Abit BH6 - BIOS corrupted?

[gimel]

I got an Abit BH6 with celeron 300 a few days ago and I am trying to make it work smoothly. The computer is actually working great, the only problem is the BIOS (chip).

The first thing I must do if I wan't to boot this thing is to reset CMOS data using the proper jumper. If i do not do that, the motherboard is completely dead when I turn the power on. Everithing except the fans fails to start. This is probably due to the fact that something is wrong with the BIOS chip?

If I somehow boot the computer up (sometimes even the CMOS reset procedure doesn't help and i ave to reset it several times), I can use it normally, until I turn it off, of course)

Tried different power suplly, ram, motherboard battery is new. BIOS is the latest. I can try to downgrade the bios, but the problem is that only the latest bios supports >40gb disks. So if earlier version of bios someow works, my 80gb disk will not work. I flashed the latest version again, with no effect

I need some hints for solving this problem (other then buying a new bios chip, that's too complicated - after all, I got this motherboard for free).

Rok

 

[Harvey]

I assume you have a current version of AWDFLASH and the BIOS version you want to use on a bootable floppy. Try clearing the CMOS completely. The jumper may be enough, but try removing the battery for a couple of minutes, too. Then, boot to the floppy, and flash your BIOS.

Also, make sure your battery is good.

Hope that helps.

 

[Big Lar]

"Also, make sure your battery is good."
^^What Harvey said.

 

[gimel]

The battery is not playing a role here ... i can not boot this thing with or without the battery. If, assuming, the BIOS is fine and the battery is dead, the computer would boot up and complain about CMOS checksum error and I would have to enter BIOS settings every time I turn the computer on.

It seems that the computer fails to boot up only if I change one or more bios settings. This, of course, is not a solution because I have to set settings at least for CPU and IDE drives ...

"Fresh" BIOS software flashing is also not a solution. It does not change anything

Rok