Coopewrote:
Coopewrote:
Some motherboards have a "Dual" BIOS, with the
second BIOS chip used as a backup for situations
just like yours. Check the motherboard or PC user's guide.
I don't have that unfortunately...
I've tried everything and I can't get it to respond. Cleared CMOS and
even took the battery out for 7 hours....
If it would just give me the bad checksum error I could sort it but
it's dead....Well the parts are working but there's nobody home.
Is there anything I am missing?
If you are lucky, your BIOS may contain a "Boot Block" which is not
overwritten by the flash utility.
If this is the case it will not drive a PCI, AGP or PCI-E display, so
you won't see anything, but it will read the floppy drive.
If you have your BIOS .bin or .rom file on a floppy, along with the
flash utility (awflash for Award bios's) then you need to create an
autoexec.bat file on the floppy with a single line in it:
awflash [updatename].bin
(for example - I don't know which flash utility you've got)
Then just bung the floppy in the drive and turn on the machine.
Hopefully it will re-flash the Bios and bob's your mother's brother.
Alister
Sounds like a good suggestion but the floppy drive doesn't come
on...only the DVD and hard drives....
On older motherboards, the BIOS could be a dual inline or "DIP" package.
If it is socketed, it can be pried up out of the socket. (I used
to use a flat blade staple remover, to slide under the chip and
pry alternately on either end of the chip, to pull it out of
the socket.)
http://www.biosflash.com/images/dil_socket.gif
More recent motherboards, use a PLCC chip in a socket. In some cases,
the chip is soldered right to the motherboard, which makes replacement
a job for someone with the right tools. If the chip is in a socket, it
can be removed. The brown plastic is the body of the socket.
http://www.biosflash.com/images/plcc_socket.jpg
This is a Radioshack PLCC puller, with hooks that fits under the
diagonal corners of a PLCC. But you can also use a small pointed
tool to do the extraction as well.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062619
The most recent motherboards use an 8 pin DIP, and this EEPROM
is serially connected to the motherboard. Based on a few pictures
I've looked at, these are soldered to the motherboard most
of the time. There may be a programming header near the chip,
which means the intention may be for a programmer to be
connected, to fix one. When I priced a programmer with
pin header interface, it was about $150.00. People who
brick those motherboards, have been sending them back
under warranty.
Companies like this one, can program a new chip for immediate
insertion into the socket. You have to tell them the chip
type (read the number printed on the chip itself, and not
any paper label pasted over top of the chip number), and
give them a pointer to a BIOS download, so they
can prepare the chip. As long as the chip is socketed,
the procedure is relatively painless.
http://www.badflash.com/
If the floppy drive makes access noises during system
startup, then it might be worth trying a "boot block"
recovery procedure. If there is no sound from the
floppy, then it is more likely the boot block is in
an erased state. Percentage wise, not too many people
succeed with the boot block method.
While some Gigabyte motherboards have "dual BIOS" chips,
the architecture is not truly redundant. One chip has
a boot block, two chips have main BIOS code. It is still
possible to brick those motherboards, even though they
physically have two chips.
If no BIOS tool ever touched the boot block, then all
motherboards would be recoverable. But that isn't how
they (ab)use the boot block concept. Many BIOS update
tools are set to erase the boot block by default. If the
BIOS update fails, before the boot block is put back,
then the board is bricked. And then it is time for
badflash.com and the like.
Paul
