============================================================================ AST RESEARCH, INC. SOFTWARE BULLETIN # 0245A 3-6-96 ============================================================================ Ascentia 950N System BIOS-Japanese Version Production Release: 2.59 Available: December, 1995 Revision: A Part Number: Description File Name 905561-310 Diskette 1 of 1 05561310.EXE This is an update to the Ascentia 950N System BIOS-Japanese Version. File 05561310.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 For AST's world wide BBS numbers, see Technical Bulletin # 1500 (1500TB.TXT) on AST's BBS and other On-Line! forums. Release 2.59 contains the following problem resolutions and enhancements: Hard disk interrupt unmasked for zero volt resume. Audio dead after resume from SmartSleep. Fuel gauge empty when battery is fully charged. SCSI add-on cards not working. OS/2 Warp CD (docked) installation problem. Enable the cache RAM chip enable bit permanently. Re-enabled add-in video card detection. SmartSleep resume problem in Windows 95. Serial mouse not functional upon resume from SmartSleep. Correct 0V save and 0V resume routines for Super I/O. System reboots immediately without displaying the BIOS. Can not turn OFF the power from the docking station power switch. Production Release: 2.58 Available: October, 1995 Release 2.58 contains the following problem resolutions and enhancements: Support for Alliance SRAM. KBC support so Core can read port F. Turn MIDI port ON. Japan floppy drive performance problem. Fixed font expansion for various panel types. LPT port always disabled on resume. Changed COM_Power to use the state of the I/O chip instead of CMOS, since CMOS may not be accurate in a PnP environment. Added more steps between contrast adjustment increments for DSTN panels. Preserve registers within KBC_SMI routine to prevent pointer to data that is being sent to KBC from getting corrupted. Problem found when + to simulscan on a system with DSTN SVGA LCD panel. System hung when retry BIOS update n System Setup. Fuel gauge shows battery capacity empty incorrectly. Battery LED goes OFF when power is turned off with AC adapter plugged in. External keyboard hangs when is invoked on external keyboard during post. Software timeout problem in Windows 95. Font expand support and Font Expand field in Setup. Disabled screen expansion on 800x600 under DOS. Register values for CR4A were modified from a value of 5dh to a 58h for all Hitachi 800x600 DSTN panels to improve display quality. Adjusted low resolution timing parameter for 800x600 TFT. Panel burned when + to go from CRT to LCD panel. Keyboard and mouse malfunction when system resumes. Added PCMCIA card suspend notification. Re-enabled display switching (+). System hangs using Card Wizard upon resuming from suspend. Received "...system must be undocked..." error message when updating the BIOS in Setup and system was not docked at the time after ECN AK24. EZPort III serial port problem. System was hanging at end of POST if docked and SmartSleep was enabled. Fixed occasional General Protection Faults and Fatal Exceptions in Windows 95 while the system is idle. Removed the option to boot to docking station hard drive from "Boot Device" field in System Setup. NOTE: A. Windows 3.1 Video driver version 2.00 MUST be used together with this BIOS to have the above problem completely fixed. Failure to do so will cause the panel to burn as stated. B. Do not use Windows 3.1 Video driver versions that are older than 2.00 with this BIOS. Doing so will also burn the panel when + as described. Production Release: 2.57 Available: August, 1995 Release 2.57 contains the following problem resolutions and enhancements: Added BMC command to allow MFGDIAGS program to change the thermal warning limits. Added 10 more keys for the A950 password override kit. Removed the flush cache upon SMI bit. PM handles it now. PM added ISA/VL bus speed sensing code. So, memory timing and ISA bus clock divisor are adjusted accordingly in Flash. Cold and warm docking with EZ Port 3 and dock stations III and IV. Make sure power is turned off if we are docked to an EZ Port without AC attached. Aligned fuel gauge data on word boundary. Video timer not started after changing max battery option. Cleaned up unused flags and memory variables in PM. Added mode three and block mode transfer hard drive support in PM. Added IDE mode 3 support and multisector access support in CORE Fixed the floppy spindle speed problem to make it compatible with NEC PC systems. Fixed the floppy failure under Japanese Windows. Production Release: 2.55 Available: June, 1995 Release 2.55 contains the following problem resolutions and enhancements: PROBLEMS RESOLVED Adjusted Heuristics to a more suitable level. Fixed Panel blanking which was affecting heuristics. Fixed Zerovolt resume hanging with video OFF and floppy running. Fixed the contrast/brightness limit beep which did not work. ENHANCEMENTS Corrected SmartSleep help text in System Setup. Re-size update success dialog box to better fit the msg. Production Release: 2.54 Available: June, 1995 Revision: A This is an update to the Ascentia 950N System BIOS-Japanese Version. This release contains the following problem resolutions and enhancements: PROBLEMS RESOLVED Always notify PM if temperature is increasing. ENHANCEMENTS Added support for reading battery voltage and current for the A950LOG utility program. Production Release: 2.53 Available: June, 1995 Revision: A This is the initial release of the Ascentia 950N (Japanese version) system BIOS.