Switching from AlphaBIOS to SRM on AlphaPC LX164

From: Emeric Maschino (emeric.maschino_at_jouy.inra.fr)
Date: 01/23/04

  • Next message: Chris Scheers: "HSZ50 problem" 
    Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 10:57:50 +0000 (UTC)

    Hi there,

    Well, title says all ;-)

    Currently, my system has AlphaBIOS v5.70 (last available for this
    motherboard). Problem is that the procedure described at
    http://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/Alpha/firmware/archive/alphapc164lx.html
    isn't working for me. When selecting "Update AlphaBIOS" from the menu,
    the diskette containing lx164_v5_8.exe renamed as fwupdate.exe (as
    explained) is loaded for roughly a minute, then the AlphaBIOS screen
    freezes indefinitely. The only way to access to this supposed SRM v5.8
    is starting with the fail-safe booter (by closing jumper CF7). After
    loading some time, I finally get a blue screen with a UPD> prompt and
    I'm asked to insert ROM option disks and hit Enter. As I don't know what
    this option ROM disks are, I hit Enter and the update process fails with
    a missing fw_nt file. When rebooting my system, I obviously still have
    AlphaBIOS, not SRM.

    Googling a lot, I found references to a lx164srm.rom file that I finally
    located in
    ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/Alpha/firmware/archive/alphapc164lx/
    Putting this file on a diskette and choosing "Update AlphaBIOS" updated
    AlphaBIOS v5.70 to SRM v5.6-3. Woohoo! Well, SRM v5.6-3 only and several
    of my devices need SRM v5.8. Furthermore, the database at
    http://moon.hanya-n.org/comp/alpha/hct/graphics.html clearly contains
    entries with AlphaPC 164LX motherboards having SRM v5.8-1. How did they
    do to load this SRM revision?

    Thanks a lot. 

    -- 
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  • Next message: Chris Scheers: "HSZ50 problem"

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