Pavilion 4450 4550Z BIOS

blobcomputers

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Nov 27, 2003, 7:02:50 PM11/27/03

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I have two systems, a Pavilon 4450 and
a Pavilion 4550Z.

The 4450 has Phoenix BIOS, 443BX Chipset
at 66 mhz.

The 4550Z has I believe Award (though I
have to check the Award part) BIOS, 443ZX
Chipset at 100 mhz.

Both systems have HP MEB-VM Motherboard
revision 1.01, and identical BIOS chips.

The 4550Z uses BackWeb update, the 4450
does not.

To complicate a bit, Intel says the 443BX
is supposed to be capable of 100 mhz FSB.
But the 4450 is set to 66 mhz FSB.

The 443ZX is supposed to be limited to 66
mhz FSB, but the 4550Z is set to 100 mhz FSB.

On some other similar HP Pavilions of the
4400 series with Celeron processor, there
is a 443BX/ZX Chipset, usually limited to
66 mhz such as the 4445.

My question is Can I get the 4450 updated
to 100 mhz FSB? Can I take the BIOS update
for the 4450, put the Bios.rom from the
4550Z in place of the 4450 Bios.rom, use
the HP FLASH BIOS Update procedure, and
have the 4450 at 100 mhz FSB?

Or is there some other procedure that I can use?

Thanks, that's as simple as I can make it.

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John Dough

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Nov 30, 2003, 4:37:50 PM11/30/03

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Wrong newsgroup.

Ben Myers

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Nov 30, 2003, 6:33:40 PM11/30/03

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Whichever computer has the 440ZX chipset has a front side bus limitation of
66MHz. A BIOS upgrade will not change it. Intel produced the 440ZX as a low
cost alternative to the 440BX for companies like Asus/HP to produce a lower cost
and more limited motherboard... Ben Myers

craigm

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Nov 30, 2003, 8:41:24 PM11/30/03

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I think the ZX is good for 100 MHz. At least, it is running 100 MHz on my
6470Z.

Additional info here.
ftp://download.intel.com/design/chipsets/datashts/29065001.pdf

<ben_myers_spam_me_not @ charter.net (Ben Myers)> wrote in message
news:3fca7d21...@news.charter.net...

Ben Myers

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Nov 30, 2003, 10:02:57 PM11/30/03

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Oops! I stand corrected. The 440ZX is capable of 100MHz FSB, but it is limited
in memory addressability compared to the 440BX. I've never seen a 440ZX board
with 100MHz FSB, but then there weren't exactly millions of models of boards
produced with the 440ZX. My bad!

I'm not sure if flashing the ZX board with the BIOS for the BX board would work.
Even tho the motherboard models are almost identical and the ZX has a similar
(identical?) hardware register layout, it's not advisable to try to flash the
board. If the boards are the slightest bit incompatible at the hardware level,
the result may well be a dead board.

Finally, the info on the HP web site for the 4550Z states "The CPU frequency
operates at the speed set on the processor.
NOTE: CPU Frequency Multiple settings are not available here because
usually Socket 370 processors have locked Frequency Multiples."

So, install a Socket 370 processor designed for a 100MHz FSB. But be careful,
because the board may not support the sub-2.0v operating voltage of the CPU you
choose. AFAIK, the 500, 550, and 600MHz Socket 370 Pentium IIIs operate at
2.0v, and anything higher runs at a lower voltage... Ben Myers