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Optoma ST320E 

Optoma ST320E BIOS

bios

The Optoma ST320E BIOS screen on power-up/reset

The Optoma ST320E has a standard ExpressROM BIOS. In theory you should be able to hit the F1 key repeatedly on power-up in order get into the BIOS setup screens. I failed to do this, but this might be due to the way this particular one is configured.

Anyway I have discovered that it will boot off a hard disk if one is connected to the IDE connector without any further changes. Note the display above shows the fact that I've swapped the original 64MB SODIMM for a 128MB SODIMM.

I know of one person who has successfully overwritten the BIOS with the AMD "reference BIOS". Unfortunately this reference BIOS seems to be no longer available.

As Optoma's Thin Client division is apparently no more there are no on-line support resources that I've been able to find.

Fujitsu Siemens Futro B100

On power-up these units briefly put up the message "Bios scan..." before booting eLux. The only keyboard action I've found that does anything is the F1 key which drops it into a PXE ROM for network booting.

Setting up my PXE testbed as described for the Wyse WT3150SE let me boot and run Tinycore 2.10 via Grub2pxe.

[May 2014] A while ago Fujitsu Siemens restructured their website. It looks like navigation these days utilises a cookie stored within your web browser that identifies where you are/what you're looking for. I can no longer find explicit URLs to the resources mentioned below and so have removed the (broken) links. You'll have to navigate through their system yourself.

There is a eLux Recovery document on the fujitsu website that includes the description:

"Plug in the keyboard, monitor and power then switch the client on, almost straight away (or when prompted, if enabled) use the <Shift> + <F10> keys to enter the BIOS."

Shift/F10 did nothing.

Fujitsu do have a support site with a little information. Primarily it redirects you myelux.unicon-software.com (used to be www.myelux.com) which is for the Linux firmware on the unit. Here you will find that the eLux was superceded by eLux NG some time ago, and in its turn it has been superceded by eLux RL. Support for eLux NG is being dropped in December 2010. The "Download" link for updates for NG actually takes you to eLux RL which does not support the B100.

The Downloads page on Fujitsu's site does provide the latest (last!) B100 Bios - v1.04 05/02/2003. The self-extracting archive does offer you the option of just extracting the files rather than having to create a boot floppy first.

General Points

I do not know how the behaviour of the BIOS is controlled. Examining the board the only non-volatile storage I'm aware of is the battery-backed RAM in the SuperIO chip. The units I have all had dead batteries and so this wasn't actually fulfilling any useful function. Tracking this down may be slightly academic as, by default, they do just boot from what ever is connected to the IDE interface.

The Futro BIOS includes the PXE boot option which the Optoma one doesn't. If you have an Optoma ST320E and want to switch BIOSes you can download the Futro BIOS, boot Linux, and use the flashrom application to update it. (Flashrom can also save your previous BIOS for you).

 


Any comments? email me.    Last update May 2010