BIOS flash attempt, nothing happens

[Bovon]

I am attempting to flash the bios on an FIC 503+ board so it will run a K6-2+ 533.

I went to FIC, downloaded the flash utility and BIN file, made a clean system boot disk, copied the flash utility and BIN file to the floppy, booted on the floppy to an A: prompt, typed: FLASH73 JE438.BIN and hit enter.

I get the flash screen with the name of the bin file in the block eg: je438.bin and I say yes to save the old bios, and enter 1.15je32.bin in the block now provided for that.

I hit enter and wait.

Nothing happened. zilch..no floppy LED nothing. I waited maybe 10 minutes and hit enter again..now I get a flashing error that "SOURCE FILE NOT FOUND".

Now I am back to an A: prompt. I do a DIR and get eg: Command.com, je438.bin and flash73.exe.

I retried 4 times...same thing. WTF am I doing wrong guys?

This is my first flash attempt on a mobo

[Alex Iannuzzi]

Make sure that in your motherboard bios you have set update bios ON.

[Sterling_Aug]

Do not use more than one dot in a DOS 8.3 filename.

I would just call the old BIOS a simple name such as: bios.old

[userserver]

Originally posted by Bovon
I went to FIC, downloaded the flash utility and BIN file, made a clean system boot disk, copied the flash utility and BIN file to the floppy, booted on the floppy to an A: prompt, typed: FLASH73 JE438.BIN and hit enter.

I get the flash screen with the name of the bin file in the block eg: je438.bin and I say yes to save the old bios, and enter 1.15je32.bin in the block now provided for that.

I hit enter and wait.

You won't get anywhere with a filename like 1.15je32.bin. Call it 1_15je32.bin if all the digits are significant to you.

Don't forget to clear CMOS afterwards.

[Bovon]

Ok guys..I'll give that a shot and thanks. I see I did a cardinal sin, and did not post the OS in my first post...its Win98SE. but the boot disk was made from Win98...shouldn't make any difference.

Reading in the manual about 4 am this morning, it says something about when flashing to add the/cc to the A: prompt to clear the bios...like this: A:\>flash73 je438.bin/cc. I did not use that parameter because I thought if I cleared the old bios, I could not save it to disk when the time comes to do that. At FICA web site, it does not say anything about the /cc during the flash. Comments?

One more thing you can clear up for me if you will...there are several flash utils, like AWDflash ect. I read here at the forum from most guys that have done a lot of flashes to use the flash util that is at the mobo web site. When I downloaded the zip file, it included the BIN and FLASH73.exe file, plus a readme ect. Does it make any real difference which flash util to use?..as long as it is designed to work with your particular rom chip?...IE, Award, AMI or Phoenix ect.

[userserver]

Originally posted by Bovon
... Does it make any real difference which flash util to use?..as long as it is designed to work with your particular rom chip?...IE, Award, AMI or Phoenix ect.

Yes, the reason being that your motherboard manufacturer may have made proprietary changes to the BIOS. If you use the generic flash utility your bios, you may not be able to get full benefit of your motherboard features.

[Bovon]

Ahh, sooo...thanks!!

One more thing. I got the JE438 file because at FICA that file says something about making the board run a K6-2 550 or a K6 III. I am trying to run a K6-2+...so, that should do it...but, there is one later BIN file, JE439. and that file addresses "fixed COM port mouse can't work under WIN98 ACPI mode".

My question, would the JE439 have the same data as the JE438 plus another fix?..if so, I probably need to go get the most recent file....

[euphoryk]

You probably verified this, but is your va-503+ pcb revision 1.2?
An early version (if i recall correctly) won't support the faster processors.

I've thrown my own va-503+ in the closet, after about 2 years of use it has become mad ill, i think the onboard cache is faulty.

euphoryk

[Bovon]

I'm pretty sure it it version 1.2a because it runs a K6-2 500 with the original bios just fine, but the sticker that is supposed to be on the last ISA socket has apparently fallen off. I looked last night and didn't see any sticker on it on the socket where it should be.

The first versions of the 503 came out about May or June `98, and I was just about to order when I read where a new 1.2a version would be on the shelves by late August, so I waited til October to order mine.

[Bovon]

Okedoke, I flashed it and alls well. One small glitch booting however, after the flash, I went to bios and loaded the defaults, saved that and exited. Went back into bios and re set all of my settings, save that and rebooted...the machine went into Windows 98 just fine, I have a dual boot HDD so I wanted to check it in Win2K also, so I closed Win98 and rebooted. Right after verifying DMA ? pool data, it failed with an error, can't remember it exactly, but ment there was no OS, to insert system disk and hit enter. At the A: prompt, I tried to change to the C: prompt and got an invalid drive spec. I use a Promise 66 controller card, so I connected the HDD to the IDE 1 and did an autodetect saved that and rebooted. Alls well, the machine booted into Win98 and Win2K fine. Now, I need to find out why it failed to boot on the Promise controller card the second time, after it worked the first time. I tried several resets with the same results.

Anybody got a clue whats up with the machine not booting on the controller card?...

[MasterDecker]

Ok I have the Ultra ATA 100 version of the card. I too have the dual boot option, of Win 98 SE, and Win 2k Pro. my system boots FINE into win 98se, BUT hangs hard core on win 2k pro. I removed the controller card, and rebooted into win2k. FINE. I REINSTALLED the drivers for the card, shut down, reinstalled the controller card into PCI Slot 6, leaving the HDd on te MoBo for now, low and behold win 2k saw the card. I installed BOTH win 2k drivers, AND the Win NT drivers, because for SOME odd reason it thinnks it is going to need the NT drivers. poof fine it worked. Replaced the HDd on the primary slot on the controller card, booted into win 2k perfectly. shut down restarted in win 98 SE, and it had to reinstall the card again, and install the win 98 driver. All is well, can boot into either OS, without any problems. I hope that this helps.

MasterDecker

[Bovon]

Thanks MasterDecker, I had to reflash to JE4333 to get the bios to recognise the K6-2+ 533. I now have the system running at 5.5 X 112 fsb for 622 mhz.

I reattached the Promise 66 card, and it worked fine, both Win98 and Win2K...maybe it was a glitch with the JE439 bios?..

I am saving all of these posts because I will finally put together a KK266 Iwill, I have in a box for several months now...and I have the Promise fasttrak 100 for that setup...so, maybe if I have a glitch again, these posts will help.

[MasterDecker]

Certainly, your welcome. If you find that you need further information, I can be a wURLd of help, I am NOT the best, I am not even an administrator. Officialy I am a chef, I play with computers, and peripherals on my own time. It's just that for win 98se, and win 2000 pro, I have found those little problems with adding in a ata controller card, as well as for the MANY issues with sound blaster cards as well. As for your next system, when you get it out of the box, and start building it, keep in mind that having the HDd on the primary EIDE controller of the MoBo is going to help when installing ANY peripheral, especialy ATA cards, as they are also scsi class. And if you intend on adding anything else scsi class, go WIDE.......


MasterDecker@yahoo.com
masterdecker

[Bovon]

Will do sir. If you cook as good as you post (taking care to explain the reasons, ect) I would love to eat at your place of work.

[MasterDecker]

Well as for tasting my food, THAT would be a TAD difficult, as I work in a Behaviorial hospital. aka, loony bin for kids. ALTHOUGH if your a skydiver, you can usualy taste my foods at te Summer Solstice Skydiving Boogie that we have each year here in Wasilla Alaska. As for my posts, I try to explain what I went through, and how I went about resolving the problems. I've rely only had one problem with my ABIT KT7 MoBo, and that was the fan that is over my north bridge. It died on me less then 90 days after I got the MoBo, and I contacted ABIT, and they quickly sent me out a new revision of my Fan and Heatsink, at no charge. Other then that, I ACTUALY try to get my computer to malfunction allot, just to see what I can do to fix the problems.

MasterDecker

[Bovon]

What...me skydive??...at my weight, I would hafta use one of those military `chutes that they use to drop a Jeep in somewhere...you know...BIG!!! :D :D :D

[elleon30033]

Bovon, you're a hoot. Just wanted to congratulate you on gettin the flash to stick. When i first read the header and it said nothing happened, i thought you meant you rebooted and nothing happened LOL. That my friend would not be good huh? Anyway, glad it worked out and i hope you never boot and nothing really happens....

[Bovon]

Thanks Elleon. That was my first flash, and about every time I got ready to try my hand at it, I would read of an attempt that went bad, and I got the jitters and wouldn't try.

What you said is kinda like a toast I used to like to make at birthday parties, ect:

May Dame fortune ever smile on you, but never her daughter, Miss Fortune!

Where `bouts in the Great State of Georgia are you located?..I was born in Jacksonville Fla., but my extended family (my Fathers side) is in Folkston, Charlton Co. I have worked (with the ACL/CSXT) RailRoad all over Ga. I spent several years in Cordele and LaGrange. Now retired, I live near Myrtle Beach SC, but I am making plans to move back to Georgia, and may go to Folkston.

[GatorBait]

Small world, small world. My father was stationed in a P-3 squadron on NAS Jax for 16 years (I grew up in Orange Park). I currently live in Clearwater now. Not a bad place to be if you're retired. :D :D :D All in all, I think i much prefer the Jacksonville area over Pinellas county, though.

[Bovon]

yeah, its hotter and a heckova lot more humid in the Clearwater area, or most anywhere on the west coast of Florida. The wind movement is generally west to east, which saturates the west coast with moisture. Duval County around Jax gets hot now, I mean to tell you, but the humidity is not quite so bad. I was born where NAS now stands. My grandmother had a farm out there...it was Camp Foster then, an old military camp. The general area was (and still is I think,) named Yukon. If you remember the indoor swimming pool at NAS, that was/is in my gmothers old cow pasture.

Small world??...I think so.