A word of caution with bios 1.16

Hey everyone,
I've been the happy owner of a FL90 for the past few months (bought it when it first came out) and everything was going smooth. One day I decided to flash my bios to 1.16 since it was available on compal's website. Everything went fine for a couple of weeks until the machine stopped posting. It is weird because the laptop would power on, and I would get a second of hard drive activity and then nothing. Just a black screen. So I sent my laptop into Microexpress and they were quick to determine it was a bad motherboard. Less then a week later I had my laptop back in my hands. Flash forward to today when I turned my laptop on and had the same no post issue. Turns out I was sent another FL90 board and this one came from compal with the 1.16 bios on it. This is the only thing I can think of that is killing my motherboard, it's too coincidental. I asked to be upgraded to the JFL92 so hopefully I should be good to go in the future, I can't have all this down time.

Cliff notes:
installed 1.16 bios, 2 weeks later dead motherboard
got new motherboard (FL90 board) with 1.16 on it, 2 weeks later dead
now I'm a sad panda

 

Maybe just a bad luck. Because I am running on 1.16 before the release date without issues.
The ISO was released on Jan 23, 2008. So I have been running it since.

 

Me too, and I have zero issues. I have an IFL90 though.

 

i have an ifl92 with bios 1.16. i had a bad mb after a month. just got my lappie back 3 days ago. i hope i don't have any further issues.

 

Agree, this was just a coincidence. My MoBo also died after 2 month.

 

If we hve two persons with the same problem within two months, is not a coincidence anymore.

 

We also have about 20 people with MoBo failure through all the time ifl90 is being shifted. pukemon must have meant that his mobo just died, not certainly cause of v1.16.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't blame the BIOS. My mobo is fine and hopefully continue this way, because I don't feel like spending $2k every year.

 

methinks it wasn't bios issue like you said. i do think i got a bad motherboard. and to wirelessman. i certainly don't think 2 peeps with same problem in 2 months is a widespread problem. even moreso when neither one of us is sure why motherboard poopooed on us. if alot and i mean alot more peeps complained of motherboard dying, i would be concerned. i do wonder if bios had anything to do with it, which i'm leaning against, because bios is official, rather than unofficial/meant for another computer. methinks the most likely situation is compal might be pushing out bad jfl92 boards and hasn't got a hold of it yet, but on the other hand, i haven't seen enough complaints to even warrant that thought yet.

 

This can also be the reworked series, when the new JFL92 replaced the older IFL90 the mainboard needed the new Thermal Sensor.
Compal redisgned just some parts tested this and delivered this to the vendor who sold the machine with the new JFL92 or SRR but just with the modded mobo to support the penryn.

 

That's exactly what I was afraid of, that's why some vendors have no problem with replacing them.

 

I meant that the MoBo's were dying just fine long age before BIOS v1.16 showed up. Well my MoBo was certainly bad from the very first day I got it.

 

I thought Compal had a good reputation, mobos dying just like that it doesn't sound like something good or normal.

 

I have 2 BTO notebooks both are based on the Compal mainboard IFL90 & JFL92.
The BTO 15W25A+ (Compal IFL90) is 1,5 years old and still running fine with BIOS version 1.16.
The BTO 15W26A+ (Compal JFL92) is 4month old and still running fine with BIOS version 1.16.
Never had any issues with them or the BIOS or the CPU, and believe me I tested them and have done more with it then others.

 

That sounds normal to me. When my other laptop stoped working I right away assumed it was the mobo, but it turned out that the video card wasn't connected properly, that was the whole problem.

 

The failure rate on Compal motherboards is approximately .01% - one tenth of one percent!

Consider that there are hundreds of thousands of the (H)EL80/81, (I)FL90/91, and (J)FL92 models out there, so less than a handful, or even two hands full, of failed motherboards reported here needs to be put into perspective.

 

Thank you Don, the 0.01% is very good.

 

My friends call me Donald, and you are welcome to do the same

 

Donald, correct Compal isn't having any issue with the Compal IFL90 or the new JFL92 series regarding mainboard issues.
Like I posted mine are running fine and believe me I have done some crazy stuff with it.

 

Sorry, Don Donald

 

otay. mcdonald. i'm lovin' it.