Switch BIOS chip between motherboards?

TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
edited August 2005 in Hardware
I just replaced the Dell # 9692D motherboard in my Latitude CPi-A366XT laptop, and the new one works. However, it has the A14 BIOS revision instead of the A15 that my old MB had. Boot up screens look different. And the screen now has a 1-1/2" black band on all 4 sides of the viewable area for some strange reason.

Next to the memory stick compartment on the bottom is a removeable chip, I assume that's the BIOS chip. Since it's the same motherboard model, can I just swap it out and have everything like it was?

Comments

  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited August 2005
    All you need to do is flash the BIOS to the latest version, which should be available for downloading at Dell's website. :)
    Tim wrote:
    ...Boot up screens look different. And the screen now has a 1-1/2" black band on all 4 sides of the viewable area for some strange reason...
    You almost certainly just need an updated video driver to fix that.
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited August 2005
    Yes, I know I could flash the BIOS to update it, but I wanted to know if I could just swap the chips also and have the same end result.

    Will that work?
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited August 2005
    If the motherboards are IDENTICAL the you can do it with no probelms
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited August 2005
    I switched the BIOS chip, and I also re-downloaded the video driver. Neither thing helped the display problem. I have a 10-1/4" diagonal screen instead of a 13.3" diagonal viewable area. The BIOS A15 chip worked.

    What can I look at in Windows 2000 Pro to get the display to use its full area again?
  • EMTEMT Seattle, WA Icrontian
    edited August 2005
    Is the resolution at its max? If not, it might be not stretching the image across all the LCD pixels.
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited August 2005
    I run my resolution at 800 by 600, but it'll go as high as 1280 by 1024. I could try that and see if it helps.

    800 by 600 always filled the screen with the old motherboard.

    This laptop had 2 screen options - 12" and 13.3". Mine has the 13.3". The motherboard is supposed to be able to work with either size.
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited August 2005
    I tried the resolution at 1280 by 1024 and that filled the screen. Then I turned it down to 1024 by 768 and that also filled the screen.

    But 800 by 600 won't fill the screen.

    I wonder why this is. I've never seen this problem before.
  • kanezfankanezfan sunny south florida Icrontian
    edited August 2005
    Look in the BIOS for video options, I've seen that in laptops before.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited August 2005
    Tim wrote:
    I tried the resolution at 1280 by 1024 and that filled the screen. Then I turned it down to 1024 by 768 and that also filled the screen.

    But 800 by 600 won't fill the screen.

    I wonder why this is. I've never seen this problem before.
    You need to find out the native resolution of the screen and run the display at that.

    CRT monitors "spray" the image on your screen. When you adjust the resolution it is something analogous to twisting the nozzle on a garden hose; the spray either gets finer or more spread out.

    Laptop (and other LCD) screens are somewhat akin to a highway message board in that there are a fixed number of lights arranged in a pattern. What you see on the screen is determined by which lights are turned on and what color they display.

    When you run an LCD screen at a non-native resolution your hardware has to fake it. The black border you saw around your screen was the result of your system not even allowing you to do that. It basically told you "Fine, if you only want 800X600 I'll just turn a bunch of the mofo's clear off". :D
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