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eMachines M5405 BIOS Message "For Evaluation Only, Not for Resale"

post #1 of 10
8/13/06 at 4:25pm
Thread Starter 
I am requesting your assistance in tracking down a BIOS problem in the eMachines M5405 portable. I have an M5405 that on boot displays the message "For Evaluation Only, Not For Resale" at the bottom left side of the first BIOS screen.

A number of other users have reported this same message. See the last several message at the bottom of the following page: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/arcm...hreadid=404101

The "Evaluation Only" BIOS message was also reported by "g-man" in his post dated 04-12-2005, 04:28 PM to Laptop Logic Forums. g-man's post also includes the informatoin from the SoSoftware Sandra report for his machine.

I have contacted eMachines tech support regarding this message and was told that no BIOS download was available for the M5405. eMachines corporate office essentially called me a liar and said that (1) the problem did not exist, and (2) if it did, it was because I had modified the BIOS.

I REALLY hate being called a liar. I will be sending a certified letter to both eMachines and AMI, but would like to gather as much information as possible from others who have experienced this same "For Evaluation Only" BIOS message.

If your M5405 displays this "For Evaluation Only" BIOS message, I request that you please download the free copy of SiSoftware's Sandra Lite, run the Mainboard analysis, and email me the results. My email for this little project is M5405@scac.us

You can download the free Sandra Lite version at http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/index.ht...264&langx=en&a

It seems that in the free version, you may need to copy the report generated in Sandra into a wordprocessing or text editor and save that to a file. I was unable to determine how to save the report directly in Sandra.

I will share the response from eMachines and AMI on this forum and will send a personal copy of the response to all who provide me with the results from their Sandra mainboard analysis.

The following is what Sanrda reported from my M5405:

System
Manufacturer : eMachines. Inc.
Model : M5400 Series
Version : 1ABXK020
Serial Number : N754B 000 23356
ID : 03000200-05000400-07000600-09000800

System Chassis
Manufacturer : Arima
Type : Notebook
Can be locked : No
Version : To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Serial Number : To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Asset Tag : To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Boot-up State : Safe
Power State : Safe
Thermal State : Safe
Security State : External Interface Locked-out

Mainboard
Manufacturer : Arima
MP Support : 1 Processor(s)
MPS Version : 1.40
Model : W720K8
Version : KBC Verision:41.06
Serial Number : To be filled by O.E.M.
System BIOS : 63-0100-000001-00101111-092304-SiS755

On-board Devices
To Be Filled By O.E.M. : Video Adapter (Enabled)

System Memory Controller
Location : Mainboard
Error Correction Capability : None
Number of Memory Slots : 2
Maximum Installable Memory : 8GB
BANK0 - DIMM0 : Manufacturer0 PartNum0 SerNum0 AssetTagNum0 DIMM Synchronous DDR-SDRAM 256MB/64 @ 333Mt/s
BANK1 - DIMM1 : Manufacturer1 PartNum1 SerNum1 AssetTagNum1 DIMM Synchronous DDR-SDRAM 256MB/64 @ 333Mt/s

Chipset 1
Model : Arima Computer Co SiS760 Athlon 64 CPU to PCI Bridge
Bus(es) : ISA AGP PCI PCMCIA CardBus USB i2c/SMBus
Version : 1.02
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 800MHz (1600MHz data rate)
In/Out Width : 16-bit / 16-bit
IO Queue Depth : 8 request(s)

Chipset 1 Hub Interface
Type : MUTOL
Width : 16-bit
Full Duplex : No
Multiplier : 2/1x

Logical/Chipset 1 Memory Banks
Memory Controller in Processor : Yes
Power Save Mode : No
Fixed Hole Present : No

Chipset 2
Model : Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Athlon 64 / Opteron HyperTransport Technology Configuration
Bus(es) : ISA AGP PCI PCMCIA CardBus USB i2c/SMBus
Version : 1.02
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 800MHz (1600MHz data rate)
Maximum FSB Speed / Max Memory Speed : 2x 1000MHz / 2x 200MHz
In/Out Width : 16-bit / 16-bit
IO Queue Depth : 8 request(s)

Chipset 2 Hub Interface
Type : HyperTransport
Version : 1.02
In/Out Width : 16-bit / 16-bit
Speed : 2x 800MHz (1600MHz data rate)

Logical/Chipset 2 Memory Banks
Bank 0 : 128MB DDR-SDRAM 2.5-3-3-7 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR1
Bank 1 : 128MB DDR-SDRAM 2.5-3-3-7 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR1
Bank 2 : 128MB DDR-SDRAM 2.5-3-3-7 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR1
Bank 3 : 128MB DDR-SDRAM 2.5-3-3-7 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR1
Channels : 1
Speed : 2x 159MHz (318MHz data rate)
Multiplier : 1/10x
Width : 64-bit
Memory Controller in Processor : Yes
Cores per Memory Controller : 1 Unit(s)
Refresh Rate : 7.80µs
Power Save Mode : No
Fixed Hole Present : No

AGP Bus(es) on Hub 1
Version : 3.00
Speed : 8x
Fast-Writes Enabled : No
Isochronous Mode Enabled : No
Addressing Enabled : 32-bit

PCI Bus(es) on Hub 1
Version : 2.10
Number of Bridges : 1
PCI Bus 0 : PCI (1/1x PCIClk)

LPC Hub Controller 1
Model : Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) SiS PCI to ISA Bridge (LPC Bridge)
ACPI Power Management Enabled : Yes
Multiplier : 1/4x

USB Controller 1
Model : Arima Computer Co SiS5597/8 Universal Serial Bus Controller
Version : 1.00
Interface : OHCI
Channels : 3
Supported Speed(s) : Low (1.5Mbps) Full (12Mbps)
Legacy Emulation Enabled : No

USB Controller 2
Model : Arima Computer Co SiS5597/8 Universal Serial Bus Controller
Version : 1.00
Interface : OHCI
Channels : 3
Supported Speed(s) : Low (1.5Mbps) Full (12Mbps)
Legacy Emulation Enabled : No

USB Controller 3
Model : Arima Computer Co SiS7002 USB 2.0 Enhanced Controller
Version : 2.00
Specification : 1.00
Interface : EHCI
Channels : 6
Companion Controllers : 2
Supported Speed(s) : Low (1.5Mbps) Full (12Mbps) High (480Mbps)
Addressing Support : 32-bit
Legacy Emulation Enabled : No

CardBus/PCMCIA Controller 1
Model : ENE Technology Inc CB-1410 CardBus Controller

System SMBus Controller 1
Model : SiS 5595 Internal SMBus
Advanced TCO Mode Enabled : No
Slave Device Enabled : No
PEC Support : No

Expansion Slot(s)
AGP : AGP-4x 32-bit +3.3V Shared PME Half-Length Used
PCI1 (1h) : PCI 32-bit +3.3V Shared PME Half-Length Available (Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) Virtual PCI to PCI Bridge)




Any assistance would be most appreciated...

Regards,
George

George J. Santa Cruz, PhD
CISSP, CISM, CHS-IV, NSA-IAM, CEECS
Cell: 504-621-3131
Fax: 503-212-0530
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post #2 of 10
8/13/06 at 5:50pm
http://www.laptoplogic.com/forums/sh...e=hybrid&t=405
http://www.notebookforums.com/thread50980.html

interesting subject, may be some "intern" help from ex-eMachines guru?

cheers ...
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post #3 of 10
8/13/06 at 8:16pm
Maybe I'm missing the obvious here, but if the bios doesn't expire, aside from the guy insulting you, so what? If you want to prove it to him, get Winphlash for your version, do a bios backup, and either do a hex stringsearch or use an editor similar to the Phoenix Biosedit to pop out the strings.
I mean, okay, it sucks to have some idiot call you a liar, but keeping in mind the famous idiots-calling-smarter-people-liars algorithm, I think you're rehashing the redundant.
Fact is that the bioses from Arima that these AMD 64-bit based laptops run is extremely limited to the point that that is exactly what I'd call them: Evaluation copies only. I'd pony up for one that was full-featured if they didn't want an arm and a leg.
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post #4 of 10
8/13/06 at 10:30pm
Thread Starter 

"Not for Resale" = Unlicensed Copy of BIOS

Thank you for your response -- however -- and please don't take this as insulting, but I believe you do miss the point. eMachines apparently sold a number of M5405 portable computers with what I interpret as an unlicensed copy of the AMI BIOS. I don't see this as any different than buying a computer that comes with Windows XP, only to find that there is no license for the operating system.

Now while this may not matter to a lot of folks, I am a CISSP and am required to conform to a specified set of ethics, which includes using only licensed copies of software products.

At this point, I know of two computer with this "Not for Resale" BIOS. They are serial numbers N754B 000 60112 and Serial Number : N754B 000 60112. Please note that the serial numbers on these two machines are not exactly consecutive... so it would appear that eMachines produce a possibly significant number of computers with these "Not for Resale" copies of the BIOS.

I do appreciate your suggestion on off-loading the BIOS and extracting the information from the file. I will definitely do that. Thanks!

Regards,
George
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post #5 of 10
8/13/06 at 10:34pm
Thread Starter 

Typo on Serial Numbers

Oooops!

Those two serial numbers should have been:

N754B 000 60112
and
N754B 000 23356

Sorry about that!

George
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post #6 of 10
8/13/06 at 11:26pm
Well that does raise an interesting philosophical point whether bios, which is machine firmware, and necessarily loaded on the machine out of the factory, could equate to unlicensed software, although I don't think it does. My own take on it is that that particular message was a string left in by mistake or as a prank by the Arima programmer(s) who tweaked the AMI bios. I've personally never seen or heard of a similar scenario.
However, it certainly is thorough of you to try to ascertain its origin. And it's a fact also that firmware is not free, and that aftermarket firmware can be very costly.
However, it is also a fact that eMachines and all other (Wintel) computer manufacturers provide free bios updates as a matter of course, similar to Microsoft providing free patches. I think computer manufacturers regard that as a service cost hit that they have to absorb, which is possibly why they don't turn out very many updates for a version.
Many of us have installed Arima bios flavors other than those strictly designed for eMachines, such as the Targa, which address several bugs in the original firmware; and there is absolutely no ethical issue involved, as these are freely downloadable. Just the fear of bricking.
And on that note, here is a free (with registration) site which carries tons of firmware updates, tweaks, hacks, etc.
http://www.bios-drivers.com/
On yet another note, I recommended the Winphlash for you, but I don't recall offhand if Ami uses a GUI updater, but I'd reckon certainly not that one. However, it would still be simple enough to use whatever tool to back it up to disk or a floppy the old-fashioned way, going the standard boot floppy route.

p.s. on a final note, I see you list being from Slidell. How're things holding up down there, a year later?
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post #7 of 10
8/14/06 at 12:44am
Thread Starter 

eMachines tech Support says no BIOS update available

Have emailed eMachines Tech Support. Their response is that no BIOS update is available for the M5405. That was my first thought but no luck.

Have been unable to locate any BIOS download for the Arima W720K8 KBC mainbaord. Email to Arima has so far gone unanswered. Do not know what other computers are based on this board. No luck with Google search.

Regards,
George
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post #8 of 10
8/14/06 at 2:02am
this is a wierd problem, one that i never saw before i left eMachines

i dont know if there were any other manufacturers that released machines of that model, aside from eMachines. I dont think Arima made it very long, just sort of an experimental value machine using the same case as the M5xxx (which then likely got completely discontinued because of the heating problems with the M5300s)
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post #9 of 10
8/25/06 at 3:48am
Call the corporate office at 801-401-1199 and ask to speak to Don Clark. If anyone will help you at Gateway/Emachines it will be him.
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post #10 of 10
8/25/06 at 4:00am
usually that message is related to older engineering sample CPU's
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