hi,

i am sorry, i cannot give you a definite answer.

There have been some improvements on INT13 handling in later bios versions. A load of other useful improvements, too.

Personally i would update the bios to the latest version.

There is a risk involved in flashing. A bad flash may render the machine useless.

That said, in my company we flash almost all machines. Sometimes we even downgrade. Thousands of bios flashes, not 1 problem.

We use the 'floppy' flash - always.

Hope this makes your choice easier.... good luck !

 

 

 

ok, well, not a definate answer but helpful nonetheless...any other input? running tally at [Flash Bios 1] [Don't flash 1]...lolz...just trying to avoid more work in the future

This is off-topic, the the 4 MB you're talking about isn't shared. The videocard has 4 MB dedicated memory (and can be expanded to 8MB).

There's always a (remote/slim) chance a bios flash goes wrong. If you're that concerned about a bios flash, try a pci ide card, but I'd just flash the bios. At least to A07, possibly to the latest (A10 I believe).

no, no other suggestions.. since you already have the 40 GB disk and the probability of a failed (floppy) bios flash is sooo low, personally i would flash the bios and see. (not A07 which you already downloaded, but the latest version)

Bios A07 will allow a later processor upgrade and I wouldn't bother to go higher.  A 40G drive ought to work.  Set ALL IDE drives (HDD and CDROM/CDRW/DVD) that you have to cable select (on BOTH IDE channels) NOT to master or slave.  Set ONLY the drives you have present (and all of those) to AUTO in the bios and set to NONE those you don't have.  Put the HDD you want to be mater on the endmost primary IDE cable connector furthest from the motherboard.  Reset the NVRAM and double check the bios and jumper settings.