VOGONS


First post, by mickeybat059

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Hello, everybody,
i recently resurrected an old...indeed very old laptop, more precisely a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo PI 1536 (circa 2006), to regenerate it and use it on basic tasks, since I currently do not own a Windows laptop but only a Macbook.
I have already installed an SSD, 2gb RAM ddr2 and installed 32-bit Tiny10, and I must say that this already doesn't go badly.

I have seen that the upgrades that can be made on this type of product are much more interesting, in fact you can replace everything: CPU, GPU, RAM and HDD/SSD or even Wi-Fi module.
This computer currently features a 32-bit Intel Core Duo T2400 (which constitutes a significant software limitation to date), but I have seen that it could be replaced with generation of more recent Core 2 Duo processors including the T7200, T7400 and T7600 which in addition to being more powerful they are 64 bit.
The GPU could be replaced but it is not worth doing at the moment due to the high costs (related to old age) of the GPUs, which are mounted on a particular PCI-e format, specifically MXM II; in any case there is currently an ATI Radeon X1400 (which damned me to find and run drivers on Windows)
I have currently increased the RAM to 2gb in ddr2 on a single bank at 667mhz, but hypothetically this too can be increased to 4gb max, divided into two channels.

Now, the point is that to further update the CPU and RAM, which is what I would like to do, I seem to have realized that I need to update the BIOS (which I currently believe is the factory original (1.07)) but I can't find it in no way way the file online.
Is there anyone who could point me to the file or where I could find it?
Clearly I'm looking for the latest version available, which should also be the easiest to find, which I think is 1.25.

Thank you for your attention and interest.
Have a nice day.

Reply 1 of 2, by AlexZ

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I used to own this laptop until it died from overheating and would no longer turn on. It was Intel Core Duo T2300, 1666 MHz and had 1GB DDR2-533. GPU was ATi Mobility Radeon X1400. I believe I still have the CPU in a drawer. It doesn't have any markings on it.

I don't think it is worth upgrading. Usually you can only upgrade CPU/GPU from the same year - if you have a mid-range hardware, you can get the top one. You could get Core Duo T2600 and Ati Mobility Radeon X1600. You can upgrade RAM but it will continue to run at the same frequency. These upgrades could work without BIOS update.

As for newer BIOS, I don't think you will find it.

Pentium III 900E,ECS P6BXT-A+,384MB,GeForce FX 5600, Voodoo 2,Yamaha SM718
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Reply 2 of 2, by mickeybat059

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Some users reported success flashing the Alienware BIOS (for example, version 1.19W from the m5790) on the Amilo Pi 1536 because they are based on the same Uniwill P53 barebone platform, to unlock better CPU support (Merom Core 2 Duo like T7200, T7400, T7600) and sometimes to enable full 4 GB RAM recognition.

The issue is that Fujitsu-Siemens’ official BIOS files are no longer hosted, but the Alienware ones can still be found on the Wayback Machine or through old archive links. Of course, this comes with a risk, since cross-flashing isn’t officially supported, but it’s one of the only practical ways to keep these laptops usable today.