don't have a proper BIOS image for the Gateway that will work with the MR-BIOS flashback utility (shame on me--though I do have an original 1.00.10.BR0T update, which contains a whole lot of bios looking files, they just can't be used by the MR BIOS emergency flash utility...).

Anybody ever run into this with a MR BIOS? What could be the issue? or shawnmos, if you ever save an image of your 1.00.10.BR0T please let me know how I could get that from you! I might be able to flash to that if I had a proper one to run with the MR BIOS recovery jumper/utility. Thanks!

Such a beautiful PC and would be such a shame to end up with a bricked mobo

If the bios chip is removable you should be able to flash the Gateway bios to it with an external programer.

guyjin37 wrote on 2024-02-24, 04:12:

Hey bit of a bump here. I recently acquired a Gateway 2000 with the same board (133 Pentium seems to be the only difference). I […]
Show full quote

Hey bit of a bump here. I recently acquired a Gateway 2000 with the same board (133 Pentium seems to be the only difference). I attempted to install both the 3.28 (properly .br0t) and the 3.30 found here: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel- … ze-zappa-e#bios but have run into a show-stopping issue.

Both MR BIOSes fail to actually boot. They'll post, check memory and devices, but then at the end I'll get a "BIOS is disabled" message and the PC will refuse to go further. It'll just stop. I can enter the BIOS and check settings but it won't actually boot. Meaning I can't load up a floppy with the original Gateway BIOS and flash back. I can flash between the 2 MR-BIOSes via the jumpers and a rescue diskette but I don't have a proper BIOS image for the Gateway that will work with the MR-BIOS flashback utility (shame on me--though I do have an original 1.00.10.BR0T update, which contains a whole lot of bios looking files, they just can't be used by the MR BIOS emergency flash utility...).

Anybody ever run into this with a MR BIOS? What could be the issue? or shawnmos, if you ever save an image of your 1.00.10.BR0T please let me know how I could get that from you! I might be able to flash to that if I had a proper one to run with the MR BIOS recovery jumper/utility. Thanks!

Such a beautiful PC and would be such a shame to end up with a bricked mobo

I'm a little late to the party, but if you look closely just to the right of the top ISA slot in the image above you'll see a jumper labeled REC/NORM. You need to move that jumper to REC to put the board in recovery mode, and then insert the bootable floppy with the gateway bios on it. You won't get any video out, but after 5 minutes (maybe less) you should hear two beeps letting you know the flash is complete.

Before you do that though, I'd try clearing the CMOS. It's possible it's garbled and MRBIOS isn't sure what to do with it. Recovery flashing on intel boards is relatively safe -- but since there is no visual indication, you can brick the board if you power it off too soon. When you're done you'll need to put the jumper back to normal mode to get it to boot.

- Evan

EDIT: reread your post. Do you have another computer to make a floppy? You'll need the original gateway flash program and not the MR-BIOS one.

If you've got a gotek or similar I can make a floppy image for you if you don't have any other way to do it. The MR-BIOS flasher won't flash the gateway bios for you (from the gateway download). It MIGHT flash the automated backup it made for you when you first flashed -- but that's not going to do you any good.