HEL80 Bios??

Hi all,

From what i understand you can use a memron cpu in the hel80 with a bios update. I found a Dead link to this bios it was 104, there was newer ones but the links are broken.

I tried compal's site like in the faq's and the model is'nt listed. I tried everywhere with no luck

Can someone provide me a link to the latest stable bios with memron support?

Also. i am about to put my order in for a HEL80, i want to get a memron cpu with it.

Is this possible? because dont we have to 1st flash with a yomah cpu then install the memron?

Or

Can we flash it with the memron cpu install somehow??

If not then the only way to get memron on this laptop would be having to buy 2 cpu's? is that right?

I have been reading that sometimes the cpu is autodetected by the bios as something else in other cases. Does this happen with the HEL80 if so, can you then do a bios update from the bios?

Regards

 

If you really want Merom and haven't bought your laptop yet...just wait until Merom is widely available. The first shipment should be shipping out in a week or two; and the next shipment--which should be much larger, should be in by the end of September. If you can wait until then just buy the HEL80 with a Merom in it instead of wasting money on a second processor that you'll never use.

If you can't wait, I wouldn't worry about upgrading to Merom right away. Perhaps just use the Yonah for the life of the system. Chasing the newest technology is a very expensive proposition. And you don't always get a good return on your investment.

 

I can get the merom chip now, and the bios is avalible somewhere, so what do you mean wait?

Also i thought about what you said and if i can't find the bios i'l just get a yonah.

 

I could be wrong, but it's possible that the BIOS update is not yet available since COMPAL hasn't officially released it's Merom HEL80.

Are you sure that it does in fact need a BIOS upgrade though? A number of systems are simply drop-in compatible.

I meant wait since the Merom release is right around the corner. Even so, I would recommend against buying 2 processors.

 

There are bios's, there is even a tread on this site with someone that got it running, but no one asked for the bios update, maybe they already got them. intel took down the drivers for the asus s96j but someone had them.

So i could go for that notebook, but i like this one and there is bios's??


the tread is called:

"NEW test on HEL80 "

There is also a website that lists them, they are up to 107B i think. 104 has merom support.

 

The person who posted that was a reseller and has direct contact with Compal, I beleive it was justin at xotic. You can give those guys a shout and see what they say. Also Merom won't offically be released until August 30th and you will pay a premium for them until they are more avabile sometime late Sep.

 

http://www.bizcom-us.com/support/TechSupportDriversDownloadPage.htm#EL80

Here are BIOS files for hel80 and also latest drivers for video audio wireless etc. Just use with caution, and dont flash in windows by using accompanying Setup.exe, it killed my bios.

 

i've been to that site, that how i found out about the latest ones. The links are all dead for the HEL80.

 

I just want to give you adequate warning that the "newest" BIOS flash will not always give you the best results. The wrong BIOS flash can cause damage to your system.

The safest would be to get the HEL80 later in September when it would have a Merom already installed.

 

I have bios 102B. Are there any significant updates/fixes in newer versions or any reason I should update mine to a newer version?

 

2 things:

1. The link at Bizcom-us is now fixed.
2. If you can get a Merom now, it is either black or grey market and it will not have the Intel warranty...be very careful !

 

If you use a Merom with a HEL80 which doesn't have the right BIOS, will it still work? On some mainboards you can use an unsupported CPU and it just won't run at the right speed - does the HEL80 work like that, or will it damage the CPU and/or mainboard?

 

No, it will not work. It will not recognize the CPU and will not boot up. However the 107b BIOS is now available and certified. It will handle all current Merom processors.

 

Hi Donald. Certified by Powernotebooks as in this post?:

If so, any reason to upgrade to that bios other than to use merom?

off-topic: Anyone know the motherboard used on the Hel-80? Have looked around, haven't seen this info anywhere.

 

There is no reason to upgrade your BIOS other than for Merom compatibility.

 

Is using that utility safe?

I have a really odd PC Clock issue when running windows inside of linux and I cant use midi playback because of it, and its really annoying.

This might possibly fix it, but I just want to make sure using that utility is safe.

(I have lin and win dualbooting at the moment, so i could use win natively for that utility)

 

Flashing Instructions:

1. Plug the A/C power adapter into the notebook.
2. Download the BIOS file to a separate folder
3. Extract the .zip files to a bootable floppy disk.
4. Boot to the bootable floppy disk (USB floppy drive required).
5. Type “bios.bat” and wait until it finishes flashing.
6. Reboot

 

Yep,

if nothing's is wrong you should'nt attempt an update, unless you need new hardware support.

 

I agree. As Donald says: If it ain't broke...don't fix it. . In my opinion it's not worth the potential problems to flash your BIOS unless there's something you need changed/fixed.

 

Any links comparing the Yonah vs Merom?
Especially in power consumption (battery life)

 

Let me answer myself, this is a great review:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2808&p=1