flash bios problem

[Willy]

The BIOS on my motherboard is corrupted. My board would hang on boot.

When I took the CMOS battery out, the board will boot on floppy to A: prompt.

When I tried to flash the BIOS with the latest version, I got an error message "Clear Flash Failed" and then awdflash.exe exit to A: prompt.

Any suggestions?

[Willy]

Instead of awdflash ver. 5.0, I used a more recent version awdflash ver 7.36 and got a different error message "Unknown Flash Type". The awdflash again exit to A: prompt after the error message. Any suggestions?

[hirschY]

are you 100% sure its an award bios?
I ran into this, and I needed the ami bios, not award.

I had to create a boot disk, that mounts tha CD, then create a bootable CD in order for my PC to boot (it didnt recognoze the floppy with the wrong bios, but the CD would boot??)
I created a boot CD that would mount the D: drive, which I burned the bios onto.

Double check the MOBO web site, and verify the bios type.

And Good Luck:)

[elroy]

I think you should verify the bios manufacturer, the flash utility, and the bios file you are trying to install. Something is wrong and you are going to wind up with a board that won't boot at all if you keep going. Also make sure you have the board you think you have.

[Willy]

I used the BIOS Agent software to check the existing BIOS on my motherboard, I got the following information:

Bios Date: 04/15/97
Bios Type: Award Modular Bios v4.51PG
Bios ID: 04/15/97-i430TX-NS336-2A59IQ19C-00
Bios Eval: P5I430TX Titanium I Bios v2.1 04/15/97
Chipset: Intel Triton 430TX rev 1
Superio: NSC 336 rev 0 found at port 398h

I am pretty sure it is an Award BIOS and is v2.1. The new BIOS that I want to upgrade to is v2.4.

I tried different version of Award Flash software and still got the error message "Unknown Flash Type". I am confused why the flash software failed to recognize the flash chip on the motherboard and disallowed the upgrade.

[hirschY]

either look at the manual, or get it from the web.
take a look at the picture of the board, and make sure it is correct.
thats how I messed up mine before.:mad:
I grabbed the wrong manual, and just ASSUMED it ws the machine:(
Like elroy said, dont do anything else until you know for sure which board it is.
Good luck again

[Willy]

I checked the BIOS ID string to identify the motherboard. It is a QDI Titanium I.

I downloaded the manual, latest BIOS and flash utility from QDI.
I check the motherboard diagram in the manual and the layout is the same as my motherboard.

I tried to flash the BIOS with the utility from QDI. I got the same warning message "Unknown Flash Type".

:confused:

[Franklin Jones]

:D This is an easy one......why ?ecause it happened to me on a microstar board with the award bios.....The directions are clear but they leave out one thing:
1. Unzip the file you downloaded. winzip,gozilla,whatever.
2. Then as award says- make a boot disk with autoexe and config.sys out.
3. When you unzip the file it will have a readme file and their own autoexe that you need to transfer to the boot disk.
4. Insert disk-reboot system and don't touch anything until the sytem reboots - Once it reboots go into the bios and save it with a f10 I guess and then look for the date of your revision on the boot screen...lower left corner of the screen.

It Happen:D

[nick t]

are you sure your putting the correct filename in the box when it asks you? i didn`t last time i flashed my bios and i got the same message.

[Willy]

I found out that the reason the PC hung is because the L2 cache on the motherboard had gone bad.

I powered up the PC, hit DEL to enter SETUP, disabled the EXTERNAL CACHE and re-booted the PC. Now the PC can boot and run Windows 98 without problems.

I still don't understand why the AWDFLASH and BIOS files downloaded from the QDI website did not work on my board. Since the PC works, I stopped trying to flash the BIOS. I don't want to ruin anything.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

;)

[hirschY]

Another mistery solved!

Congrats Willy:cool:

[JohnE.]

Are you sure you downloaded the update for the Titanium I and not the Titanium Ib or Ib+?

I traded my QDI Titanium Ib+ I had for 3 years for my current Chaintech mobo so I'm very familiar with this series.

[Willy]

The motherboard has Titanium I printed on it. Also, I used BIOS Agent to check and the software reported Titanium I.