BIOS Flash Nightmare

[JesseMcPherson]

I have a Chaintech 9CJS Zenith Motherboard and the other day I decided to update my BIOS so I could install XP SP2. I had no floppys handy so I made a bootable CD, started up the flash utility and started the process. Then something horrible happened, it froze. I left the PC as it was for a day and nothing happened and finally I turned it off. Now I'm left with a corrupted BIOS and am not quite sure what my opions are as far as fixing it. When starting up I get 1 long beep and 2 short beeps. I also tried creating a floppy to see if I could do a BIOS recovery and it seems like the system is trying to read the floppy, but then gives 4 long beeps. Any ideas anyone?

 

[Rugger]

Here is a list of error <A HREF="http://www.pcmech.com/show/troubleshoot/14/1" target="_new">Beep Codes</A>.

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[Guest]

The other option is more extreme and involves getting two mothervoard using the same BIOS chip, swapping the BIOS chip while the computer is running and flash the corrupted one

Damn, that sounds kinda risky. Have you ever tried this before?

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[endyen]

It was easy with the old big chips, much harder now. It's generally easier just to get a new bios from the mobo maker. A lot of small shops wont even do the hot swap any more.

 

[endyen]

If you loosen the chip up nice, a small suction cup will work, if you can keep your hands from shaking.

 

[JesseMcPherson]

Actually the BIOS on my board just pops out of a socket, really simple to get in and out. Well I talked to the manufacturer and they are sending me a new BIOS chip, and it is free.

 

[fishmahn]

Nice... then you can do the hot-swap trick, flash the bad chip and have a backup for the next bad flash

Mike.

 

[pat]

"Good thing when frienda know you know everything about computer parts and follows you."

Oh noooooo.. That is scary when somebody tell me he knows everything...

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware, UNLESS YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH A MSI BOARD !!!

 

[Cybercraig]

Make sure it contains the latest revision. It's hard as hell to get anything from Chaintech for free so make the most of it!

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