Problem with Latest VIA EPIA BIOS

[Bill Sanders]

I recently discovered that there is a new BIOS and driver for the display adapter on the VIA EPIA M10000. The BIOS file is named I0100116.bin, the driver version is 6.14.10.133. The BIOS is not yet available on the official VIA web site, but there is a discussion and a download link on the VIA support web site.

The good news is that is has more flexible video size adjustments.

The bad news is that it does not seem compatible with the CyberLink MPEG decoder. After installing the new BIOS and driver, the CyberLink driver would no longer use the hardware MPEG decoder on the EPIA motherboard. Playing an MPEG file with both PowerDVD and BTV totally maxed-out my CPU. So much so that it was difficult the stop the playback - Windows was almost totally unresponsive.

Switching back to the official BIOS (I0100113.bin) and driver instantly cured the problem.

When the BIOS/driver are officially released (if ever), they may have fixed this. However, be warned if you try to use it now. I was also testing the latest BTV 3.5 beta at the same time and looked for the problem there. As a result, I wasted mucho time.