8K5A2+ with latest HPT BIOS

[dpr]

Hi,

how safe is it to use a self modified BIOS with the latest HPT RAID BIOS ?

Is there any difference between the integrated RAID BIOS and the official one ? I mean are special modifications necessary to get it work ?

Thanks in advance !

[dpr]

@ET: if the information about my problem is confidential then please notify me about it ...

[EPoX Tech]

If the information were confidential I wouldn't be informing you

That is an untested combination, as such won't make it into any planned BIOS. Putting new HPT BIOS in takes an immense amount of testing - I don't think that we'll do that on a tried and tested platform given that it has stability and performance atm and the newer HPT BIOS offerings don't really offer a great deal more.

[dpr]

I didn't want you to inform me what exactly is confidential but IF the requested information is confidential. However - thanks for your answer !

So do the integrated BIOS versions differ from the official ones ? If it's not the case then it should be relatively safe to replace the HPT BIOS, shouldn't it ?

There're some changes in the newer revisions which are interesting ... especially the thing with the 48 Bit LBA compatibility. Is it safe to use two 160GB disks on my 8K5A2+ ?

v2.351 01/05/2004
* Add "use private stack" option in BIOS (to fix DOS6.22 booting fail)
* Fix 66M PCI support

v2.35 08/04/2003
* Add 302/302N support

v2.345 05/09/2003
* Fix compatibility issue with Intel SATA RAID BIOS
* Fix Windows "LDM configuration disk write error"

v2.344 04/11/2003
* Fix clock calculation
* Fix driver compatibility issue on SOYO SY-P4IP mainboard

v2.342 03/24/2003
* Fix HPT370A timing
* Add RAID 1.5 support

v2.34 10/17/2002
* Add HPT372N controller support
* Fix hptpro.sys compatibility issue with NIS2003 on FAT partition

v2.33 09/17/2002
* Fix 48bit LBA compatibility
* Add RocketMate support

[Gizmo]

As a matter of principle, an overclocker always assumes that something CAN be done. It's just a matter of how much effort you want to put into it.

I think what you are fishing for here is for ET to tell you that modding your 8K5A2+ BIOS with the latest HPT BIOS is OK.

ET will correct me if I'm wrong, but I doubt he's going to give you his blessing on this. As a representative of Epox, I'm doubting that he CAN. See, if he tells you that is something you can do, and then you muck up your board doing it, there's too much chance that you could complain to Epox "Well ET over at AOA told me I could do this". A bunch of bad feeling would be created all the way around, and ET would probably get in a heap of trouble. Not saying that you would do this, but best to not even go down that road.

Unfortunately, your question puts ET in a bit of a no-win situation: He can't give you the answer you want without putting his job in jeopardy.

Since I am not a representative of EPOX, I will take a stab at answering your question directly:

You can PROBABLY mod your BIOS and everything will PROBABLY work just fine. However, there are a number of variables, at least some of which I have no knowledge of, that could come into play and cause problems. I know that there are some who have successfully modded the 8RDA BIOS in different ways and it has worked just fine for one person and not another. I'm sure that if you mod your BIOS you will discover the same thing.



Sorry for putting words in your mouth, ET.

[dpr]

Originally Posted by gizmo

[...]I think what you are fishing for here is for ET to tell you that modding your 8K5A2+ BIOS with the latest HPT BIOS is OK.[...]

It would be nice if he could give me that answer. But I don't really expect that much.

An answer like "cannot work / most likely will not work because the HPT BIOS needs special modifications" or "this will most likely screw up your disks" ... would be much more informative.
Or the positive direction: "could be safe but without any guarantee".

Sorry ET - I didn't want to embarrass you !

However. I took the risk and flashed the BIOS chip with the self-modified version.
Everything went fine so far ... but it seems that I'll have to run some long term stability and performance tests before I'll fully trust the modification.

@gizmo: many thanks to you for your statement !

[Daniel ~]

NON-discloser requires that he say NOTHING. AOA requires that went he does say nothing we accept it without comment.

[dpr]

Originally Posted by Daniel ~

NON-discloser requires that he say NOTHING. AOA requires that went he does say nothing we accept it without comment.

I'm just wondering why he's not allowed to say "this information is classified" or "can't give you more information". This would perhaps animate some users to post their experiences.

On the other hand - I totally agree that the users shouldn't be allowed to argue with ET whether he should answer or not.

But we're getting a little off topic.

So - has anybody made some experiences with a newer HPT BIOS and the 8K5A2+ (or the 8K9A2+) ?

[Daniel ~]

Without comment.

[dpr]

Originally Posted by Daniel ~

Without comment.

Regarding both mentioned points ?