Hot swapping bios.

[bluesky]

Can anyone direct me to any detailed info on this.
Well, if you can explain, it's even better.
Thanks.

 

[madthumbs]

If you're referring to repairing a bad BIOS flash by hotswapping it to reflash it then I think all you have to do is Boot to your flash/BIOS disk with the new BIOS chip, then get it to the point where you begin the flash, then swap the chips. I would make sure you can get to the chip safely and remove it safely.

 

[bluesky]

Thanks madthumbs.
Well, I was just making the disk to flash, but I opened autoexec.bat file by mistake, and closed the dos screen. Then I tried shutdown the system, but it hung so I pressed reset button. It's gone, I couldn't bootup again.
Still, should I try to bootup with a disk?

 

[madthumbs]

You will need a good BIOS chip to boot with. You're risking ruining another BIOS chip. I think (if it's removable) that they're only about $30 to replace. You may be able to find someone capable of flashing it for you if there are any PC shops around.

 

[GAZZA]

if you got a bad flash , you have two choices either buy a new bios or get it re-programmed , you can do either of these two by checking this site out BadBiosFlash

 

[billyjak]

I did this with my abit board, I called them and they sent a new bios within 2 weeks.
I now run it with a bios savior from MWAVE so I can rest in peace now.

 

[bluesky]

Thanks.
It seems everybody against it.
Probably, get a chip from badflash.
Thanks for you guys' help.

 

[jamarno]

You may be able to just make a self-booting floppy that automatically runs the flash program again. The computer may want you to hit ENTER to boot from it. If you want to see what's going on, an old ISA video card may help.

Before you hot flash, unplug the computer, and pry the BIOS chip out of its socket so it's barely sitting in there. Practice removing and replace it with a blank Flash ROM without shorting anything, and start the computer only after you're proficient at this.

Uniflash can let you flash the BIOS from an old motherboard even when the regular flash program won't.

 

[bluesky]

Thnaks.
If I put the bad bios chip on the running system, and flash the bios from hard drive, what's gonna happen?

 

[jamarno]

You will likely end up with a good BIOS, but I wouldn't flash it from Windows but would boot to just the command line prompt. But, as I said, first practice the chip swap with the power off. You also want to take the usual precautions against static electricity - wear an anti-static wrist strap or work barefoot, store the flash chip in a static-safe place (metal of the computer chassis is good).