Hot Swapping

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.

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

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.https://forums.windrivers.com/images.../2006/04/1.gif

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!

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

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

Quote:

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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

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

Quote:

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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!

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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/

PS
I seem to remeber you.
Are you related to Ya_Know?https://forums.windrivers.com/images.../2005/03/1.gif

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.

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

Just curious

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. :)

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

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

Quote:

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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. :)

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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.

Thanks for the warning Silencio. Put the BIOS back into the AV8X-X and the machine booted fine.

Garak, it was a little funny when I see that the boot block will not be touched. Is that BIOS an AMI or Award chip? The BIOS file end with .AWD. That means its a Award BIOS. Can you use AMIflash to flash an Award BIOS? If it is possible, I am going to try again. Just ordered a new ASUS A8VX-X as a replacement. I might as well try again.

Thanks for your help!

Yup, I found it hard to beleive also, but the AMIflash is just programming software, all it does is read and write from the chip, certain versions support certain chips, I tend to find 853 or 864 do the job for most, although 826 is my knew found love.. supports nearly all the chips I use :thumbs2: Feel free to ask any questions, I will answer what I can :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Idontknow

Thanks for the warning Silencio. Put the BIOS back into the AV8X-X and the machine booted fine.

Garak, it was a little funny when I see that the boot block will not be touched. Is that BIOS an AMI or Award chip? The BIOS file end with .AWD. That means its a Award BIOS. Can you use AMIflash to flash an Award BIOS? If it is possible, I am going to try again. Just ordered a new ASUS A8VX-X as a replacement. I might as well try again.

Thanks for your help!

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Sorry to be late, ;-) , but I will try to answer some of the questions...

You don't have to look for new MB just to reflash flash BIOS in PLLC32 (small square) case :-)... All you need is just only PLCC32-to-DIP32 converter usually used for universal EEPROM programmers, so you can use any of your an old motherboards with 2 Mbit BIOS (yeah, it should be 2 Mbit) ...
You can find them on Internet sold separately ... or just ask me - I started to build and sell them recently (6 USD + shipping)... :D ;-)

Aflash is it great flash utility made by ASUS and works ONLY for ASUS boards.
AMIflash is cool and universal utility for all non-ASUS boards...
AMIflash can be working incorrectly with ASUS boards because of non-standard I/O ports used by ASUS BIOS software... not always, but sometimes it can happen...

About your problematic MB - far not always it can be defective BIOS causing motherboard won't boot... BIOS chip problem is the easiest to fix, by the way, (if you know how to do it, of course)... but quite often it can be problem with voltage regulator IC (especially after PSU's failure). So, I would check also all the voltages coming to the CPU, memory, AGP slot and so on...

Feel free to ask me any questions... ;)

https://forums.windrivers.com/images.../2005/03/1.gifhttps://forums.windrivers.com/images.../2005/03/1.gif
Ruslan and Garak come through!!!
Again.https://forums.windrivers.com/images.../2005/03/1.gif

For starters, be sure the video card is COMPLETELY seated. Take out the screw and push the card down firmly. Sorry if this sounds too obvious, but try it. An improperly seated card will produce these sysmptoms, and looks are deceiving. If that doesn't work, try to find a post card to pop in and check the readout. The problem may be different or more than a BIOS issue.

You can buy a BIOS chip for about $24 bucks plus shipping, but heck, you can find some great newer boards for $60 to $80 bucks with free shipping. Try http://newegg.com/

Thanks all. I already ordered an ASUS A8VX-X borad from Newegg. $59.99 plus free shipping. Not a bad deal :) .

I probably will use the AMIflash utility and try one more time before I call it quits. According to Ruslan, there is a chance of reflashing the BIOS using the AMIflash utility. It doesn't hurt to try it at this stage.

Thank you all again :thumbs: .

Will post result after trying.

Hi all,

I don't know if this can happened. Is it possible that the DVD ROM drive can cause the demise of the ASUS A7V333 motherboard? After I got the new ASUS A7V8X-X motherboard, I just reinstall everything instead of trying to flash the old BIOS from the dead board. Formatted HDD and install a fresh copy of Windows. After I loaded the Verizon software, the Sony DVD drive failed to be detected again. Then Windows failed to boot. Restore and restart, nothing. Disconnect Sony DVD, Windows noe started and everything seems OK. Could the plug and play electronic in the DVD be the culprit? I originally suspected the hard drive. Maybe someone can shine some light into this.

Thanks! :)

Software, It's got to be software... whats this Verzison software do? if it's DVD playback softwasre best advise would be buy something like Power DVD or WinDVD.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Garak

Software, It's got to be software... whats this Verzison software do? if it's DVD playback softwasre best advise would be buy something like Power DVD or WinDVD.

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Has he even installed any 'burning/dvd' stuff yet ?

More likely the dvd doesn't like its cable & the dma settings its getting 'back', windows has a disturbing habit of deciding it can't read cd/dvd stuff after it boots !? (it turns the transfer speed to off, instead of to PIO 0, which is 'slowest'. Using 40 sense cables not 'new' 80 sense ones 'helps' as well)

Try putting it on a seperate cable on it own, set in bios to pio only for best compatibility, windows is just 'not good' with this autosensing of dma business, not good at all, chipset patches play a part in this especially on via systems(this is one), if they ain't 'just so' you can have fun ... ;)

and check the jumper settings for the dvd. Yes it is possible that a bad logic board will upset the ide controllers. A bad floppy drive can do it sometimes.

Hi all,

Thanks for all the replies. To answer the questions:

The Verizon software is for the DSL service. It does not look to the DVD ROM. I am not using any DVD burning software (DVD burners are still expensive and the standards have not been finalized). I am using the the regular 40 wire cable, not like the hard drive's 80 wire. I've already tried a couple of different cables. Try setting the Sony DVD as master and slave but same result. I am currently replaced the Sony drive with an NEC 12X DVD ROM. I am going to try it for a few days and see. By the way, i am using Windows XP Pro.

Thanks for the help! :thumbs:

Hi all,

Just want to let you know that since I took out that Sony DVD Drive and replaced with the NEC DVD drive, there hasn't been any problems with the system. I have been using the system twice a day without any boot problem or windows problem. I am not sure, but that Sony DVD seems to be the problem for all the previous trouble. Thanks for all you help before.

:thumbs:

Well glad its fixed ! :thumbs: .. even if it meant getting another unit.

So either the unit was 'iffy' or your boards bios just didn't like it.

Thanks!

I think its the unit because it also wreck havok on another motherboard.

Thanks for all your help!

:thumbs: ;)