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AST RESEARCH, INC.         SOFTWARE BULLETIN # 0337          05/13/97

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TITLE:  Ascentia P 503XXX Japan BIOS, v2.03J
FILENAME(S) / PART NUMBER(S) / DESCRIPTION(S):
   05596033.EXE / 905596-033
   Ascentia P 503XXX Japan BIOS, v2.03J 

SUMMARY

   File 05596033.EXE contains version 2.03J of the Ascentia P 503XXX 
   system flash BIOS for Japan systems. This update applies to the 
   following systems: 503039 and 503041.

   
RESOLUTIONS

   Version 2.03J contains the following 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 2.03J 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) 
   disconnected, with the floppy drive installed in the Setup menu.   


PREVIOUS RELEASE(S)

   Previous releases included the following resolutions and 
   enhancements:
   
   Fixed the stuck key which sometimes appeared when the HIMEM or 
   EMM386 was hooked.
   
   Changed the default to non-expand and LPT mode to bi-directional.
   
   Changed the contrast and brightness with no repeating function 
   for functional consistancy.
      
   Changed the act parameters to enable the brust event for the 
   MPIIX A2 chip.


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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