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Igel H820C Firmware 

BIOS

The IGEL H820C has an American Megatrends BIOS. Hit the DEL key to get into the BIOS. On the Main screen mine included:

BIOS Vendor                   American Megatrends
Core Version                  4.6.5.3
Compliency                    UEFI 2.3; PI 1.2
Project version               CU82 0.22 x64
Build Date and Time           05/08/2013

If you select Main -> System Information you get:

Manufacture Name              IGEL Technology GmbH
Product Name                  IGEL H820C
Serial Number                 14D3......
UUID                          4C6C......
MAC Address                   00-E0-.....
BIOS DATE                     05/08/2013
BIOS VERSION                  V:8.2.131-05082013

The BIOS is straightforward with the usual selection of basic (but not extensive) items you can change. For example:

Advanced -> CPU lets you enable/disable Intel Virtualisation Technology.

Advanced -> POWER various wake-up events.

The one I had the most trouble with was Boot.

In the first instance this was not helped by having a slightly dodgy connection to the two USB ports on the front panel. Having discovered that I ignored them and used the ones on the rear.

On the face of it if you go into this option the BIOS will present an ordered list of the bootable options it finds. You then use the + and - keys to alter the order. There is no option to select the type of boot - legacy, UEFI or both. It looks like it might be set to 'both'.

The relevant part of the screen looks like this:

Boot Option Priorities
Boot Option #1                          [P2: TS2GSSD25H-S    ...]

Here we have just the internal flash. After plugging in a 4GB SanDisk USB flash drive set up for UEFI booting:

Boot Option Priorities
Boot Option #1                          [P2: TS2GSSD25H-S    ...]
Boot Option #2                          [UEFI: SanDisk Cruze ...]
Boot Option #3                          [UEFI: SanDisk Cruze ...]

Why two entries?

After replacing the UEFI formatted drive by a normal legacy formatted drive I got no change:

Boot Option Priorities
Boot Option #1                          [P2: TS2GSSD25H-S    ...]
Boot Option #2                          [UEFI: SanDisk Cruze ...]
Boot Option #3                          [UEFI: SanDisk Cruze ...]

With just an old normal legacy formatted drive:

Boot Option Priorities
Boot Option #1                          [Generic Flash Disk  ...]
Boot Option #2                          [UEFI: Generic Flash ...]
Boot Option #3                          [UEFI: Generic Flash ...]

I got totally confused by (a) the list it presented me with (at one point it wasn't finding the on-board flash module although it was there), and (b) What it actually decided to boot. (It often ignored anything I had plugged in and put to the top of the list and just went ahead and booted from the on-board flash).

You may be lucky and yours may behave. If you run into trouble one thing that may help might be:

  • Turn the power off and remove the internal flash and any USB drive(s).
  • Power up. (My H820C automatically booted into the BIOS).
  • Save settings and switch the power off.
  • Add internal flash and USB drive
  • Power up.

At this point you hopefully just have the two devices listed. Put the USB drive at the top of the list, cross your fingers and hope....

 


Any comments? email me. Added February 2022