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Pastimes : Dream Machine ( Build your own PC ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: D. Chapman who wrote (11505)	11/17/2000 10:02:20 AM
From: RJL	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

If the computer cannot get past it's POST, a motherboard relacement is the easiest way to go. However, it MIGHT be cheaper to get a replacement BIOS chip (assuming it's not soldered on the board). Check with the company that sold your friend the MB. Rich P.S. Are you sure it's the BIOS and not a faulty RAM module, or CPU?

To: D. Chapman who wrote (11505)	11/17/2000 11:50:55 AM
From: Moving Sphere	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

>"Apparently he screwed up his BIOS so badly that the computer will not boot even to an emergency start disk." Your statement begs the next question: "How did you friend screw up his BIOS?" Was he/she trying to upgrade his BIOS? Or was he/she simply changing the CMOS settings? If it was the latter, all you need to do is to reload the BIOS default settings by clicking on the function key that reloads the CMOS default setting. I'm assuming that your friend can still access the CMOS menu by clicking the "del" key right after you reboot or turn the computer on. If your friend is trying to upgrade the BIOS and failed, then the only way to do is to reflash the BIOS. However, if your friend can't even boot from a floppy diskette in order to reflash a BIOS, then I'm afraid it is bad news. :-( I cannot suggest or recommend anyone to upgrade their own motherboard BIOS because it is a risky proposition. Once you mess up, you can lose your access to your computer. Therefore, I can only tell you what I did with my motherboard. I've from time to time upgraded my motherboard BIOS. First, I need to go to my motherboard maker website to download the latest driver written for my motherboard model. I make sure my motherboard's model number is exactly the same as the one shown in the website before I download the upgraded BIOS. The downloaded file should included instruction and a flash program that is used to flash the upgraded BIOS to the motherboard. It is important that I use the flash program that come with the upgraded BIOS. For my FIC SD11 motherboard, different version of the BIOS uses different version of the flash program. And here is the most important thing to do before I flash my motherboard BIOS, I must boot "raw" from a floppy disk to a DOS prompt before I do any flashing. That mean there must be no config.sys and autoexec.bat to run after booting from your floppy. That also mean I must not go to DOS prompt mode from Windows. One more thing, I make sure I've a copy of my original version of the BIOS in case the upgraded version does not work well with my system setup. This way, I can always reflash my original back to the motherboard. So far, I haven't screwed up my own motherboard(s) for flashing the upgraded BIOS. "knock on wood..." In general, there is no need to upgrade the motherboard BIOS unless it is required to fix problems that the motherboard is having with other peripherals. Hope it helps. :-)