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BIOS Flashing Gone Bad!


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33 replies to this topic

#21 Lin

Posted 04 September 2006 - 09:54 PM

You can buy a USB floppy drive for about $20, I believe...and I'm pretty sure it will boot from it.

#22 Uncle Bill

Posted 04 September 2006 - 10:49 PM

If hes doing a BIOS recovery, usb will not work. The only way to recover a dead one is thru floppy, if possible, but in this case it doesnt sound like it is.

#23 Why Two Kay

Posted 04 September 2006 - 11:14 PM

If hes doing a BIOS recovery, usb will not work. The only way to recover a dead one is thru floppy, if possible, but in this case it doesnt sound like it is.


Even with a floppy.. the computer will not boot TO the floppy (or to anything, since it doesn't know how to boot) so it wouldn't be able to do anything.

#24 Lin

Posted 04 September 2006 - 11:14 PM

Bugger :(

#25 Uncle Bill

Posted 04 September 2006 - 11:59 PM


If hes doing a BIOS recovery, usb will not work. The only way to recover a dead one is thru floppy, if possible, but in this case it doesnt sound like it is.


Even with a floppy.. the computer will not boot TO the floppy (or to anything, since it doesn't know how to boot) so it wouldn't be able to do anything.

Ok, I just talked to a cow-oker of mine who has done this before. the funtion of the jumper bypasses the bios, and has the bios read directly off the floppy. then, it immediatly flashes the bios, with no prompt, video or otherwise, then reboots, and all is well. this all depends on whether the manufacturer has a dl-able package of files for this to be put on the floppy, and if it has a jumper. but if it has the jumper, it should have the propper package. the jumper is not a thing thats on every mobo, but i would check your manual, cause 3rd party are more likley to have one than my gateway generic mobo.

the computer is in no way booting from this floppy, its relearning how to by physically bypassing the bios, and rerounting the interaction through the floppy.

Edited by Uncle Bill, 05 September 2006 - 12:00 AM.


#26 Why Two Kay

Posted 05 September 2006 - 12:13 AM

Interesting... however I don't believe that jumper exists on my motherboard. I have only 2 sets of jumpers, one is the "clear CMOS" one, which resets the CMOS options to default, and the other enables/disables HyperTransport for my CPU.

Also ECS doesn't have any special files made for this function, and I would bet the bios rom has to be in a specific format on the disk or have a flashing program with it.

Thanks anyway.

#27 Doc_Savage

Posted 05 September 2006 - 03:07 AM

If the Bios chip went bad during the flash it is possible to replace it for a fairly reasonable cost, after all it is a removable chip lol well if you know how to use a soldering iron...lmao good luck Ryan, your going to need it.

http://www.badflash.com/

http://www.recoveryb...iosrecovery/En/

#28 Santano

Posted 10 September 2006 - 02:40 PM

Yesterday I decided to not take my own advice, again, and I decided to flash my BIOS just because. It was a new update, and I like new things. It was supposed to help improve transfer of USB2, and large files.

So, I decided to download the update, and use the Award WinFlash utility to do so. I have used it 3 times in the past on this very motherboard and it has gone A-OK.

I started up the flashing utility, and chose the .bin file they gave me. It said it was good to go, so I clicked the go button. It sat and flashed the DMI, then the main BIOS. The main BIOS took about 5 minutes. It reached 100% fine, and then began to "verify" it. However, that verification at 2% said "error: bios verify! 1".

I thought "OMG" and decided to try and place the old BIOS back (which I happened to back up, go me). It flashed, all went A-OK again, but it "verify error" at 2% again. Argh.

I decided to delete all the files, and download a new copy of the BIOS update. I did so, and it installed fine. However, it still "verify error" at 2%.

So, my computer works fine right now. But I am afraid to reboot for fear I have owned the BIOS, and I will no longer be able to boot. I have homework to do, so I'm not risking it just yet.

Any ideas/advice?

The motherboard is:
>ECS NForce4-A939 (v1.0)<

The old BIOS was: 1.1g
The new BIOS is: 1.1k
(yes, that is the next step up in line)



Call them.

#29 volcom

Posted 10 September 2006 - 03:56 PM

Use the jumpers or take out your battery for 5 minutes

#30 TheL3gend

Posted 10 September 2006 - 03:59 PM

Use the jumpers or take out your battery for 5 minutes


The battery will just clear the CMOS, which is quite different from the BIOS.

#31 Why Two Kay

Posted 13 September 2006 - 08:59 PM

WE HAVE A SITUATION HERE.

My computer just decided to crash.

The BIOS IS bad.

I can not boot.

HOWEVER!

It is asking for a disk in drive a:

I assume this will fix things.

I MIGHT be able to come up with a disk drive and disk tonight.

I am not sure.

BUT I NEED ASSISTANCE FINDING OUT WHAT I NEED TO PUT ONTO THIS DISK TO GET IT TO WORK.

ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED.

(I have homework to do....)

#32 Lin

Posted 13 September 2006 - 09:11 PM

I flashed my BIOS, and now the system is dead!

Explanation: The system BIOS is the key piece of software responsible for booting your PC. Incorrectly flashing it will often cause the PC to fail to boot.

Diagnosis: The cause is usually flashing the wrong BIOS image file into the BIOS chip. This happens more often than you'd think, since most flash programs are not intelligent and will allow you to program the wrong BIOS code into the chip. The BIOS corruption can also result from an error or interruption during any BIOS flashing procedure. Finally, some new viruses can corrupt the system BIOS.

Recommendation:

* Some newer PCs come with a boot block feature that enables them to recover from a corrupted BIOS situation. If the BIOS code is whacked, a tiny built-in program will look on the floppy drive for the appropriate files to reload the BIOS. You should contact the manufacturer for instructions.
* You can usually purchase a replacement BIOS chip from the motherboard (not BIOS) manufacturer. Physically replacing the chip with another that has the right code will solve the problem.
* See this section of Wim's BIOS FAQ for other ideas on how to recover from this situation. Warning: Some of the procedures described on Wim's page are not for the faint of heart, especially hot-swapping BIOS chips, which has the (low, but non-zero) potential to cause injury or damage.
http://www.ping.be/bios/HTML1/faq.html (dead link)



#33 Why Two Kay

Posted 13 September 2006 - 09:36 PM

YES YES YES YES YES IT WORKS.

IT WORKS!

THANK YOU TO BOOTDISK.COM!!!!!!

http://bootdisk.com/

The second download Driver Free Disk For BIOS Flashing

It was a copy of DR-DOS (kinda like MS-DOS)

And it used 200k of a floppy disk.

So I could put my BIOS files on it.

AND IT WORKED.

I am back on version "G" AND I WILL NOT EVER FLASH THIS UNTIL I NEED TO.

REMEMBER THAT PEOPLE:

Do not flash unless you REALLY REALLY need to!

To all those who I doubted saying that I wouldn't even be able to use a floppy disk: I WAS WRONG!

You can boot to a floppy disk if there is no BIOS.


In the end I lasted about 11 days without a reboot.

And crashed from some page/swap file issue when posting -->This Post<--

#34 Uncle Bill

Posted 14 September 2006 - 08:45 PM

Glad it all worked out :grphug:
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3 CHEERS FOR THE FLOP!


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