Flashed wrong version of BIOS! How make it right?
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  1. #1
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    Flashed wrong version of BIOS! How make it right?

    Hi,

    my friend bought a new HD 160 GB, and his computer doesn't recognize it. so i thought i should update the BIOS. His motherboard is an ASUS P4B266. I searched in google about BIOS update for this motherboard and landed on a site where there are a lot of BIOS updates, drivers and so on.

    But then i mistook the BIOS update for Asus P2B and installed it on his comp. now his comp won't start at all. If i turn the comp on the screen stay blank without any letters or cursors and the motherboard doesn't beep at all.

    What can i do so i can install the right BIOS on his computer or to install the previous version? (i made a backup before, but i can't flash this backup unless i can get the to the DOS prompt)

    I tried to remove the bios battery for an hour, but it's still the same. I tried to look in the manual for the jumper to clear RTC RAM, but the jumper doesn't exist on his motherboard although the manual says that it should be there... (but i guess it's only for reseting the time and configuration, not the BIOS. right?)

    I really appreciate any help

    thx

  2. #2
    Banned TripleRLtd's Avatar
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    Welcome to WD ThienZ.
    Bummer that, but you can recover from this.
    Ruslan, our resident MB/Bios specialist recommended this in another thread:
    Quote Originally Posted by Ruslan
    I can help you to fix that board (if it just only corrupted BIOS chip - it shouldn't present a problem)...
    First of all, take a closer look, may be BIOS is still alive (boot-block, at least), and trying to boot from floppy to re-flash BIOS back...
    In this case you'll see nothing on screen (unless you're using an old ISA videocard instead of AGP card)... Keyboard and mouse are not accessible also, so, everything should be done in unattended mode... Make a bootable floppy using another PC (www.bootdisk.com may be helpful here), put awdflash and BIOS file on floppy and make appropriate autoexec.bat to flash BIOS automatically without pressing any key... You can find examples on bootdisk.com also...

    Even if BIOS is completely dead, I still can re-program that chip for you as last resort... But you should be able to do it yourself...
    Also, check the "Bios Blunder" thread right under yours in this same forum for the link to "Bios Recovery Tips". Here it is:
    http://www.bev.me.uk/ruslan/Updated_...overy_tips.htm
    Good luck

    PS
    If you are uncomfortable with all of this, you can still order a replacement chip.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by TripleRLtd
    Welcome to WD ThienZ.
    Bummer that, but you can recover from this.
    Ruslan, our resident MB/Bios specialist recommended this in another thread:
    Also, check the "Bios Blunder" thread right under yours in this same forum for the link to "Bios Recovery Tips". Here it is:
    http://www.bev.me.uk/ruslan/Updated_...overy_tips.htm
    Good luck

    PS
    If you are uncomfortable with all of this, you can still order a replacement chip.
    thx TripleRltd for the nice welcome and fast reply

    i read Ruslan's article, but have some questions here, hope you can help (it seems to be simple, but i'm really new in programming BIOS chips... )

    the first step says :
    Quote Originally Posted by Ruslan's article
    Boot ASUS motherboard in test bench (without case) in DOS command prompt mode without any drivers.
    how can i boot the motherboard if it stays blank on starting and the floppy doesn't work either...
    or does he mean that i should start another motherboard?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ruslan's article
    Pull carefully original BIOS out from motherboard and insert BIOS IC You want to flash (hot-swap).
    I'm not sure which of the parts is the BIOS IC... Maybe I'm gonna take a picture of it and hang it here, see if it's the right thing

    thx

  4. #4
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    http://user.cs.tu-berlin.de/~rmazores/pic/biosmobo.jpg

    in the manual :
    12 - Flash EEPROM
    13 - South bridge controller
    14 - ASUS ASIC

    is the BIOS that i should remove 12?
    Last edited by ThienZ; July 31st, 2004 at 05:38 PM.

  5. #5
    Banned TripleRLtd's Avatar
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    You are welcome, and if you are going to try this, you can thank Ruslan, especially.
    1> Yes, he means a different mb: a "test" bed to perform the procedure.
    2> The Bios "chip" is the one in the first picture in the Tips article. Yours will have a label on it as well, such as "Award" or "AMI" or such.
    Listen, I will PM Rus, but understand it is a weekend, and tell your friend that the board/BIOS is recoverable.

    PS
    The problem you originally had would have been the OS most likely not seeing the large hard drive, or do you mean the Bios did not recognize the drive? If that was the case, the Asustek site would have linked to a bios update which would have recognized the large drive and told you the new bios "flash" added support for them. Oh, well. XP sp1 added support for larger than 137 gig drives.

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    Quote Originally Posted by TripleRLtd
    2> The Bios "chip" is the one in the first picture in the Tips article. Yours will have a label on it as well, such as "Award" or "AMI" or such.

    PS
    The problem you originally had would have been the OS most likely not seeing the large hard drive, or do you mean the Bios did not recognize the drive? If that was the case, the Asustek site would have linked to a bios update which would have recognized the large drive and told you the new bios "flash" added support for them. Oh, well. XP sp1 added support for larger than 137 gig drives.
    thx again TripleRLtd for the fast reply,

    in his mobo, he doesn't have anything with "award" label on it (his bios is award), but in the manual there is this text :
    Quote Originally Posted by Mobo manual
    12 - Flash EEPROM. This 2Mb firmware contains the programmable BIOS program
    So i think it's the Bios chip? How can i remove it without breaking it..? I'm a little bit afraid that i'll break it if i use some power to pull it out... ^^;;;

    The original problem was that the bios recognized the 160GB drive as a 8GB drive (LOL), and in windows (ME) it's not recognized at all (it doesn't show up in the drives list), but maybe it's because i didn't format it at first? (i usually format and used fdisk to make partition, i never use windows to make it )

    Another question about hot swaping, i read another article in internet, that hot swaping requires Bios caching. If the caching is not activated, the computer tends to read to the Bios all the time, and if the chip is removed it is going to crash. How can i activate the Bios caching?

    Thx
    Last edited by ThienZ; July 31st, 2004 at 06:09 PM.

  7. #7
    Registered User Ruslan's Avatar
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    Guten Abend, ThienZ !
    That's the BIOS chip, you're correct...
    There is quite a few revisions of that board, http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/download.aspx
    Make sure you have correct one...
    By the way, the latest BIOS updates for ASUS boards (even beta-versions, not listed on official Taiwanese site) I usually I'm downloading for German ASUS ftp site... ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub
    But today many of ASUS servers are not available for some reasons... may be maitenance os something else...
    Regarding hot-swaps and your question regarding BIOS caching - it is good to have it enabled, but many of modern BIOSes have no such an option (BIOS caching) - probably it is already enabled by default... (BIOS shadowing (into RAM) does almost the same, just only RAM is slower)... But I've never actually used that option (at least, didn't pay attention at all), and everything was fine...
    Another issue - you have BIOS chip in PLCC case, so, probably you'll need PLCC-to-DIP converter (mentioned in my topic) to re-flash it in another motherboard (most of older motherboards have DIP32-case BIOSes). It is possible to make hot-swap in PLCC socket, but it is much easier (and much safer) to do it in DIP socket...
    It is 2 Mbit BIOS, so, it shouldn't be problem to find the motherboard with 2 Mbit BIOS to use as a host for hot-swap...
    If you cannot do it yourself, don't give up, I can do it for you , but it will take time (and money)...
    Good luck!

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