Aptiva 2170 / BIOS / boot from USB

[The Passer-by]

Hi happy folk...

Have APTIVA 2170-23G (ACER V75M-mobo; processor changed for K6-2+ 450
running at 560 (5x112) and happy too ;)

I haven't followed the Aptiva news for a long time. Hence pray bear
with a simple question (I could easily have asked a few more ...:)

Is there a flashable BIOS somewhere compatible with our MoBo, that
implements booting from a USB device - such as USB flash-disk or
memory stick ?

Thanks for any links/insights

[JK]

On 23 Jul 2003 07:48:53 -0700,

Post by The Passer-by
Hi happy folk...
Have APTIVA 2170-23G (ACER V75M-mobo; processor changed for K6-2+ 450
running at 560 (5x112) and happy too ;)
I haven't followed the Aptiva news for a long time. Hence pray bear
with a simple question (I could easily have asked a few more ...:)
Is there a flashable BIOS somewhere compatible with our MoBo, that
implements booting from a USB device - such as USB flash-disk or
memory stick ?

That was really a very demanding request.

The newest bios update is from november 2000.
http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/quickPath.do?quickPathEntry=2170-23g&quickPathEntry.x=12&quickPathEntry.y=13

Booting on usb devices is a very new thing. Possible with the newest
chipsets and motherboards available.

I do not think it is even possible with your old (Ali Aladdin ?)
chipset if one would make a pirate bios for the board. Further
modified bios's for these aptivas are not common.

Maybe you can just use booting from CD as another solution. That is
available in bios. Per example Nero can burn a bootable CD for you.

best regards

John

[The Passer-by]

Hi JK !

Post by JK
That was really a very demanding request.

I am afraid so ...

Post by JK
Booting on usb devices is a very new thing. Possible with the newest
chipsets and motherboards available.
I do not think it is even possible with your old (Ali Aladdin ?)
chipset if one would make a pirate bios for the board.

A new thing it is : hence original post. The chipset in this MoBo is
SiS 530/ 5595 BTW. It handles USB 1 very well, I can't see what would
prevent it working from a BIOS at boot-time : of course you're right
it would take a new BIOS. I seem to have the latest one from IBM. I am
aware the Mobo was made by ACER (V75M) and it was used in some ACER
"aspire" models I think, hence there is the faint possibility that
ACER, or other OEMs, have BIOSes newer than at IBM compatible with
this MoBo/chipset.

Does anyone have pointers to "hacked"/custom BIOS sites ?

Post by JK
Maybe you can just use booting from CD as another solution. That is
available in bios. Per example Nero can burn a bootable CD for you.

Yep I knew that. Not an answer to original post really but thanks :)