Updating myu BIOS

[sholcomb]

My Computer freezes while i'm in the middle of updating my BIOS. It gets to the flash memory and stops. How do I get past it?

[muchmark]

Hi sholcomb,

Nice of you to join us, I am afraid a flash gone wrong is not an easy problem to fix. Usually if you can boot then you can reflashed with the backup bios but if you can't boot then the only option is to get a new bios eprom from the mobo manufacturer.
You might get some help : http://www.flashbios.org/

Regards, Mark

[sholcomb]

My system restarts fine. I don't think the updater makes it far enough. It just freezes when it gets to the Flash Memory. It doesn't update anything. The updater comes with a Phlash.exe. When I run that, I get an error that says, "cannot flash memory with memory managers installed (e.g HIMEM.SYS)" What are the bare essentials for a startup disk, or is there a way to get to the command prompt with no drivers loaded? I have win xp by the way.

[frank5]

Boot into dos with a startup floppy. If you dont have one, then go to add\remove in control panel, create startup disk(assuming your running win98). Create startup disk. Boot into dos with floppy.(You may need to make your floppy drive 1st boot device in the BIOS).
Once you are at the a:>, swap startup floppy with rom bios floppy.Type dir and hit enter. Then take it from there.

[sholcomb]

It still freezes. I'm using win xp home edition, and created a startup disk by right clicking on the A: drive and selecting format>create MS-DOS Startup Disk. I restarted, and replaced the startup disk. I ran the PheonixPhlash Utility 4.0 release 1.79. the utility completed the following:

Load Initialization File (platform.bin)
Backup System BIOS
Load BIOS Image file (bios.rom)

the next task is:

Identify flash memory type

The computer freezes at that point, everytime. I thought maybe it was working so i left it for 3 hours. It didn't do anything. How do i get past that part? Or what can I do?

sholcomb

[Antix]

You are probably not flashing it with the right BIOS or doing it with a Liveupdate procedure from the internet.

If you are trying to do it from the internet, DON'T! I lost a HDD doing that and I am not doing it again (great going MSI!).

Phoenix's are junk BIOS's anyway, typically used by Compaq/HP.

Is this an HP by any chance?

[bluemoon]

I am shooting in the blind.

Is your bios write protected by jumpers

Is your bios anti virus features on

I would also try to get a boot disk from a stand alone win95 machine.
I just don't like the "format A" part from your Xp machine----I need to do some seaching/learning to find out.
If you use the same floppy that you just format from your SP,I think I would do a re-format from a win95 machine.

Whatever you do,it is always a risky business to flassh bios.

bluemoon

[sholcomb]

Well, it is an HP. Also, I'm not doing it from the Internet. How do i find out if my BIOS is protected by jumpers or Anti-virus. I'm using Norton Anti-virus. If it is protected by jumpers how do i disable that? or can I? Thanks for everyone's input.

[bluemoon]

Sorry,I do not own one of those,can't help.
May be Antix or somebody else can.

Usually you go into your bios setup screen to find out if the bios virus protection is on or not.

For the jumpers,usually you go by your manual.

bluemoon

[cjh]

1 question what is the reason "specific" for upgrading the bios?

[sholcomb]

I recieved an e-mail from HP telling me that a new BIOS was available and i should upgrade to keep my system running smoothly. Plus I have a new Video and Sound card. Both say to update all my drivers.

Sholcomb

[cjh]

have you tried running your os without flashing? The old saying "If it aint broke don't fix it" might apply. if you don't have a hardware issue don't do it.