BIOS ROM checksum error

[chk3]

I have a bios problem with my Iwill xp333Raid MOBO. While upgrading it to the most recent, it failed. Since, whenever I boot up, it says
?Award BootBlock Bios V1.0
Copyright © 2000, Award Software, Inc.

BIOS ROM checksum error

Detecting floppy drive A media..

Drive medica is: 1.44 Mb
Starting Windows Millennium Emergency Boot?

Then, it goes back to A: drive prompt. So, no bios operation is happening!! Tried many times, the same happens.

I tried to redo the bios upgrade with awdflash.exe but to fail. It keeps stopping in the middle of operation by saying ?unknown flash type!? and put me back to A: drive prompt.

Any advice for this?

Thanks in advance.

Chk3

 

[Peter]

Typically, this problem is caused by overclocked system or bad RAM. Actually defective, non-programmable FlashROM chip happens one in a million.

 

[Bartman39]

I second the ram issue (try another slot or another stick of ram...)

 

[Robisoda]

Had the exact same problem yesterday on my VP6. Bad BIOS flash. Your BIOS (Award) does have a built-in fail-safe mode to allow it to boot to floppy and run a new flash. My solution for mine:

Make a pure DOS bootable floppy (I used Format>Create an MS-DOS startup disk in Windows Explorer - Windows XP)
Copy Awdflash.exe and a known good BIOS to the floppy
Edit Config.sys and ensure there are no entries
Edit Autoexec.bat, delete any entries, then add this line eacxtly: AWDFLASH.EXE VP6_WK.bin /py /sn /cc (replace the VP6_WK.bin with the name of your BIOS file)

This creates a floppy that will automatically boot, load Awdflash and program you BIOS without requiring any user input (which you can't do because BIOS has not loaded keyboard or mouse functions). The Awdflash switches are: /py - yes to program, /sn - no to save old BIOS, /cc - clear CMOS. Took me a few tries but this is what fixed mine, YMMV.

Dennis

 

[chk3]

Many thanks, folks.

Will try your suggestions one by one and let you know what happens.

Thanks again.

Chk3.

 

[chk3]

Dear Dennis,

How long does it take to write BIOS following your suggestion?

Your suggestion went OK with flash type and file name recognition as well as programming flash memory up to ?05000 OK?. Also with the corresponding progress with ?write OK? sign in ~ 1/8 of upper bar of progress diagram. But it seems like it has stopped right there without further progress. So far it has been >10 minuates with that screen.

While I do not know if this has anything to do with this freeze, I took out my raid hard drives this AM to read some data from them and did not put them back in when I tried your suggestion to write bios.

Now the warning says ?Don?t Turn off Power of Reset System!?. I also saw such warnings as such in many bios upgrade instructions.

Any suggestion? Is it OK to turn it off and retry?

Thanks again.

Chk3

 

[Robisoda]

Yeah, that doesn't sound good. It should show 2 grey horizontal bars which turn to white as it programs and verifies them. There's also a small section on the lower bar which should turn to green (that's the fail-safe boot block). The whole process takes maybe 10~15 sec. Then you can reboot via the reset switch (you could also add /R to the switch string in Autoexec.bat). At this point turning it off and trying again probably won't hurt since your BIOS is borked anyways. Try removing everything except vidcard, 1 stick of RAM and floppy (HDs have no bearing at this point, so don't sweat that). Reseat everything and clear CMOS with PS disconnected from MB. Now try flashing again. It's improbable, but possible, that you've got a bad BIOS chip. Past this I don't know, RMA or new BIOS from badflash.com (about $20).
Good luck

Dennis