BH6 Bios Help?

[TexRanger]

Howdy-

I'm preparing to upgrade old reliable (BH6+Cel 300A) this weekend and tried a BIOS flash to SS for Ver 1 of the BH6 last night. I used the abitfae2.bat file and the SS.bin from a floppy as instructed, and everything appeared to work. However, when I exited the flash utility, there was a message of a flash failure, even though everything appeared to go smoothly and was verified as OK.

I rebooted and the SS version of the BIOS appeared on my start screen and everything seemed to be going fine, until trying to load Win98. I get a CONFIGMG error and it says I must restart my machine. Booting to safe mode and checking Device Mgr doesn't reveal any obvious problems. I rebooted again, and get the same error.

Oh yeah, before restarting after the flash, I went into CMOS and changed all the settings to match what I had before starting this exercise. One thing I noticed in the SS BIOS is that there doesn't appear to be any way to force the video initialization to the AGP slot . . . it wants to start with my (secondary) PCI video card. Any way around this?

I re-flashed back to the HN bios and my system is running, although I'd really like to install the PIII-800 that is arriving today!

All help appreciated! Thanks.

 

[bozack]

I remember reading somewhere before that that flash error problem was a common one and a fault of abits with that bios, something about they screwed up the close comman of the flash bin and even though the system flashed fine you would get that error.

Where did you download the .bin file from? abits main site? and last I checked abit did not recommend using that abit fae program anymore.

What version of the board do you have 1.01, 1.01, 1.02?

Personally I would go and re-download the bios file, copy it onto a bootable floppy and just use the award flash switches old school style instead of trying that program, after flashing only set up the cpu and leave everything default and see if it will boot, after it does/doesn't then I would change my settings.

I am just getting rid of my bh6, just getting too old for me, still works fine but I just want to do more and my board is my limitation, sh6 here i come.

 

[TexRanger]

Thanks for the suggestion regarding the fae file. I went that route because I wasn't sure which switches were required with the awdflash.exe program. I did indeed get the SS.exe/bin file from Abit's site, as I do not know where else to try. Should I try to find another version of the SS file somewhere else?

I'm not sure exactly which version of the BH6 I have, just that it is not a 1.1 or greater. It was purchased in Mar '99 if that helps. I can't read the sticker (if it is there) on the ISA slot due to the configuration of the mobo and my case. I just figured since I had the HN bios originally, I should use the SS update.

Can you help me with the /switches required for the awdflash.exe program? I haven't been able to find any documentation for those.

I'm just trying squeeze some more life out of the board before starting over with an AMD system . . .

Thanks!

 

[Big Lar]

Try using a small mirror to slide under the isa slot, to see the revision #, a lady's compact works fine too

 

[KRogers]

What Bozak said. Use Award's flash utility and type the command line yourself. Bat files and such are where the problems come in. Also make sure you know what version of the BH6 you have. I upated from KSomething to SS just a week ago and had no problems.

 

[TexRanger]

OK, best I can tell with an inspection mirror and a flashlight is 1.02 (or maybe 1.05) . . . it is hard to tell since it is at the back of my case and there is very little clearance to aim the mirror and light!

Where can I find the definitive info regarding the switches on the awdflash.exe program? Any other recommended sites to download the SS Bios?

My processor just arrived, so I'm gettin' anxious! Thanks all.

 

[dirkdaring]

I updated my BH6 (2nd computer) from the oldest one listed to SS without a problem either a month or two ago. I forget where exactly I got everything from, but the Abit site had detailed instructions on what exactly to type in. I didn't use a bat file (no way).

dirk

 

[NuovoTech]

Use this DOS command: "AwdFlash BH6_SS.bin /PY /SN /CC /CD /CP"

 

[TexRanger]

Hot Damn! I used the command above and everything seems to be working! I even found the video initialization option, so my AGP is working as the primary again . . . ABIT moved it to a different section.

Now I can add my new PIII-800, GeForce2, and IBM 45.0GB HD . . . and the fun will continue.

Mucho thanks!