Topic: Recovered BIOS! Saved my life....

[ketamininja]

Sorry about the long story, it has a hardware reference at the end. A little tale about stress and luck:

A customer brought a PC to me because the USB wasn't working in Windows 98. She knew a little about computers, and managed to understand the error message indicated that the BIOS was not set correctly. Not wanting to play around with the BIOS, she brought it to me. No problem.

"We may have to flash the BIOS, update it. Is this ok?", I enquired. "Sure".

So, the USB settings were indeed incorrect. I changed them quickly, and tested with USB modem - detected no problem!

I thought I should do the rest of the 'repair' - flash the BIOS. I correctly identified the mainboard, and downloaded the correct ROM file with flash utility. The flash went through with message "FLASH SUCCESSFUL, REBOOT NOW!". I rebooted, and the system wouldn't start!!!! ARGHHHH...

After many tries of resetting the BIOS etc, I had one chance left:

---Here's the tech bit---
THIS WAS A SUPERMICRO MAINBOARD, AMI BIOS.

I downloaded the first ROM available from the website, renamed it (to super.rom) and put it on a floppy. I Pressed CTRL and HOME whilst starting the PC, and kept them pressed until the FLOPPY was accessed.

The BIOS was loaded in and was completely successful!
The machine booted up as if nothing had happened.


I'm telling you all this because I thought it may be useful.
Does anyone know any other recovery tips for other mainboards??

[Simon]

That was a stroke of luck K!  Thanks for the info.  

[Adept]

A lot of boards have similar recovery procedures K. They have samed my life more times than I care to remember.

On one QDI board (can't remember which model); the instructions said to make a DOS 6.22 boot disk to boot from before flashing. Being clever and knowing it all , I thought Win 98 DOS is the same thing, I'll use that - WRONG! You guessed it the PC would not boot after being flashed Luckily the QDI had a recovery procedure and I got it back

This is why I always recommend only flashing a BIOS if it is absolutely necessary and to make sure you follow the flashing instructions to the letter.

[Sandra]

Its ok following instructions to the letter Adept if the instructions are correct  
Last year I needed to flash the BIOS on my FIC PAG2130 motherboard,(to enable using a bigger hard drive),I got the instructions from the manufacturers site along with the updates.
I printed the instructions off and followed them to the letter,it stopped at one point and wouldnt go any further.
After a couple more tries I took my pc,instructions and floppies with the update and flash utility on to Brian(Lobo) assuming that it was something I was doing wrong as I hadnt done one before.
Brian followed the instructions and got the same as I had  
He decided to do it his "normal" way and it updated successfully.  
Recently Camstop wanted to flash,(doesnt he always   ),and he like me printed the instructions off and it wouldnt do it,Brian talked him through it on the phone and that worked ok