Bios help!

[djx81]

[b]I have a AI61 shuttle Mb i upgraded the bios , and while i was doing it my computer froze, rebboted and all i heard were beeping sounds and a blank screen.. i have no idea on what to do.. please help ..

[Bovon]

Ok, you have a failed flash. It happens to the best of us at times.

You can retry to flash it again..even if you cannot see whats going on. In most bios rom chips there is a special area that is not supposed to get over written that is called the boot block. If the bios has this, and it did not get wiped out in the flash attempt, it may allow a reflash. The boot block contains just enough programming to find the floppy drive.

What went wrong with your flash attempt may have been you had the wrong bios file. This is easy to do because there are so many different versions of most motherboards, and if you choose the wrong file...you are almost certain to cause a failed flash. Another reason for a flash to stop during a flash attempt is by using the wrong type of boot disk. A boot disk to flash a bios with should ONLY contain the bare minumum files necessary to boot to an A: prompt.... A pure DOS disk.

Before any flash, it is necessary to go into the working bios and disable any shadowing...bios or video, disable power management..then, you load bios defaults, save and exit...then do the flash.

I would suggest that you go to www.bootdisk.com and download DrDos7 bootdisk, extract the downloaded exe file to a floppy disk, put the flash utility file and the bios file on the disk, and then there are some commands to enter into the autoexec.bat file on the boot disk to make the flash go automatic.

Let us know when you are ready and setup to do this and we can give you the commands to enter in the autoexec.bat file.

If all else fails, and the reflash dosn't work...look at your bios chip to see if it is in a socket or soldered to the mainboard. If it is in a socket, you can get a new chip already programmed and replace your bad one. If your chip is soldered to the board...its a whole different ball game.

[djx81]

well the problem is that i cant even get to recognize the floppy drive.. while i was updating the bios the computer frooze.. i rebboted and now there is a post beep followed by nonending beeps like an alarmm.. i checked the cpu the heatsink the memory etc.. i guess iam screwded:((( there is nothing i can do if theres no floppy or cd drives working

[Bovon]

Does your motherboard have any ISA (long black) sockets under the PCI sockets?

Can you look at your motherboard and find the bios rom chip?

If you can find the chip, can you tell if it is in a socket or if it is soldered to the board.

Have you tried to reset the bios by using the jumper on the board to restore it to the defaults?.

How do you know its not recognizing the floppy drive?...do you have any video at all?..I know you said you have a blank screen, its still blank?

If you cannot get any video, there is still a possibility of reflashing the bios thro the bootblock programming if that wasn't also destroyed in the flash attempt.

Can you find and download a copy of the original bios file you had in the beginning?

Answer these questions, and we will go from there.

[felixoc]

Hey folks, this is my first post to this forum. If djx81 does not mind, I'd like to crash in and ask for assistance.

I'm having the same problem with my mobo. No beeps, but no POST either.
just blank screen.
It's a Biostar cheapie with onboard video and soldered award bios chip.
No activity from floppy drive.

It did boot briefly with a checksum error.
Website indicated a bad battery which was indeed dead, so I replaced it.
Since then nothing, even when I reset cmos.
I think the bootblock may be Ok and I have bios file and Dr.Dos 7 ready. Not sure how to edit autoexec file .

Any help is GREATLY appreciated!

[Bovon]

Whats the file names of your flasher and bios file. I can give you the data to put in the autoexec.bat if I know the file names.

If all this started on the board when it was new, and you had not done anything to cause it to happen (like a flash that didn't take, ect.) Maybe Biostar would replace it?...no harm in trying.

Have you tried to reset the bios back to the defaults with the clear bios jumper yet?.

[felixoc]

Thanks for you reply Bovon,

I've got the Award Flash Utility Version : 7.87D
and Bios Twg0514b.bin

I've tried the clear cmos jumper several times but I haven't touched the FHW write protection jumper. I believe it protects the boot block.

You're right, I was building a new system when this happened. Still no signs of life from the floppy drive so I'm not sure how to flash the bios from CD instead.
www.bootdisk.com may have some suggestions.

Anyway I wanted to try everything before I returned the board for repair.

[Bovon]

Ok, if your flash utility is actually named AWARD, and not AWDFLASH, Or some other variation, then substitute AWARD.EXE in place of AWDFLASH.EXE I have below. Thats why I needed the exact names of the flasher utility and the bios file name. (Sometimes, the flash utility is named Flash813.exe or some number. Its important that the statement in the autoexec.bat file contain the correct spelling.)

Once you have confirmed that the file names are correct, copy and paste the following command line into your autoexec.bat file, save and it will be ready to try the flash if the bootblock is still intact.

awdflash.exe Twg0514b.bin /py /sy /cc /cp /cd /sb /r

Go to the following thread and read it, there is some good examples in this thread as well as links ect.

http://www.sysopt.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=98927

Does your motherboard have any ISA sockets?

[felixoc]

Thanks again Bovon!

The thread you pointed me to was quite helpfull.

Nope, there's no ISA sockets on this board ( Biostar M6TWG rev 1.3 ) , only 3 PCI slots. This of corse, makes it extra hard to try a rescue.

Thanks to your last message , I now have a spiffy new flasher floppy disk. But since I can't get this thing to boot to bios,
I'll need to figure out another way to boot and get the onboard video working.

As mentioned earlier, there seems to be no signs of life from the floppy. even when I disconnect the HDD and CD-ROM.

The board does beep when I remove all of the RAM sticks, which suggests to me that the bios is not totally gone.

There is some activity in my CD-ROM so
it looks like I'll need to try a bootable CD next. geez! that looks complicated.

Or maybe it's time to send this one back.

Many Thanks for all of you help!

[Bovon]

Well, from what I gather so far, your board has never worked from the beginning. I think I would try now to have it replaced by RMA. Its not unreasonable to understand that a board can be shipped with a defective rom chip...this does happen. A rom chip must be able to store the data in its indivudial transistors, which store one bit at a time. If any of these transistors fail to store a bit of the data, it will fail thruout the entire process.

[gbpec7]

Hey djx81, if you just want to replace your bios chip you can go to biosworld http://www.biosworld.com and buy a new upgraded bios chip. It may be easier then sending the board back....just a thought.
Gary