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AST RESEARCH, INC.         SOFTWARE BULLETIN # 0331          05/07/97

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TITLE:  Ascentia P Japan Flash BIOS, v1.03J
FILENAME(S) / PART NUMBER(S) / DESCRIPTION(S):
   05585035.EXE / 905585-035
   Ascentia P Japan Flash BIOS, v1.03J 

SUMMARY

   File 05585035.EXE contains version 1.03J of the Ascentia P Japan 
   system flash BIOS.
   
   This update applies to the following systems: 501996, 501997, and 
   503032.

   
RESOLUTIONS

   Version 1.03J contains the following problem resolutions:
      
   Assigned the unused Direct Memory Access (DMA) channel to the PCI 
   bus only when attached to the full docking station.
      
   Fixed the corrupted battery status.
      
   Resolved the issue where a PCMCIA card did not resume after 
   suspend when the unit was docked.
      
   Fixed the keyboard's embedded numeric keypad, which produced 
   numeric characters instead of the normal characters, when NumLock 
   was enabled on the external keypad.
      
   Fixed the issue where the system could not boot from the English 
   NT 4.0 CD-ROM disk.
      
   Prevented the system from entering Standby or Suspend while fully 
   docked.   


ENHANCEMENTS

   Version 1.03J contains the following enhancements:
      
   Resolved point enabler issues in DOS and Windows NT.
    
   Adjusted the brightness level.
      
   Added the full dock IDE PCI device support. 
      
   Accelerated booting while the internal floppy disk drive (FDD) is 
   disconnected, with the floppy drive installed in the Setup menu.   


PREVIOUS RELEASE(S)

   Previous releases included the following resolutions and 
   enhancements:
   
   Fixed CMOS checksum errors.
   
   Suspend hotkey became the power button.
   
   Could not resume from suspend using the hotkey when operating the 
   system. The current application disabled the interrupt.


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
   Prodigy:   JUMP: ASTSUPPORT

   * 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

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