Hello All, I finally plucked up courage to upgrade my Award BIOS (VIA Apollo VP3 chipset, SOYO board), saved the original settings, flushed the chip, and then the SOYO software hung on me during flash-writing it. I have cleared the CMOS etc., but to no avail. I would be grateful for any advice on this: a. Can I get round this, and if so, how? b. If not, can I get a replacement chip easily (and cheaply)? Thanks to anyone who can help me on this. Terence
Hi All & Terence McCarthy who typed, <snip>
Hello All,
I finally plucked up courage to upgrade my Award BIOS (VIA Apollo VP3 chipset, SOYO board), saved the original settings, flushed the chip, and then the SOYO software hung on me during flash-writing it.
I have cleared the CMOS etc., but to no avail. I would be grateful for any advice on this:
a. Can I get round this, and if so, how?
b. If not, can I get a replacement chip easily (and cheaply)?
Thanks to anyone who can help me on this.
Terence
<snip> Ouch. Odd too. Normally (IMHE), the Award BIOS thingy only needs a Borg boot floppy & comes with Award BIOS flash software, tailored to the motherboard yall have. Also, "normally," the updater asks if you wanna 'back up' your previous BIOS. So, you may have a dodgy boot floppy (you have tried a couple of times?), or dodgy download ex SOYO or Award or some other such thingy. You ought to be able to get generic BIOS from Award or VIA or even from SOYO. I have found SOYO's online help to suck badly-if you will pardon the expression. But they may even respond to you, if you ask for the previous BIOS version (1.2., instead of 1.3; for instance....) Good luck & one or more of the above has worked for me in the past. *BFN* Greek Geek :-) well-adjusted, adj.: The ability to play bridge or golf as if they were games
On Sunday 22 April 2001 10:14, Greek Geek wrote:
Hi All & Terence McCarthy
well-adjusted, adj.: The ability to play bridge or golf as if they were games
Many thanks- I get no output to the screen at all, so the boot disk (which I tried previously). Had no response from Soyo yet either. Still I'll try your suggestions now! Thanks again, Terence
On Sunday 22 April 2001 11:27 am, Terence McCarthy wrote: This company reprograms bios chips ( US ) http://www.specialtytech.com/price.htm $20 including p&p
On Sunday 22 April 2001 10:14, Greek Geek wrote:
Hi All & Terence McCarthy
well-adjusted, adj.: The ability to play bridge or golf as if they were games
Many thanks- I get no output to the screen at all, so the boot disk (which I tried previously). Had no response from Soyo yet either.
Still I'll try your suggestions now!
Thanks again,
Terence
On Sunday 22 April 2001 06:27, Terence McCarthy wrote:
Many thanks- I get no output to the screen at all, so the boot disk (which I tried previously). Had no response from Soyo yet either.
You may be able to get some screen output if your board has an ISA slot and you install an ISA video card--provided that you can disable any PCI or AGP video--and have access to an ISA card and appropriate monitor for it. Award bioses supposedly write error messages to the screen during the boot process. During the early part of the process at least, they are said to have to ability to write only to ISA video cards. I haven't tried this myself, but I ran across this info while I was researching Award bioses a couple of months ago. Rudder
Heres another one http://www.badflash.com/ I know theres one in Holland somewhere I read it in a newsgroup dids
Hello All,
I finally plucked up courage to upgrade my Award BIOS (VIA Apollo VP3 chipset, SOYO board), saved the original settings, flushed the chip, and then the SOYO software hung on me during flash-writing it.
I have cleared the CMOS etc., but to no avail. I would be grateful for any advice on this:
a. Can I get round this, and if so, how?
b. If not, can I get a replacement chip easily (and cheaply)?
Thanks to anyone who can help me on this.
Terence
Terence McCarthy wrote:
Hello All,
I finally plucked up courage to upgrade my Award BIOS (VIA Apollo VP3 chipset, SOYO board), saved the original settings, flushed the chip, and then the SOYO software hung on me during flash-writing it.
I have cleared the CMOS etc., but to no avail. I would be grateful for any advice on this:
a. Can I get round this, and if so, how?
b. If not, can I get a replacement chip easily (and cheaply)?
Thanks to anyone who can help me on this.
Terence
There is a person that sells BIOS chips on the auction site 'Ebay'. I don't know if he will have one for this motherboard, but you could try and contact him. Here is the URL for one of his auctions. http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1231519138 Nevada
On Sunday 22 April 2001 03:21, Terence McCarthy wrote:
Hello All,
I finally plucked up courage to upgrade my Award BIOS (VIA Apollo VP3 chipset, SOYO board), saved the original settings, flushed the chip, and then the SOYO software hung on me during flash-writing it.
I have cleared the CMOS etc., but to no avail. I would be grateful for any advice on this:
a. Can I get round this, and if so, how?
b. If not, can I get a replacement chip easily (and cheaply)?
Thanks to anyone who can help me on this.
Terence
Some Award flash bioses have the ability to recover from being hosed during the flash process. They have a non-flash section containing a boot block which will look for the bios software on the floppy drive. They will then load the software into themselves. You must have the correct bios software, obtained from the motherboard manufacturer's site. Award bioses are tweaked by the manufacturers and can't be used on other vendors' boards. If your system seems to be trying to read the floppy before it gives up, it is a good indication that your bios has the ability to repair itself. I suggest you start looking into this by doing a search on terms such as Award, flash , bios, repair, etc. This should lead you to sites that contain specific detailed information on how to do this. There aren't a great deal of them, but they are out there. Good luck. Rudder
Terence McCarthy wrote:
Hello All,
I finally plucked up courage to upgrade my Award BIOS (VIA Apollo VP3 chipset, SOYO board), saved the original settings, flushed the chip, and then the SOYO software hung on me during flash-writing it.
I have cleared the CMOS etc., but to no avail. I would be grateful for any advice on this:
If the BIOS write failed, then the rom memory chip that holds the BIOS is corrupted. That means clearing your CMOS won't do any difference. Your machine will not boot.
a. Can I get round this, and if so, how?
b. If not, can I get a replacement chip easily (and cheaply)?
The bios flash program should have asked you to save the original BIOS in the floppy. There should have been instructions where you got your update on how to back out of a bios update. If you can't restore your BIOS, contact the mobo manufacturer for them to send you a new one. -- Rafael
On Sun, 22 Apr 2001, Terence McCarthy wrote:
Hello All, I finally plucked up courage to upgrade my Award BIOS (VIA Apollo VP3 chipset, SOYO board), saved the original settings, flushed the chip, and then the SOYO software hung on me during flash-writing it.
I have cleared the CMOS etc., but to no avail. I would be grateful for any advice on this:
a. Can I get round this, and if so, how? Yes, go to the SOYO site and look at the upgrading your bios section - I did the same thing. It tells you how to make a "rescue disk" that should be able to save the bios for you. If not, they tell you where you cansend your chip to for programming [iirc]
Good luck! -- -=[Tigersden Internet Services]=- ************COMING SOON************* -=[For All Your Internet Needs]=- * HTTP://www.tigersden.demon.co.uk * -=[P.G.P. Public Key Available]=- ************COMING SOON************* -=[ !!Powered by SuSE Linux!! ]=- My eyes are 20-20, but my brain isn't too good at interpreting what they see =o)
On Sunday 22 April 2001 18:22, The Purple Tiger wrote:
On Sun, 22 Apr 2001, Terence McCarthy wrote:
Hello All, I finally plucked up courage to upgrade my Award BIOS (VIA Apollo VP3 chipset, SOYO board), saved the original settings, flushed the chip, and then the SOYO software hung on me during flash-writing it.
I have cleared the CMOS etc., but to no avail. I would be grateful for any advice on this:
a. Can I get round this, and if so, how?
Yes, go to the SOYO site and look at the upgrading your bios section - I did the same thing. It tells you how to make a "rescue disk" that should be able to save the bios for you. If not, they tell you where you cansend your chip to for programming [iirc]
Good luck!
Great news- but I cannot find any reference to a rescue disk on their site. In the FAQ they only talk about returning the chip to a SOYO centre. Do you have the URL? TIA Terence
participants (7)
-
dids -
Greek Geek -
PHThorsted -
Rafael E. Herrera -
Rudder -
Terence McCarthy -
The Purple Tiger