VOGONS


First post, by watson

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I recently acquired an Acorp 5VIA77 SS7 board and I was looking for the latest BIOS version.
This discussion confirms the existence of ver. A7: https://www.wimsbios.com/forum/hard-drive-isn … x3ac-t2328.html
It is supposedly officially patched to support large HDDs.

This is the closest that I got on the Wayback Machine, but it only lists versions A5 and A6: https://web.archive.org/web/20030605160248/ht … h/BIOS/BVAI.asp

This is the download website in 2005, but (of course) the Socket 7 link does not work: https://web.archive.org/web/20051127013625/ht … /download01.asp

So, it looks like the only way to obtain this BIOS is from somebody who updated their board while it was available.

Reply 1 of 4, by watson

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Never mind, I just found it on ELHVB.
Here is the link for anyone interested: https://www.elhvb.com/supportbios.info/Archiv … A77/via77a7.bin
I wish I didn't waste so much time trying to find it with the Wayback Machive, but you live and learn. I am thankful that it has been saved.

Reply 2 of 4, by Chkcpu

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Hi watson,

Thanks for the link to the Acorp 5VIA77 Rev. A7 BIOS.

Back in 2003 I’ve patched the Rev. A5 BIOS for K6plus, WA, and 128GB HDD support. This patched BIOS was successfully tested with a K6-2 and a 40GB drive, but I couldn’t find anyone with a K6-2+/-III+ CPU to test the K6plus support at the time. So this patched BIOS is not yet released on my Unofficial K6-2+ / K6-III+ page.

I’ve checked the Rev. A7 BIOS and it has full K6-2+/-III+ and 128GB HDD support! 😀
If you have a K6plus CPU, can you test the A7 BIOS with this CPU so I can put it on my Unofficial K6-2+ / K6-III+ page and withdraw the patched A5 BIOS?
Thanks in advance.

Of course I will send it to TheRetroWeb as well. 😉

Jan

CPU Identification utility
The Unofficial K6-2+ / K6-III+ page

Reply 3 of 4, by watson

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Hi Jan, I actually almost contacted you about your patched BIOS because there was no download link for it, but then I found about A7.
I flashed it today and everything works fine.
Unfortunately, I don't have any plus CPUs to test, there was just a K6-2 350 in this board and I have a few other regular K6-2 CPUs.

My board says VER: A3 on the PCB and it originally came with BIOS A3.
The BIOS ID of A6 and A7 is different from the older versions for some reason so I had to use AWDFLASH /f, but as I said, everything seems to be OK.

Reply 4 of 4, by Chkcpu

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Great to hear the A7 BIOS works fine. 😀
I've send it to The Retro Web and it is now available on the Acorp 5VIA77 page as well.
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/acorp-5via77

Jan

CPU Identification utility
The Unofficial K6-2+ / K6-III+ page