Bios update for REALLY old system?

aPanzerIV

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Looking to put a beefier hard drive in an old system so I can test some stuff on it, but like really old systems (slot 1), there appears to be an 8gb limit.

I currently have a 7gb drive in an IBM Aptiva 2140-L5H.

I scrounged around and found a better cpu and more ram, it runs xp pretty well for how shitty it is (no achp or whatever mode, also because bios update).

I had a compaq deskpro EN500 that did this, it needed a bios update which i never got to.

for those interested:
Pentium II 333mhz (came with 233 pos)
Intel 440LX
256mb PC 100 (came with none)
7gb Fjuitsu HDD (came with none)
modified IDE cables, work great (came with none, just drill a hole where the 40th pin should be on 39 pin cables, it does nothing as far as i can tell)
ATI Mach64(in bios) Rage Pro AGP2x(on chip)
16x DVD-RW (came with none)
Windows XP SP3 (no ahcp or whatever)
This case is huge, ima do some epic mods on it.

back to the topic: IBM website got shut down when Lenovo bought them, so where do I find my bios and drivers?
 
You've put XP SP3 on it?!

I'm impressed that it runs, although I bet it lags a bit :D

Why should you be impressed that it runs? According to Microsoft the minimum requirements for XP are:


  • Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended)
  • At least 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM (128 MB is recommended)
  • At least 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available space on the hard disk
  • CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
  • Keyboard and a Microsoft Mouse or some other compatible pointing device
  • Video adapter and monitor with Super VGA (800 x 600)or higher resolution
  • Sound card
  • Speakers or headphones
The OP's system easily exceeds the hardware requirements.

Lenovo has support on their website for some Aptiva models but I don't see yours listed: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?LegacyDocID=MIGR-4HPLS4

You might try contacting Lenovo and ask them where you could find a BIOS update.

Good Luck.
 
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I havn't used it with the new cpu yet, but the old one took about 2 hours to install, another 30 minutes to format the drive, and you have to wait about 10 minutes after it starts before it loads some invisible crap and it actually is usable as long as you dont try to multitask(you know, like notepad and calculator, dunt work very well :p).

As a matter of fact, you cannot install XP on a 486, but if you upgrade it with an AMD 5x86, you can with all its 100mhz power :p

I messed around on the lenovo link you sent, and it appears they have quite a bit of support for their ISA modem:

lolwtf.jpg
Overkill much?

However they don't really have anything outside the modem drivers, no video, chipset, or even the bios update.

Wow lenovo did a crappy job with ibm.


Anyone find the bios on 3rd party websites?
 
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