===================================================================== AST RESEARCH, INC. SOFTWARE BULLETIN # 0199 09/17/96 ===================================================================== TITLE: Ascentia 910N Flash BIOS, v.2.50 FILENAME(S) / PART NUMBER(S) / DESCRIPTION(S): 05549035.EXE / 905549-035 Ascentia 910N Flash BIOS v2.50 SUMMARY File 05549035.EXE contains version 2.50 of the Ascentia 910N system flash BIOS. This update applies to all the Ascentia 910N systems. RESOLUTIONS Fixed the keys to display OFF/ON. Fixed the wrong system message that was displayed when an Ascentia 910N/75 was attached to a PowerStation. Fixed the dual scan STN external color monitor corruption. Fixed 1024x768x256 color Non-Interlaced resolution and external monitor corruption. Allowed lid on the Ascentia 9XXN to be closed when docked to a PowerStation. Fixed missing floppy drive under Windows NT. ENHANCEMENTS Added support for ProStation (no Plug-and-Play). Added delay to video for panel power-up corruption. PREVIOUS RELEASE(S) System was unable to resume after low battery suspend. Contrast was not restored properly on a zero volt resume. Contrast adjustment for STN panel did not work correctly. System did not zero volt suspend/resume on hard drives larger than 528 MB. Video corruption existed on external CRT after FG, Setup, Help with Dual STN color. DOS only showed 11KB of upper memory. System hung at POST 34h when CMOS is corrupted. did not always switch the display to the external monitor. There was white raster on some external monitors when in LCD only mode. Setup caused system hang when PCMCIA cards were used in SCO/Unix or with point enablers. On Dual Scan STN panels, the display would dim when toggling between the LCD and the external monitor with no external monitor attached. Some Hitachi 10.3" DSTN panels displayed short horizontally moving lines on the screen. SoundBlaster 16 card in new dock caused hang during operation. Floppy disk change did not occur properly under DOS if disk cache was loaded and power management was enabled. Panel was not turned OFF when docked and lid was closed. Speaker were not disabled during cold boot if set to disabled in System Setup. Some NEC 9.5" TFT panels exhibit flicker. Previous releases contained the following enhancements: Added acceleration to the contrast/brightness adjustment auto-repeat. Added routines to write the contrast to the BMC, and to restore its value, for use during suspend and panel-off operations. Added code to disable panel bias prior to disabling video inter-face signals and power. Set the contrast setting to zero before turning off the panel to prevent any voltage being sent to the panel, and restore the contrast setting when turning on the panel. Changed fuel gauge calculation due to battery threshold adjustment in BMC release 1.02. Added changes from Microsoft trip to make APM compatible. Properly show BMC as de'zzed when it is. Support for IDE hard disk drives that are larger the 528 MB. Converted the BIOS to use the entire 256 KB ROM, not just the top 128KB. In Setup: Switched to default page before copying the Flash Loader from ROM to RAM in FLASH BIOS routine. Added cold dock detection for docking station III. Added support for Shutdown Byte status 0Ch (needed for new flash). Added round up/down logic to fuel gauge calculation. Changed fuel gauge calculation to approach zero naturally at battery low, rather than jumping from 6% to 0%. Added a command to clear the SMI buffer to support new flash routine from Setup. Flash routine in System Setup now lets the user update the BIOS without leaving Setup and recycling the power. Removed Characterize Battery field from System Setup. changed to . changed to . System Setup: Password field now stays highlighted during the entire period of creating or deleting the password. Supports for both Japanese 106 and 101/102 keyboard. Added another Contrast and Brightness field for new STN panels that did not work with the old STN Contrast/Brightness values. These panels require a broader range due to the variation among individual panels. NOTES N/A For information on installing this update, please view the README.TXT file that accompanies the update. You can download this file from the following services: AST WWW Site: http://www.ast.com AST On-Line! BBS*: See IB0001.TXT CompuServe: GO: ASTFORUM * Refer to IB0001.TXT for a list of AST's international BBS numbers. To decompress this file, create a temporary directory on your hard drive, copy the downloaded file to that directory, and run the file. TAN N/A --------------------------------------------------------------------- The information in this data sheet is subject to change without notice. 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