afudos /pc syntax switch option? 1018 slow boot BIOS

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nomen Nescio
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Nomen Nescio

Started using the afudos flash utility with my new p4c800-e dlx MB. And
after several guesses, got the syntax of /i and /o correct. And these
are the only two switches given for this utility when it's run with no
arguments.

But downloaded the 1019.4 beta BIOS from the german asus site, and the
bios came with afudos in the zip file. And the text file that comes with
the archive has the following syntax:

AFUDOS usage: "afudos /i<filename> /pc" (e.g "afudos /i1014.rom /pc")

So the question is, what does the /pc switch do?? It's not documented
anywhere!

And damn I need a new bios, cause the 1018 BIOS seems real slow on
startup. WTF? Why does it just sit there for about 10 seconds after it
does it's little self-check? Geez, my intel board doesn't do that. When
I turn on a computer, I want it to complete its self-test real fast, and
then IMMEDIATELY bootstrap the target drive. Having the thing just sit
there for several seconds is totally unacceptable for a P4 system,
especially one with a 3.2GHz processor!

Another bug I discovered in 1018 BIOS is that even when you tell it to
disable the "Hit Del to enter BIOS setup", it still displays the message!
 
Nomen Nescio said:
Started using the afudos flash utility with my new p4c800-e dlx MB. And
after several guesses, got the syntax of /i and /o correct. And these
are the only two switches given for this utility when it's run with no
arguments.

But downloaded the 1019.4 beta BIOS from the german asus site, and the
bios came with afudos in the zip file. And the text file that comes with
the archive has the following syntax:

AFUDOS usage: "afudos /i<filename> /pc" (e.g "afudos /i1014.rom /pc")

So the question is, what does the /pc switch do?? It's not documented
anywhere!

And damn I need a new bios, cause the 1018 BIOS seems real slow on
startup. WTF? Why does it just sit there for about 10 seconds after it
does it's little self-check? Geez, my intel board doesn't do that. When
I turn on a computer, I want it to complete its self-test real fast, and
then IMMEDIATELY bootstrap the target drive. Having the thing just sit
there for several seconds is totally unacceptable for a P4 system,
especially one with a 3.2GHz processor!

Another bug I discovered in 1018 BIOS is that even when you tell it to
disable the "Hit Del to enter BIOS setup", it still displays the message!
Click to expand...

See page 6 for AFUDOS info - the p argument means program, and
the letters after the p, indicate just what to program -

http://www.ami.com/support/doc/AMIBIOS8_Flash_Recovery_Whitepaper_v10.pdf

The delay could be a fix to permit using Hitachi drives with
the motherboard. Check the BIOS release notes (the "More" links on
the download web page), to see what release of firmware includes
that fix, as releases after that one should be slower as well.
Eventually, I'm sure a BIOS release will come out with a better
workaround for the Hitachi drive.

HTH,
Paul
 
Nomen said:
Wow, thanks for the link. That's what I've been looking for!


Blech. I hate all things Hitachi! For me, the only drive is Seagate!
Click to expand...

What??? you don't like the deathstar drives?????

later models "seem" to work better. i have a 120 that is working more
reliably than the 2x80 western digital SATA raid drives. actually, one of
the WDs crapped out, but luckily the deathstar had an image on it that was
restored to the WDs after warranty replacement.

In todays cheaper is better corporate market, it's all a crap shoot.

S
 
What??? you don't like the deathstar drives?????

later models "seem" to work better. i have a 120 that is working more
reliably than the 2x80 western digital SATA raid drives. actually, one
of the WDs crapped out, but luckily the deathstar had an image on it
that was restored to the WDs after warranty replacement.

In todays cheaper is better corporate market, it's all a crap shoot.
Click to expand...

My experience with Hitachi drives started with the RMAing of the infamous
IBM 75GXP drive. RMAed 3 of those terrible drives. The first 2 times
they sent me the same model back (refurbed of course). And each time I
put them into service, they failed within 4 months. And it was during
this time that IBM sold their disk drive business to Hitachi.

Finally, the 3rd RMA resulted in receiving a Hitachi drive. Was much
larger too, so I felt like I was coming out ahead and the series of bad
drives were all behind me. How wrong I was. Two months into operation,
the Hitachi started to fail. First it developed a bearing whine. And
then it started to make the sound that might as well be a death rattle -
constant attempts to seek, combined with a system freeze while the disk
attempts to read data. This time I didn't bother doing the RMA route
again. Instead I took the thing apart and put my fingerprints all over
the shiny platters. Bent the heads and then threw the whole thing into
the trash. No more IBM, no more Hitachi, I will never buy or recommend
those drives to anybody!!!

Seem to have had great success with Seagate drives. Tried WD, but they
seem to get noisy over time, and other people report the same. Their
Raptor line seems attractive, but they are twice the money for a given
capacity vs. other brands. Tried Maxtor a few years ago, when they came
out with their Diamond series. Seemed like a slow drive, even though it
had nice specs. And from what I've read, they fail a lot. So I stay
clear from Maxtor. So again, Seagate is the only brand of drives I buy.
They are quiet, they are fast,and they are reliable.
 
Nomen said:
My experience with Hitachi drives started with the RMAing of the
infamous IBM 75GXP drive. RMAed 3 of those terrible drives. The
first 2 times they sent me the same model back (refurbed of course).
And each time I put them into service, they failed within 4 months.
And it was during this time that IBM sold their disk drive business
to Hitachi.

Finally, the 3rd RMA resulted in receiving a Hitachi drive. Was much
larger too, so I felt like I was coming out ahead and the series of
bad drives were all behind me. How wrong I was. Two months into
operation, the Hitachi started to fail. First it developed a bearing
whine. And then it started to make the sound that might as well be a
death rattle - constant attempts to seek, combined with a system
freeze while the disk attempts to read data. This time I didn't
bother doing the RMA route again. Instead I took the thing apart and
put my fingerprints all over the shiny platters. Bent the heads and
then threw the whole thing into the trash. No more IBM, no more
Hitachi, I will never buy or recommend those drives to anybody!!!

Seem to have had great success with Seagate drives. Tried WD, but
they seem to get noisy over time, and other people report the same.
Their Raptor line seems attractive, but they are twice the money for
a given capacity vs. other brands. Tried Maxtor a few years ago,
when they came out with their Diamond series. Seemed like a slow
drive, even though it had nice specs. And from what I've read, they
fail a lot. So I stay clear from Maxtor. So again, Seagate is the
only brand of drives I buy. They are quiet, they are fast,and they
are reliable.
Click to expand...

your milage may vary - i have had quite a few maxtors, wds, and now a
hitachi - and out of all of them, the wds have let me down the most. most
recently was a sata 80g wd in a raid 0 set. luckily i had a current image.

S
 
your milage may vary - i have had quite a few maxtors, wds, and now a
hitachi - and out of all of them, the wds have let me down the most. most
recently was a sata 80g wd in a raid 0 set. luckily i had a current
image.

S
Click to expand...

LOL, I am off Seagate at the moment, had one develop bad sectors after a few
months, and despite running chkdsk /f on the drives on many occasions WinXP
never found any bad sectors till after they failed, so I lost my RAID array.
Formatted the suspect drive with FAT 32 and ran a thorough scandisk over it
and errors were found immediately. Others I have spoken to tell me Seagates
aren't so great. Recently I had some flakyness with another Seagate (I
bought a pair for the RAID), but am not sure if it is the drive or XP
playing silly buggers, as it all seems fine now. Have changed it as my
system disk and am watching it very carefully.
It seems to me a brand is only as good as it's last model. I remember when
eveyone raved about the IBM's, because they had a particularly good model
(it escapes me now), then the 75GPX came along ;)

The best idea is buy a DVD writer and back up every day! ;-)
 
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