Guide: Reflashing a DEAD bios.

[CeeJay]

I recently experienced a biosflasing gone wrong and as a result the BIOS was dead .. nothing appeared on screen when I turned the computer on.

Fortunatly I knew how to fix this prior to my problem so I quickly had my PC up and running again.

I figured it would be a good idea to write a guide that could potientally save another forum-user's PC .. especially with all the new modded BIOS's turning up these days.

There are several ways to fix a bad BIOS :

1)
If your BIOS will boot to at least a floppydisk , then you're not in any major trouble .. you can perform a normal BIOS flash from a bootdisk just as you would flash the bios normally.
If you have choosen not to build your pc with a floppy drive (because it's an ancient tech that you figured you would never use) then you can either flash from another media (like a bootable CD-rom f.x.) or you can borrow a floppy drive (either from a from or from another of your own PC's)

2)
If your screen remains blank whem you turn on the PC but you can hear the drives working and see the driveleds blinking then you might be able to blindly flash your BIOS by inserting a bootdisk that includes an autoexec.bat that will automaticly flash your bios without requiring additional input from you.

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If your bios is dead and you see and hear nothing when you turn the pc on then you're in trouble as a computer needs to boot in order to flash a BIOS and in order to boot it needs a working BIOS .. it's a catch 22.

But there are ways around this deadlock situation :

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3)
If you're the lucky owner of a BIOS savior then its a simple matter of switching to the backup BIOS, booting from that , switching back to the dead bios and then flashing it.
A BIOS Savior is a small device that fit's into the BIOS socket and contains it's own BIOS chip and a socket for your original BIOS chip.
This way you can have 2 BIOS chips in your PC that you can switch between.

The official page (beware ugly blink tags)
http://www.ioss.com.tw/eg/

Where to buy :
http://www.ioss.com.tw/eg/rd1/wtobuy.html

The BIOS Savior ship with a blank backup BIOS on the device so you need to have bought this device and flashed the backed before you got into trouble ... however .. some resellers may be willing to flash the cip on the BIOS Savior before shipping it to you.
I know for a fact that Eksitdata - http://www.eksitdata.com/ offers this for a small extra charge

4)
Some MB manufacturers may offer to send you a replacement BIOS chip already flashed , for a price naturally.
Depeding on P&P and your MB's manufacturer this may or may not be available , expensive and/or feasible.

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Now my BIOS was quite nonresponsive and I didn't own a BIOS Savior and I was not about to spend days or weeks finding out if I could get a replacement BIOS and waiting for it to arrive by mail.
I needed my computer working now.

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5) - ( The method I used )
I needed to get my hands on another working BIOS chip that was identical to mine.
So I called up a friend and asked to borrow his PC for this procedure.
I knew his computer was almost identical to mine because I built both.

What matters here is that the BIOS's come from the same model MB.
Both is this case were Abit NF7-S v2.0 's.

With both computers opened and turned off (and the powerplug disconnected) I removed my own BIOS chip from it's socket after noting it's orientation ( Unlike many other components in the PC it IS acutally possible to install a BIOS chip the wrong way .. so make sure you don't ).

To remove a socketted BIOS chip you need to carefully loosen one corner with a thin object .. like a toothpick (I used a clean ear swab) , then loosen the opposite corner and pick it up with your fingers.
Put it somewhere where it wont get lost.

Then I did the same thing to my friends BIOS chip , only after I had gotten it loose i gently pushed it back in, but only so much that the BIOS had contact to the socket.
This way it would still work but it could be removed without hassle.


I then booted up his PC with a bootdisk containing the flashtool and the bios-image that i wanted to flash mine with.

I then ran the Flashtool - For my board this is AWDFLASH.
It asked me for the BIOS file that i wanted to flash.
I entered the filename - In my case NF7D_22.BIN

It asked me if I wanted to save the current BIOS - I choose no.

It asked me if I wanted to flash the BIOS ( Y/N ? )

I didn't answer just yet , but instead I removed the working bioschip which was easy since i had previously loosened it and I inserted the nonworking bioschip and made sure that it was facing the right way.

This was done while the system was on.
It wont crash the system because the BIOS is not in use when you do this.

Having inserted my bios I then answered Y to the question and AWDFLASH proceeded to flash my bios with a working biosimage.

When I restarted the PC it booted just fine and everything was working.
The flash was succesful !

Now I powered of the PC again and switched the bioschips back and made sure that both PC's were working.

Indeed they were .. the operation was a succes!
Both patient and donor were doing fine.

This method of swapping the BIOS's is actually the same thing that the BIOS savior does only it comes with a extra bioschip so you dont have to borrow one and it has a switch that makes it easy to swap between the two, so you dont have to physically move the bioschips.

Note also that you don't actually need to borrow an entire PC .. just the working bioschip and it doesn't matter which PC you use to flash the bios as long as it is the same kind of MB , booting with the working chip in it.

This proceedure MIGHT also be possible to perform from a different make and model of motherboard IF they both use the same kind of bioschip.

Mine f.x. is a PMC Pm49FL004T /5V - Your flashutility will tell you this.

You will most likely have to force the flashtool to flash, if the biosimage is intended for a different MB.

Make sure you know when you need to change the bioschips, as flashing the working bios with a biosimage for another type of motherboard will make it stop working.
I suggest doing a trial run with a biosimage for the type of motherboard you booted with so you know when to change the chips.

You can also try to flash a bioschip from a different type of MB with a bios savior. Just boot from the bios saviors internal bios and switch to the bioschip you want to flash.
Again the type of the bioschip have to be the same.

Remember this guide in case you one day find yourself in my situation.
It can save your BIOS.

I hope you found this guide helpful.

Sincerely
CeeJay

[Edit nForcer - Added to Stickied links ]

[turbochris]

cool. isn't there a way to force the flash on a non posting board by pulling the video card?

[CeeJay]

I haven't heard of it .. what exactly do you mean .. can you make a non-posting board post (though without video) if the error is in the videopart and you remove the videocard before powering up ?

[turbochris]

http://www3.telus.net/agentsmith/articles/article1.html

it says removing the vid card will make it read the autoexec file

[MiniMax]

I have a hard time believing that some designer/programmer not under the influence of controlled substances, actually sat down and programmed a piece of code that reads:

Code: Select all

if ( ! graphics_card ) {
    x86boot( primary_boot_device );
}

I have a much better feeling about something that goes like this:

Code: Select all

if ( checksum( flash ) != cmos->checksum[FLASH] &&
     checksum( cmos  ) == cmos->checksum[CMOS]  )
{
    // Uh Oh - The CMOS checks out ok, but our flash memory does not.
    // Looks like a bad flash toasted the BIOS. Try blind auto-flashing.
    x86boot( primary_boot_device );
}

[turbochris]

it takes less work to write the first example you gave, so it's believable

[dfinf2]

thanks for the guide and i think i will orer the bios savior soon just inc ase

[MrSoltik]

Can anyone confirm that this "agent smiths" trick works with the epox 8rda or 8rda3? I happend to wreck my bios too ocing and this might be just the solve I need..

[turbochris]

try it

[CeeJay]

And if it works please let us know and ill update the guide.