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, 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 Award or AMI BIOS has a unique BIOS ID (= BIOS Number) which identifies the manufacturer,chipset,... of the board.

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.

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.
 
 
 

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


Award 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 Bcom (ASI)
A7 Arima Twn
A8 Adcom
AB AOpen
AD Amaquest
AK Advantech
AM Achme
AT ASK Technology
AX Achitec
B0 Biostar
B2 Boser
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?)
D7 Daewoo
DJ Darter
DL Delta Electronics
E1 ECS (Elitegroup)
E3 EFA
E4 ESPCo
E6 Elonex
EC ENPC
F0 FIC (FICA)
F1 Flytech Group International
F2 Free Tech
F3 Full Yes
F5 Fugutech
F8 Formosa Industrial Computing ??
F9 Fordlian
FD DataExpert or Atima ???
FH Amptron???
FN Amptron???
G0 Giga-byte
G1 GIT???
G3 Gemlight
G5 GVC
G9 Global Circuit Technology
GA Giantec
GE ZAAPA (?)
H0 Hsin-Tech (PcChips)
H2 HOLCO (Shuttle)
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 Group??
L9 Lucky Tiger
M0 Matra
M2 Mycomp (TMC) and Megastar
M3 Mitac
M4 Micro-star
M8 Mustek
M9 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 (Pronix) & 2TheMax
PC Pine
PF ??? (President)
PN Procomp Informatics Ltd.
PS Palmax (notebooks)
PX Pionix
Q0 Quanta (Twn)
Q1 QDI
R0 Mtech (Rise)
R2 Rectron
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, Superpower
SN Soltek
SR Sowah Research Ltd
SW S&D
T0 Twinhead
T1 Taemung or Fentech or Trang Bow
T4 Taken
T5 Tyan
T6 Trigen
TB Totem ???
TG Tekram
TJ Totem
TP Commate,  Ozzo (?)
U0 U-Board (?)
U1 USI (Universal Scientific Industrial)
U2 AIR (UHC)
U4 Unicorn
U6 Unitron
V3 Vtech (PCPartner)
V5 Vision Top Technology
V6 Vobis
V7 YKM (Dayton Micro)
W0 Wintec (Edom)
W5 Winco
W7 Win Lan Enterprise
Y2 Yamashita
Z1 Zida (Tomato boards)
Identifying the chipset:

Award BIOS Number that begin with:

 
 

Cyrix MediaGx Cx5510 Chipset

   

Cyrix GXm Cx5520 Chipset

   

Intel Saturn Chipset

   

Intel Saturn II Chipset

   

Contaq 82C596-9 Chipset

   

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

   

Intel Triton TX chipset

   

VIA VT82C570 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 Appolo VP1 Chipset (sometimes relabeled as VXPro chipset) 

   

VIA Appolo VP2 Chipset (sometimes relabeled as AMD640 chipset)

   

VIA VPX Chipset (sometimes relabeled as VXPro+ chipset) 

   

VIA Appolo (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 82C486A 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 

   
 
 
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