At 23:36 04/30/01, Chuck Finnigan wrote:
>does anyone know what this message means?
>
>during startup, just before Windows ME starts, a message appears:
>
><BIOS:> BIOS update data incorrect (CPUID=00000673). Update not
>loaded.
>
>it's appearing on both of my ASUS P2B motherboards (Rev 1008)
>running Intel PII processors.

For each of your P2B motherboards:

The message means that your BIOS isn't recognizing your processor's
stepping and so can't perform the microcode update. Usually this
message happens when you have a BIOS that came out before Intel
released your "stepping" of the processor. (Asus is pretty good
about updating their BIOSs, even for boards that are no longer
being made.)

The motherboard is identifying your processor (CPUID = 673) as
a kC0 stepping Pentium III processor (the k in kC0 is for Katmai,
the original PIII with 512 KB of half speed L2 cache.). Are you
sure the error message says CPUID=00000673 and not 00000653?
You truly have Pentium II processors?

See the following webpages to interpret the CPUID:

The stepping (and CPUID) information for the Pentium II is at
http://support.intel.com/support/processors/sspec/p2p.htm
The stepping (and CPUID) information for the Pentium III is at
http://support.intel.com/support/processors/sspec/p3p.htm

If you have a Pentium III in the machine, you really should
update the BIOS so that it will properly identify your processor
and let you take advantage of the microcode update feature.
(It corrects for errata that Intel has recognized in the
processor.)

If this message just started appearing without your having
changed your processor or BIOS, maybe you should probably clear
your NVRAM...

You can turn off this message by entering BIOS Setup at boot.
Go to the "BIOS Features Setup" screen and disable "BIOS Update".
(This is the feature that lets the BIOS update the processor's
microcode at boot. Although they say "if it ain't broke, don't
fix it", if you have a Pentium III, the BIOS Update feature is
one good reason to update to a recent BIOS.)

The latest non-beta P2B BIOS is 1012 (dated 4/2000) and is at
<ftp://ftp.asus.com/Pub/ASUS/mb/slot1/440bx/p2b/> or
<ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Slot_I/INTEL_Chipset/i440BX/P2B/>.
The latest beta P2B BIOS is 1013-07 and is dated 1/2002. It's at
the German Asus website. (Yes, the BIOS screens are in English.)
ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Slot_I/INTEL_Chipset/i440BX/P2B/1013__07.zip

Regards,
Bill

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