Phoon

Join Date 10/2001

+382

The Evil Nasty Bios Flash (Part 1)

So... you want to be a "hip" kind of computer geek and have the latest and greatest bios update for your motherboard. Being what I consider, fairly competent in such matters, you go to the manufacturers web site, you READ CAREFULLY, and download the lates flash for your particular motherboard.
You proceed with the excruciating task of formatting the floppy..(after you find one buried in the mass of rubble which vaguely resembles a horizontal disaster zone), copy the flash utility and the bios update. You answer the $64 question of "Do you want to backup your existing bios?" with a resounding yes.. your !@#$% right I wanna back it up.
Well, all purrs along with splendid efficiency. You achieve the desired message of successfull upgrade.
You proceed to power off the system. Eagarly, with chronic heart palpitations, you depress the power button to re-activate your life's blood ......

Now, did I forget to mention that it may not be a good idea to jump from a version 1001.A to a version 1009, and totaly bypass the available 1006 version?

Needless to say, the result of the entire process resulted in a black screen of death. This is a dreaded black and empty screen which produces no results what-so-ever. No boot screen, no anything at all except a massive inverse dialation of ones eyballs, an extreme puckering of most orifaces that the body contains, and a hollowed out feeling in the pit of your stomach.

Guess what I will be shopping for tomorrow!!!

The moral of the story: Don't flash your bios unless something just isn't working properly!

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Join Date 03/2001

+23

I tought that you could remove bios and replace em if nesscary, such as bad flash?

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Sad story... but nicely written

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CerebroJD

Join Date 01/2003

!@#$%

Excellent use of vocabulary!

Bummer about the BIOS though.

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Yeah, verily, those who would traverse the Valley of the BIOS Flash must be stout of heart and strong of faith.

(It helps to have an MSI motherboard like mine...their flash utility works flawlessly).

Kinda strange why they ask you if you want to back up your BIOS, isn't it? If your BIOS gets borked up, there's absolutely NOTHING to be done about it...except to replace the BIOS chip in the motherboard.
[Message Edited]

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See, this is why I WANTED a Gigabyte motherboard in my system. All GB boards have this feature called Dual BIOS, which means if you screw up the first one by overclocking or flashing, the board will switch to the second one. Handy.

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Phoon

Join Date 10/2001

+382

All is well at last. I purchased a used Abit board with 2 raid channels on it.
So at last, the orifaces return to normal state, and the body begins to function properly...
However, XP gets pretty @#$% ( for you Çërêb®øJÐ ) when you install a new motherboard.
Seems it found my NIC on a different address than was used before, but refused to actually remove the old one, nor did it want to release the IP address I had originaly assigned to it.
This kind of thing will get under my skin and make my teeth itch !! So, now I am in the process of ye ole' "format c:\"

[Message Edited]

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I love reading your PC troubles Phoon, you put it so eloquently. "except a massive inverse dialation of ones eyballs"

It definately sucks that you got these problems

I flashed a BIOS once, but then I got a ticket for indecent exposure.

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2 words: EPROM Programmer

Buy, beg, borrow, steal one and someone who knows how to drive one.

I'm lucky enough to have one at work. For those who don't know what it's for... it can be used to backup the entire bios chip to a file (before flashing) by physically removing the chip from the mobo and inserting into the programmer and performing a read.

Then do the flash upgrade as per your downloaded instructions.

If it goes t*ts up, take the chip out of the mobo again, erase it in the programmer and reburn the saved file you made earlier.

These flash bioses are a godsend for that (eraseable

). Previously you had to get a new, blank version of your bios chip whcih meant time & expense because they were only one-time-progammable.

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I was going to flash my bios once...then, thought better of it.
Thank Goodness!

Maybe I'll do it when I need a new pc....Oh! look honey, It's broke

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Well, Phoon, help me out here... upgrading your BIOS:
Why do it?

What effect does it have on the OS?

Thanks!
-- Computer Illiterate in NY

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Joe - here's a good rule of thumb when it comes to bios...if there's nothing wrong with your system (i.e. motherboard), do not go looking for a bios update. It will enhance nothing. If. however, you were to install a new video card, memory,etc as an upgrade, the motherboard might not support it in the original bios, then a bios update might. In any event, all bios updates are inclusive, so you have to look at each bios update to see what that bios contains. Only flash the version you need. If it doesn't state a fix for any component or problem you have, stay away from them.

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Phoon

Join Date 10/2001

+382

Alas..don't you hate those "wild hairs" that sprout up sometime..

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I was told by my professor at ITT that alot of websites now have a way that it checks your bios and updates it from the site. But you already tried to flash it so I'm not sure if that would help you now. I've flashed mine 3 times already manually. There is a way that you could get it back to maybe working. See if you can get into your setup in your CMOS at least. Then what you do is try clicking on either set to best performance or default settings. I had to do this when I messed up mine once. It fixed mine. And still updated the chip. This is a suggestion to maybe prevent you from buying a new MB.

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O', that website update I think only works on new MBs also. So, if you have a older one then I don't think it would work.

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I reread your message again. Try taking out the battery or see if there is a jumper on your MB and try resetting the CMOS also. Your Bios does have some ways to getting rid of a bad update. Did you check to see if the website had info on what to do if you flashed it wrong?

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Weaksid just thought about it, maybe I should see if there is a new update for mine.

Weaksid thinks again a little harder. Hmm, my board might be done with updates, it's too dang old.

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