Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (
More info?)
Paul, thanks a lot for your help, you just reminded me ther's a guy on
eBay who sells bios chips for under $20, and this is a socketed bios.
But now I wonder if it would be worth it, considering how tempermental
this bios is. And I do need the tool to pull it, I remember I went
looking for it a local PC shops awhile back for the hell of it, both
corporate and the mon-and-pop variety. All of them had never even
heard of it. I'll try Radio Shack next time I get the opportunity in
another locale (the one in my area did not carry it).
Paul wrote:
> In article <1107724549.014100.137670@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,
> theredpriest@altavista.com wrote:
>
> > C'Mon guys, hasn't anybody experienced this before?
>
> Badflash.com can arrange a new flash chip. You can also get
> a flash chip from Asus, but they may send it by mail, which
> means it would take a while. The chip itself can be amazingly
> cheap (about $2.50 or so for a blank), so most of the price
> is for the programming effort. (For removal of the old chip,
> it helps to have a U shaped removal tool. The tool fits the
> chip on diagonal corners, and has two "lips" that fit under
> the chip, and make it easy to remove. Radio Shack has a tool
> for $10 to do this, and some companies that sell replacement
> BIOS, throw in a cheap version of the Radio Shack tool. You
> can remove the chip with a pointed tool, but be careful not
> to bend any pins.)
>
>
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&product%5Fid=276-2101
>
> There are recovery techniques, but I've received very little
> positive feedback. You can try the "boot block" method, which
> is a blind flash attempted with a DOS boot disk and a one line
> .ini file with the flash command in it. That requires that the
> current BIOS is attempting to access the floppy (which seldom
> happens). Another method is the "hot flash" method, where you
> take your duff flash chip to a friend's computer which is already
> booted from the DOS flashing floppy diskette, pull his chip out
> of the socket *hot* and plug in your chip. You then flash your
> chip. The assumption in this case, is that the BIOS is already
> mirrored in RAM, and that is why you can get away with swapping
> chips.
>
> Plugging a PLCC into a socket hot, can be difficult to do, and
> if the chip gets rotated, the wrong pins can make contact. I've
> read reports of power pins making contact and glowing because
> they got so hot. I've plugged in a few hundred of these things,
> and I wouldn't consider trying a hot flash, because the PLCC can
> slide out of your fingers so easily.
>
> A BIOS Savior would have made this failure easy to recover from,
> but like insurance, would be a waste of time as a recovery plan
> from your current situation. (It is a device that gives you
> two flash chips, with a switch to select between them.)
>
> So, badflash.com will give you a fast turnaround on a new chip,
> and then you can consider a BIOS Savior as a $25 addition to
> your computer, if you think this will be happening again.
>
> BTW - when messing with the BIOS, if you are greeted by the
> "please stuff the floppy/CD in the drive, as the BIOS is
> corrupt", the correct response is to power down. If power
> cycling it is not enough, then power down, pull the plug,
> and clear the CMOS is the next step (see procedure in the
> manual). A computer that is messed up enough to claim its
> BIOS is corrupt, is likely not a good candidate for some
> automatic flashing. Clearing CMOS will give you a chance to
> return the computer to nominal settings, which will improve
> things if in fact the BIOS really does need to be flashed.
> Giving it the floppy/CD is the last thing you want to try,
> until you've tried everything else.
>
> On at least one recent motherboard, the automatic flash option
> is instant death, due to an issue with the automatic flashing
> code on the originally shipping BIOS. It can pay to check the
> download page on the Asus web site, and check to see if the
> "More" link for any of the BIOS files, mentions certain BIOS
> flashing options that are not to be used. A lot of this has
> to do with the boot block in the BIOS having bugs in it.
> Sometimes only one method of flashing the BIOS is safe for
> updating the BIOS, and that is why checking the web site
> is a must, before doing anything to the flash.
>
> HTH,
> Paul
>
> >
> > theredpriest@altavista.com wrote:
> > > I received an UNLOCKED Barton 2500+ (0328 from a mail-order shop,
to
> > > replace my 2400+ T-bred) and kicked it up to X13 @ 167. The
board
> > > POSTED but failed to boot. I went into the BIOS (1007) and
changed
> > > vcore to 1.7v, but on reboot received an error that the BIOS was
> > > corrupt, then it began searching for the driver disc to load
> > > "A7V880.rom" (I think was the extension). I scrambed to grab the
> > disc
> > > and slap it into the drive but no luck, and it hasn't booted
since.
> > >
> > > So is that it, is it time now for the RMA request from ASUS? Is
> > there
> > > anything else I can do to recover the bios (and yes I removed the
> > > battery and cleared the CMOS jumper)?
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