[arachne] Re: Getting the BIOS date from a PC

Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!

On Fri, 2009-03-13 at 04:06 -0400, Sam Ewalt wrote: 
> Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!
> 
> Isn't the BIOS information normally displayed when the computer is
> first booted?
> 
> Sam Ewalt
> 
> 
> On Fri, March 13, 2009 1:09 am, Samuel W. Heywood wrote:
> > Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!
> >
> > Hello folks:
> >
> > This web page explains how to get the BIOS date
> > out of any PC running DOS or Windoze:
> >
> > http://www.anderbergfamily.net/ant/biosdate/
> >
> > If anybody here knows of a similar nifty program
> > that will do that for a PC running linux, then
> > please let me know.
> >
> > Sam Heywood

Nope, I have and have had many puters where the BIOS info
as to the date when manufactured is not displayed, neither 
in the boot-up splash screen nor in any of the BIOS setup 
screens.  Usually the name of the BIOS manufacturer is 
dislayed, but that is all the info I get.  I have noted also 
that on many computers the year of manufacture is not even 
mentioned on the data plate or sticker which identifies the 
computer manufacturer and model type.

It is very helpful to know the exact date of when the BIOS
was manufactured.  There is a cutoff date, and I don't know
for sure the exact date, but I believe it was around December 
of 1999, before which a linux-based bootable CD-ROM, such as  
FreeDOS 1.0, would not be bootable. 

I just recently installed a bootable FreeDOS partition onto the 
hard drive of an HP laptop having a BIOS date of 11/11/99.
The live FreeDOS installation CD would not boot directly.  In 
order to boot the CD I used a very special bootable floppy disk 
known as the "Smart Boot Manager" (SBM) floppy.  The floppy would 
boot first, and then it somehow helped to boot the installation 
CD-ROM.  The CD-ROM would not boot-up directly.  See a screenshot 
of the SBM at: 

http://sourceforge.net/project/screenshots.php?group_id=4185

At the same web site you all may also may download an image file 
of the SBM. 

Also I just recently installed a bootable FreeDOS partition onto 
the hard drive of a Toshiba laptop having a BIOS date of 12/24/1999.
In the case of the Toshiba laptop, which had a later BIOS date, the 
FreeDOS installation CD would boot up directly without the help of 
the SBM.

I set up both of these laptops as dual-booters and used identical
software for each.  The other OS I installed in them is Puppy Linux,
version 4.10 retro.  I installed that distro after my having found 
some other Puppy Linux distros to be unstable and to perform
problematically on these machines.

To anyone having a laptop of that vintage, and who wants to install
a Puppy Linux partition on it, I would most highly recommend the 
the version 4.10 retro distro.  The name of the iso to look for and
to download is "puppy-4.1retro-2k2.6.21.7-seamonkey.iso"  This one is 
one of the most masterfully created Puppy Linux distros. 

Sam Heywood
    
  
  

                  Arachne at FreeLists                  
-- Arachne, The Premier GPL Web Browser/Suite for DOS --

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