'Locked' BIOS

glynf

Hi,

I recently got an E8400 & installed it into an EVGA 680i M.board-part of an alienware 7500 desktop <18 months old.

I had to get the P32 BIOS update off alienware, as the EVGA P32 would not work-apparently the M.board is locked to alienware.
I have had two BSOD episodes lately, and it looks like a hardware problem-I left the BIOS Settings on auto as I am notbothered with overclocking.

Now as there is a P33 update, I want to see if this cures the problem first-and as my warranty period is over-I can't get it from a/ware.

Is it possibe to completley wipe the a/ware crap from this board so I can use the EVGA BIOS' & chipset drivers etc?

If I was to get a new SLI board for about E200-what would you recommend?

Thanks in advance.

PC specs:
EVGA 680i M.Board
E8400 stock
2 x GB RAM PC6400
2 x 8800 GTS 640Mb
1 Kw Coolermaster PSU
vista home premium

Anti

You will need a new bios chip to be able to do what you want. And thats only possible if you can remove the chip. Some motherboards allow this (gigabyte) in particular, as they are not soldered to the board. So the second option is to remove the chip from the board, and solder on a asus one.

As for a replacememnt motherboard the 780i is nice enough, if it dosent die because of dodgy heatpipes which make 0 contact. a 750i is quite nice too, and very cheap at this point.

glynf

Cheers Manties, If the copy of vista is OEM, does that mean its locked to the m.board?

Can you recommend any setup guides for BIOS settings? Not sure if I need to adjust any settings for the E8400=total newb at this..

(I am getting Blue Screen Error BCCode: 124)

Silenceisbliss

you cant just remove the CMOS battery and reset it can you???....i thought you could

Anti

It's an alienware board, so you cant install the asus bios over it. So above is the only option.

glynf

hmm..next upgrade decided then-anyone looking for a 680i?:)

Anti

stick it up on www.adverts.ie you can use your boards.ie account to log in.