Bios...?

W

whizkidd

New Member
i think my friend killed his computer's BIOS
and KBC
and IDE Controller.

He can't get it to boot after a bad flash, so he used the "hot swap" technique to try to reflash it...safety first, eh?

So now it boots to a point, but it won't take keyboard commands or read IDE drives.

So my question is, did he kill the KBC and IDE controller during the hotswap?
is that possible?

Thanks for the help!
E
 
Sounds like your friend simply saw a bad flash and will need to follow manufdacturer's instructions for whatever board was involved with a fresh update. The make and model board would be a help along with knowing the age. Older boards often saw a flash tool run from a boot floppy.
 
Getting a BIOS flash wrong CAN fu*k up your mobo end of !!!!!!!!

If ever I do a BIOS flash, I always make sure I do it at the customers house in case there's a power cut or similar disruption !! and I always warn the customer of the possibilities of corruption. ;)
 
whizkidd said:
i think my friend killed his computer's BIOS
and KBC
and IDE Controller.

He can't get it to boot after a bad flash, so he used the "hot swap" technique to try to reflash it...safety first, eh?

So now it boots to a point, but it won't take keyboard commands or read IDE drives.

So my question is, did he kill the KBC and IDE controller during the hotswap?
is that possible?

Thanks for the help!
E
Click to expand...

Try resetting the bios by the jumper or take the battery out for a few minutes. When you boot up the first time use a PS/2 keyboard. See if it will boot and recongnize everything. It it does enable USB keyboards support and plug back up the USB keyboard. If you were using a USB keyboard.
 
Telling him to reset the bios, which you should do after a flash. What made you think I thought it would reset the firmware, I dont get where you got that?
 
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because I would have thought it was the stuff behind the BIOS which has been corrupted not the BIOS itself !! ;)

Maybe i'm wrong but why else would manufacturers site say that flashing the BIOS can kill the board?

if it was just a case of reflashing the BIOS, it wouldn't be a problem would it ????

(now I'm confused and don't know who I am :(:(:( )
 
Reseting the bios just resets all the setting back to default. Has nothing to do with what was added/changed by the flash. If the bios was corrupted by a bad flash it cant scan the hardware on the board for errors or hardware initiation, so no boot. There are ways to fix a bad flash but it depends on the board, like gigabyte Dual bios that has a back up so it will still boot so you can reflash the regular bios. If the bios chip is removable you can change it out or put it in another (same) board while its running and reflash it through windows then put it back in the orginal board or have then send you a new one.
 
you know when you have one of those days where everything....I MEAN EVERYTHING goes wrong...........

I'm having one:(

you say too bad stupidity isn't painfull............. it is for me today :confused::confused:
 
I,ve had a few myself. But what you said is right, resetting the bios will do nothing to help a bad flash. I just told him to because it is recommended to reset it after a flash.
 
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The BIOS provides the user with the ability to adjust base system settings prior to the OS, with such things as Device boot priorities and temperture warning settings,time settings , memory/processor speed/voltage settings etc.

Sometimes new hardware is released which conflicts with these settings or has new features that the BIOS cannot utilize, so the manufacturers release BIOS updates to increase stability,functionality of the computers main componant(the motherboard)

OR just sometime the BIOS becomes corrupted and the default settings need to be reset to enable the board to work as it did from the factory assembly line.

This is what FLASHING refers too (sorry laymans terms are not my thing :( )

;)
 
Essentially the bios is some basic programming stored on the eprom chip. A bad flash is when the information being programmed onto the eprom is garbled up or only partially flashed on making the system unusable. Occasionally a bios program can start losing information where a working system then sees problems come seemingly out of nowhere.

For the older board there Asus provides the awdflash utility you run from a bootable floppy. The task now is downloading the last bios version available and manually copying the new bin file onto the root of the primary hard drive along with having that on the floppy.

Refer to the online user manual if not onhand and follow the instructions there to make the attempt at seeing a good flash take place. With the tool you will likely need to enter the "ren 03023 04210"(example numbers) command to see that done correctly.
 
HybridGoomba said:
What's a BIOS flash anyway?
Click to expand...

PC eye said:
Essentially the bios is some basic programming stored on the eprom chip. A bad flash is when the information being programmed onto the eprom is garbled up or only partially flashed on making the system unusable. Occasionally a bios program can start losing information where a working system then sees problems come seemingly out of nowhere.

For the older board there Asus provides the awdflash utility you run from a bootable floppy. The task now is downloading the last bios version available and manually copying the new bin file onto the root of the primary hard drive along with having that on the floppy.

Refer to the online user manual if not onhand and follow the instructions there to make the attempt at seeing a good flash take place. With the tool you will likely need to enter the "ren 03023 04210"(example numbers) command to see that done correctly.
Click to expand...

Bloody Hell...... and I thought MY Laymans terms were bad:eek:
 
If you notice , the person
(not the OP) wanted to know what a BIOS flash was/is and being they're a "newbie" I would have thought that telling them in the simplist way possible would be preferred- not BLINDING them with science:eek:

HybridGoomba said:
What's a BIOS flash anyway?
Click to expand...

Now although your info is accurate and correct it does seem to take on a more "technical" approach which may be confusing to someone who has never known about a subject before.:-

PC eye said:
The "AFLASH.exe" is the correct name for the dos tool for seeing the bios update and repeat attempt there. The P4-226LA wasn't listed at the Asus support site. There each 226 model starts with P4B266 whether P4B266-C or another one or two letters. But the same instructions for use of the AFlash.exe utility will apply as seen in section 4.1 in the pdf file at http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/sock478/p4b266/p4b266-100.pdf
Click to expand...

See what I mean ;)
 
The manufacturer's instructions included in the user manual that comes with along with a board is the method you would use. You can either create a boot floppy with the utility on the software disk or download that separately along with the latest or last update available for the reflash.

The one thing to note however is that when using a dos tool like the AFlash.exe you have to type in the information exact to see the reflash go well. Any mistyping will see a second bad flash. That;s one reason why people now prefer the EZFlash, EZBios, or simply download a Winflash type update over the old dos method.
 
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