M6805 Bios SP2 Questions & concerns

http://www.rmecc.com/~v2/em/index.html

Any BIOS besides the 0f02.p00 will work. The ones with the battery meter problem are the ones that start in "NS". All others work fine. I personally currently use the Gateway BIOS. That site (thanks to VIP2) also has very good instructions on the procedure.

...just curious...

..I was going to post a thread on flashing bios, but since the "storm warden" is active here, I'll ask now:

[1] Is flashing bios done to affect GPU's only, or ??

[2] Flashing is for improving what, frame rates or ??

[3] Flashing seems similar to over clocking, or is it??

[4] Is flashing for all PC's, or does it depend on OS, hardware, software etc?

[5] Is Notebookforums>Gateway/Emachines Support [peer to peer] the correct local for all tech related "Q's"? [I noticed some redirects recently on "General Discussion forum, like this one].

Appreciate all the help!
DialUp

1. BIOS flashing is done to basically alter the "instructions" the mainboard uses. Updates can change many different areas of the board. Different updates are used to address different issues. With the nonexistent support eMachines/Gateway has decided to give on the machines' BIOSes (even when there is a known problem like the 0f02.p00), we are unclear of some of the changes implemented in the different BIOS versions. They can do anything from simply add or remove a few options in the BIOS setup area, to completely reprogram how the machine operates. Most changes are minor however.

2. Kinda back to question one, the BIOS updates are in no way tied specifically to the GPU. They are typically used to make a more stable machine. Most BIOS updates are atually directed and altering certain instruction to the mainboard chipset.

3. Not at all. Flashing is changing the lowest level instructions on the machine. That is why it can potentially be destructive. A failed BIOS flash will make your machine a paper weight unless you can acquire another BIOS chip to replace the bad one in the machine.

4. Flashing is for pretty much any motherboard. It is completely independent of the OS. It just so happens there is a utility to flash our BIOS from within Windows. Most must be done through some type of DOS shell.

5. Yes. It doesn't really matter much to me where it goes though. I was just moving some stuff to try and clean it up a bit. It really just kinda made more of a mess with the redirects in there now. I will remove the redirects soon.

Thanks Thunder [lottsa info]. I wont be mess'n anytime soon with flashing. Sounds like its for the experienced tweaker.

re: re-directs, I like to see sites organized. Organiztion of forum topics helps users to locate info quicker.
Thanks for this.

DialUp

I got a question:

It seems if the gateway bios is stripped down, is there a way I can extract the bios and edit it, thus unlocking all the features? I have a AMI bios on my desktops and I used a utility called amibcp to unlock all the hidden features.

Is there a way to do this to our phionex/awards?

Any BIOS can be hacked. I personally wouldn't want to unless there was something I really needed changed, but it can be done. You run a very high risk of rendering the computer unbootable when you go in and start changing the binaries.

Heh - figures. Finally had the time to help some people trying to upgrade to SP2 on these systems over the weekend and ran into issues. I would not have thought of the BIOS being the SP2 issue (failure to start and locking up on shutdown). I am glad I thought to look here before I wasted too much time on the problem following eMachines guidance.

Tech Support at eMachines leaves something to be desired, they should have been able to quickly diagnose the problem - especially since I gave them all the information needed. Instead thier reply is that Microsoft has addressed these issues... And all links on thier site take you to Microsoft. Have they gone so cheap that they can't even support issues specific to thier own hardware? I can't even find downloads on thier site. Not to mention any useful FAQs or troubleshooting info. I'm glad this site is around not to mention the fact I really think waiting for a Sager was the right move...nothing wrong with these notebooks - just the supporting company.

Which Bios is Best for the Upgrade

First, this thread has been very helpful to figuring out why my windows xp sp2 upgrade failed on my emachines m6805. Thanks.

I am ready to do the bios update but I am uncertain as to which BIOS is the best choice for the upgrade. So would you suggest: the Gateway BIOS 52.00.01 or one of the emachines bioses like the one for the M6809 (0F05.P00) or M6811 (0F07.P00).

Thanks

mesaverde

6805 BIOS upgrade success/SP2 Success

This morning I bit the bullet and upgraded my 6805 0F02.P00 BIOS to 0F07.P00 (6811). Using WinPhlash it worked like a charm. I had been having the usual problems with SP2 (painfully slow shutdown, hibernation lock up) with the old BIOS and SP2. The 6811 BIOS did the trick. No worries. SP2 works like it should now, no problems with the shutdown or hibernation, volume button works fine, everything is fine. Recommend it highly.
BTW, last week I called eMachines tech support to discuss the SP2 upgrade problem. The guy refused to admit that the SP2 issue was a large scale problem or even that it involved the BIOS. Their standard line is that "it is a Microsoft problem, not an eMachines problem." I told the dude that was not a attitude that will endear the company to its customers. He told me that the warranty will be voided once I flash the BIOS. So, keep the backup BIOS in case you need to re-flash it to send it to the pinheads at eMachines for warranty work. Keep smiling.......

zenstox

You are braver than I. I flashed mine to the 0F05.P00. I then used my 6805 for a couple of days with no apparent problem. Then I updated winxp to winxp sp2. My experience is much like yours. I haven't had any of the problems associated with an xp sp2 upgrade on 6805 machines with the 0F02.P00 bios.

Now the question is:

Is there any advantage to upgrading to an even newer bios?

Finally, it is frustrating that eMachines won't provide this basic and fundamental level of support. I really like my 6805 for its performance for the money but their failure to support us with an os upgrade as fundamental as sp2 is .... well ridiculous!

I met the same problem in update to sp2, I have to update the bios too. When I checked the link in the http://www.rmecc.com/~v2/em/index.html, found that the winphlash was a bios update software for desktop not for laptop. I want to make sure that is ok? Thank you!

Daniel

you can relax. works fine on laptops. i have flashed most of the bioses on that website to my M6805. i am currently using the M6811 bios (the latest there) with no problems.

Alot of people there don't really understand whats causing the actual problem, to them it sounds like its a software issue (which it does because it's such an odd behavior). The actual core cause of it is DEP (and I have at my desk the instructions for disabling DEP in the boot files, allows the machine to run fine for the most part, still a little slowness on boot though) interacting with ACPI. Those of us here that do understand what has been going on have been frantically trying to get Gateway R&D to get a BIOS update, and it's all ready now so I found out a couple days ago and now they're trying to decide the best way of distributing it (they want to avoid WinPhlash because of some side-effects WinPhlash can have).

Most of the people there don't have a background in computers. They learn it in training and as they go and can handle all the normal problems fine, but when it comes to trickier problems they're not sure how to handle it. We're not all perfect, even me. There have been on occasion things that have baffled me ("page cannot be displayed" with SSL connections STILL baffles me and in my opinion the customer relations manager with the most technical knowledge because you can do EVERYTHING documented by microsoft to solve it and STILL have the problem). The difference is really the type of person you're dealing with, whether they'll just accept some things as fact, or whether they'll dedicate themselves to trying to find out the solution. I am the second, because I have a background in computers (extensive background). And I can honestly say I've discovered and distributed solutions to a handful of problems that were previously unsolvable because they were so strange and hard to understand.

Thank you, Brib3! Have a nice Christmas!

I used it too on my 6805. No problem.

What is DEP?

Data Execution Prevention

It is basically a hardware virii protection. It does not allow programs to write directly to certain memory areas. This should all but stop memory resident virii from being able to get into a DEP enabled system. An unfortunate side effect is poorly written software causes errors with DEP on.