[PLUG] Help!!! PC won't boot to flash bios

Fri Jan 10 20:25:11 UTC 2003

On Fri, 2003-01-10 at 23:28, Cooper Stevenson wrote:
> On Fri, 2003-01-10 at 20:06, Jim Webb wrote:
> > Cooper,
> > 
> > Thanks for the help.  Since I sent out my urgent appeal to the list,
> > I've pulled the cmos battery and applied the default bios settings and
> > then saved the changes.  I then attempted multiple times to stop the pc
> > from booting up past the memory screen and was able to access an asus
> > utility called ezflash.  I then was able to to reflash the bios to the
> > original version.
> 
> Alright! 
> 
> > 
> > What an adrenalin rush.
> 
> Yeah, been there! Another good one is 'rm -rf' on a production server.
> That'll do it too. Solution: 'cp -R' from your NFS backup and after
> having made sure everything is okay, wash your flush-red face with cool
> water. 
> 
> And never do it again (hint: find / -type d -name directory_to_delete
> -ok {} \; ).
> 
> > 
> > Do you think that I should reflash the bios piecemeal or stepwise from
> > version 11 to 15 and stop whenever it works and I can get my pc to both
> > recognize the cpu correctly, which it did after I flashed the bios to
> > version 15, and then be able to bootup?
> 
> I would. Given this experience might I suggest running out to their web
> sight and seeing if the new versions will buy you anything. A lot of
> times you'll find $version_one_up_from_the_one_you_have contains a fix
> for the CPU reporting issue. Sometimes, though, the fixes listed for
> each version have little bearing on your situation. It's not likely you
> would need an update that fixes an issue with an Adaptec MegaRAID
> controller, for example.
> 
> If one were paranoid on this, one does not need the potential for DRM
> additions added to the new BIOS versions as a "feature." I seriously
> doubt it in this case but reports I am hearing indicate that AMI has
> basically said, "we'll give you DRM weather you like it or not" for
> their latest BIOS releases.
What about updating the boot block area
What about clear ESCD/DMI?

TIA,

Jim

> -Cooper
> 
> 
> > 
> > On Fri, 2003-01-10 at 22:58, Cooper Stevenson wrote:
> > > Jim,
> > > 
> > > If you are certain that the BIOS is not accessing the devices correctly
> > > because of a problem with the BIOS's logic (i.e. there are no cable
> > > issues, etc.) then there still is a way out.
> > > 
> > > CAUTION: What I am about to show you is an _extremely_ sensitive
> > > operation and could render a motherboard useless. PROCEED WITH EXTREME
> > > CAUTION AND MAKE SURE TO WEAR STATIC PROTECTION
> > > 
> > > 1) Boot a working machine that is not particularly vital to your
> > > operations with the BIOS flash disk (having the original BIOS version
> > > code; there's no sense re-burning to the new version until at the very
> > > least things are squared away).
> > > 
> > > 2) While the machine is running, pull the BIOS chip from the motherboard
> > > with a pair of chip-puller tongs. Again I cannot stress enough how
> > > careful you must be doing this; if you bend the motherboard or ground
> > > out one of the contacts you will destroy it.
> > > 
> > > 3) Put the BIOS chip from the new machine in the motherboard, noting
> > > it's orientation. There will be a small half-circle notch on one of the
> > > edges that will match a notch drawn on the motherboard. BE VERY CAREFUL
> > > NOT TO STRESS THE MOTHERBOARD OR BEND THE PINS
> > > 
> > > 4) Select "flash" from the still-running flash application you ran from
> > > the floppy
> > > 
> > > 5) After the application has flashed, exit the application and
> > > completely shut down the machine
> > > 
> > > 6) Put the newly-flashed chip in the new computer and boot
> > > 
> > > This should boot your computer to the original flash BIOS code. 
> > > 
> > > Good Luck.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > -Cooper
> > > 
> > > On Fri, 2003-01-10 at 19:38, Jim Webb wrote:
> > > > Help!!!!!!!  I just built a box with an ASUS A7V333MB, AthlonXP 2400+
> > > > CPU, 512 MB pc 2700 RAM, Maxtor 40 GB HDD, AGP GeForce 4 video (Jaton). 
> > > > After I originally built it several days ago, I noticed that the bios
> > > > wasn't listing my cpu speed correctly.  Tech support suggested as well
> > > > as Asus that I flash the bios to the latest and greatest.  I just
> > > > flashed the bios with aflash and updated the bios from 11 version to 15
> > > > version.  After I shut off the power I invoked the default settings, hit
> > > > F10 for my award bios and restarted the pc.  I changed the settings for
> > > > the bios to the ones that I wanted and saved again.  It wouldn't boot up
> > > > after that.  Something about system error and insert a system disc and
> > > > hit enter.  I realized that I was in some trouble here and tried to
> > > > flash the bios to the original one, but I could not boot up to the
> > > > floppy even I placed that at the head of the list for bootup devices.
> > > > 
> > > > Help somebody!!!
> > > > 
> > > > TIA,
> > > > 
> > > > Jim.  
> > > > -- 
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > PLUG mailing list
> > > > PLUG at lists.pdxlinux.org
> > > > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
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> > -- 
> > 
> > 
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