Award BIOS numbers


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, or on the motherboard. If you want to upgrade your BIOS you really have to know the motherboard manufacturer, because if you flash the wrong BIOS upgrade your system could stop booting.

Luckily, Award and AMI BIOS have a unique BIOS ID (= BIOS Number) which identifies the manufacturer and chipset of the board. Phoenix BIOSs, in most cases, do NOT.

The AMI or 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. You must copy it exactly.

A much easier way to get the Award/AMI BIOS number & possible manufacturer is by using CTBIOS v 1.5. 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.

If you have an AMI BIOS you can also try the AMIBIOS Motherboard ID Utility (written by AMI)

Let's show you an example of an Award BIOS id:

2A59IZ1DC-00

The first 5 characters identify the chipset. 2A59I stands for the Intel Triton TX chipset. You can find an extensive list of chipsets if you scroll down a bit.

The sixth & seventh character identify the manufacturer: in this case it's Z1. If you look at the Award Hardware Vendors list (see below) you'll find that the manufacturer is Zida/Tomato

The 8th character (most of the times, not always!) identifies the model. I say 'most of the times' because the manufacturer can use the same 8th character for all models based on a particular chipset!.

The C-00 at the end doesn't mean much.

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. This page is more extensive than Award's (Phoenix) own publicized list!

Thanks to Mike Zakoussilo for filling in some vendor ids and some chipset ids.

If you know BIOS ids that are not yet on the list, please mail them ONLY when you know the manufacturer AND model!

Note: I'm NOT RESPONSIBLE for possible mistakes in this list ! Use this info at your own risk!


Identifying the chipset:

As noted above the first part of the Award BIOS Number identifies the chipset used. The following is a list of all the ids and their corresponding chipsets. Follow the links to get a list of  known BIOS numbers for a particular chipset.

Note that when the BIOS begins with a 2 then the Award BIOS core version is 4.50 or 4.51. If it starts with a 3 this means the BIOS core is version 4.60. BIOS Numbers that start with a 6 have a Award BIOS V6.00 core

Identifying the chipset

213V1 SARC RC2018
21480 HiNT SC9204 (Sierra), HMC82C206
214D1 HiNT SC9204 (Sierra), HMC82C206
214I8 SiS 85C471
214I9 SiS 85C471E
214L2 VIA VT82C486A
214L6 VIA Venus VT82C486A/VT82C495/VT82C496G
214W3 VD 88C898
214X2 UMC 491 Chipset
215UM OPTi 82C546/82C597
21917 ALD Chipset
219V0 SARC RC2016
2A431 Cyrix MediaGx Cx5510 chipset
2A432 Cyrix GXi Cx5520 Chipset
2A433 Cyrix GXm Cx5520 Chipset
2A434 Cyrix GXm Cx5530 Chipset
2A496 Intel Saturn Chipset
2A498 Intel Saturn II Chipset
2A499 Intel Aries Chipset
2A4H2 Contaq 82C596-9 Chipset
2A4IB SiS 496/497 Chipset
2A4J6 Winbond W83C491(SL82C491 Symphony Wagner)
2A4KA ALi ?
2A4KC ALi 1439/45/31 Chipset
2A4KD ALi 1487/1489 Chipset
2A4L4 VIA 486A/482/505 Chipset
2A4L6 VIA 496/406/505 Chipset
2A4O3 EFAR EC802GL, EC100G chipset
2A4UK OPTI-802G-822 Chipset
2A4X5 UMC 8881E/8886B Chipset
2A4Z0 ?
2A597 Intel Mercury Chipset
2A59A Intel Natoma (Neptune) Chipset
2A59B Intel Mercury Chipset
2A59C Intel Triton FX chipset (Socket 7 based m/b)
2A59F Intel Triton II HX chipset (also kwown 430 HX PCIset) (Socket 7 based m/b)
2A59G Intel Triton VX chipset (Socket 7 based m/b)
2A59H Intel Triton VX chipset (Socket 7 based m/b) with an illegal BIOS
2A59I Intel Triton TX chipset (Socket 7 based m/b)
2A5C7 VIA VT82C570 Chipset
2A5G7 VLSI VL82C594 Chipset
2A5GB VLSI Lynx VL82C541/VL82C543 Chipset
2A5IA SiS 501/02/03 Chipset
2A5IC SiS 5501/02/03 Chipset
2A5ID SiS 5511/12/13 Chipset
2A5IE SiS 5101-5103 Chipset
2A5IF SiS 5596/5597 Chipset
2A5IH SiS 5571 Chipset
2A5II SiS 5582/5597/5598 Chipset
2A5IJ SiS 5120 Mobile Chipset
2A5IK SiS 5591 Chipset
2A5IM SiS 530 Chipset
2A5KB Ali 1449/61/51 Chipset
2A5KE ALI 1511 Chipset
2A5KF ALI 1521/23 Chipset
2A5KI ALI IV+ M1531/M1543 Chipset (also known as Super TX chipset)
2A5KK Ali Aladdin V Chipset
2A5L5 VIA ?
2A5L7 VIA VT82C570 Chipset
2A5L9 VIA VT82C570M Chipset
2A5LA VIA Apollo VP1 Chipset (VT82C580VP) (sometimes relabeled as VXPro chipset)
2A5LC VIA Apollo VP2 Chipset (sometimes relabeled as AMD640 chipset)
2A5LD VIA VPX Chipset (sometimes relabeled as VXPro+ chipset)
2A5LE VIA Apollo (M)VP3 Chipset
2A5LH VIA Apollo VP4 Chipset
2A5R5 Forex FRX58C613/601A chipset
2A5R6 Forex FRX58C613A/602B/601B
2A5T6 ACC Micro 2278/2188 (Auctor) chipset
2A5UI Opti 82C822/596/597 Chipset or OPTi 596/546/82
2A5UL Opti 82C822/571/572 Chipset
2A5UM Opti 82C822/546/547 Chipset
2A5UN Opti Viper-M 82C556/557/558 Chipset or Opti Viper 82C556/557/558
2A5UP Opti Viper Max
2A5X7 UMC 82C890 Chipset
2A5X8 UMC UM8886BF/UM8891BF/UM8892BF Chipset
2A5XA UMC 890C Chipset
2A69H Intel 440FX chipset (Pentium II/Pentium Pro based chipset)
2A69J Intel 440LX/EX chipset (Pentium II based chipset)
2A69K Intel 440BX/ZX chipset (Pentium II/III based chipset)
2A69L Intel 'Camino' 820 Chipset
2A69M Intel 'Whitney' 810 Chipset
2A69N Intel Banister Mobile ChipSet with C&T 69000 Video
2A6IL SiS 5600 Chipset
2A6IN SiS 620 Chipset
2A6KL Ali 1621/1543C Chipset
2A6KO ALi M1631/M1535D
2A6LF Via Apollo Pro (691/596) Chipset
2A6LG Via Apollo Pro Plus (692/596) Chipset
2A6LI Via MVP4 VIA 601(Trident video on-chip)/686A (Modem on-chip, Sound on-chip)
2A6LJ VIA 694X/596B and VIA 694X/686A(Modem on-chip, Sound on-chip)
2A9KG ALi M6117/M1521/M1523 chipset
2AG9H Intel Neptune ISA Chipset
2B496 Intel Saturn I EISA chipset
2B597 Intel Mercury EISA chipset
2B59A Intel Neptune EISA Chipset
2B59F Intel 430HX EISA chipset
2B69D Intel Orion EISA Chipset
2C460 UNIchip U4800-VLX chipset
2C470 HYF82481 chipset
2C4D2 HiNT SC8006 (Sierra), HMC82C206
2C4I7 SiS 461 Chipset
2C4I8 SiS 85C471B chipset
2C4I9 SiS 85C471B/E/G chipset
2C4J6 Winbond W83C491(SL82C491 Symphony Wagner)
2C4K9 ALI 14296 Chipset
2C4KC Ali 1439/45/31 Chipset
2C4L2 VIA 82C486A Chipset
2C4L6 VIA VT496G Chipset
2C4L8 VIA VT425MV chipset
2C4O3 EFAR EC802G-B Chipset
2C4S0 AMD Elan 470
2C4T7 ACC Micro 2048 (Auctor)
2C4UK OPTI 82C895/82C602
2C4X2 UMC UM82C491/82C493 chipset
2C4X6 UMC UM498F/496F
3A6LF Via Apollo Pro (691/596) Chipset with Award BIOS v4.60PGA
6A450 STMicroelectronics PC Client ST86 processor
6A69L Intel 'Camino' i820 chipset with Award BIOS v6.00
6A69M Intel i810(E) chipset with Award BIOS v6.00
6A69R Intel 'Solano' i815(E) chipset with Award BIOS v6.00
6A69S Intel i850 chipset with Award BIOS v6.00
6A6IS SiS 730 chipset with Award BIOS v6.00
6A6IU SiS 733 chipset with Award BIOS v6.00
6A6LJ VIA 694X/686A (Apollo Pro 133A) chipset with Award BIOS v6.00
6A6LK VIA VT8371 (KX-133) chipset with Award BIOS v6.00
6A6LM VIA VT8363 (KT-133) chipset with Award BIOS v6.00
6A6LN VIA VT8365 (KM-133)/VT8364 (KL-133) chipset with Award BIOS v6.00
6A6LU VIA Apollo Pro266 chipset with Award BIOS v6.00
6A6LV VIA VT8366/VT8233 chipset with Award BIOS v6.00
6A6S2  AMD 751 chipset with Award BIOS v6.00
6A6S6  AMD 760 chipset with Award BIOS v6.00
JA6LM VIA VT8363 (KT-133) chipset (only used on Matsonic m/b)

Identifying the motherboard manufacturer:

The two characters following the last character of the chipset identification identify the motherboard manufacturer.The following is a list of all the ids and their corresponding manufacturers. Follow the links to go to the individual company pages on my website. Those individual company pages will list all Award BIOS Numbers for that company. (Note: At this moment we are in the process of moving the BIOS Numbers to the individual company pages. Please be patient)

Award Hardware Vendors
Code Name
00 E-mail Support @ 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 Bcom (ASI)
A7 AVT (formerly Concord)
A8 Adcom
AB AOpen
AD Amaquest
AK Advantech
AM Achme
AT ASK Technology
AX Achitec
B0 Biostar
B1 BEK-Tronic Technology
B2 Boser
B3 BCM
C0 Matsonic
C1 Clevo
C2 Chicony
C3 Chaintech
C5 Chaplet
C9 Computrend
CF Flagpoint
CS Gainward or CSS Laboratories
D0 Dataexpert
D1 DTK
D2 Digital
D3 Digicom
D4 DFI (Diamond Flower) (Crusader?)
D7 Daewoo
D8 Nature Worldwide Technology Corp
DE Dual Tech
DI Domex (DTC)
DJ Darter
DL Delta Electronics
E0 Evalue Technology Inc
E1 ECS (Elitegroup)
E3 EFA
E4 ESPCo
E6 Elonex
E7 Expen Tech
EC ENPC
F0 FIC (FICA)
F1 Flytech Group International
F2 Free Tech or flexus?
F3 Full Yes
F5 Fugutech
F8 Formosa Industrial Computing
F9 Fordlian
FG Fastfame Technology Co., Ltd.
FI FIC (FICA)
G0 Giga-byte
G1 GIT???
G3 Gemlight
G5 GVC
G9 Global Circuit Technology
GA Giantec
GE Zaapa
H0 Hsing-Tech (PcChips)
H2 HOLCO (Shuttle)
HH HighTech Information System
HJ HighTech Information System
I3 IWill
I4 Inventa (Twn)
I5 Informtech
I9 ICP
IA Infinity (?)
IC Inventec (notebooks)
IE Itri
J1 Jetway (Jetboard, Acorp)
J2 Jamicon (Twn)
J3 J-Bond
J4 Jetta
J6 Joss
K0 Kapok
K1 Kamei
KF Kinpo
L1 Lucky Star
L7 Lanner Electronics Inc.
L9 Lucky Tiger
LB LeadTek
M0 Matra
M2 Mycomp (TMC) and Megastar
M3 Mitac
M4 Micro-star
M8 Mustek
M9 Micro Leader Enterprises Corp. (MLE)
MH Macrotek
N0 Nexcom
N5 NEC
NM NMC (New Media Communication)
NX Nexar
O0 Ocean (Octek)
P1 PC-Chips
P4 Asus
P6 Pro-Tech
P8 Azza
P9 Powertech
PA Epox & 2TheMax
PC Pine
PF President (dead)
PN Procomp Informatics Ltd.
PS Palmax (notebooks)
PX Pionix
Q0 Quanta (Twn)
Q1 QDI
RA RioWorks Solutions Inc
R0 Mtech (Rise)
R2 Rectron
R3 Datavan International Corp.
S2 Soyo
S3 Smart D&M Technology Co., Ltd.
S5 Shuttle (Holco)
S9 Spring Circle
SA Seanix
SC Sukjung (Auhua Electronics Co. Ltd.)
SE Newtech or SMT or Professional Technologies, Inc
SH SYE (Shining Yuan Enterprise)
SJ Sowah
SL Winco
SM San-Li and Hope Vision, Superpower
SN Soltek
SR ???
SW S&D (also some A-Corp and Zaapa motherboards use this code)
T0 Twinhead
T1 Taemung or Fentech or Trang Bow
T4 Taken
T5 Tyan
T6 Trigem
TB Taeil ???
TG Tekram
TJ Totem
TL Transcend Information Inc.
TP CommateOzzo (?)
U0 U-Board (?)
U1 USI (Universal Scientific Industrial)
U2 AIR (UHC)
U4 Unicorn
U5 Unico
U6 Unitron
U9 Warp Speed Ink.
V3 Vtech (PCPartner)
V5 Vision Top Technology
V6 Vobis
V7 YKM (Dayton Micro)
W0 Wintec (Edom)
W1 WellJoin
W5 Winco
W7 Win Lan Enterprise
XA ADLink Technology Inc.
X3 A-Corp
X5 Arima
Y2 Yamashita
Z1 Zida (Tomato boards)
Z2 ???
Z3 ShenZhen Zeling Industrial Co., Ltd.

What follows is a list of BIOS Numbers: please note that we are in process of moving this information to the manufacturer pages, so please also visit those pages if you can't find your BIOS Number here.

SiS 496/497 Chipset

Ali 1439/45/31 Chipset

Ali 1487/1489 Chipset

VIA 486A/482/505 Chipset

VIA 496/406/505 Chipset

OPTI-802G-822 Chipset

UMC 8881E/8886B Chipset

Intel Mercury Chipset

Intel Natoma (Neptune) Chipset

Intel Mercury Chipset

Intel Triton FX chipset

Intel Triton II HX chipset

Intel Triton VX chipset

Note: The following BIOSs have bad BIOS number encoding: All Triton VX BIOS numbers should start with 2A59G ! This is what Award Software/Unicore Software says about it:

"Thank you for your interest in a bios upgrade by Award Software/Unicore Software. Unfortunately your motherboard manufacturer is using an illegal copy of Award Software bios which we can not provide support nor any information on."

Intel Triton TX chipset

VLSI VL82C594 Chipset

VLSI Lynx VL82C541/VL82C543

SiS 501/02/03 Chipset

SiS 5501/02/03 Chipset

SiS 5511/12/13 Chipset

SiS 5101-5103 chipset

SiS 5596/5597 Chipset

SiS 5571 Chipset

SiS 5582/5597/5598 Chipset

SiS 5591 Chipset

Ali 1449/61/51 Chipset

ALi 1521/23 Chipset

ALi IV+ M1531/M1543 Chipset (also known as Super TX chipset)

ALi Alladin V Chipset (Super 7 chipset)

VIA VT82C570

VIA VT82C570M

VIA Apollo VP1 Chipset (sometimes relabeled as VXPro chipset)

VIA Apollo VP2 Chipset (sometimes relabeled as AMD640 chipset)

VIA VPX Chipset (sometimes relabeled as VXPro+ chipset)

VIA Apollo (M)VP3

Forex 601A-613 Chipset

Opti 82C822/596/597 Chipset

Opti 82C822/571/572 Chipset

Opti 82C822/546/547 Chipset

Opti Viper-M 82C556/557/558 Chipset or Opti Viper 82C556/557/558)

UMC 82C890 Chipset

UMC UM8886BF/UM8891BF/UM8892BF Chipset

Intel 440FX chipset

Intel 440LX/EX chipset

Intel 440BX chipset

VIA Apollo Pro chipset

VIA Apollo Pro Plus chipset

Intel Neptune EISA Chipset

EFAR EC802G-B Chipset

HiNT Chipset (consists of HMC HM82C206 and HiNT CS8006.)

SiS 461 Chipset

SiS 471B/E Chipset

SIS 85C471B/E/G Chipset

Winbond-83C491

ALI 14296 Chipset

VIA VT496G Chipset

OPTI 82C895/82C602 Chipset

UMC UM82C491/82C493 chipset

UMC UM498F/496F Chipset

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


© 1996-2001 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 !