Award Flash info/help needed

[tooler57pc]

I'm trying to flash so I can install a 40 Gig HD , But nothing
is happening , so I'm not getting somethig here. Can anybody help shed
some light!I'm using f789.exe,pb61dtest.bin to make the floppy to boot from.
All I can get is source file not found.Below is the line I used,and yes the files are on the floppy, that was the first thing I checked. In the file name you will notice the word test , yes this flash is beta!I've decided to step back a little , gathering more information from differnt sources, I see 2 differnt ways to solve the problem, Risky
either way I look at it.

A:\>f789.exe pb61dtest.bin /Sn /Py

MoBo DFI P2XLB R-D
BIOS Date: 02/03/99
BIOS Type: Award Modular BIOS v4.51PG
BIOS ID: 02/03/1999-i440BX-DD-2A69KD4FC-00
BIOS Eval:
Chipset: Intel 440BX/ZX rev 3
Superio: Winbond 977EF rev 1 found at port 3F0h

[dmoltrup]

It might be because the filename of the '.BIN' file is 9 characters long. DOS's limit is 8 caharacters.

It will most likely be something like pb61d~1.bin
Double-check it (in DOS).

[Bovon]

Originally posted by tooler57pc
I'm trying to flash so I can install a 40 Gig HD , But nothing
is happening , so I'm not getting somethig here. Can anybody help shed
some light!I'm using f789.exe,pb61dtest.bin to make the floppy to boot from.
All I can get is source file not found.Below is the line I used,and yes the files are on the floppy, that was the first thing I checked. In the file name you will notice the word test , yes this flash is beta!I've decided to step back a little , gathering more information from differnt sources, I see 2 differnt ways to solve the problem, Risky
either way I look at it.

A:\>f789.exe pb61dtest.bin /Sn /Py

May I ask where or how you made/got your boot disk?...some boot disks made from Windows contain drivers and other stuff that can interfere with the flash process. To do a flash properly, we need a pure dos disk. There is a good one available at www.bootdisk.com , go download drdos7 boot disk. It will come as an executable, and when you run it, it will extract the files to a formatted floppy disk in your A: drive. Place your flasher and bios file on this disk to boot on.

The bios file name may be too long...you can rename it to maybe just test.bin , it really dosn't matter what the name is, as long as you know what you are dealing with. One other thing I see with your commands, the action taken by your commands are reversed, and may be the reason for source file not found. Try it this way:

f789.exe test.bin /py /sn

Or, you could include a complete set of commands to flash the bios, and reboot automatically:

f789.exe test.bin /py /sn /cc /cp /cd /sb /r

(it might be a good idea to save a copy of your old bios file, just in case. If you need to know how to do that, just ask)

/Py or /Pn - stands for answering "yes" (Y) or "no" (N) to the request concerning the BIOS reflashing.

/Sy or /Sn - stands for answering "yes" (Y) or "no" (N) to the request about saving the previous version of the BIOS

/CC - to clear CMOS after reflashing. (important)

/CP - stands for clearing PnP (ESCD) Data matrix after BIOS reflashing.

/CD - stands for clearing DMI Data pool after reprogramming.

/SB - stands for no BootBlock reflashing. (important)

/SD - stands for saving the data of DMI pool in a file.

/R - stands for the system reset after reflashing.

If you should need more explaining about the above commands, just ask.

Before any flash, be sure to go into your working bios and do a 'LOAD BIOS DEFAULTS'

save and exit. Go back into your bios and disable any shadowing, bios..video shadowing ect. Disable ACPI if you have it. Disable power management. In other words, set the bios to a minumum working level, you don't want the bios doing anything while the flash is taking place.

Lastly, if you have a UPS, use it..if not, then don't flash during an electrical storm ect.

After a successfull flash, go to the new bios and once again, do a LOAD BIOS DEFAULTS. This will make sure there is no conflicts between the old and new bios. Save and exit, return to your bios and do your settings.

[tooler57pc]

Alright ! Some real good info and help ,maybe rename the .bin and
make a new boot disk . Now I read on a page that the latest flash carries all the prior info from earlier updates ,so if I flash the latest it should bring the bios chip up to date,Is this true or am I confused. The last thing that has me scratching are the proper order of the commands. Do some guidelines exists so I can study them, And as far as disableing in the bios ....it sounds like everything, but what should be enabled. How about over clocking I jumped it back to normal but does it make a difference

[Bovon]

The main reason to rename the bios file is due to DOS not working with long file names.

I would use the most recent bios upgrade available for my motherboard. They all contain the earlier upgrades, unless it is a special bios, usually being a BETA bios for this.

The main thing is, be very very sure the bios you choose is for your board version only. There are so many mainboards that have just a slight version difference that its easy to overlook and choose the wrong one.

For bios flashing guidelines and other flashing information, look at the following site. Read it all carefully, then if you are not quite sure about something, come back here and ask for a clairfication.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/mainboards/award-bios-update/

Do not have your system overclocked while doing anything as important as flashing your bios. You need your system as stable as a rock, and that is no time for an overclocked system to show its a**.

As far as what all to disable in your bios getting ready for a flash, I noted about all I could think of...if you go look thru your bios (which you should do anyway and make good notes of the settings there now, especially the heads, cylinders and sectors your hard drive is set to now..unless it just says 'auto'.) If then you see something you question, come back here and ask. Loading the bios defaults before a flash will set most things up ready for a flash.

Be sure to read your manual to see if there may be a jumper, dip switch or bios option to prevent writing to the bios. This is done on many mainboards to prevent a virus from writing to the bios and will also prevent a bios flash.

[tooler57pc]

Thanks alot for the help (dmoltrup),(Bovon) I got everything I needed for now.

[Bovon]

Very good, be sure to stop back by and let us know how it went..ok?

[Bovon]

tooler57pc, it would be most helpfull if you could continue the same thread for the same problem. Those here that try to help must go hunt down and re read your older posts to see what is going on, what has been tried ect. Its standard protocol to keep the same thread going until it is finished one way or the other.

[tooler57pc]

OK I Flashed it Wrote And it restarted,but now I'm stuck with a black screen. Is the Bios toast or is there a way out

[Rocketmech]

Exactly what did you do?

[tooler57pc]

I madea Dos 7.x boot disk copied the flash utility and bin file on to it.I did rename the bin file, just dropped the last character in the file name( T) Loaded Bios Defaults and booted from the floppy ,at the A promp I used this line F789 PB61DTES.bin /Py /Sn /Cc /Cd /Sb /R hit enter it started the flash and then restarted.

[Bovon]

It sounds to me like the flash went just as it was supposed to. It dosn't take but a few seconds to do this, then after the flash is completed, it reboots per the last command /R Maybe that beta 'test.bin' bios version was not the one for your bios?..I don't know, but a balck screen dosn't sound like it took, or the bios version was the wrong one.

Give us the url link to the web site where you got that file, and make sure the board is exactly what you listed, DFI P2XLB R-D, and there are no other numbers to go with that.

[tooler57pc]

In my original post there's a typo error (sorry bout that) the board is DFI P2XBL Rev. D ,I got the flash right off of DFI's Site http://sj.dfi.com.tw/support1/main.htm. I'm on a very old computer right now , and having trouble posting and getting web pages to load properly. Any way if you want to look at it click support , downloads pick DFI P2XBL Rev. D from the pull down menu click bios and go to the beta page

[michaeln]

I had a similar problem some years ago with a Soyo 5EHM board that I flashed and got a blank screen, despite the fact that I had as far as I could tell, I flashed it correctly.

How I got round the problem was to make an exact copy of the floppy that I flashed with, placed the copy in another PC and booted the two machines at the same time.

I was relying on sound more than sight. As the screens appeared on the live PC I typed the instructions blind on the other.

I'm happy to say that a) it worked and b) the Soyo 5ehm is still happily running here beside me.

Hope this is of some help

[Rocketmech]

michaeln

:confused: I'd love to here the details on this ... how did you hook 2 pc's together , and then get the floppy boot disk to boot both pc's, then flash the other bios ?:confused:

Tool57pc

Its always risky to use beta, test, trial code no matter the hardware or software in question. DFI as most do post a warning of "Not our fault if it does'nt work, or ruin your pc...". But , you already knew this.
Its possible the bios is now corrupted or the CMOS needs clearing. Try clearing it as your manual suggests( usually with a jumper and with the p/s disconnected from the wall), then if it POSTs, then set CMOS to Default settings, save and exit.
If your bios will not POST then its corrupted. Your best fix for this is a new chip from www.badflash.com . The other method is Hotflashing which requires another pc and bios chip.
Now, for hind site... your 40 gig HDD can run with your mobo existing bios, it just needed a Bios Overlay or Bios Bootloader. A program called EZBios does just that, allowing older bios's to run large HDD's. EZBios software comes with WD and Maxtor drives.

[dmoltrup]

Rocketmech, what he means is that he used his computer that still had a good display, to guide him through the menus and options to re-flash the BIOS on his computer that was still working, but only had a blank screen.

I've used a similar tactic.. I was a Supply Clerk at West Point, and I played with the video mode on a Windows NT system, and the screen freaked out. I couldn't figure out how to revert (it didn't reset after 15 seconds :rolleyes: ). I used a computer nearby to go through all the steps, and finally got it working again. Just in time for my supervisor to get back from lunch, by the way!

[Rocketmech]

So, he could just put in the same flash disk, startup the pc, wait awhile as Dos boots to the A:> ( look for the activity light to indicate such or listen for the A: drive to initalize ) then type the flash commands as he previously did before. Then wait for a Restart. ?? Sounds ok. Guess he could also flash a known good Bios Flash Update instead of the Beta. Worth a try I'd say...

[michaeln]

Originally posted by Rocketmech
michaeln
:confused: I'd love to here the details on this ... how did you hook 2 pc's together , and then get the floppy boot disk to boot both pc's, then flash the other bios ?:confused:


Sorry for the confusion. Didn't network at all. Had two stand alone PC's. One was perfect, one had just flashed and had no screen output. I made a duplicate of the flash diskette and placed it into the good PC. I booted both PC's together and waited for silence. Then I went to the good PC and started the flash routine. When the first stage had completed I went to the other PC and followed the exact same procedure until I again heard silence (oximoron "heard silence"). Went to the good PC and followed the next stage, went to the other PC and did exactly the same and so on and so on.............

By the way it wasn't a beta BIOS file, it was an approved upgrade.

[Bovon]

tooler57pc, That boot disk you downloaded has an autoexec.bat file included in it. The autoexec.bat will execute any executable contained on the disk...including your flasher utility...blind.

Do this, edit the autoexec.bat file on that boot disk, and it will have the following already there:

echo off
cls (right under cls, put the following)
f789.exe PB61DTES.bin /Py /Sn /Cc /Cd /Sb /R

Save and exit.

Put the boot disk back in the dead pc and crank it up...if the bootblock is still there in the chip, it will find the A: drive and re execute the flash again.

Be sure the text commands are correct and that both files are on the disk

Check that f789.exe is the correct spelling
Check that PB61DTES.bin is the correct spelling