//flex table opened by JP

Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : Updating LX to accept Celeron 400 woe. BIOS recovery procedures.


artaxerxes
02-11-2001, 10:08 PM
Foolishly I volunteered to upgrade my sisters PC. With an arrogant swagger and a preliminary glance at this page
http://www.acer.com.my/ftp/pub/pcg/Desktop/Power/V65LA-1.htm

it seemed apparent that a Celeron 400 would fit with a minor BIOS flash.

So I purchased said wonder on a no-name slocket and armed with the bios Acer had forwarded i proceeded.

Initially I tried to install without flashing as I know this can cause all sorts of woes. Funnily enough it offered CPU BIOS Upgrade Mismatch - how I was to curse that phrase in the near future...

So replacing the Pentium II 233 back in its slot I proceeded to attempt to flash (Awardflash305) to the BIOS I had been sent from DOS.

However this BIOS did not match the board - so I aborted. Not stoopid am I. Instead I downloaded the most recent BIOS from Acer.de
and flashed that instead.

Upon rebooting the board offered me the CPU BIOS UPGRADE MISMATCH ERROR with PENTIUM II 233 at its old settings which had worked well enought to see windows98 only mere moments ago when downloading the second BIOS.

Erk.

Perhaps it had lost support for old chips in favour of newer chips... Nope. The celeron 400 fails also (at the 16 possible setting of 4 dip switches - still to try the 233 at all 16).

So what next? I can access the bios but nothing further can I do - so no dos.

Now if it was a corrupted BIOS I could boot-block reflash.

It is an intel board, and if i could locate them i could BIOS RECOVERY jumpers and magically run the chip[s] at 133. But I am unable to locate them - refer to the above link...

So any clues before I send the BIOS to be reflashed by someone kind soul?

kinda desparate

justy
02-12-2001, 06:40 AM
Did you clear the bios settings, removed jumper or remove battery?

This might just solve your problem.

All the best, Justy.

Paul Hubrich
02-12-2001, 09:30 AM
Did the BIOS flash utility offer the option of saving a copy of the old BIOS?? If so, and you used it - you should be able to flash back to the old BIOS and at least get the machine back running.

artaxerxes
02-12-2001, 11:49 AM
Yes I saved the old BIOS - unfortunately I cannot get to DOS to flash the old BIOS else all would be fine.

Had I corrupted the BIOS all would be fine - but this CPU MISMATCH ERROR bypasses the BOOT BLOCK emergency recovery by being a correct BIOS.

I'll try clearing the CMOS - and then methinks I am into the lands of hot swapping.

Any one have any experiences with Hot Swapping of BIOS chips?