# AMI Legal BIOS



## Speedy (Jan 22, 2009)

Does anybody know what this word "Legal" is doing there? Some built-in restrictions in that BIOS? :q


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## fbsduser (Mar 8, 2009)

Pretty likelly (the famous foxconn scandal was actually that foxconn used AMI BIOS's without knowing that the BIOS's themselves had built-in restrictions agains't anything non-windoze.


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## Speedy (Mar 8, 2009)

Well, I wanted to buy that mobo, and asked this very question geeks.com tech department. They answered it works with any OS. So I bought it and it did not recognize any of my hard drives. I tried with three different ones. One had FBSD and two Linux partitions on it. I do have Windows install CD somewhere, but I did not have a spare HDD to play with Windows. With any of these HDDs connected it even did't go into BIOS setup. But it recognized [empty] CD drive. So I tried to boot with GRML CD. Guess what. As soon as kernel started loading it went rebooting and never came back again. Clearing CMOS didn't help.
RMA-d it. RIP. Amen.
Then I bought a m/b with similar BIOS from eBay. Exactly the same. Did not recognize any of my HDDs. Seller swore he tested it with Windows. Sent it back, too, as DOA. Seller tested it again and claimed it works ... with Windows.
Bought an MSI barebone with VIA C7 from Newegg, $89 after MIR. Cool, quiet, energy efficient, powerful enough to play HDTV (hardware iDCT), nice small case. I assume it must have an illegal BIOS, because it works like charm.


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