Must I reinstall Win98 OS after BIOS flash?

[pkulk]

Hi

I flashed the BIOS on my FIC503+ AMDK-6-2 m/c over the weekend. When I booted up, it showed several things missing including my CDROM drive. Does this mean the new BIOS is not a good idea and I should just go back to the old one or is this common and I have to reinstall the OS now?

Thanks
PK

edit: modified title

 

[Steve Guilliot]

You shouldn't re-install Windows. What probably happened is a default BIOS setting changed with the new BIOS revision. Go into BIOS setup at boot (usually Del key), and make sure that "PnP OS"=yes. Make sure that no IRQs are hard assigned. Check the drive configuration and make sure that IDE primary/secondary master/slave are enabled to autodetect. If that doesn't work, it's some other BIOS setting that I'm forgetting. Give that a shot. G/L.

 

[bacillus]

OS reinstall is not needed after a bios flash.
if the bios flash went sucessfully, then suggest you reset your cmos.
there should be a jumper on the board for you to do this!
btw what OS are you using?

 

[pkulk]

thanks for those suggestions.
First off, I am using Win98. Modifying the title to reflect that.

In short, PnP OS is yes.
the drives autodetect is yes. On POST, the CDROM shows up in there. But in WIN98, it disappears.
I dont know what it means to hard assign IRQs, but there is a choice in the BIOS settings to choose the order of IRQs and to pick the IRQs for COM ports. Those are assigned default values (I dod not modify those).

Instead of resetting the CMOS, I said load default settings in the BIOS config. Isnt that the same thing?

TIA
PK

 

[bacillus]

<< Instead of resetting the CMOS, I said load default settings in the BIOS config. Isnt that the same thing? >>


yeah just about.


<< When I booted up, it showed several things missing including my CDROM drive. >>


what else is missing?
are there any exclaimation marks in device manager?

 

[pkulk]

Almost anything that I know of has question marks against it. Here are some of them:
-PCI Bus (which is a model thing but I need the CDROM drive to load the modem drivers).
-Communication ports
-Serial port
-something called 'Motherboard Resources'

Here are some things which are missing:
-CDROM (disk controllers)
-Mouse
-Modem
-HDD - no way to check any properties, though they are functioning!
-ISA sound card

Thanks

 

[boomerang]

Flash back to your previous BIOS version. If your problems go away, stay with that version. Sometimes new versions have bugs. Also, you may want to double and triple check to make sure the new BIOS is indeed for your board.

 

[bacillus]

hmm, if you're game & out of options, I would suggest you delete the enum folder in the registry, shutdown & reboot.
windows will then have to redetect all your hardware.