[plug] Flash ROMS for Abit Mainbords (BH6)

[Len Bird]

Michael wrote:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Hunt <Michael.J.Hunt at usa.net>
> To: plug at linux.org.au <plug at linux.org.au>
> Date: Tuesday, 4 January 2000 23:51
> Subject: [plug] Flash ROMS for Abit Mainbords (BH6)
>
> >Hi ya all,
> >
> >Wanting to get some long overdues work done on my Home PC i decided to
> >do a flash upgrade of my BIOS in order to sort out some ATA66 issues I
> >was having (Hot Rod add in card). The long and the short of it is that
> >after doing the bios upgrade I rebooted my machine and discoverd that it
> >was nbo longer working. It appears that in my haste I had downloaded the
> >wrond BIOS updates (BX6) and flashed that on to my chip (stuppid I
> >know).
> >
> >From what I have read I believe I can get around the problem by
> >replacing the flash ROM with one that does have the correct BIOS. Does
> >anyone know where I could possibly get a replacement ROM from ? I know
> >this is not totally Linux related but we usually do this sort of theiong
> >becuase we are linux bods (and I suppose human as well). Or any other
> >alternatives ????
> >
> >Michael Hunt
>
> If you have access to an old un-accelerated ISA video card, you might
> be able to recover your BIOS. Remove all cards and drives from your
> system, except for the ISA video card and the floppy drive. Then try
> to boot from a system disk (a bootable floppy with only the flash
> programs and corresponding BIOS binary). If you are able to boot to
> the floppy, you should be able to recover it.
>
> Mike

I think the safest way to tackle the problem is to get yourself a copy of
the correct BIOS update, and
I assume that you know where to get this, then download the FLASH.EXE
utility from the same
source to pre-empt any problems there.  You will need to get a humble old
DOS system diskette,
and append the BIOS and Flash utility to it.  Try this on its own to see if
this will overwright the
corrupted BIOS, otherwise you will have to "kill" the corrupt data by
somehow flattening the BIOS
memory.   To do this use say a 100 ohm resistor, the actual value is not all
that important but DO NOT
repeat NOT directly short circuit the BIOS battery---as it will not like
this!!!   Make sure the 5v
battery is as near flat as possible, restart the computer using the DOS
system diskette, allow time for
the BIOS battery to recharge itself from the Power Supply ---- a multimeter
is usefull here, and
then run your Flash utility etc.   This works for some systems----but may
not be the answer for your
system.  Anyhow you cannot be worse off than you presently are (smirk)

Cheers and best of luck,


Len Bird.