flashing corrupt BIOS chip...

[Danzilla]

Hey. I just updated the BIOS on my SOYO Dragon because I was about to install a new CPU. It seemed to work fine, but the system is now D, E, A, D, dead. Won't do anything after it restarted from the flash, no bios startup screen or boot from floppy, nothing. So, I need a new bios. I've checked the motherboard and it's a removable PLCC Award bios. I know I can send it away to some place like badflash.com, but that seems like a waste of time and money. Spending around $25 with shipping for a replacement bios on a KT266a board, when I'd rather put it towards a more recent MB.

Here's what I was thinking. The motherboards have the flash function built-in. So, another working MB with PLCC bios. Boot to dos, run the Award bios, but before executing the bios write, pull the good bios and insert the non-working one. Yes, I know it's dangerous messing with a MB when the power is on, but let's ignore that for a minute. The other consideration is that unless it's the same MB, the award flash utility might balk at using the .bin for a different system.
Anyway, I was just wondering about this and whether it might work or not. I'm just not sure if the MB would be still reading/using the BIOS from the chip just before the AWDFLASH.EXE was going to write to it. That obviously would cause problems.

I'd like to hear you opinions. I'm not ready to try it, but thinking about it...

D.

 

[Danzilla]

What, no one has even a "that's stupid" opinion?

 

[klc314]

I know you don't want to spend money, but go look at
www.badflash.com
They have a lot of different options, and the guy is really responsive and knows his stuff, you might try emailing him

 

[KF]

Yes it will work. I've seen testimonials from people who have done the cross-platform version of "hot flashing."

The Award flasher may do some checking and refuse, but there is a freeware universal flasher designed to flash anything into any flash ROM on virtually any motherboard. Look at
Wims BIOS page

They should have a link to an appropriate universal flasher, and info about how to do what you propose in a forum thread and/or FAQ. You'll probably have to learn something about the protected boot block. This is a section of the flash ROM that may not be programmed unless you specifically say it should be. If that section is intact, you don't have to do any hot flashing. It can flash a new BIOS even though the computer appears not to boot and nothing will come up on the screen. With Award BIOSes, it automatically boots from a DOS floppy, and there is a way to have it automatically execute the Award flasher and flash a new BIOS. OTOH if the protected boot block has been wrecked, you will need to re-program that.

Basically you are turning a mobo into a flash ROM programmer. (There are devices you can buy specifically for that, of course. From what they say at that site, it seems there is at least one that is not expensive.)

 

[Danzilla]

Cool. Thanks KF. I've never had this happen before, and so haven't considered it before. It did seem likely that someone else might have.

 

[Danzilla]

Okay. Well, I've tried hot swapping and I still can't get it to work. Most of the flash programs don't seem to recognize the Flash type in the Soyo KT400 Dragon Lite (39SF020A). The only one that does is AWDFLASH, and IT won't flash because the bios.bin doesn't match the motherboard. (I'm trying to flash the bad bios chip in the working MB.)
I also haven't been able to find anyone local that's able/willing to flash one.

Any other suggestions before I spend $25 or so for a replacement chip?

D.

 

[KF]

I'm not sure how much work you want to put into this. The guy that wrote or maintains the generic flasher that I mentioned (which title I forget) hangs out at Wimsbios, and he usually claims it will do any flashable ROM. If you post there, he is liable to find it and give you the info for that flash type.