Can CPU compatibility be gauged from a BIOS dump? and other questions \ VOGONS

Can CPU compatibility be gauged from a BIOS dump? and other questions

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First post, by brian105

Posted on 2020-05-14, 02:20

brian105 Offline

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Is it possible to see the compatible CPUs if I dump a BIOS? I believe that it's a Phoenix BIOS by Compaq, and while it's MVP3 I'm not too sure if it supports the K6+ CPUs since there's absolutely no documentation about these OEM boards. I wouldn't want to buy a K6+ and have to return it because it turns out that it's incompatible. The only issue is that currently, the latest BIOS is not flashed and in order to flash it, I need a floppy disk (which I don't have any for now) and I was wondering if I could flash it from the hard drive if I extract the BIOS update. However, I have no idea what the kind of files inside are, and they have weird file extensions.

From what I can tell, it's just a basic DOS boot floppy where there's a BIOS flashing utility, but also different BIOSes for different computers within the STRMxxxx files. I can't figure out how to open them, so maybe somebody's had experience with them. 686A1 is my ROM version as indicated within the readme and the BIOS chip onboard. I've attached the extracted BIOS files as well, and the update file itself.

Attachments

Filename

extracted update files.7z

File size

931.27 KiB

Downloads

33 downloads

File license

Fair use/fair dealing exception
Filename

sp12234.exe

File size

1.11 MiB

Downloads

30 downloads

File license

Fair use/fair dealing exception

Presario 5284: K6-2+ 550 ACZ @ 600 2v, 256MB PC133, GeForce4 MX 440SE 64MB, MVP3, Maxtor SATA/150 PCI card, 16GB Sandisk U100 SATA SSD
2007 Desktop: Athlon 64 X2 6000+, Asus M2v-MX SE, Foxconn 7950GT 512mb, 4GB DDR2 800, Audigy 2 ZS, WinME/XP

Reply 1 of 4, by Doornkaat

Posted on 2020-05-14, 05:14

Doornkaat Offline

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It would really help if you told us right away what system you're talking about.
The README.TXT reads

686A1 - 5060, 5062, 5150, 5151, 5152, 5153, 5154, 5155, 5160, 10/18/99 5190, 5201, 5202, 5203, 5204, 5220 (See Note), […]
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686A1 - 5060, 5062, 5150, 5151, 5152, 5153, 5154, 5155, 5160, 10/18/99
5190, 5201, 5202, 5203, 5204, 5220 (See Note),
5222 (See Note), 5225, 5240, 5242, 5245, 5248, 5250,
5253, 5282, 5283, 5284, 5285, 5286

Under "Enhancements/Fixes:" the file mentions

- Fixed a problem where DMI (Type 7) was reporting L3 cache as disabled.

The mention of L3 cache fixes in a BIOS update from late 1999 would make me carefully optimistic for K6-III microcode support.

You should definitely buy some floppies if you're going to keep messing with 90s PCs. Wether the BIOS upgrade will work without it or not I can't say but you can try putting all the files into the root directory of your HDD, boot into DOS and run ROMPAQ.EXE from there.

Reply 2 of 4, by brian105

Posted on 2020-05-14, 05:35

brian105 Offline

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The specific model is the Presario 5284, and yes I should 500% get some floppies. I already knew that at a minimum, the K6-3 should be supported, but good luck finding those on eBay; most listed CPUs are K6-2s and 2+'s.

Reply 3 of 4, by Doornkaat

Posted on 2020-05-14, 10:21

Doornkaat Offline

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Correct me if I'm wrong but AFAIK apart from maybe displaying in incorrect CPU type a motherboard with K6-III BIOS support and 2.0V core setting should operate a K6-III+ or K6-2+ without any problem.

Reply 4 of 4, by brian105

Posted on 2020-05-14, 17:15

brian105 Offline

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Posts: 186
Joined: 2020-04-17, 06:04

Thanks for your insight! I'll probably grab a K6-2+ or 3+ whenever this pandemic scare dies down and it's safe to get stuff from eBay again.

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