Recovering from a bad BIOS flash?

[crazyray]

I attempted to flash a PIII board with a SiS630 chip. The Awdflash program SEEMED to go okay, but now I get nothing from the PC. I cannot even get back to re-flash the old BIOS file. Any help short of a new BIOS chip?

(thank you)

[Kc2iLq]

I'm afraid that short of an RMA or BIOS chip replacement, there's nothing you can do. If your local computer shop has a bios chip writer, it would make it easier.

-Kc2iLq

[Chuckiechan]

Is your floppy working?

Have you gone to the Award website?

And, there is a way you can set to defaults as you boot, check your manual.

BTW did you save your old bios? I think yes is the default. Check your floppy for another .rom file.

You may still have a heart beat...

[crazyray]

The floppy is working. I attempted to boot to the floppy that I used to flash. It contains system files, Awdflash.exe, and the new BIOS file (630CFA09. bin) as well as the old BIOS file (630CFA05.bin).

Unfortunately, I can see the floppy working when I turn the PC on, but I get no screen. Hard to re-install the old BIOS when there is no screen to refer to...

From the Phoenix/Award BIOS site:

The only AwardBIOS beep code indicates that a video error has occurred and the BIOS cannot initialize the video screen to display any additional information. This beep code consists of a single long beep followed by two short beeps.

I'm getting 1 long beep followed by 2 short ones...no video display. Time to toss it...

[crazyray]

I reasoned that even if I could not see the display, the PC would come to a halt at the A prompt. So I re-flashed the BIOS using the Braille method....

I just typed the same string I'd used to flash originally except I substituted the original BIOS file in the string. When the computer re-booted, I got a screen, entered setup and chose the setup defaults, and the beast booted!

Sometimes it is better to be stupid AND lucky!!

[ragtop]

Glad to hear you got it working. Most manufacturer's provide a way to recover from a bad flash - although it doesn't always work quite right. Looks like you figured out a new trick - I'll have to remember that one, just in case...........

[thekingofpain]

Just in case you arnt so lucky next time: www.badflash.com

[Chuckiechan]

Congrats to you crazyray! Especially the braille part typing dos crap!

Glad to hear it is working! Very cool! Very lucky!

[Chiguy]

I just had a BIOS flash where I had to clear it before it would boot as documented on the board's website.