Tried to update BIOS, think I killed my system. Need advice!!!

T

Tang Tang

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Jan 29, 2003
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This is for an older system I was playing around with.
Pentium II
Asus P2B Motherboard with latest BIOS revision in 98.

I went to update the BIOS to a later version and thought I followed the directions pretty well.
1. I downloaded the flash program and the Bios update for the correct board on the ASUS website.
2. Harddrive was already formatted (blank) so I booted up with a floppy to a dos prompt.
3. Made a backup of the current BIOS to a floppy following the directions in the flash program.
4. Loaded the new Bios exactly as instructions said. 'Flashed Successfully' was shown afterwords.
5. I rebooted and at the post screen went into the BIOS setup. Instructions said to load the defaults for the new BIOS to take effect.

I saved and rebooted and now the system freezes on the very first post screen where it's detecting memory and CD-rom...etc.

I can not get back to a dos prompt to reload the old Bios, the only thing I can do is get back into the BIOS settings. So with that, is there anyway I can get my system back up and running or did I kill it? Any idea to what I might have done wrong?

Thanks a lot!
 
Try clearing your bios. either removing the battery for a few mintues or use the bios jumper to clear.
 
yes and i 2nd that just clear your bios with the jumper and whola all fixed :)
 
So if I reset the Bios, what will happen then? Will I be able to boot back to a floppy? Will that make it accept the new version or will I have to re-flash back to the backup copy?

Just trying to know what to expect :)
 
do you have another mb that uses the SAME bios chip?

If that is a YES, then you can try "Hot-flashing" the bios on the good board.

here's a rundown on how to do it (yes, this is from experience)...

on good mb, be *VERY* careful and loosen the existing bios chip to the point you can easily remove it with little force using your fingers. It should still have contact with the socket so that it boots, but no more than that.

On the Board with bad flash (I'll call it bwbf), take it's bios chip out completely - and *VERY CAREFULLY*.

boot the good board up to the dos prompt where you can flash the bios. at this point, you can remove the good boards bios and replace it with the one from the bwbf. Run the flash program to flash the bios chip with the good P2B bios. once it's done, power down the system. take out the P2B bios chip and put the original back in the good board. Put the P2B bios back in the P2B and boot up.

You should have it fixed now. but the words *VERY CAREFUL* are the key here. do not bend any pins, if you do, then bend them back *VERY* slowly. Bend them back too fast and you could snap it off....and that would suck.

the process is actually very simple. I've done it a few times when playing with modifying bios files. I also have a P2B, and a P2B-DS, and I've done this process to both.
 
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