flashing bios old biostar

biostar board is a 6mcvg which all of a sudden is getting amli:acpi bios and either locks the machine up or shuts it down. really stange that this machine has been up and running for many years and using xp for almost 2 and now for whatever reason this error is happening.

have researched on the net till im blue in the face and it appears all hits end around the 2004 time frame. have done everything those hits tell me to try and still no luck so am trying the last option of updating the bios which most say didnt work anyway but is the last thing I can think of.

have downloaded from biostar the flasher utility but it contains no .txt file to see how to do. a utility function does come up but not able to enter anything to point it to the .bin file.

does anyone have a clue 1) how to maybe fix this acpi error and 2) how to access the .bin file to update the bios or 3) should i just trash this machine.

 

Alarm bells ringing in the back of my head. It does not sound like a good idea to be updating the bios. If the machine worked fine before then an update will not cure the problem and might make the matter worse.

I have no idea what your problem is, but it must have another cause. Is this a Windows error message you are getting or is it during POST. If you can you should give us the exact error you are seeing.

My first suspect would be the motherboard battery is on the way out and so your bios settings have been reset to default because the cmos was lost. Replace the battery and then look for any bios settings that are not correct, but before removing the battery you should go through the complete bios and make a written note of the current settings for every option, just in case this is not your problem and you have to restore them as they are now.

It could of course be any number of other things. Have you installed any new hardware, drivers or even apps recently? Tried disconnecting all non-essential hardware, especially CD drives. Tried a reinstall of Windows?

 

i totally agree with you on flashing the bios not something that normally is needed now a days. in the old days yes but not with current technology for the most part.

not a hardware problem or a cmos battery problem. is not happening when first booting. system comes up just fine but then at time it will go hours without locking up or shutting down but then all of a sudden pow locks up tighter a drum or just shuts down. am using a totally different hard drive and different memory modules also with a clean xp install. below is the only error that shows up in event viewer so am assuming based on searching with the below that it has to do with the acpi as you will see if you search on the below also. have run intense hdw diags including multiple memory testers and all come back fine and dandy. psu not overheating machine is nice and cool. got me whipped.

this is what the event viewer log says
"AMLI: ACPI BIOS is attempting to read from an illegal IO
port address (0xcfc), which lies in the 0xcf8 - 0xcff
protected address range. This could lead to system
instability. Please contact your system vendor for
technical assistance. "

 

arie

yep, had already done that part to let windows handle it.

not able to do the bios upgrade cuz biostars flasher utility doesnt seem to like xp even though have set compatibility mode to windows 98. wont let me do anything and like i said there is no text file for me to reference. i have the bin file but cant use it. this bios does not have an update function within the cmos function its a legacy board. i know its old but it was serving a function for this client. and why all of a sudden is this now coming into play when client has had the machine for 16 months and working just fine up to last week.

 

Try This I think you might be in for a new experience.

It can be a gamble to flash a BIOS from within the operating system using somebody's "flasher" utility. And, in my book that would even include Biostar. I prefer making a Dr.DOS boot disk coupled with the proper AWDFlash utility(assuming Award) and the extracted BIOS files.

You may also want to confirm that you didn't change any ACPI settings in the BIOS before you did your clean install. McTavish made a good suggestion re: writing down current settings. This can be especially helpful for those who may not be familiar with any advanced settings or potential options.

As a last suggestion, take a careful look at all of your capacitors. Although I think the KB article referenced above nails your problem, bad caps can mimic all kinds of wierd behavior.

Regards,

 

[SIZE= "5"]6MCVG ?[/SIZE]

I just tried to look up your motherboard and find an M6VCG thats a pretty old board but come up blank on 6MCVG. Can you let us know what the processor is and confirm the board along with a Revision # if applicable. Thanks.

 

rockster2u

i guess maybe i have a slight dislexia - should have been m6vcg biostar. heres the link - http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdownloads.asp?model=m6vcg

sorry.....

that was one of the m.s. articles i read plus a dozen or so other forums with the same error message but most stopped reporting anything in 2004. i guess they decided to buy new machines instead of trying to fix it. machine is old p3/667 but with half gig of memory and xp it still works pretty well.

 

This one interested me so here goes. First of all, I'm in total disagreement re: flashing or not flashing BIOS and old days vs current technology. While flashing is not for a beginner, there is a reason (or several) why motherboard manufacturers revise their BIOS. General rule of thumb is don't flash if all is well but don't dismiss a flash if all is not well. Research changes in revisions and specific reasons for them and then, if applicable - flash if necessary. Note: Biostar recommends using a DOS based flash using AWDFlash for this legacy board and specifically advises against their flasher utility.

Secondly, this is definately a hardware problem but it has a software twist. Your motherboard is APM v1.2 compliant and ACPI v1.0 compliant but XP (with a more advanced ACPI standard) is blocking the BIOS from reading a specifc IO address. In simple terms, your BIOS and its power management is engaged in a battle with XP and its power management. Your board's ACPI capabilities aren't up to snuff with XP's - thus the block and the resulting lockup or crash.

Sorting through the history you provided (very helpful by the way), this really isn't a machine that has been running well for a couple of years with no XP issues - its a new install after some hardware (and perhaps?) a few settings changes were made. We know its capable of running XP without problems based on the history but we need to approach it with some reservation because its quite possible that an inadvertent BIOS change was made along the way.

My suspicion is that you have ACPI enabled in the BIOS. Disabling it in the BIOS at this point in time will create more problems, however, you can try disabling ACPI in the control panel and you may get instant relief. If no go, you'll need to reinstall (clean install) XP with ACPI disabled in the BIOS. The only other option that may be available is flashing your BIOS (assuming a newer revision which corrects the problem can be found).

Hang in there - this is one of those "tough" issues caused by new stuff that doesn't play nice with old stuff. Keep us posted re: any potential relief and Good Luck.

 

Rockster2U

strange though how the machine was working for all this time up to just recently. i looked there is no acpi variable in the bios. i will look again but am sure i didnt see anything specifically saying acpi.

so are you saying to try to disable acpi in device manager ???

have some new machines in right now so have to put this one on the back burner for now but will be getting back to it. not anymore but back a couple 3 years ago i was upgrading even older machines to xp and so far none of those clients have called with issues so not really sure why this p3 decided to malfunction unless just part of the biostar boards.

thanks.

 

I can't guarantee anything but that's what I would try at this point. And, for a longer term fix, although it may be a PITA, I'd see what the current BIOS revision is and research what else may be available. You may need to hit the Biostar Taiwan site to find something as the US site was pretty sparse for this board.

I'll also assume your BIOS power settings are set for S1 and not S3. Again, don't change ACPI in the BIOS at this point (assuming there is a setting) as it will create havoc.

Regards,

 

rockster2u

glad you found their site a little lacking as i did. taiwans site that should be fun. yep, setting is s1. the last bios revision all it did was i believe add a cpu temp display on the splash screen and the machine already has that. so the bios is up to date as of 01 the last bin file. nothing sense that so my guess is they are not addressing anything anymore on this old board.