Leadtek Nforce Bios non ACPI compatible?

[druga runda]

OOH...

So here I am to post this. Some might remember that recently ~ 2 months ago I purchased Leadtek Twinforce 2, for cheap 150£... and it worked great at first...

However trying to squeeze some performance out of it i tried to enable APIC on the system... well it worked for a while, but crashed a few times, and I was not sure what it was... just a few random BSOD's.... and I went on holiday.

Now I am back, and to my horror 2 hrs after being on my PC (that was a few days ago) the PC crashed just from nowhere, and ever since I have the following problems.

1. BSOD says something on the line that my BIOS is not ACPI compatible after booting up.

2. Sometimes it goes trough to boot but eventually crashes after hour or two of work with random BSOD messages.

What I have suspected is that my APIC switch was making this happen, and after one crash when the OS didn't want to boot (that was maybe 4-5 crashes after which the PC still worked) I tried to switch back, which is just repairing Win 2000 without enabling APIC i thought... the thing refused saying the HDD is corrupt. Shock horror... using PartitionMagic boot disc, I examined it and critical error---- so I had to format the disc (not too much damage as the instalation was new anyway)... but it was good the disc was not permanently damaged.

So I reinstalled Win 2000... did the drivers, AMD agp patch... and all well for about 2 days of the PC being on.

Than... the same thing, BSOD saying the BIOS was not compatible, try updating it.

Doh... so I downloaded the BIOS, latest one 24-08-2002 (i think), and flashed it successfully, still no progress, sometimes it boots trough, and than random crashes as before.

I thought it might be my trusty old Crucial RAM, so I tried to test it with MEM86, and there was no error found on the memeory.

However now when I try to install win 2000, and repair... the instalation process reports a BSOD with BIOS not compatible, only when I press F4, to enable Standard HAL (as if I was installing APIC) the repair proicess goes trough, still no luck... nothing gets better. And now the PC doesn't want to boot anymore again. Stops at that incompatible BIOS BSOD while booting. It seems that HDD is ready for formatting, still I have no solution.

Have anyone any idea were there any problems with Nforce/Leadtek mobos, BIOSES and their APIC or ACPI compatibility, and solutions.

My system:

XP1600+
Leadtek Nforce 415 onboard LAN & Sound
Leadtek GF4Ti4200
WD 80GB jb HDD
Maxtor 40 GB HDD
256 MB Crucial Ram
Win 2000


just to note initially on ACPI I had 7 devices sharing IRQ 11, when I switched to APIC there was 4 on IRQ11 and 3 on IRQ12, unlike my expectations to have all devices allocated to a separate IRQ.

And maybe I am ready to complete the trilogy and try a VIA chipset now :eek:

Well if this doesn't work out... I was thinking of one of the EPOX boards.

[SavagePaladin]

First bit...you want a new BIOS, I'm relatively sure (for that chipset)

Second bit, in win2k you need APIC on 1.1 and to ACTUALLY CHANGE THE PIC DRIVER...

I just learned that myself.

Anyway, nforce still rocks.

[druga runda]

Originally posted by SavagePaladin
First bit...you want a new BIOS, I'm relatively sure (for that chipset)

Second bit, in win2k you need APIC on 1.1 and to ACTUALLY CHANGE THE PIC DRIVER...

I just learned that myself.

Anyway, nforce still rocks.

Like a new BIOS chip?
as I have already flashed the BIOS with the newest one.
If so... I should be able return the board to them, I hope.

And I didn't get the second bit... ;)

[SavagePaladin]

In system devices, win2k usually shows programmable interrupt controller instead of ADVANCED...yeah. So switch that driver. And it should be on 1.1 instead of 1.4 in the BIOS, unless you just disable it.

I assume Leadtek would have the option I speak of, I really don't know.

You already flashed it eh?
I don't know what to tell you then...since I thought I saw someone with the problem on nforcershq, but can't find the post.

By the way, the simplest thing to do is to just clear the BIOS and try again, but with APIC its really wierd I guess

[druga runda]

I guess I will be e-mailing them to return the board:(

When I try to install a fresh copy of Win 2K now, the setup cannot finish, I am thinking of trying to flash the bios back to older version (even though it worked for a while as well with the new BIOS too?? ) I get the post screen and all that, before I formated it got trough the black screen when Win2k starts and just after it, this non ACPI bios BSOD appeared every time, no matter what settings I changed in the BIOS.

After formatting, I was able to install a fresh version of Win2K last time, but this time it stops at 81% of loading the system files (it is not the CD as I have the backup copy and this happens... some BSOD comes (didn't write the wording down, but something...) and it tells me to check for the drivers installed or the bios on the manufacturer website... huh... I can just try another flash back to old version, but i do not hold a lot of hope...

I think I will complete my chipset trilogy... :D what else :confused:

[SavagePaladin]

maybe something overheating, or you have a funky power supply...other than that, you may as well return it. Or ask on nforcershq :(

I know my setup couldn't finish when my sys was overheating.

[druga runda]

Well case was opened the last time I run setup, last night, as I reset the BIOS once more just for kicks... and the PSU is 500W... doh...

??? I think this APIC/ACPI stuff screwed me up... the system still boots, but not even the setup wanted to run trough last night.

Perhaps a faulty BIOS chip in my case, or ??? no idea, ram shouldn't be as I tested it and it is good now and it was good for 1 year previously on the ECS board.

I think I better send them an e-mail and return the board if possible while I can still boot this thing up. :D

[SavagePaladin]

500W? Geebus that could be hot....
I dunno
CPU overheating is a general cause of wierd things though...

[LuckyNV]

I'm using the Twinforce2 setup,

my ACPI was enabled by default and my computer doesn't have the BSOD or crashing that you describe.

[SavagePaladin]

ACPI is always enabled by default...

and I may have been wrong about APIC, though the driver change bit probably isn't...

[Switch]

Originally posted by SavagePaladin
In system devices, win2k usually shows programmable interrupt controller instead of ADVANCED...yeah. So switch that driver. And it should be on 1.1 instead of 1.4 in the BIOS, unless you just disable it.

I assume Leadtek would have the option I speak of, I really don't know.

You already flashed it eh?
I don't know what to tell you then...since I thought I saw someone with the problem on nforcershq, but can't find the post.

By the way, the simplest thing to do is to just clear the BIOS and try again, but with APIC its really wierd I guess

Can you explain exactly why someone would want to change that? After your post I see that I am running APIC 1.4 and I don't have the advanced programmable interrupt controller, just as you say. Any information on this?

[SavagePaladin]

Originally posted by Switch
Can you explain exactly why someone would want to change that? After your post I see that I am running APIC 1.4 and I don't have the advanced programmable interrupt controller, just as you say. Any information on this?

Actually no. My system did a 180 on me and is working great with 1.4...though I still had switched the driver

I'm not going to give tech advice anymore, it ends up wierd.

But I would change the driver anyway

[LORD-eX-Bu]

What is ACPI?! heh.....:D

[SavagePaladin]

ACPI - advanced configuration and power interface
it makes sure your windoze knows what the PC actually has in it. Some don't like it because it makes the PC share IRQs on PCI stuff
It can be a performance problem on some machines.

I don't claim to know why...

[druga runda]

And I bought new Epox mobo... 8K3A+

and guess what...

I haven't formatted my HDD again... : AUCH: OOOOOHHHHHH.....

and I usually do that, but now as I thought it is not that important and I was too lazy to put it on the old working PC and format it again. Plus it was freshly reformatted anyway.


What a mistake!

What happened is nothing short of amazing to me... unfortunatley...

I have put the HDD in, loaded Win 2000 disc in the CD drive and started setup ... and to my suprise Win 2000 after a while comes again with that BIOS ACPI error... :eek: And I think WOOT... how come, so I reboot the PC and SHOCK HORROR...

---- explanation ----

For you that have Leadtek Nforce (and maybe it applies to all Nforces - no idea). There is a 1-2 seconds some introductory splash screen that appears. - the first thing that shows up, saying Leadtek... 064 MB Rom... the logo and the date in the top right corner... it lasts for 1-2 sec only, and than it goes to the Award Bios screen where it checks the memory, you see the PC stats, and can press DEL to go into BIOS.-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

And if you think: what about it?...

I have got this nice little EVIL screenie for 1-2 sec on my EPOX motherboard now... :( :eek: :( :mad: :mad: :(

And the Floppy is dead too... and I am lucky that the bastard still wants to boot a little at all... it gets to that ---- Verifying DMI pool data check.

And I checked the Leadtek board... and the Flash I did... was a misflash, on there the Old bios is still reported on that 1-2 sec screen, and than the date from the one that I flashed comes up with the second screen (the one with mem checks and the usual BIOS stuff). I haven't even noticed this before as my monitor most times fails to start so fast after a reboot... and I didn't pay attention to the date on that screen on the left or that little screenie at all before.

No matter what... it must have been that when I was enabling all the BIOS optioins on the Nforce to try to make a difference I must have cached this on the HDD somehow... and when I tried to Boot or run setup from the HDD on Epox... it got, jut that little bit, to my EPOX bios, and now I can't boot from Epox EITHER... ahhhhhh....

So... I am trying to get this EPOX to work now, and to flash that board... and... it can't find my floppy drive, OH...so I tried the CD Rom... and guess what... I managed to boot from my old Win 98 CD... get there... into dos, get on the CD, and xxxxx

and the DOS could not recognize my awdflash.exe file... it said "can't find the file" even though when you do"dir" the file is there, but no... said it wasnt... even with taking the CD out, making creating the file again, renaming it (on the other PC)... trying to open the zip on the CD (instead of copying it of the HDD on other PC), and nothing... DOS says file is not there... I did recognize the other files though.

So I gave up, and now, not even CD can be recognised...

What I think might save me is that the BIOS still recognises the HDD trought the Raid controller... it seems that it gets there as it reports no NTDRV (or something like that) for NTFS partition.

However I don't need NTFS, nor can Win 2000 instalation help me to flash the bios.
(if it can - advice is appreciated :D )
I need Win 98, or to boot to DOS somehow from the HDD...

Now I have cleared the HDD, and made three partitions, one of those a FAT 32 partition, I made the active one and the primary one, and I would like tot try to boot from there...

Anyone know how? As my old Win 98 disc is damaged it seems... when I tried to install it, it just stopped in the middle and crashed, ready for another reformat.

Any ideas of booting dos directly from the HDD in order to try and get this flash done and over with... I tried to copy the win 98 startup disc filed on the HDD but that doesn't boot from HDD just the floppy.

The last thing on my mind is a hotflash using the leadtek board. (I mean if Epox one is dead,... than I will give another try on the leadtek , as I think I can still load a floppy there, and flash it again), and as this leadtek boot thingy just crept into the epox bios maybe they are similar enough to get a good hot flash.. (on the leadtek) I read about some guy making a good hot flash on a different mobo :D with even a different BIOS chip but similar specs... when you get desperate...


So the current half dead setup... all from before but a Epox board... and how it starts up. is 1-2 sec Leadtek screenie, and than the Epox screenie for 0.5 sec, and than the Epox bios usual stuff.


Anyway.. the advice I need now is how to boot DOS directly from empty HDD?

What files I need, and where to find them, or maybe what and how to edit them if neccessary. I have a corrupt Win 98 disc, and a good Win 98 boot disc, a old PIII 800 PC that works, access to the internet on it, and two half-dead mobos... with more hope for the Leadtek than for EPOX now. :(

[druga runda]

Originally posted by LuckyNV
I'm using the Twinforce2 setup,

my ACPI was enabled by default and my computer doesn't have the BSOD or crashing that you describe.

Ah you are -Lucky-NV :D ...

nah, what screwed me up in the beginning is (it seems to me), me trying to switch to APIC... which is supposedly an advanced version of ACPI, and there is supposed to be no IRQ sharing with APCI, as opposed to ACPI.

And it did work for a while, apart from screwing my UT2003 Demo straight after the switch :D... it worked for a month or a bit more, but later on I did get one or two BSOD's , but the real trouble started recently after I got back from holiday.

[BMcGarvey]