failed bios update help needed

[Alexander Linkenbach]

Hi,
I've just done something terribly stupid:
Doing a bios update on an Imperial G motherboard I actually selected the
wrong bios, the HP-Version rather than the Imperial one. Now the computer
halts at boot with "A disk error occured". How can I get the old or even
the right one back in? Bios is accessible it just seems not to adress the
controller correctly. I have found some references regarding a Recovery
Jumper which I cannot find on the MB and secondly I cannot find a site with
a crisis recovery disk.
Anybody have any experience with this?
alex

 

[Mike Walsh]

Removing the battery for a few seconds should reset the BIOS to default settings which will allow you to boot with a floppy disk.

 

[Bob Day]

Hi,
I've just done something terribly stupid:
Doing a bios update on an Imperial G motherboard I actually selected the
wrong bios, the HP-Version rather than the Imperial one. Now the computer
halts at boot with "A disk error occured". How can I get the old or even
the right one back in? Bios is accessible it just seems not to adress the
controller correctly. I have found some references regarding a Recovery
Jumper which I cannot find on the MB and secondly I cannot find a site with
a crisis recovery disk.
Anybody have any experience with this?
alex

A couple of weeks ago I got "bios failed to flash" when I
tried to update the bios on my SK8V mainboard. After
some surfing of the internet, I found www.badflash.com .
They make new bios chips for most PC's. I put in my order
at about 3:30 pm, and received my new bios chip the next
morning, and it worked perfectly -- with the upgraded bios
I had originally tried to flash. I can't recommend BadFlash
highly enough.

-- Bob Day
http://bobday.vze.com

 

[Alexander Linkenbach]

Removing the battery for a few seconds should reset the BIOS to default
settings which will allow you to boot with a floppy disk.

Well, it's not the settings that are shagged, there is actually a wrong bios
sitting in the flash rom. I can easily set the settings to default, but
that does not help at all.
alex

 

[Alexander Linkenbach]

A couple of weeks ago I got "bios failed to flash" when I
tried to update the bios on my SK8V mainboard. After
some surfing of the internet, I found www.badflash.com .
They make new bios chips for most PC's. I put in my order
at about 3:30 pm, and received my new bios chip the next
morning, and it worked perfectly -- with the upgraded bios
I had originally tried to flash. I can't recommend BadFlash
highly enough.

-- Bob Day
http://bobday.vze.com

Thanks for the tip, but:
chip is soldered to the mb, damn.
I just thought of a possible workaround: If I could get to boot from
different source, like a pci-slot controller. Or via network, but I have no
idea how to set this up.
alex

 

[kony]

Hi,
I've just done something terribly stupid:
Doing a bios update on an Imperial G motherboard I actually selected the
wrong bios, the HP-Version rather than the Imperial one.

What's an "Imperial G" motherboard like, exactly? Any/all
details might be relevant. Does it have a socketed or
soldered-on bios chip?

Now the computer
halts at boot with "A disk error occured".

Is it running what looks like the Imperial G bios or an HP
bios? After flashing, did you enter the bios and try
setting the boot device(s)?

How can I get the old or even
the right one back in? Bios is accessible it just seems not to adress the
controller correctly.

I'd try disconnecting ALL non-essential devices and only
connect a floppy drive. Then I'd try disabling all boot
devices in bios except floppy. Then i'd try to boot and
watch the floppy access light... even if it doesnt' boot it
could be useful if it tried to access that drive.

If it tries to access the drive, you might be able to put
together an emergency recovery floppy that it automatically
accesses. What bios make (for example, Award, AMI, Phoenix)
and revision number (again, # for the bios core, not the
motherboard bios version, for example Award 4.51)?

I have found some references regarding a Recovery
Jumper which I cannot find on the MB and secondly I cannot find a site with
a crisis recovery disk.
Anybody have any experience with this?

Do you have the board manual (or can you get one)?
Such jumper would typically be in bottom right-hand area of
the board, if it's separate from the clear CMOS jumper. If
all else fails, use the clear CMOS jumper and/or pull
battery for a few minutes.

Note that if the bios EEPROM is soldered on rather than
socketed, this should be a last attempt, as clearing CMOS
might then result in it not POSTing at all. If the bios is
socketed and you have the correct bios, you can (or have
someone else) reprogram the EEPROM or provide that bios file
to a service which programs it into another EEPROM for you.

Then there's "bios hot flashing", Google will turn up info
on that.

 

[Fantabulum]

Mike Walshwrote:
Removing the battery for a few seconds should reset the BIOS to
default settings which will allow you to boot with a floppy disk.
No, it won't that will only clear the CMOS, not the BIOS. You just
need to flash the BIOS to clear it, and have the floppy w/ the new
BIOS on it when you boot up. However, if you mess up while
installing the new BIOS, such as restart the computer in the middle
of the installation: chances are, you'll have to send the MoBo back
to the manufacturer: But I don't think that's your problem. Let me
look into flashing the BIOS a little bit more and I'll get back to
you.

 

[Alexander Linkenbach]

Removing the battery for a few seconds should reset the BIOS to
default settings which will allow you to boot with a floppy disk.

No, it won't that will only clear the CMOS, not the BIOS. You just
need to flash the BIOS to clear it, and have the floppy w/ the new
BIOS on it when you boot up. However, if you mess up while
installing the new BIOS, such as restart the computer in the middle
of the installation: chances are, you'll have to send the MoBo back
to the manufacturer: But I don't think that's your problem. Let me
look into flashing the BIOS a little bit more and I'll get back to
you.

Yeah, most of the replies I got so far are about clearing the cmos, if if my
initial post was not read.
However I solved it! With the hd disconnected I was able to boot with my
Ultimate Boot CD - which yet again proved to the best tool in the world -
in defensive mode. I could start uniflash and after several hours of
browsing I even found a fitting bios image. Up and running now, thanks for
all replies.
alex

 

[S.Heenan]

Hi,
I've just done something terribly stupid:
Doing a bios update on an Imperial G motherboard I actually selected
the wrong bios, the HP-Version rather than the Imperial one. Now the
computer halts at boot with "A disk error occured". How can I get the
old or even the right one back in? Bios is accessible it just seems
not to adress the controller correctly. I have found some references
regarding a Recovery Jumper which I cannot find on the MB and
secondly I cannot find a site with a crisis recovery disk.
Anybody have any experience with this?
alex

http://www.msi.com.tw/html/support/bios/note/boot.htm

 

[Alexander Linkenbach]

S.Heenan wrote:

http://www.msi.com.tw/html/support/bios/note/boot.htm

Thanks, very good link. That is if you don't have phoenix bios. It looks
like the recovery I was looking for (not any more, solved it!) is only
possible on Ami Bios. Good to know for future purchases.
alex