Retired product BIOS update

[Huffer]

About all I can see to do is to get a small cheap hard drive, stick it in the machine and put a bare Vista install on it. You can download a Vista installer for that purpose...put minimal drivers on it and just use it to flash the BIOS then put the old hard drive back in. Maybe you can even borrow a hard drive form someone or have one laying around the house. 

[Chris_Watson]

🙂 I only paid 50 bucks for this thing as a starter for my daughter and starting to regret it lol. However I went ahead and tried the update and it didnt kill the thing. In fact the whole point of all this was to get it to recognize 4GB of RAM. Initially it wouldnt boot up at all with both sticks in. It has now, however is only using 3GB I suppose.

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name WILLOW-PC
System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
System Model HP Pavilion dv6000 (RV220UA#ABA)
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T5300 @ 1.73GHz, 1733 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Hewlett-Packard F.2E, 3/22/2010
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514"
User Name Willow-PC\Willow
Time Zone Eastern Standard Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 2.99 GB
Available Physical Memory 309 MB
Total Virtual Memory 5.98 GB
Available Virtual Memory 3.27 GB
Page File Space 2.99 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

Dunno, making progress is better than where I was 2 hours ago haha. Thanks so far for the advice.

[Huffer]

We could have saved you the effort. 3 gigs is all the memory it will address. Chipset limitation of the hardware and not able to be improved. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

It's not a total waste.

Now the memory is running in DDR mode instead of SDR mode.

[Chris_Watson]

Oooh, I had read it could read more with the bios update, lol. Ah well, looks like its bottlenecking at the CPU now. So she might just have to deal with it. XD

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I think all the BIOS update did was to: Fixes issue where a "blue screen" error is generated if the notebook has two 2-GB memory modules installed. Modifies thermal control method to improve system stability.Modifies thermal control method to improve system stability. Modifies thermal control method to improve system stability.

In other words, if you had installed 2 x 2 GB without the BIOS update, the PC may have crashed from time to time.

It doesn't provide support for the notebook to 'see and use' all 4 GB.

That is pretty normal with any notebook with a Mobile Intel 945 chipset.  3 - 3.25 GB is usually the maximum memory that is available.

[Chris_Watson]

Oh, it wouldnt even let me boot up windows before the update. So, Ill take it haha. As I said though this is mostly just a starter laptop to see if she can take care of it, etc. Mostly for youtube and such. Thanks again.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.

[Zyrus72]

I have an HP mobo that that I am trying to get a bios update for so it will recognize my whole HD space of 3TB and possible overclocking. There are a few different names and numbers for this board so it's hard to know exactly what I have. One is HP IONA-GL8E 575765-001. Another is MS-761(Iona-GL8E) I hqve included the Belarc Advisor results that are rellivant. I'm sure the board is out of service and have been searching to find a bios update with discouraging results.. It's basically a board manufactured by MSI and the chipset is H57. So I found an update from MSI for H57 chipset that fixes everything I need. Problem is if it does not work I could kill my system.   https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/H57MED65.html#down-bios

Operating System Windows 7 Professional (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United States)
Installed: 3/10/2017 3:35:00 PM
Boot Mode: BIOS (Secure Boot not supported)

System Model Hewlett-Packard PPPPP-CCC#MMMMMMMM xxx0204GRxxxxxxxx0
Enclosure Type: DesktopMain Circuit Board b Board: IONA 1.0
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 5.11 01/28/2010Operating System Windows 7 Professional (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United States)
Installed: 3/10/2017 3:35:00 PM
Boot Mode: BIOS (Secure Boot not supported)Processor a 3.20 gigahertz Intel Core i5 650
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache
4096 kilobyte tertiary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Hyper-threaded (4 total)Bus Adapters Intel(R) ICH8R/ICH9R/ICH10R/DO SATA RAID Controller
Intel(R) 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 3B34
Intel(R) 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 3B3C

[mdklassen]

Zyrus72,

Welcome to the forum.

It would be best for you to post a new question, rather than adding your question to an "older" question.

Also, it would be best for you to NOT append your question to MULTIPLE old questions, i.e.,

both https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Software-and-How-To-Questions/Need-Bios-update/m-p/6055069

and this question: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/forums/replypage/board-id/Hardware/message-id/389403

Thank you.

P.S. What's the "vintage" of your motherboard? 

As you know, some older motherboards simply do not support a disk-drive larger than 2 Terabytes, and the manufacturer has "solved" that issue by producing a newer motherboard.