============================================================================ AST RESEARCH, INC. SOFTWARE BULLETIN # 0174K 1-24-96 ============================================================================ Bravo MS 486 and Premmia MX 486 Flash BIOS Update Production Release: 3.03 Available: January, 1996 Part Number Description File Name 905539-315 3.5" diskette 1 of 1 05539315.EXE This is an updated version of the Bravo MS and Premmia MX Flash BIOS image which supports both Bravo MS and Premmia MX systems. This diskette allows the user to easily upgrade the system BIOS by writing a new image of the system BIOS to the Bravo MS and Premmia MX's flash BIOS loader. File 05539315.EXE can be found on AST's BBS (817) 230-6850. 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 3.03 of the Bravo MS and Premmia MX BIOS Flash Combo Image supersedes all previous releases and provides the following problem resolutions and enhancements: Disabled the "byte merging" feature for the video memory. The "byte merging" feature caused WinNT with a 1024 x 768 VGA driver to hang at the password request box. Production Release: 3.02 Available: December, 1995 Release 3.02 of the Bravo MS and Premmia MX BIOS Flash Combo Image provides the following problem resolutions and enhancements: Fixed the mouse re-enabled problem after ISACU driver is loaded. Production Release: 3.01 Available: October, 1995 Release 3.01 of the Bravo MS and Premmia MX BIOS Flash Combo Image provides the following problem resolutions and enhancements: PROBLEMS RESOLVED Fixed the problem that causes a change of the built-in parallel port type from standard or enhanced to ECP mode to not be reflected through PnP until the next cold boot. Fixed the problem that can cause the system to halt with a 5Bh error code if two drives from different manufacturers are connected to the same IDE channel. Fixed the problem that can cause problems if any device other than the built-in secondary IDE controller is connected to IRQ 15. ENHANCEMENTS Modified APM to report the battery status as not present instead of unknown. Added support for Cyrix DX4 CPUs. Added the ability to set each of the built-in serial ports to COM1 through COM4. Production Release: 3.0 Available: July, 1995 This release provides the following problem resolutions and enhancements: PROBLEMS RESOLVED Fixed the problem that was causing IDE devices to not show up as connected to the IDE controllers under Windows 95. Fixed the problem that was causing the system to hang when APM, function C (video status) is called. Fixed the problem that would cause the system to hang if it failed the shadow memory test. Fixed the problem that was causing some IDE CD-ROM drives (PIO mode 3 or mode 4) to not work. Fixed the problem that was causing the system to not boot from a Seagate 1 GB drive if the drive was in spin down mode. Fixed the problem that was causing some option ROMs to generate POST code 5Bh errors. Fixed the problem that was causing PCI cards which request an interrupt to not function in certain PCI slots. Fixed the problem that caused any configuration changes made through ICU to not take effect on the next boot, if a non-boot P-n-P ISA card is installed. Fixed the problem that caused ECP parallel port devices to not work after a warm boot. Fixed the problem that caused IBM's FTTERM program to hang. Fixed the problem that caused PCI IDE cards to not work. ENHANCEMENTS Added support for PCI to PCI bridges. Added support to detect a corrupted PID. Added support to disable video power management if the integrated video is disabled. Added support for interrupt 15, functions E801h and E820h. Production Release: 2.07 Available: April, 1995 Release 2.07 of the Bravo MS and Premmia MX BIOS Flash Combo Image provides the following problem resolutions and enhancements: ENHANCEMENTS AST VirusShield is included in BIOS. AST VirusShield scans for boot sector viruses on floppy drive A:. Production Release: 2.06 Available: March, 1995 Release 2.06 of the Bravo MS and Premmia MX BIOS Flash Combo Image provides the following problem resolutions and enhancements: PROBLEMS RESOLVED Updated Video BIOS. Plug-n-Play bug fixes for Windows-95 LOGO requirements. Production Release: 2.05 Available: December, 1994 Release 2.05 of the Bravo MS and Premmia MX BIOS Flash Combo Image supersedes all previous releases and provides the following problem resolutions and enhancements: PROBLEMS RESOLVED Could not re-format 1.2M, 3.5" media as 1.44M. Format error with "Bad media or track 0, disk unusable" message. Affects systems built for Japan only. User defined types for hard drives did not function properly. Production Release: 2.04 Available: December, 1994 Release 2.04 of the Bravo MS and Premmia MX BIOS Flash Combo Image provides the following problem resolutions and enhancements: PROBLEMS RESOLVED Bus mastering is turned off on PCI bus upon warm boot, to prevent system from crashing, when there is a pending bus master operation. "Date" is no longer corrupted after "Time" is updated in system SETUP. Intel's PCLA8465 PCI Ethernet card and NCR's SCSI PCI card can co-exist. ENHANCEMENTS This BIOS is based on Intel's PnP r1.21 code. Parity SIMMs may be supported with proper flash PID. Three MODE Floppy drive may be supported with proper flash PID. Hard disk DMI functionality is added. APM runs properly on Windows 95. EBI call 0fch returns carry set when "read only ISA configuration" is set. Production Release: 2.03 Available: December, 1994 Release 2.03 of the Bravo MS and Premmia MX BIOS Flash Combo Image provides the following problem resolutions and enhancements: PROBLEMS RESOLVED System senses Color\Mono monitors correctly. Correct SIMM number is displayed if memory error is detected in P.O.S.T. Bravo MS hangs with TRAP 0000006d error after installing the first part of Windows NT 3.5. Production Release: 2.02 Available: December, 1994 Release 2.02 of the Bravo MS and Premmia MX BIOS Flash Combo Image provides the following problem resolutions and enhancements: PROBLEMS RESOLVED Add-in Plug & Play ISA compatible adapters are now recognized by ICU. In a P24C system w\ 64K cache, system is booted from floppy loading HIMEM.SYS. Fixed problem with hang upon warm boot (). ENHANCEMENTS Updated Cirrus 5434 Video BIOS 1.10c. Added support for Cyrix CPU SMM. This provides monitor power management for Cyrix CPUs that support SMM. Checksum of IDE Extended Drive Data table is now correct if system has any MODE 3 drives. Memory error message now displays SIMM number and exact location of error. NCR PCI SCSI hard drive Adapter ROM size is now correctly recognized and properly auto configured at power-up. Added improvements in Setup Text. Screen no longer rolls for a short period when monitor is shut-down to conserve power. Production Release: 2.01 Available: September, 1994 Release 2.01 of the Bravo MS and Premmia MX BIOS Flash Combo Image supersedes all previous releases and provides the following problem resolutions and enhancements: PROBLEMS RESOLVED Fixed floppy boot problem when riser card is removed. Production Release: 2.0 Available: September, 1994 Release 2.0 of the Bravo MS and Premmia MX BIOS Flash Combo Image provides the following problem resolutions and enhancements: PROBLEMS RESOLVED Fixed EBI call to clear Manufacturing CMOS at offset 14; this caused a message to appear upon re-boot which indicated that the configuration had been changed. Fixed AUTOSENSE not detecting the SONY IDE CD-ROM. Fixed the Cirrus Logic 5434 test board which produced a RAM test error beep code OPR-24786. Fixed system failing to access older IDE drives when booting from floppy and IDE CD-ROM AUTOSENSED (OPR # 25332). Fixed flip floppy A/B field in Setup which did not apply to add-in floppy controller cards (OPR-25330). Fixed If I/O ports are locked (via Setup), system returns with error at POST during AUTOSENSING ports. ENHANCEMENTS Added floppy FIFO support. For Administrator Security, Password options should be ["None","Enable"] instead of ["Disable","Enable"] to match help text and documentation materials (OPR-25316). Added support for CYRIX CPU in write back mode. Production Release: 1.03 Available: August, 1994 Release 1.03 of the Bravo MS and Premmia MX BIOS Flash Combo Image provides the following problem resolutions and enhancements: PROBLEMS RESOLVED Code added to prevent some systems from hanging on POST code 53h. Fixed failure to boot from device C if a secondary controller was set to add-in but no controller was installed. BIOS fixed to allow APM to be enabled if Windows is exited and then re- entered for a second time. Modified BIOS so that after the Adaptec 1540 SCSI controller has been added to the system via ICU, the POST will not generate a "12.34 The computer encountered an error during the resource auto configuration process" message. ENHANCEMENTS Added support to store CYRIX CPU ID in Vital Statistic Table. Code added to disable Energy Star if CYRIX 486 CPU is installed. The field "Monitor time-out" is removed from SETUP when CYRIX CPU is installed. Code added to disable monitor Blanking in security mode if CYRIX 486 CPU is installed. The field "Video Blanking" is removed from SETUP when CYRIX CPU is installed. UPBIOS.EXE is now able to update the flash device Added Write Back Cache support for Intel P24D CPU. BIOS modified to allow Local Serial Ports to get disabled if two add-in serial cards were added to system and addressed at 3F8h/3E8h or 2F8h/2E8h. BIOS modified for APMCTWIN test to pass. Also added undocumented function to return back to 1.0 APM functionality. Added support to AUTOSENSE IDE CD-ROM. Replaced "AST" with "A S T". Added Plug and Play Runtime services. Replaced the sub functions "Enable all cache but in the 15-16MB address range" and "Set to SETUP setting" in EBI function F3 SET_CACHE with "Enable all cache". Removed EBI Extended Function F6. No longer supported. Production Release: 1.01 Available: June, 1994 Release 1.01 of the Bravo MS and Premmia MX BIOS Flash Combo Image provides the following problem resolutions and enhancements: PROBLEMS RESOLVED Parallel has been reported as 3BCh by MSD.EXE when it was setup as 378h in System Setup BIOS displaying garbage if parity, I/O or bus error occurs. Can not boot from floppy when CMOS is bad and Setup is not. RAS pre charge timing is set for 2 clocks. L2 Write back cache timing is set for 3-2-2-2. version 1.00 of BIOS has 2-1-1-1 timing which causes some systems to hang. Drive is not set for MODE 3 after a warm boot, even though it was configured to MODE 3 after a cold boot or power-on. 1280x1024 Vertical Ref frequencies were not set correctly. Removed EBI function F3, SET_CACHE , AL=FF (Set to SETUP setting) No longer supported. Removed EBI Extended Function F6. No longer supported. Change allowed regions for PCI BIOS shadowing to exclude segment B000h. ENHANCEMENTS New VGA BIOS turns on pallete snooping feature. Added support for 1024 x 768 Monitor Vertical Ref Frequency (75hz). Production Release: 1.00 Available: June, 1994 This is the initial release of the Bravo MS And Premmia MX BIOS Flash Combo.