flashing old compaq bios

[Snakexor]

is it possible to successfully flash my brothers compaqs mobo (albatron km266 pro i believe model # VIA KM266/8235 ) with the newest bios from albatron or will it mess up the whole system and not be recoverable??

thanks in advance

 

[piasabird]

Some Compaqs had the CMOS on the hard drive so be careful.

 

[Snakexor]

bump

 

[Snakexor]

ive bypassed that, and went for a reinstall using the recovery disks...

it has successfully formated my hdd, but now gives me a bsod when tries to intialize the video driver and says that it is not installed...can anyone help??

 

[Snakexor]

bump i really need help!!

 

[Snakexor]

BUMP PLZ HELP

 

[MobiusPizza]

How can there be a BSOD when Windows is not installed?
BSOD? is a trademark of Windows.

You formatted the HDD but have you installed Windows?
What version of Windows?

 

[Snakexor]

thank you X , i ran the recovery disks and it seems that it formatted my hdd because it said that there was no os installed when my first boot optoin wasnt cdrom....

im using windows xp

 

[MobiusPizza]

So you get the error screen when trying to recover using the recovery disc?

 

[CrispyFried]

Have you added anything to that pc like a new vid card?

Recovery disks expect the exact hardware config as when it was bought. It wont work if anything has been changed.

 

[Snakexor]

same exact configuration, ive reseated the vid car, imma see if that works

 

[RichUK]

Originally posted by: Snakexor
is it possible to successfully flash my brothers compaqs mobo (albatron km266 pro i believe model # VIA KM266/8235 ) with the newest bios from albatron or will it mess up the whole system and not be recoverable??

thanks in advance

whats the reason for flashing to the latest BIOS unless you have problems with it or are looking to OC then you might want to but otherwise there is no point.

 

[Snakexor]

want to o/c it, but now im just trying to get it to work :/

 

[CrispyFried]

clear the cmos and try again.

Also check the hd cables and blow any dust out.

 

[Snakexor]

is the cmos on the hdd?

 

[mrbill14]

We have some old Compaqs at work here... They had the "Utility partition" on the HD, which (if there) would let you into the BIOS.

If you've formatted the HD, chances are the "Utility partition" is gone.

Not all hope is gone! Compaq has a couple of diskettes you can boot of off and it will act as that "Utility partition" or even install it for you.

(At work, I opted to make the "Utility partition" and then image the rest of the HD. This way, I wouldn't have to carry around a couple of diskettes in order to access the BIOS.)

I'll search around for the diskettes. PM me if you want an image of them. You should be able to download them off of Compaq's site (whoops, I mean, HP's site). Good luck finding them through!

 

[Snakexor]

bump

 

[birdpup]

How old is the Compaq and what model is it? What bios version is on the Compaq already? Is there a new bios version available to download?

I recommend vacumming out all the dust from inside the case (be careful of any static electrical charge by placing one hand on the metal of the case and the other hand on the tip of the vacumm hose), remove the video card, clean off the metal connection tips with alcohol, and replacing the video card. Then reflash the bios and attempt a reinstall using the recovery disks.

 

[Snakexor]

presario 6000, will try and flash the bios...