Award BIOS numbers

December 27, 1998

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Introduction

Many users don't know the name of their clone motherboard. This is because the company name is not mentioned anywhere (in the manual, on the motherboard,...). If you want to upgrade your BIOS you really have to know the motherboard manufacturer, because if you take the wrong BIOS upgrade your system could stop booting.

Luckily each BIOS has a unique BIOS ID (= BIOS Number) which identifies the manufacturer,chipset,... of the board.

Let's take for example: 2A59CQ1CC:

This a typical Award BIOS Number. 2A59C stands for the chipset used; here it's the Intel Triton FX chipset.
Q1 stands for the manufacturer: QDI
CC stands for the model: P5I437/250A

Note that Q1 starts with a Q and that the manufacturer's name also starts with a Q! Because more then one m/b manufacturer can start with a Q, the Q is followed by a number.

The goal of this page is to create a list with BIOS numbers with their corresponding motherboards.

Therefore I need your input: Please send me your BIOS Numbers and also the corresponding manufacturer and model. You can use this form.

The Award BIOS id appears at the bottom of your screen after power on, during memory count up. The PAUSE key should work at that point, allowing you to write down the BIOS number, the BIOS date, and the version.

A much easier way to get the Award/AMI BIOS number & possible manufacturer is by using ctbios.zip. Run it and it'll give you the BIOS number, possible manufacturer and more. If you want to know the name of your chipset you can also download ctpci330.zip

Before sending please check if your BIOS number and the manufacturer/model isn't already listed ! (This saves me a lot of time!)

I've made two pages: an AMI BIOS number page and an AWARD BIOS number page (which you are reading now). This page is more extensive than Award's own publicized list!

The numbers are categorized on Chipset basis. If you don't know the chipset, just use Edit/Find in your browser and search for your BIOS Number.

I'm NOT RESPONSIBLE for mistakes in this list !

Check out the The Motherboard HomeWorld ! It has links to many motherboard manufacturers.

Award Software Hardware Vendors
Code Name
00 E-mail Support at Unicore (subsidiary of Award Software) with BIOS ID data, plus any board ID codes you can find
A0 ASUS
A1 Abit (Silicon Star)
A2 Atrend
A3 ASI (Aquarius Systems Inc.)
A7 Arima Twn
AB AOpen
AD Amaquest
AM Mirage
AN ???
AT Tureteq?
B0 Biostar
B1 ???
B3 BCM
C1 Clevo
C2 Chicony
C3 Chaintech
C5 Chaplet
C9 Computrend
CF Flagpoint
D0 Dataexpert
D1 DTK
D2 Digital
D3 Digicom
D4 DFI (Diamond Flower) (Crusader?)
E1 ECS (Elitegroup)
E3 EFA
E4 ESPCo
E6 Elonex???
E7 ???
EC ENPC
F0 FIC (FICA)
F2 Free Tech
F3 Full Yes
F4 ???
F5 Fugutech
F9 Fordlian
FA ???
FC ???
FD DataExpert or Atima or GCT???
FH Amptron???
FN Amptron???
G0 Giga-byte
G1 GIT.?
G3 Gemlight
G9 Global Circuit Technology
H0 H9 Hsin-Tech
H2 HOLCO (Shuttle)
H4 ???
I3 IWill
I4 Inventa (Twn)
I5 Informtech
I6 ???
J1 Jetway (Jetboard, Acorp)
J2 Jamicon (Twn)
J3 J-Bond
J4 Jetta
J6 Joss
K0 Kapok
K1 Kamei
L1 Lucky Star
M0 Matra
M2 Mycomp (TMC) and Megastar
M3 Mitac
M4 Micro-star
M8 Mustek
M9 MLE
N5 NEC
NX Nexar?
O0 Ocean (Octek)
P0 ???
P1 PC-Chips
P4 Asus
P6 ???
P8 Azza
P9 Powertech
PA Epox (Pronix)
PC Pine
PF ??? (President)
PL ???
PN ???
Q0 Quanta (Twn)
Q1 QDI
R0 Mtech (Rise)
R2 Rectron
RB ???
S2 Soyo
S5 Shuttle (Holco)
S9 Spring Circle
SA Seanix
SC Sukjung (Auhua Electronics Co. Ltd.)
SE SMT (Sundance Multiprocessor Technology Ltd??)
SH SYE (Shing Yunn Technology Co., Ltd.)
SL Winco
SM San-Li and Hope Vision
SN Soltek
SP ???
T0 Twinhead
T1 Taemung or Fentech
T4 Taken
T5 Tyan
T6 Trigen
TB Totem ?
TG Tekram
TJ Totem
TP Commate,  Ozzo (?)
U0 U-Board (?)
U2 AIR (UHC)
U4 ???
U6 Unitron
V3 Vtech (PCPartner)
V5 Vision Top Technology
V6 Vobis
V7 YKM (distribution by Dayton Micron)
W0 Wintec (Edom)
W5 Winco
Z1 Zida (Tomato boards)

Identifying the chipset:

Award BIOS Number that begin with:

Intel 440BX chipset (Pentium II based m/b)

Intel 440LX chipset (Pentium II based m/b)

Intel 440FX chipset (Pentium Pro based m/b)

Intel Triton FX chipset (Pentium based m/b)

Intel Triton II HX chipset (Pentium based m/b)

Intel Triton VX chipset (Pentium based m/b)

Intel Triton TX chipset (Pentium based m/b)

??? (Pentium based m/b)

Intel Natoma (Neptune) Chipset

Intel Mercury Chipset

Intel Neptune EISA Chipset (Pentium based m/b)

VIA VT82C570 Chipset (Pentium based m/b)

VLSI VL82C594 Chipset (Pentium based m/b)

VLSI Lynx VL82C541/VL82C543 (Pentium based m/b)

SiS 501/02/03 Chipset (Pentium based m/b)

SiS 5501/02/03 Chipset (Pentium based m/b)

SiS 5511/12/13 Chipset (Pentium based m/b)

SiS 5101-5103 chipset (Pentium based m/b)

SiS 5596 chipset (Pentium based m/b)

SiS 5571 Chipset (Pentium based m/b)

SiS 5598 Chipset (Pentium based m/b)

SiS 5591 Chipset (Pentium based m/b)

Ali 1449/61/51 Chipset (Pentium based m/b)

??? Chipset (Pentium based m/b)

ALI 1521/23 Chipset (Pentium based m/b)

ALI IV+ M1531/M1543 Chipset (Pentium based m/b) (also known as Super TX chipset)

ALI Alladin V Chipset (Super 7 chipset)

Cyrix 5510 chipset (Pentium based m/b)

VIA Appolo VP1 Chipset (VT82C580VP) (Pentium based m/b) (sometimes relabeled as VXPro chipset)

VIA Appolo VP2 Chipset (Pentium based m/b) (sometimes relabeled as AMD640 chipset)

VIA VPX Chipset (Pentium based m/b) (sometimes relabeled as VXPro+ chipset)

VIA Appolo (M)VP3 (Pentium based m/b)

VIA VT82C570 (Pentium based m/b)

VIA VT82C570M (Pentium based m/b)

??? (Pentium based m/b)

Forex 601A-613 Chipset (Pentium based m/b)

Opti 82C822/596/597 Chipset (Pentium based m/b)

Opti 82C822/571/572 Chipset (Pentium based m/b)

Opti 82C822/546/547 Chipset (Pentium based m/b)

Opti Viper-M 82C556/557/558 Chipset (Pentium based m/b) or Opti Viper 82C556/557/558)

UMC 82C890 Chipset (Pentium based m/b)

UMC UM8886BF/UM8891BF/UM8892BF Chipset (Pentium based m/b)

Contaq 82C596-9 Chipset (486 based m/b)

SiS 496/497 Chipset (486 based m/b)

Ali 1439/45/31 Chipset (486 based m/b)

Ali 1489 Chipset (486 based m/b)

VIA 486A/482/505 based Chipset (486 based m/b)

VIA 496/406/505 based Chipset (486 based m/b)

OPTI-802G-822 based Chipset (486 based m/b)

UMC 8881/8886 Chipset (486 based m/b)

EFAR EC802G-B Chipset (486 based m/b)

 

SiS 461 Chipset (486 based m/b)

SiS 471B/E Chipset (486 based m/b)

SIS 85C471B/E/G Chipset (486 based m/b)

ALI 14296 Chipset (486 based m/b)

??? Chipset (486 based m/b)

VIA 82C486A Chipset (486 based m/b)

VIA VT496G Chipset (486 based m/b)

OPTI - 802G Chipset (486 based m/b)

UMC UM82C491/82C493 chipset (486 based m/b)

UMC UM498F/496F Chipset (486 based m/b)

ASUS motherboard numbers

All Asus BIOS ID numbers at the top of the screen, just above where the system memory count occurs, contain # 401A0 - XXXX.
The A0 indicates ASUS as the manufacturer the four digits following the dash indicates the BIOS revision level.  Thus it is easy to identify whether or not you have the latest BIOS version or not.
At the bottom of the same screen you have more information, in the following order; A date, which is the date of the motherboard manufacture, then the Chipset used, the model of ASUS motherboard and finally the revision of the motherboard.

Acer motherboard numbers

Not categorised

© 1996, 1997, 1998 Wim Bervoets, Bios@ping.be

DISCLAIMER: Use flash BIOSs at your OWN risk!! I can not be held responsible for any damage to your computer !