BIOS Upgrade - Sanity Check

You will have to check the internet for sites the offer updates and if I am not mistaken flash bios are free to upgrade and I have did updates to my bios.Check these sites
www.drivers.com
www.johnshardware.com
www.c/net.com
Also check message boards in computer sites,some of them have forums that will give you the info and update to bios info.
Find a computer store with the bord and,see if the bios disks are for sale.

Very strange thing - as I read your note, I thought the numbers sounded familiar. I have a similar motherboard with an AWARD BIOS, v4.51 made in 1997 and running an Intel P233/MMX. I had no trouble getting it to see all of a Western Digital 13.6gig drive when I upgraded recently. Hmmm....
are you sure that LBA is enabled and you're not trying to use the CHS addressing mode?
It could be that BIOS release numbers are like sock sizes and don't really mean anything, but it IS curious.

Checking out the sites listed for a free BIOS upgrade is worthwhile but if it came down to spending $60 for a BIOS upgrade versus $80 for a whole new motherboard, I'd definitely go with the latter.

regards!

paul

When you flash an Award bios you are prompted to save your old bios so that if the flash doesn't work you can go back. You may be able to do a workaround by finding a manufacturer whose board uses the same chipset and has same physical characteristics (pci, isa, agp, cpu support, cache type) and flashing your board with the other v4.51 update. If it doesn't work you can always go back to your old configuration.

For a flash upgrade take a look at WINS BIOS site, http://www.ping.be/bios/
Another alternative may be to use a disk manager such as EZ-Drive (New name is DATA LIFEGUARD), check WD's site for this info,
http://www.westerndigital.com/service/ftp/drives.html
this should be a free download from WD.
Good luck,
Larry (QCM)