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Attempted Bios Update & System Froze 4
- Thread starter rars222
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #22
there will not be much floppy activity - remember you are flashing the BIOS and once it gets some info from the floppy it takes a while to flash.
patience
power down, redo the jumper and then insert the floppy
boot up and wait at least 15 minutes before you touch anything
if it does not work then you may be needing a new eeprom (bios chip)
patience
power down, redo the jumper and then insert the floppy
boot up and wait at least 15 minutes before you touch anything
if it does not work then you may be needing a new eeprom (bios chip)
Double click it. it will ask where to extract the files to. there maynot be enough room on your floppy for the files and the exe so just make a temp directory somwhere on your C: drive and tell it to extract it there. Then copy those files to the floppy.
Listen to Mike.. you need to run the .exe file on another system to extract the files from it. You then need to make sure those files are not on the floppy disk and then boot your system up with that. The system can not do anything with the .exe, that is why you must extract it yourself before putting it onto the floppy.
Computer/Network Technician
CCNA
Computer/Network Technician
CCNA
My concern is that when a computer starts it is essentially stupid. It knows nothing more than to jump to a specific address at the top of the first 64k of BIOS ROM, and there is a JMP instructin to initialize a "bootstrap" loader for most of its devices, at least at a primitive level.
If the flash screwed the EEPROM or other chip used to store the BIOS, and there is nothing there in the address space on power-up, you are screwed.
There is no way in heck a floppy can recover, as the system is brain dead about how to use a floppy drive. It literally does not know how to use devices until the bootstrap load -- hardcoded in the microcode of the processor- can be found and launched.
You can expand, and extract and do whatever you want with a floppy, but the gentleman's choices are very limited here. If he can find an identical motherboard with installed ROM, pull the ROM and replace yours. You have some latitutude here as the BIOS revision levels often apply to several different motherboard models, and often several different motherboard OEMs.
If the local shop insisted only a replacement of the motherboard would work (which creates another whole set of issues), I would look on ebay for the motherboard model or any OEM box sold with the same BIOS version level, and swap the darn BIOS PROM.
Intel Tech Support may be some help. But if the BIOS is missing the JMP instruction to the bootstrap loader, there is no floppy disk on earth that can help. Swap the ROM BIOS chip itself, or find someone who can use an EEPROM burner and load the image from the floppy into the chip.
If the flash screwed the EEPROM or other chip used to store the BIOS, and there is nothing there in the address space on power-up, you are screwed.
There is no way in heck a floppy can recover, as the system is brain dead about how to use a floppy drive. It literally does not know how to use devices until the bootstrap load -- hardcoded in the microcode of the processor- can be found and launched.
You can expand, and extract and do whatever you want with a floppy, but the gentleman's choices are very limited here. If he can find an identical motherboard with installed ROM, pull the ROM and replace yours. You have some latitutude here as the BIOS revision levels often apply to several different motherboard models, and often several different motherboard OEMs.
If the local shop insisted only a replacement of the motherboard would work (which creates another whole set of issues), I would look on ebay for the motherboard model or any OEM box sold with the same BIOS version level, and swap the darn BIOS PROM.
Intel Tech Support may be some help. But if the BIOS is missing the JMP instruction to the bootstrap loader, there is no floppy disk on earth that can help. Swap the ROM BIOS chip itself, or find someone who can use an EEPROM burner and load the image from the floppy into the chip.
- Thread starter
- #29
ok. Pretty technical stuff. I will try the floppy root first and if it won't recover from that then I understand it is much more serious. My laptop doesn't have a floppy, so it means a car ride to a system that does - oh boy
Here's a practical question though...this is a business system that I rely heavily on. Do you think it's worth going to Ebay to find a similar board to recover the bios? If that is what you were suggesting.
Granted I just bought a new processor for this board $100 (Ebay) and 512 mb ram $70 (Ebay)....but in the end, would it be more time effective for an every day user to replace the mobo with something that is compatible with the new CPU (2.4 ghz 400 mhz fsb P4)?
You all have been extremely helpful and must get sick of dumb*** like me...I really do appreciate the feedback.
I am still trying to figure out how to extract the file to save to floppy. I honestly can't see it. I hit the link to intel and then hit download and I save it to floppy...I know i can change the save location, but how do I get it to "extract"? My concern was double-clicking on the exe file and having it run the bios flash on the other system without the option to "extract"...I don't remember that the first time I ran it
It just seems like it will start the moment I double click on "exe"??
Here's a practical question though...this is a business system that I rely heavily on. Do you think it's worth going to Ebay to find a similar board to recover the bios? If that is what you were suggesting.
Granted I just bought a new processor for this board $100 (Ebay) and 512 mb ram $70 (Ebay)....but in the end, would it be more time effective for an every day user to replace the mobo with something that is compatible with the new CPU (2.4 ghz 400 mhz fsb P4)?
You all have been extremely helpful and must get sick of dumb*** like me...I really do appreciate the feedback.
I am still trying to figure out how to extract the file to save to floppy. I honestly can't see it. I hit the link to intel and then hit download and I save it to floppy...I know i can change the save location, but how do I get it to "extract"? My concern was double-clicking on the exe file and having it run the bios flash on the other system without the option to "extract"...I don't remember that the first time I ran it
It just seems like it will start the moment I double click on "exe"??- Thread starter
- #31
RArs the exe you may have is the windows one. Thats not the one you want. This one is the dos one. All it will do is Self extract 11 files.
Many zip utilities have the option to zip a file to an .exe file instead of a .zip (among other zip extensions).
Pretend for an instant that you're on an old pc that has no zip utility to unzip files. So, you go to the web to download a zip utility to unzip all your zip files. However, if you download a compressed version of this zip utility, how are you supposed to decompress it w/o the zip utility? The answer is self extracting zip files. (with .exe extensions)
The .exe file that you downloaded is not a bios flash utility, it is a self extracting zip file that contains your bios files.
Do a google search for "self extracting zip file" for more information.
-kaht
Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals... except the weasel. - Homer Simpson (no, I'm not Homer)
Pretend for an instant that you're on an old pc that has no zip utility to unzip files. So, you go to the web to download a zip utility to unzip all your zip files. However, if you download a compressed version of this zip utility, how are you supposed to decompress it w/o the zip utility? The answer is self extracting zip files. (with .exe extensions)
The .exe file that you downloaded is not a bios flash utility, it is a self extracting zip file that contains your bios files.
Do a google search for "self extracting zip file" for more information.
-kaht
Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals... except the weasel. - Homer Simpson (no, I'm not Homer)
- Thread starter
- #34
If the Bios flash was not performed because the exe file was not expanded or unzipped why is the machine failing to boot or start or run properly? I would have thought that booting from a floppy with just an exe file on it would have produced a "Invalid System Disk" message. It is becoming a long thread so I have probably missed something here.
Mike2287,
Yes, the hardware side of things due to the cat bothered me as well.
But I cannot image what the cat could hit that would then explain all the symptoms reported by the original poster.
(Complete bias report: My sainted daughter now has four cats (don't even think of asking my opinion), of which one loves to sleep on my laptop. It used to be that this behavior would install Service Pack 2 several times a day. I removed the SP2 image. Know, it enters Windows Search and just beeps.)
Yes, the hardware side of things due to the cat bothered me as well.
But I cannot image what the cat could hit that would then explain all the symptoms reported by the original poster.
(Complete bias report: My sainted daughter now has four cats (don't even think of asking my opinion), of which one loves to sleep on my laptop. It used to be that this behavior would install Service Pack 2 several times a day. I removed the SP2 image. Know, it enters Windows Search and just beeps.)
Well, I've got 3 cats(if you don't ask me my opinion I won't ask you yours)one of which enjoys sitting on the keyboard when I'm working on something. Or chases the pointer on my monitor. So i can see how a cat may cause a little trouble.
Do not get me wrong, I like all the pussycats. I am the Alpha Cat. It is to my daughter's eternal chargin that they all want to sleep on me in some way or another. She wanted a cat that would sit in her lap. They all sit on mine, or my laptop keyboard. My honest opinion was that one cat was sufficient.
I honestly prefer my dog.
My dog has never screwed up any of my computers.
I honestly prefer my dog.
My dog has never screwed up any of my computers.
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