BIOS MAC Issues

[Richy]

Hi i know this is slightly off topic for this group with it being asrock but
here goes.
Here's hoping someone can help.

The problem.
ASROCK K7VT4A+ m/b

cmos keeps reporting invalid mac address and dmi, after pressing F1 to carry
on all loads fine.
I did find a link to change the mac address using mac.exe from a boot disc,
ran a:\mac c xxxxxxxx (x being inputed data for mac address. It changes it
to the label printed as the ID number on the I/O ports as told to do via
link, but it is still giving me the same error.
Ive then run a:\mac r to confirm that the mac address inputted has now
changed all well and good, do a ctrl alt del to reboot and still no
joy..!!!! ASROCK dont seem to have a email address for tech only email for
sales. No tel number to phone, its doing my swede in!!!!!! \The pc runs
fine, but i am wonding if it is this error not allowing me to add my
steering wheel via serial port..

It also will not allow me to update my bios, ive tried using brand new
floppys, redownloading the asrflash again but every time i go to a:\asrflash
it thrashs about a bit then comes up with error 3 cannot find file.

Any help much appreciated!!!!!

In hope

Richard

 

[Paul]

Hi i know this is slightly off topic for this group with it being asrock but
here goes.
Here's hoping someone can help.

The problem.
ASROCK K7VT4A+ m/b

cmos keeps reporting invalid mac address and dmi, after pressing F1 to carry
on all loads fine.
I did find a link to change the mac address using mac.exe from a boot disc,
ran a:\mac c xxxxxxxx (x being inputed data for mac address. It changes it
to the label printed as the ID number on the I/O ports as told to do via
link, but it is still giving me the same error.
Ive then run a:\mac r to confirm that the mac address inputted has now
changed all well and good, do a ctrl alt del to reboot and still no
joy..!!!! ASROCK dont seem to have a email address for tech only email for
sales. No tel number to phone, its doing my swede in!!!!!! \The pc runs
fine, but i am wonding if it is this error not allowing me to add my
steering wheel via serial port..

It also will not allow me to update my bios, ive tried using brand new
floppys, redownloading the asrflash again but every time i go to a:\asrflash
it thrashs about a bit then comes up with error 3 cannot find file.

Any help much appreciated!!!!!

In hope

Richard

In this tutorial, the MAC address is six bytes or twelve hex
characters. (This is the only tutorial on repairing MAC I've
got.) Perhaps a few more characters in your mac command
will work ?

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21050

The MAC address presumably affects your Ethernet hardware.

As for asrflash, I've seen complaints about it before,
but no solutions.

If you look inside the asrflash program, it has some
options. I used a hex editor, and it says:

Usage: AMIFLASH ROM_FILE /<COMMAND1>

H : Help
B : Enable Boot Block Programming.
-B : Disable Boot Block Programming
E : Clear CMOS after programming done.
S<File_name> : To save Flash ROM data into file AND quit.

You might experiment with the "S" command, maybe as in:

asrflash input.rom /Soutput.rom

and see if a file "output.rom" is created. The /S option
is supposed to only archive the current rom, and not
attempt to flash the new file. Examine the size and contents
of output.rom and see if the structure is similar to the new
BIOS file you are trying to flash.

Now something strange. I downloaded BIOS for K7VT4A+ and
for K7VT6, and both of them have the same identity string
near the end of the file. It could be the BIOS on your
motherboard has an identity string that doesn't match the
K7VT6130 in the 1.3 BIOS for your board. That is why, using
the archiving option, and examining the end of the
"output.rom" file, might show you whether they match or
not. (There may be identity information stored elsewhere
in the file - the string near the end of the file is just
the most obvious thing I found with my hex editor.) If you
were thinking of editing that string in the new BIOS, I
suspect there is a checksum (4 bytes) at the beginning of
the file, which will defeat your efforts.

Note also, when you flash a board with a new BIOS, the
DMI and ESCD information may be erased by the contents of
the new BIOS. Once the computer POSTs with the new BIOS,
new information may be written to the flash by the POSTing
process. If you later try the /S option, to archive the
results, you'll find the original BIOS file you downloaded,
and the "output.rom" file from an attempt to archive, don't
match. But only a certain defined section of the BIOS won't
match, and that section should be closer to the end of the
BIOS. What little I know about DMI, it may be editted by
a Windows utility, to contain specific info used for inventory
purposes in big companies. As far as I know, ESCD is used
by the BIOS itself, and is updated when hardware is changed
in the computer (like new sticks of RAM).

http://www.asrock.com.tw/contact/index.htm
http://www.asrock.com.tw/support/index.htm

If you use web.archive.org, you can find this:

http://web.archive.org/web/20040206220811/www.asrock.com.tw/contact/index.htm

suggests contacting only one of the following email addresses
(I've added *'s for anti-spam)

English support *asrock_tsd* at *asrock.com.tw*
Chinese support *asrock_tsd* at *asrock.com.tw*
German support *support* at *asrock.biz*

Putting your motherboard model number in the email subject
line, might help them distinguish your support question,
from the pile of spam they get.

Good luck,
Paul