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American Megatrends BIOS - AMI Bios.
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RegB
Feb 26, 2012, 6:36:23 PM2/26/12
to
I have an AMI bios in a Toshiba laptop.
Among OTHER shortcomings it will not boot from SDHC cards, which is
very important to me.
It boots fine from CD-ROM or USB, but the SDHC card slot is not listed
in the boot portion of the set-up menu.
Are there any mods or hacks to add or enable this ?
I seem to be on rev 1.60 and I have a support notice that 1.80 is
available.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated - and yes, I have already tried
the Tosh web site (-:
Among OTHER shortcomings it will not boot from SDHC cards, which is
very important to me.
It boots fine from CD-ROM or USB, but the SDHC card slot is not listed
in the boot portion of the set-up menu.
Are there any mods or hacks to add or enable this ?
I seem to be on rev 1.60 and I have a support notice that 1.80 is
available.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated - and yes, I have already tried
the Tosh web site (-:
Rod Pemberton
Feb 27, 2012, 6:53:14 AM2/27/12
to
"RegB" <2regb...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:71e5c1c7-3141-4a90...@32g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...
> [BIOS questions]
Well, there has only been one post here in the past year ... I didn't
respond to him.
> I have an AMI bios in a Toshiba laptop.
> Among OTHER shortcomings it will not boot from
> SDHC cards, which is very important to me.
You think it won't boot from it (device unsupported for booting) or it
doesn't recognize it as bootable (image or BIOS issue)? Do you know if your
laptop supports BBS (Bios Boot Spec)? It allows one to boot other devices
besides those setup in the BIOS. On my PC, you press F11 to get a pop-up
menu from which you can select alternate devices to boot.
> It boots fine from CD-ROM or USB, but the SDHC
> card slot is not listed in the boot portion of the set-up menu.
>
One of the links I found said you should see "SD/Floppy" in the BIOS boot
list. It says to press F2 *with* the card inserted.
On my personal computer - not a Toshiba - not a laptop, pressing F11 at boot
will bring up a BBS menu (Bios Boot Spec) which lists all devices that have
an image recognized as bootable. If a device doesn't have a bootable image
on it or written to it, that device *will not* be listed, even though the
device is present, because it does not have a boot image. My BIOS also
automatically disables devices that can't be booted from in the BIOS. So,
even if you set the device to boot, it won't present in the BIOS list if it
doesn't have a bootable image. That's why the guy said to insert the card,
but the card will also likely need a bootable image written to it too.
> Are there any mods or hacks to add or enable this ?
> I seem to be on rev 1.60 and I have a support notice that 1.80 is
> available.
>
1) I'd suggest reading the change list for 1.80 versus 1.60. They might've
added it.
2) So, searching Yahoo and Google for an answer didn't help? You mean that
none of the info in links like these worked? If you search for your
specific model, you may find more info. I just entered "sdhc boot toshiba".
Anyway, please read, e.g., first links to two utilities to write to SDHCs
for Toshiba's:
http://ashleyangell.com/2011/06/how-to-boot-toshiba-portege-m200-off-sd-memory-card/
http://forums.toshiba.com/t5/System-Recovery-and-Recovery/SDHC/td-p/195006
http://forums.toshiba.com/t5/Tecra-Laptops/SD-Card-Utilitities/td-p/169468
So, from those, there is a Toshiba forum:
http://forums.toshiba.com
There are BIOS image and BIOS modification websites, which may have modded
versions:
http://www.bioscentral.com/
http://www.bios-mods.com/
http://www.wimsbios.com/
There are also BIOS modifications blogs and BIOS hacking sites for DIY
types:
http://sites.google.com/site/pinczakko/pinczakko-s-guide-to-award-bios-reverse-engineering
http://os-fun.blogspot.com/2006/05/modifying-laptop-bios-for-fun-and.html
http://www.jeffsplace.net/projects/bios_hack
Sometimes, depending on the motherboard chipset, people write utilities to
enable features that weren't enable-able in the BIOS by directly programming
the chipset. If you know what chipset your laptop's chipset is, you could
search for them too.
> Any help would be GREATLY appreciated - and yes, I have already tried
> the Tosh web site (-:
I haven't seen but a few posts around here in 5 years or so. When there is
a reply, it seems I'm that person. So, you'll have to try elsewhere.
The Toshiba forum is probably your best bet. It'll have people who are
familiar with your make and model, maybe your same problem or might know
what is wrong, and the forum may also have corporate employee's responding
too.
Rod Pemberton
news:71e5c1c7-3141-4a90...@32g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...
> [BIOS questions]
Well, there has only been one post here in the past year ... I didn't
respond to him.
> I have an AMI bios in a Toshiba laptop.
> Among OTHER shortcomings it will not boot from
> SDHC cards, which is very important to me.
doesn't recognize it as bootable (image or BIOS issue)? Do you know if your
laptop supports BBS (Bios Boot Spec)? It allows one to boot other devices
besides those setup in the BIOS. On my PC, you press F11 to get a pop-up
menu from which you can select alternate devices to boot.
> It boots fine from CD-ROM or USB, but the SDHC
> card slot is not listed in the boot portion of the set-up menu.
>
list. It says to press F2 *with* the card inserted.
On my personal computer - not a Toshiba - not a laptop, pressing F11 at boot
will bring up a BBS menu (Bios Boot Spec) which lists all devices that have
an image recognized as bootable. If a device doesn't have a bootable image
on it or written to it, that device *will not* be listed, even though the
device is present, because it does not have a boot image. My BIOS also
automatically disables devices that can't be booted from in the BIOS. So,
even if you set the device to boot, it won't present in the BIOS list if it
doesn't have a bootable image. That's why the guy said to insert the card,
but the card will also likely need a bootable image written to it too.
> Are there any mods or hacks to add or enable this ?
> I seem to be on rev 1.60 and I have a support notice that 1.80 is
> available.
>
added it.
2) So, searching Yahoo and Google for an answer didn't help? You mean that
none of the info in links like these worked? If you search for your
specific model, you may find more info. I just entered "sdhc boot toshiba".
Anyway, please read, e.g., first links to two utilities to write to SDHCs
for Toshiba's:
http://ashleyangell.com/2011/06/how-to-boot-toshiba-portege-m200-off-sd-memory-card/
http://forums.toshiba.com/t5/System-Recovery-and-Recovery/SDHC/td-p/195006
http://forums.toshiba.com/t5/Tecra-Laptops/SD-Card-Utilitities/td-p/169468
So, from those, there is a Toshiba forum:
http://forums.toshiba.com
There are BIOS image and BIOS modification websites, which may have modded
versions:
http://www.bioscentral.com/
http://www.bios-mods.com/
http://www.wimsbios.com/
There are also BIOS modifications blogs and BIOS hacking sites for DIY
types:
http://sites.google.com/site/pinczakko/pinczakko-s-guide-to-award-bios-reverse-engineering
http://os-fun.blogspot.com/2006/05/modifying-laptop-bios-for-fun-and.html
http://www.jeffsplace.net/projects/bios_hack
Sometimes, depending on the motherboard chipset, people write utilities to
enable features that weren't enable-able in the BIOS by directly programming
the chipset. If you know what chipset your laptop's chipset is, you could
search for them too.
> Any help would be GREATLY appreciated - and yes, I have already tried
> the Tosh web site (-:
a reply, it seems I'm that person. So, you'll have to try elsewhere.
The Toshiba forum is probably your best bet. It'll have people who are
familiar with your make and model, maybe your same problem or might know
what is wrong, and the forum may also have corporate employee's responding
too.
Rod Pemberton
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