Hot Swapping

**Idontknow** · November 7th, 2003, 10:29 AM

Hi all,

I,ve been hearing about hot swaping to flash a BIOS. I am going to try this. I have a ASUS A7V333 that went defunct. I read Ruslan's article (wish he's here). ASUS tech support keep telling me to try the things that I've already done and have no result. I understand that this BIOS is a 2MB flash ROM. Do I have to do the swaping with another board that has a 2MB BIOS? I have an old ASUS TX97-XV mobo but this is an old Pentium board with Intel chipsets and a 1 MB BIOS ROM. Will this board work? Also, I heard that you need an ISA video card, which I don't have. The TX97 has built-in video, will that work? I have an old PCI video card that I want to use in lieu of an ISA video card, will that work also. My last resort will be to ask a friend to use his ASUS board for the flash. I understand that pulling the BIOS out after booting to DOS shouldn't damage the BIOS. Is there anything else I should be aware of?

Thanks for the assistance.

**NooNoo** · November 7th, 2003, 10:44 AM

privat message (pm button) either Garak or Ruslan. You should be able to get answers from them - please post them when you do!!

**TripleRLtd** · November 7th, 2003, 11:12 AM

I have to admit that I am wondering more about the details you have left out.
The board bit the dust? Or do you think and want to make sure that it might be just a hosed Bios?
If in fact it is the Bios flash rom you can buy them online.
I would want a compatible one for the board in question, not just any old bios.
Although that is a current debate.
Yes, PM Ruslan.

**Idontknow** · November 7th, 2003, 02:19 PM

Thanks NooNoo & tripleRLtd, as for the detail

Here is part of my previous post:

"Need some serious help here. It all started when my DVD ROM was detected intermittenly on my AMD Athlon XP1900+ with an ASUS A7V333 mobo with MSI Geforce4 TX4200 video card. Then the DVD disappeared. Now, the system does not bbot at all. The power light comes on. No display, no beep, cpu fan is on. Nothing else. Seems like BIOS has disappeared. "

I can press the power button to turn it off or press reset to restart. But I can't get it to start at all. I tested the CPU in another ASUS board and it is working. Seems like BIOS is in chaos but the board itself seems functional. I figure if I can flash the BIOS, may be I can get it to boot up and see if the mobo is working. I hate to just give up and get a new board without exhausted all my options. Right now hot swapping looks feasible.

If you any other suggestions, I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

**freddy** · November 7th, 2003, 03:28 PM

am using one of those boards on another machine ,,,,can,t get to it now ,,,,but i,m sure that the bios is a funny square one ,,with pins on all four sides

very aukward to remove ,,,,

think im right ,,,,,,but double check please

cheers alan

**freddy** · November 7th, 2003, 03:38 PM

heres a link to a piccy of your board http://www.asus.com/products/mb/sock...3/a7v333_l.jpg ,,,,double check . but i think im right ,,,re the size etc ,,,,right click /save them enlarge the piccy

cheers alan

**TripleRLtd** · November 7th, 2003, 03:49 PM

Originally Posted by freddy

heres a link to a piccy of your board http://www.asus.com/products/mb/sock...3/a7v333_l.jpg ,,,,double check . but i think im right ,,,re the size etc ,,,,right click /save them enlarge the piccy

cheers alan

But what is your point freddy?
You saying it can't be done?

**TripleRLtd** · November 7th, 2003, 03:53 PM

Originally Posted by Idontknow

Thanks NooNoo & tripleRLtd, as for the detail

Here is part of my previous post:

"Need some serious help here. It all started when my DVD ROM was detected intermittenly on my AMD Athlon XP1900+ with an ASUS A7V333 mobo with MSI Geforce4 TX4200 video card. Then the DVD disappeared. Now, the system does not bbot at all. The power light comes on. No display, no beep, cpu fan is on. Nothing else. Seems like BIOS has disappeared. "

I can press the power button to turn it off or press reset to restart. But I can't get it to start at all. I tested the CPU in another ASUS board and it is working. Seems like BIOS is in chaos but the board itself seems functional. I figure if I can flash the BIOS, may be I can get it to boot up and see if the mobo is working. I hate to just give up and get a new board without exhausted all my options. Right now hot swapping looks feasible.

If you any other suggestions, I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

Was this from a previous thread here?
If so what recommendations did you get?
From what you describe, sounds like more than the bios.
I appreciate the fact that you want to try everything, so try here:
http://www.firmware.com/

**TripleRLtd** · November 7th, 2003, 03:54 PM

PS
I seem to remeber you.
Are you related to Ya_Know?

**Idontknow** · November 7th, 2003, 05:01 PM

Thanks Freddy and tripleRLtd. I guess what Freddy is trying to say is that if the BIOS is surface mounted, then I am out of luck. There is no way I can take out that chip if it is surface mounted.

Yes TripleRLtd, that was from my previous post titled "Motherboard Does Not Boot". Basically, RMA is the answer. But if I can try other means, I will. And sorry, I don't know ya_know.

Thanks for the advise.

**Garak** · November 8th, 2003, 08:25 PM

So, is the BIOS Chip surface mounted or is it socketed?

Just curious

**Idontknow** · November 9th, 2003, 01:02 AM

HI all,

I chanked and the BIOS is socketed. It is square, much smaller than the rectangular ones. I was going to use an ASUS A7S266 motherboard but that one has a regular ones with the pins. The new square one has the small pins on the side of the chip (instead of the bottom) and on all four sides.

It wasn't that hard to get it out but has to be very careful. Got to use a small glass screw driver. The socket is very fragile. I downloaded the latest BIOS from ASUS. The zip file also contains aflash.exe. I was able to use an ASUS A8VX-X motherboard to flash the BIOS.

Hook up cpu, memory, PCI video card and floppy. Boot using floppy. Hot Swap BIOS. Run Aflash. However, there are only two options from the Aflash problem: save the old bios and flash without replacing boot block and ESD(?). The flash was completed. However, motherboard still won't boot. No display, no beep. I guess it is save to conclude that the motherboard is dead

. Time for a new board unless there is anything else I could try.

Thank you all for your help.

**Idontknow** · November 9th, 2003, 01:03 AM

PS...I did see some older ASUS boards with the surface mounted BIOS.

**silencio** · November 9th, 2003, 03:22 AM

I tried this once and wound up frying two bios chips. You might have better luck though.

**Garak** · November 9th, 2003, 02:21 PM

Originally Posted by Idontknow

Hook up cpu, memory, PCI video card and floppy. Boot using floppy. Hot Swap BIOS. Run Aflash. However, there are only two options from the Aflash problem: save the old bios and flash without replacing boot block and ESD(?). The flash was completed. However, motherboard still won't boot. No display, no beep. I guess it is save to conclude that the motherboard is dead

. Time for a new board unless there is anything else I could try.

Thank you all for your help.

Rather than using aflash, try using AMIFlash like i noted in my PM, sorry I didn't get round to finishing that. you can e-mail me at [email protected] if you want more help / advise.

Cya.. and good luck.

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