Repairing a BLOWN BIOS update

[GasPath]

My son blew his bios today trying to flash it. Now the board won't boot. Here's my question:

I have the same mobo in my puter (P2B-LS). Can I suspend the Mobo and then install his chip and complete the flash? Does the computer rely on the bios for all normal operations, or is the bios only loaded at boot?

If I can find a point where it is safe to pull the chip and replace it with the blown one, I can save the money of ordering a new on.

 

[Vegito]

its like 15 bucks for a new on, e8ay or asus or 3rd party.. see if it's worth it.. i think so.. instead of pull out bios from a good system and risk shorting it or bending pins off..

 

[dkozloski]

What you are suggesting is a hot BIOS swap. Once the board has booted to DOS the BIOS info has been transferred to system memory and the chip is no longer needed. At this point you leave the power on, pull the BIOS chip in the good board, substitute the blown one, and do a normal BIOS flash. Get a chip puller from Radio Shack and practice pulling and replacing the corrupted chip until you are confident you can do it without destroying the world. If you damage this chip you are no worse off than before. Then go for it. I have done it several times without a hitch. Once was on a soldered in BIOS chip which required the installation of chip sockets where there were none before. Just plan and practice a procedure before hand. What the Hell! It's only money. No guts! No glory!

 

[Kwad Guy]

I've done this, too, several times. Works fine. The key is
steady hands and enough working space so you can access the
BIOS chip and install it without shorting something out.

You should pull the BIOS chip on the good machine. They reinsert
it as gently as possible, so that it is making all contacts, but
just barely. Boot to the whereever you're going to run the BIOS
update from (hard drive or floppy; usually floppy). Pull the good
chip out. If you put it in gently, it won't be hard to pull out
(use chip extractor tool...don't use your fingers). Put the
new chip in. Take your time, use your fingers, make sure you get
the pins lined up correctly and that you put the chip in the right
way (note orientation before you take the old chip out). If you
get the pins mis-aligned you might fry it. If you put it in
backwards, you WILL fry it. So just take your time. Once it's in,
press it down to make sure it's making good contact. Then flash
the BIOS. You should be all set.

Kwad

 

[GasPath]

Thanks for the great advice.

Forcesho: Your advice is deffinately the safest, and appreciated. But I think I'll take the plunge. I thought I could do this, but just wasn't sure. I haven't tried this on any new mobo. Never had a reason, until now.

dekozloski: Also great advice. But I was actually one of those guys who was reprogramming the old Commordore 64 bios chips way way back. I have several chip pullers and logic probes from the old days. But very good advice! I can remember bending the hell out of the first couple I pulled because you'd start pulling and they'd give away all at once. My technique was to push the all the way down, and then pull. It had the tendancy to break the chip free.

Kwad Guy: Great tip on just barely seating the good bios. I hadn't thought about that. BTW, you really running Quads???

Well, tomorrow I'll do it and post my results to you here. I'm begining to wonder if I can replace my socket with a ZIF and use it for flashing other bios chips (ONLY KIDDING!)

 

[GasPath]

Hey all,

This works great. Reflashed the dead prom with the latest and it worked great. Just wanted to let you know.

 

[bacillus]

congrats on a job well done!

 

[Pakman]

Wow, makes me wanna f00k up my bios chip just so I can try... LOL... Now, would this trick work for example if I had two totally different motherboards? I would think it would. Anyone try it this way?

 

[GasPath]

I don't see why not. As long as you are careful with the GOOD BIOS prom, you really can't screw up the bad one any more than it is already. When Award flash ran, it has a checksum that reported I wasn't flashing the exact same bios as the motherboard it was sitting on (P2B-S vs P2B-LS). It gave me the option to burn anyway, and I did. Popped it out, old one in. Booted fine. Ran to the other room popped the newly flashed in and WHAM! a POST we hadn't seen in two days. So I would think it might work.

Good Luck!