Laptop Won't Recognize more than 8.4GB HDD

[dencorso]

And you can use the freeware CMOSSave/CMOSRest to automate the resetting of the CMOS contents. It's much faster than reentering them by hand.

BTW, going back to what I said about the CMOS battery discharging when the PC is unplugged, and losing its settings -- does that count as a reset, or only if I initiate the process?

Sure. The point is it's lost the configuration it should have and returned to the default.

The main purpose of the CMOSSave/CMOSRest is to obviate the need of having to enter them all again by hand.

It's fast and clean: you configure the CMOS once by hand, the save with CMOSSave the already configured contents of the CMOS to a floppy or the HDD and then, after the CMOS forgets, just use CMOSRest to put them back, all at once, from the saved file.

[jaclaz]

That's amazing -- to find such a site. I've tried using the Wayback Machine a few times over the years, with mixed success.

To find the site is nothing (for a finder ), the problem is finding the actual file (or at least a filename), sitre is here, but I don't have the time to check all the links (and I am not saying that going through them you may be able to find something useful ):

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.dwt.co.kr/computer/support/download/driver/*

Here is some info:

http://note.pe.kr/mainhtml/kijung/daewoo_cn530.html

http://translate.google.it/translate?hl=it&sl=ko&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fnote.pe.kr%2Fmainhtml%2Fkijung%2Fdaewoo_cn530.html

There is some loose talk about 5314 and 5316 BIOS.

Possibly back to Wim's BIOS:

http://www.wimsbios.com/forum/topic1027.html

maybe rainbow kept a copy somewhere of the 5320.zip and NO, the actual .zip is NOT cached in the Wayback Machine:

http://web.archive.org/web/20020626092916/http://www.dwt.co.kr/computer/support/download/driver/body.asp?num=190&name=%b5%a5%bd%ba%c5%a9%c5%be+PC+/+BIOS

You may also try contacting this guy here:

http://revision3.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30365

maybe he has it.

jaclaz

Edited June 21, 2010 by jaclaz

[rloew]

rloew,

Thanks very much for the instructions, and for the info on BOOTMAN. I went on your website, and you have a variety of neat tools. PATCHMEM sounds particularly exciting, but the proper thing to do is to contact you privately.

Before I try the Debug instructions, I have a question. You may have read on this thread that the CMOS battery is failing, and loses its charge (and the BIOS settings along with it) if I leave the computer unplugged for more than a couple of minutes. Then I have to go in and manually re-enter the values I had chosen. (It keeps defaulting back to disabled floppy booting.) Would that count as a reset, or should I still go ahead and perform the Debug procedure that you described?

One more question. If we determine that LBA is not supported on this computer, should I perform this Debug procedure to reset the BIOS, anyway?

--JorgeA

If the settings are lost when you unplug the Laptop, it is the same as resetting the CMOS. You will not need to use Debug.

Make sure that the Hard Disk settings Type and Mode are set to AUTO or LBA. Do not use USER, NORMAL, or LARGE.

I would be surprised that a BIOS of that vintage would not support LBA but I have seen stranger.

Try running my 48BITLBA.EXE Program. You can get a Copy from the Demo of my High Capacity Disk Patch Pasckage.

[Multibooter]

Hmmm, the report from the utility seems clear enough that must be one of those "strange" BIOS.

Since I am using the same BIOS in my old Dell laptops, maybe postings 28-34 about the annoying disk geometry error contain some relevant ideas.

[JorgeA]

dencorso,

Good, that’s what I thought. Gives me hope that I can figure out this stuff.

That CMOSSave/CMOSRest combo sounds very handy. I’ll put it on both of my Win98 machines.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

rloew,

Thanks for the additional details.

Let me see if I understand the purpose of 48BITLBA.EXE: It’s to check whether the BIOS does support LBA?

And then, if it does support LBA, then there’ll be no need to look for a BIOS update?

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

jaclaz,

That was a neat piece of investigative work you did there, to find these pages!

Thank you very much for the links, although I see what you mean about the loose translation from Korean. (Machine translation is not a threat to my business, except among customers who actually think that MT is a viable alternative.) I especially liked the line warning the reader that, “you will overload your a*s down to 133.”

The talk about the BIOS update seems to focus mainly on Y2K and serial port issues, so maybe the update wouldn’t help us anyway. What's your impression?

Edit: I found this. See section 8C on page 42. Does it shed any light on the issue?

Found this also. If it shows up correctly on your screen, you'll see nine listings for the 430TX chipset, which is what my notebook has. Does it help?

Then there's this. Search for "addressing" and you'll find references to LBA on pages 11 and 28. Hope this helps -- you're much better qualified than I to tell whether it does help.

Finally, there is this page which appears to offer driver downloads (but I don't read Korean).

I’ll follow up on the thread from the Wimsbios forum and see if anything turns up.

--JorgeA

Edited June 22, 2010 by JorgeA

[rloew]

rloew,

Thanks for the additional details.

Let me see if I understand the purpose of 48BITLBA.EXE: It’s to check whether the BIOS does support LBA?

And then, if it does support LBA, then there’ll be no need to look for a BIOS update?

--JorgeA

It will determine if your BIOS supports LBA and show the Drive size reported by the BIOS.

Run the test and post the result.

[jaclaz]

On the pages you found there are (among other drivers that may be useful) the 5314:

http://www.lucoms.co.kr/service/down.asp?filename=5314.zip

and the 5316:

http://www.lucoms.co.kr/service/down.asp?filename=BIOS%20V.5316.zip

BIOSes, besides a (possibly updated) PFLASH utility:

http://www.lucoms.co.kr/service/down.asp?filename=Phdisk(4).zip

But I seem like NOT being able to find the 5320 update.

The links to PDF, unless I am mistaken, lead to nowhere, they are both about "standard" desktop motherboards and their content may (but more likely completetely fails to) apply to your CN530.

jaclaz

[JorgeA]

It will determine if your BIOS supports LBA and show the Drive size reported by the BIOS.

Run the test and post the result.

rloew,

I ran 48BITLBA.EXE in DOS by shutting down, then rebooting to a floppy. Here's what it returned:

Drive 1: 8.4GB = 16513875 Sectors Not 48-Bit Disk

Efforts by jaclaz and me to find a suitable BIOS update haven't turned up anything. If I understand the issue, we still have the choice of either running drive overlay software or (as Mijzelf and dencorso discussed) partitioning the disk off another PC -- or, have the alternatives narrowed down further?

Thanks for kindly offering the tool for download.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

On the pages you found there are (among other drivers that may be useful) the 5314:

http://www.lucoms.co.kr/service/down.asp?filename=5314.zip

and the 5316:

http://www.lucoms.co.kr/service/down.asp?filename=BIOS%20V.5316.zip

BIOSes, besides a (possibly updated) PFLASH utility:

http://www.lucoms.co.kr/service/down.asp?filename=Phdisk(4).zip

But I seem like NOT being able to find the 5320 update.

The links to PDF, unless I am mistaken, lead to nowhere, they are both about "standard" desktop motherboards and their content may (but more likely completetely fails to) apply to your CN530.

jaclaz

jaclaz,

Too bad. I didn't have any luck either.

Looks like we are at a dead end down this particular route, what do you think? Considering the severity of the risks involved in flashing the BIOS, I'm not sure that I'd want to use something "blindly" from a site where I can't read the descriptions.

Edit: One question about the BIOS Setup. It includes an option called "Large Disk Access Mode," under which I can select either "DOS" or "Other." The default value is DOS. Is it worth a try to change it to "Other"?

--JorgeA

Edited June 22, 2010 by JorgeA

[rloew]

It will determine if your BIOS supports LBA and show the Drive size reported by the BIOS.

Run the test and post the result.

rloew,

I ran 48BITLBA.EXE in DOS by shutting down, then rebooting to a floppy. Here's what it returned:

Drive 1: 8.4GB = 16513875 Sectors Not 48-Bit Disk

Efforts by jaclaz and me to find a suitable BIOS update haven't turned up anything. If I understand the issue, we still have the choice of either running drive overlay software or (as Mijzelf and dencorso discussed) partitioning the disk off another PC -- or, have the alternatives narrowed down further?

Thanks for kindly offering the tool for download.

--JorgeA

You definitely have LBA. In fact, it is reporting slightly more than the CHS limit.

Make absolutely sure that you do not have a jumper on the drive that is limiting it's reported size.

I have attached a test program. Run it from a DOS Floppy, save the results and post it.

Edited June 22, 2010 by rloew

[JorgeA]

You definitely have LBA. In fact, it is reporting slightly more than the CHS limit.

Make absolutely sure that you do not have a jumper on the drive that is limiting it's reported size.

I have attached a test program. Run it from a DOS Floppy, save the results and post it.

rloew,

Thanks very much for TEST0.EXE. I downloaded the program, took it to the Win98SE notebook via USB thumb drive, copied it onto a floppy, then exited Windows using the "Restart in MS-DOS Mode" option, and then ran the program. I'm attaching a text file of the output.

What does the program do?

Further info: I didn't notice any jumpers on the HDD when I installed it, nor does the drive that I took out for replacement have any. As it was the first time I'd ever done anything like this, I was careful to inspect everything to make sure that, for example, all the pins matched all the holes and also that the pin arrangement on the new drive matched that of the old one. But I'll crack open the case if necessary.

--JorgeA

TEST0RPT.TXT

[rloew]

You definitely have LBA. In fact, it is reporting slightly more than the CHS limit.

Make absolutely sure that you do not have a jumper on the drive that is limiting it's reported size.

I have attached a test program. Run it from a DOS Floppy, save the results and post it.

rloew,

Thanks very much for TEST0.EXE. I downloaded the program, took it to the Win98SE notebook via USB thumb drive, copied it onto a floppy, then exited Windows using the "Restart in MS-DOS Mode" option, and then ran the program. I'm attaching a text file of the output.

What does the program do?

Further info: I didn't notice any jumpers on the HDD when I installed it, nor does the drive that I took out for replacement have any. As it was the first time I'd ever done anything like this, I was careful to inspect everything to make sure that, for example, all the pins matched all the holes and also that the pin arrangement on the new drive matched that of the old one. But I'll crack open the case if necessary.

--JorgeA

The program displays the Disk's information Table. It shows the true size of your Hard Drive.

Using standard Geometry, you can use 1836 Cylinders in a Partitioner such as my RFDISK Program.

I have attached another test program to see if you need the BOOTMAN Overlay.

Edited June 23, 2010 by rloew

[jaclaz]

Flashing a BIOS is not that much risky, though I wouldn't do it if - since you have the battery completely down - with the PC NOT connected to an UPS.

Both the BIOS updates found seem allright, point is that we actually still don't know WHICH BIOS version you have currently.

It is likely that you ALREADY have the 5316, you could use the PHFLASH utility to save your current one and check it against the two downloaded files.

There is a reference to a 5317 file on a Korean board:

http://translate.google.it/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fboard.nbinside.com%2Fnb_board%2Fzboard.php%3Fid%3Ddaewoo%26page%3D30%26page_num%3D25%26select_arrange%3Dheadnum%26desc%3D%26sn%3Doff%26ss%3Don%26sc%3Don%26su%3Doff%26keyword%3D%26category%3D%26no%3D5948&sl=ko&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8

Download:

http://board.nbinside.com/nb_board/data/data1/gallery/daewoo/2006/5317.alz

Since it uses the stoopid .alz format, I created a more conventional. zip, which is attached.

About using an overlay - notwithstanding the exceptionally good quality of anything coded by rloew , it remains an overlay, and if there is ANY other possibility I would try that one first as you will never know when (mind you NOT if)something will create a conflict or a problem with it.

Re-check the drive.

Post exact model/number of the drive, we may be able to find some info.

jaclaz

5317.zip

Edited June 23, 2010 by jaclaz