Oh boy! Bios flash hang; IP35-E

[soccerballtux]

I did the usual commands; but also added /tiny because I kept getting an insufficient memory error.

So it started flashing the bios, and now it appears to have hung on "programming flash memory".

The bios files are on my hdd drive.

I got tired of waiting to see if I had messed up my BIOS, so I rebooted it and thankfully everything is still fine.

But I must not be doing something right when I'm flashing! I don't have a floppy diskette, and the bootdisk Nero made for me (which I dragged the files into) didn't recognize my CDRom it seems.

What do you think the problem is/why won't it flash?

 

[Mondoman]

Check out the Abit support forums; you should be able to order a new BIOS chip for a low price from Abit tech support.

Edit: Aha! - the OP has now added the info that his BIOS still works; in that case, I would ask the friendly folks at the Abit forums for detailed directions on how to flash from a CD or USB stick if possible. Otherwise, it may be time to break down and buy a floppy drive (you should be able to use a USB floppy drive -- that way, you can use the same drive for all your computers).

I suspect the OP's problem may have had something to do with trying to use batch files designed for floppy use (i.e. assuming drive A: ) on a CD drive (which would most likely be C:, but definitely not A: ).

 

[Heidfirst]

doesn't sound like he needs 1 yet.
Do you have an USB memory stick that you could do it from?
or of course there is always FlashMenu.

 

[PhlashFoto]

Sound like you are trying to create a bootable CD to flash a bios. I would stay away from using this method when flashing your bios. Either find a floppy drive & disk, or use the windows update method.

Bootable CDs are ok to use for most things, but for flashing firmwares that are meant for floppy, I wouldn't use CDs for that.

 

[JustaGeek]

Why wouldn't bootable CD work...?

All it does is load the DOS into RAM, so you can use the basic DOS commands.

The BIOS flash command is an Operating System command, the Disk Operating System command, to be executed when DOS is already "up and running".

That's why ex. Seagate Disk Wizard is DOS based - and it boots from a CD.

But I DO prefer the traditional bootable floppy method nevertheless.

 

[PhlashFoto]

I never said bootable CD wouldn't work, I was implying that I am not comfortable in using it for flashing a bios on a mobo. Unless it was a ISO that I could burn to a CD and was bootable from that.

 

[toadeater]

Most windows bios flash utils are pretty good these days. Just turn off all security software running in the background while you flash, so nothing interferes with the process.

 

[GundamF91]

Use Abit's Flashmenu running in Windows XP, it has never failed me.

That said. what's the BIOS setting for flashing from USB drive? I didn't see it explicitly in the IP35E bios, there're various ones other than HDD, but I'm not quite sure which to use.