XEN-PC 4.02 BIOS for Jade/Ruby XEN-PC/PCM/PCLS 560 & 590

Version 4.02 of the Combined BIOS for the Apricot XEN-PC/PCM/PCLS 560 and 590 (Ruby and Jade) series of computers has now been released. The new BIOS is based upon version 1.3 of the IBM Surepath BIOS, and has a number of features and enhancements over earlier Jade and Ruby BIOS versions.

The XEN-PC Version 4.02 BIOS also includes fixes for a number of existing problems that have been seen on some XEN-PC 560 and 590 series computers, including not being able to install OS/2 Warp, and problems with PCI Posted Writes being enabled.

The new BIOS is a flash upgradable BIOS, and can be downloaded from File Area 46 of Apricot Insight BBS as CRJ402.EXE. This is a self-extracting archive that contains the BIOS code itself, and a routine for programming the existing BIOS with the new code.

Because the Jade and Ruby motherboards contain different flash BIOS parts, the update routine needs to carry out a number of processes to work out what type of flash BIOS part is installed. This routine (executed by running FLASH.BAT) will explain what will happen during the reprogramming procedure, and includes a number of specific instructions that MUST BE CARRIED OUT AS EXPLAINED, otherwise it is possible to permanently damage the flash BIOS on the system.

If in doubt, please contact Technical Support before running the flash update procedure.

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