Asus P4s533-vl Sony Rx-991

[Bradock]

I Have a Sony RX-991 3.06GHZ System with 1GB of Memory, Radeon 9800Pro, SB Audigy2, 250GB HDD. I am trying to find out how to update the bios on this system. Sony has (as far as I can tell) modified the bios to remove the standard bios. I have checked on the Asus site and they Have numerous MBs listed, P4S533-E,-MX,-VM and -X. When I checked my MB using 3rd party software it comes up as P4S533-VL!! Can I safely update the bios and chipsets to the standard bios and enable all of the functions which are now blocked?? My intention here is to have the ability to utilize the full bios functions and the ability to O.C. my system when I'm ready to. Your input is appreciated.

 

[cursor]

I don't think this board will work with the 3.06 as it's not hyper-threading enabled. The HT and other differences in the core may freak out the BIOS and cause odd studd to happen. I recommend you get another board or another chip.

 

[Bradock]

According to the Sony box and literature it does have hyperthreading enabled. How can I confirm it actually is enabled?

 

[cursor]

AH. I must have been on speed when I read your post the first time. Sorry. I didn't get that this is an Asus board in a Sony PC.

I have always wondered if you can flash a bios from a motherboard like yours and get it back to the Asus BIOS, rather than the OEM's BIOS. I don't know. Interesting that yours supports HT. My board must be an earlier iteration of yours. I'd not try to flash the bios unless you're prepared to kill your board. It would likely do that, you know.

You should be able to confirm that HT is enabled in the BIOS. It'll probably be somewhere around the memory settings in there.

 

[JKeefe]

Interesting question. I'm guessing very few if any people know the answer.

Are you willing to potentially kill your board? Everything else should be fine but there is, of course, considerable risk to the board.

Any chance the Sony system is still under warranty?

 

[Bradock]

What I would like to do is flash the bios to the original bios from asus and then upgrade it to the newest from Asus. In addition to this I am unsure whether the Sony software which came with the system would still recoignize the board (or if it needs to) to operate properly. At this stage I do not mind getting a new main board if that is what I need to do to get the system up to speed; flashing the bios would be easier though.
Thanks for your input ,
Bradd

 

[JKeefe]

Of course just flashing the BIOS would be easier, but nobody's sure if it would work.

If you're willing to get a new board in order overclock, I'm guessing that it would be an acceptable loss if you killed the current one trying this flashing procedure out.

If that is the case, by all means, go ahead, and please let us know the results. Also, if you don't want to risk your board that is completely understandable.


You bring up an interesting point about hardware - software compatibility. I know my Dell-packaged version of Win98SE will only install on my Dell; I wonder if is detecting the BIOS or something else on the motherboard. If I had to guess I would say it's the BIOS.