Compal BIOS upgrades - a simple HOWTO

He's booting from CD's, not USB. Thats why I've mentioned the drive letter.

 

Updates!

ok so heres what has happened for those of you who may be interested.

I burned all the files i downloaded onto a cd using Nero's "make a bootable CD" option. Then i booted to the CD, found the CD drive and the bios files, and executed the GL30_111.BAT file. This resulted in an immediate error pertaining to the the phlash16 utility (blue bios flashing background with red error message), which terminated the flash. Next, i went with pyro's advice and typed in the following: "phlash16 gl30_111.rom /x /mode=3 /pf=cmos" instead of the .bat file because my .bat file contained this: "phlash16 gl30_111.wph /x /mode=3 /pf=cmos". This little change sent me to the same blue backgrounded bios-flashing screen and the %completion bar for the bios update started to go from 0 to 100. Great, right? Wrong. Right when the bar got to 100% or so, i got another error message about not being able to locate a pheonix flash file or something like that, and the flashing stopped. I exited and rebooted, and then went into my bios to find that my bios version was still, not surprisingly, 103A instead of 111. I am concluding that this has something to do with the bios file itself, and not the Nero CD burning process since I did in fact boot to the CD successfully. Correct me if i'm wrong. So now, i've decided to postpone my bios experimentation as i have finals coming up and wouldn't want to screw up my computer. I will continue trying to flash my bios in a couple weeks.

Thanks to everyone who gave input, especially pyro!

 

Make sure you check the options for phlash16 and that it's not trying to make a backup of the previous BIOS. Are you trying to install the standard BIOS?

 

i wasn't aware that there was an option menu for phlash16, and i'm trying to install whatever is on biz-com's site, which to my understanding is the "standard" bios.

 

Your bios file is fine, you can use either the .rom or the .wph (or whatever it was) to update, I've tried both on my system. The options Pitabred was mentioning are those /stuff in the commands we have talked about using. In dos, those are like setting options for a program. None of the ones we talked about in private messages contain a backup feature, so you should be fine there..

 

sounds good. i'll try again after finals.... *keeps fingers crossed*

 

I keep forgettin' these kid's ain't never seen a command-line interface to their system, havin' to pass switches and such.

Why, back in my day, we used to set memory values and sound card addresses and all kinds of things, just to get programs working.

And we walked in the snow to the computer lab. Uphill. Both ways. Had to fend off polar bears with our bags of school books and such.

And I'm only 26 Hehehe.

 

Tech sure changes alot in 6 years i'm glad i didn't have to walk uphil both ways to the comp lab while stiff-arming those polar bears

 

Well, I'm 31. We had woolly mammoths instead. Luckily, we hadn't invented paper, so we were carrying rock walls inscribed with caveman symbols with which to hit the woolly mammoths.

 

Well, I'm not sure about polar bears... but I can contest for waves of penguins.. (yes, they nip hard!, tear your stuff they will!) Flightless stalky birds in mass are much like small children in mass

As for walking uphill both ways in the snow... well, the first campus at this college I went to we literally lived at the top of the mountain, and the college steeped down the side and of course the computer and engineering students had the building furthest down the mountain... Made for some fun times going down and back the some odd 6K steps when they were covered with ice... or more rock salt then needed (like walking on ball bearings). Even more fun was waking up in the morning and seeing all the parked cars in the parking lot sliding down the mountain..

 

Penguins are noble creatures! *edited by moderator*

 

LMAO! I can only imagine what Chris edited from your post

 

I am so glad to see that the moderators of this forum edit out profanity...the decorum here is civilized and mature and it is nice to see that it will stay that way.

 

I appreciate it too.. but I still have to wonder where that was going considering the topic =P

 

updates!

So with the help of a friend, i was finally able to get the flash to work. the problem was the BAT file. the code is: phlash16 GL30-111.wph /x /mode=3 /pf=cmos , but instead of "-" between the GL30 and 111, there should have been an underscore, so once that was figured out, everything worked!

Thanks for all your help guys!

 

Glad to hear you got it all sorted out!

 

O dear me, I forget what my inappropriate comment was..sorry!

 

ok i make my flash disk bootable.

I get a file named kernel on it..
I extract the new bios files on the flash drive.
I reboot and boot from the flash drive
And then i get a message ''FreeDos FAT Kernel_(the _ is blinking)'' and i cant do anything i can only press the power button to restart..

Am I doing anything wrong here?

i used the MBRTool to make my flashdrive bootable.
my flashdrive is a 128mb MP3 player

 

ReFIXeQ,
Please avoid cross-posting in the forums. It adds to clutter. I understand your frustration, but please refrain from posting the same question/topic in multiple areas of the forum.

Thanks.

 

Running 116B here just fine as can be... RMclock can finally control my display brightness!!

 

Nice to see confirmation of this new feature

 

Hi I just come across this forum and I think you guyz can lend me a hand. I'm greatly appreciated for any helps.

So here's my situation, I have a DL76 Compal Notebook, it comes with BIOS version 103A.

However, I run into trouble booting up USB devices. There was no option for me to boot from USB Devices so I thought I might want to upgrade my BIOS.

Unfortunately on the compal site, 103A is their latest driver for DL76.

So my question is: Can I upgrade to newest BIOS using other models' BIOS? such as the one 025A for vista? (Cuz i'm running vista)

Or am I dead stuck with 103A because Compal no longer make new BIOS for this model?


Plz help me, I really want to get my BIOS to regonize my USB devices so I can boot from it. Thanks

-Nam

 

No, you shouldn't upgrade to a BIOS for a different machine than what you've got. That's treading in very dangerous territory, almost certain to break your computer, because the BIOS is what makes your hardware work, and each BIOS is different for each machine. It does seem that Bizcom also thinks that 103A is the latest BIOS for your machine: http://www.bizcom-us.com/support/TechSupportDriversDownloadPage.htm#DL76

You should be able to hit F12 as your computer boots to choose the USB hard drive as the boot device, though. It only works if the USB device is plugged in as you power up your computer. It may also just be a limitation of the hardware. I don't know.

 

Thank You Pitabred for your quick reply.

I'll try with ur suggestion by plug in the usb before powerup my lappie.

If not then I guess it's time to shoot for a New model~

Thanks again, really apperciated!