============================================================================ AST RESEARCH, INC. SOFTWARE BULLETIN # 0170F 5-18-95 ============================================================================ ASCENTIA 900N FLASH BIOS UPDATE Part Number Description File Name 905528-317 3.5" diskette 1 of 1 05528317.EXE This is the Ascentia 900N Flash BIOS diskette. This diskette allows the user to easily upgrade the system BIOS by writing a new image of the system BIOS to the Ascentia 900N flash BIOS loader. File 05528317.EXE can be found on AST's BBS (817) 230-6850, in the "Systems" file area. AST's BBS supports modem speeds up to 28.8k bps. The above file will also be posted on: CompuServe Go ASTSUPPORT AST Worldwide Web Site http://www.ast.com Release 2.50 of the Ascentia 900N Flash BIOS provides the following problem resolutions and enhancements: PROBLEMS RESOLVED Fixed display OFF/ON when on CRT only panel was turned ON. Fixed Windows 32-bit disk access. ENHANCEMENTS Added PowerStation IV support. This does not support Plug-n-Play. Production Release: 2.02 Available: April, 1995 Release 2.02 of the Ascentia 900N Flash BIOS provides the following problem resolutions and enhancements: PROBLEMS RESOLVED Windows NT Floppy fix. This fix also requires use of the SET4N.COM utility. For further information on the SET4N.COM utility, see Technical Bulletin # 1128. Fix 75MHz CPU sign on message which some times shows up as 50MHz. ENHANCEMENTS Added changes for large IDE drive support. Added changes to make it more Microsoft-APM compatible. Enabled Ascentia 900N/910N notebooks to operate with the lid closed while docked to a PowerStation. Production Release: 2.01 Available: December, 1994 Release 2.01 of the Ascentia 900N Flash BIOS provides the following problem resolutions and enhancements: PROBLEMS RESOLVED: System hangs in Windows v. 3.1 with more than 16MB of RAM when system resources are below 40%. System hangs during PCMCIA network card test under SCO/Unix. System Setup causes system hang when PCMCIA cards are used in SCO/Unix or with point enablers. On Dual Scan STN panels the display dims when toggling between the LCD and the external monitor with no external monitor attached. Some Hitachi 10.3" DSTN panels display short horizontally moving lines on the screen. Sound Blaster 16 card in new PowerStation II causes hang during operation. Panel not being turned off when docked and lid is closed. Fuel gauge stays at maximum indefinitely. Speaker not disabled during cold boot if set to disabled in System Setup. Floppy disk change not occurring properly under DOS if disk cache is loaded and power management is enabled. Some NEC 9.5" TFT panels exhibit flicker. On some systems, keyboard/mouse dies when resuming using the lid switch. Adjusting the contrast by using the keys does not change the screen when TFT panels are used. ENHANCEMENTS Added another Contrast and Brightness field for new STN panels that do not work with the old STN Contrast/Brightness values. These panels require a broader range due to the variation among individual panels. Changed fuel gauge calculation to approach zero naturally at battery low, rather than jumping from 6% to 0%. System Setup: Password fields now stay highlighted during the entire period of creating or deleting their respective passwords. Support for Japanese 106 keyboard. If battery is low, force the fuel gauge display to display its minimum, to agree with the 0% battery remaining message. Changed value stored in save area for video region to a non-zero value to eliminate Venetian blind effect in Windows. Added (Core) Text for the pop-up exit dialog box in Setup. Made "Brightness/Contrast Increment" down-loadable to allow Power Management to download the parameters based on panel type used. The "Increment" can be changed without changing the KBC code. Make sure Hard disk drive is enabled and spun up when + toggles into turbo mode. On resume, if in turbo mode or AC is plugged in, enable and spin up the drive. Corrected calculation for setting the minutes field of the alarm time when the SmartSleep delay is used. The value for SmartSleep now equals one more than the number of hours to delay before hibernating, because a value of 1 already means to suspend immediately without delay. Fuel Gauge now reports the battery power remaining in percent instead of time. New Fuel Gauge and Help color (blue on white). Quick exit from System Setup using the ESC key. Production Release: 1.12 Available: October, 1994 Release 1.12 of the Ascentia 900N Flash BIOS provides the following problem resolutions and enhancements: PROBLEMS RESOLVED Keyboard hangs at DOS prompt in OS/2. Keyboard LEDs do not switch off when system is suspended. KBC code changed to switch off LEDs when system is suspended. Reduce potential for double characters because of long key bounce on keyboard, fixed by increasing debounce time to 20 msec. ENHANCEMENTS In 640x480x32K/64K the system would not reliably toggle to CRT only mode. Added new monitor detect algorithm for the video controller. Added code to support new Seagate 340 MB HDD. Production Release: 1.11 Available: September, 1994 Release 1.11 of the Ascentia 900N Flash BIOS provides the following problem resolutions and enhancements: PROBLEMS RESOLVED Fixed possible LCD panel damage when screen is blank. Fixed toggle display function (+). Fixed Setup problem not processing arrow keys after NumLock key is pressed. Fixed the mouse and keyboard hang problem after battery fails zero volt resume. Fixed the problem of (panel off) during + (fuel gauge) corrupting video. Fixed the problem of not being able to access the floppy drive under SCO UNIX. Fixed the problem of the mouse cursor disappearing when a hot key screen was brought up. Fixed the problem of occasional zerovolt hanging following keyboard re- download. ENHANCEMENTS Added speaker setting check. Added support for Lock Floppy feature in Setup. Added an additional reset and command to take FDC out of Power-On. Added lock floppy in Security menu and the inter-lock mechanism with Boot Device and floppy drive B. Added feature not to power manage the hard disk when on A/C power. Added flag for turning panel off during fuel gauge display. Added new DYNAMIC_MONITOR_DETECT routine. Added horizontal total register optimized value for new Hitachi 10.3" dual STN in panel ID table 2. Added 16-color virtual screen (panning) support. Vertical expansion is disabled in 50-line text mode. Production Release: 1.10 Available: August, 1994 PROBLEMS RESOLVED System hangs on zero volt resume (75mhz). Video is corrupted upon closing and opening the LCD panel in Windows, in simultaneous display mode, on a dual scan STN. System does not boot from floppy without hard drive installed. ENHANCEMENTS Added support for international keyboard. Added check (and turn on) for video blanking with hot keys. Turned off video chip after video state save to prevent LCD panel damage. Added indication of the CPU's speed in the Signon message. Production Release: 1.09 Available: July 1994 Release 1.09 of the Ascentia 900N Flash BIOS provides the following problem resolutions: PROBLEMS RESOLVED Zero Volt Resume failing with 500MB drives. Not creating partition greater than 23MB. Production Release: 1.08 Available: June 1994 Release 1.08 of the Ascentia 900N Flash BIOS provides the following enhancements and problem resolutions: PROBLEMS RESOLVED Rapid presses on lid switch causing low battery warnings. Failing MFGDIAGS mouse 1 test. Video corruption occurring during Resume from SmartSleep. Setup out of sync with KBC when user manually disables the password(s). ENHANCEMENTS Reinstate SmartSleep No Delay in Setup. Default Resume on Modem Ring and Resume on Schedule to Disable.