Big trouble in Bios update

[buddhika]

To All Hardware GURUs

PLEASE READ this long info,

I urgently need any help on this problem,pleease.

the story is, last week i tried to turn on my old pc( a Intel P3 440BX raffles, 666mhz, 192MB ram, 60GB ..) after some time. it got dual boot(XP & 98) when i selected XP it showed the blue scrn o D, and told to reinstall xp, in 98 it said link to Vxd (or something like that) invalid.

then i formatted the C: and tried to install XP and 98 but both said there were some missing files and in xp said PCI.Sys was not there and etc. then i plug the hard Disk to my new pc (without new hard ) there were some virusses and trojans, i cleaned them and installed both 98 and XP without any problem.
Then I plugged the old hard to old pc and start, dual boot screen was there but when selected either OS it had errors and said to reinstall.

i thought it was because of some bios problem and tried to update bios. i found some 440BX bios and copied to a floppy and started updating.

first saved my old bios to floppy and then updated it, after the update (progress bar was 100%) it said press F1 to reset and F10 to exit. i pressed f10 few times but nothing and F1 few times notrhing happend. after some time i had no choise other than reset/reboot the pc by front panel button.

at boot screen first it said BIOS ChECKSUM ERROR!. it was on dos mode so i tried to re update bios and again it was stuck at finish line(progress 100%)
few times this happened and then i turned off pc and tried to clear CMOS by the jumper. and plug it again rightway.

After that i tried to boot but the screen dont show anything, its on standby mode, CPU's both LEDs (HDD and Power ) are on, checks CDrom and floppys but No BIOS OK beep, nothing !. it just stays that way while and then HDD led off.

I really want that pc to work.BTW i am not in USA or europe so prices of pc are not very low here (evan those old ones) so i cant forget it( cause before few months it worked very well)



1.Why the screen doesnt work? is there anything i should look for( the VGA Fan is woking, i tapped on vga it wasnt loose)

2.what should i do ??

3.i took off ram and booted then it beeped, doesnt it shows BIOS is working?

Thanks.

 

[mechBgon]

I think your best option is to buy a used 440BX motherboard to replace the dead one.

The BIOS is not identical for every 440BX motherboard. Each brand and model has its own special BIOS and you need to use the correct BIOS for your brand and model of motherboard. If you can identify the exact motherboard that you have, and go to the manufacturer's website and find the correct BIOS, then you can buy a new CMOS chip with the BIOS already on it, from http://www.badflash.com. But I think it will cost more than buying a used motherboard, once you add the cost of shipping.

If you get the motherboard to work, or you get a replacement, start again on the installation of Win98 and WinXP. You cannot set them up on your new PC and then put the drive into the old PC and have it work (at least, WinXP will have problems). Good luck!

Oh, and here is excellent antivirus software that is free for home users: http://www.activevirusshield.com It is a "lightweight" version of Kaspersky AntiVirus 6, which is one of the best antiviruses.

 

[buddhika]

thanks verymuch
then you think bios is corrupted?
why this problem occured in first place (why OS stoped working)?

BTW isnt there any spark of light other than buying one?

 

[buddhika]

any other ideas please?

 

[buddhika]

help o' help SOS!!

 

[AmphibSailor]

It really does sound like a bad flash. You can probably pick up a good used mobo for next to nothing or maybe for free on the fs forum. Someone over there will probably help you out. What country are you located in?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: buddhika
thanks verymuch
then you think bios is corrupted?

It may not be the correct BIOS for your motherboard, or it may be corrupted. Those are both equally bad.

why this problem occured in first place (why OS stoped working)?

I think you answered that already. Viruses.

 

[buddhika]

im from Srilanka.

could viruses stop os from being installed ? (in dos / preOS )


thanks.

 

[imported_nocturne]

well... viruses can rarely survive a format, but I think they can live on in the mbr (at least in the olden days).

The problem could just be the bios not wanting to clear the settings (hopefully). You could try removing the cmos battery and booting without it (forcing the bios to use only default settings, as without a battery no settings are saved).

In any case good luck. If all else fails (and you don't want to upgrade too far), you could always pick up another mobo or even a amd/p3 1ghz cpu/mb combo of the FS forum. Besides, if you want to run XP on that machine, you're specs could use updating (unless you use nlite to make a stipped down copy of xp).

 

[buddhika]

actually this is my old pc i got a new pc for gaming and stuff.

this pc is used to type & print documents and sort.. (not by me BTW ) (printer drivers best supports XP and want to use new Office so have to use XP) -

BTW i tried removing battery before bios update, but no help.