Flashed wrong BIOS, HELP!

nitrousoxide52 · Apr 30, 2005, 11:16 AM

I flashed the wrong bios revision onto my NF7-M [cpu-z said I had revision 2, but apparently, I have revision 1.2], and now when I boot I only get a black screen what do I do?

nitrousoxide52 · Apr 30, 2005, 11:53 AM

Noone has any tips?

FearTheTerp · Apr 30, 2005, 12:46 PM

My dad did that once with an old P3 motherboard. I think he returned or trashed the motherboard. But I was only 8 or so then what do I know. If I were in that situation, I would try resetting the CMOS but other then that I'm stumped.

davidnsibs · Apr 30, 2005, 01:23 PM

you can usually order another bios chip from the mobo manufacturer, i 'broke' my bios chip overclocking too far (dont ask me how - i have no idea). asus charged me £5 and sent me a new one, theres nothing on their site to say, i had to email their UK customer services, but they were v helpful. if you cant do that, you can get one from a web site such as http://www.badflash.com/ but itll most likely be more expensive!

EDIT: in the minute or so since i posted i found this

http://www.abit-usa.com/abitparts/bios_chip_4.php

dont think you looked very hard!

nitrousoxide52 · Apr 30, 2005, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidnsibs

you can usually order another bios chip from the mobo manufacturer, i 'broke' my bios chip overclocking too far (dont ask me how - i have no idea). asus charged me £5 and sent me a new one, theres nothing on their site to say, i had to email their UK customer services, but they were v helpful. if you cant do that, you can get one from a web site such as http://www.badflash.com/ but itll most likely be more expensive!

EDIT: in the minute or so since i posted i found this

http://www.abit-usa.com/abitparts/bios_chip_4.php

dont think you looked very hard!

Yeah, because that was the last thing I wanted to do, isn't there any other way?

Tipstaff · Apr 30, 2005, 03:12 PM

Question for you: You say your getting nothing but black screen, have you tried using the onboard video card? If so, try removing the card so that the system uses the onboard instead. The best thing is to use a PCI video card if you can. However, I should note that this can be the opposite. Normally if you are using the onboard card, and the bios gets corrupted then you would have to insert an AGP or PCI card in order to see the bios prompting you for a floppy or what not.

This leads me to the next question: does your PC try to boot from a floppy disc? Some newer motherboards will have some sort of recovery function for cases like this. Even if the bios gets corrupted you can still recover cuz it will boot to a floppy. Sometimes all you need is to have is the bios image on a floppy, or the full flashing program + bios image for you to flash manually.

Lastly, even though you flashed the wrong revision I would still try to reset the bios using the onboard jumpers. It might allow you access to the floppy drive long enough for you to reflash it with the proper bios. Check pages 2-6, and I-1 in your manual for more on this.

-Tip

nitrousoxide52 · May 1, 2005, 03:30 PM

Tried everything, just going to order the new BIOS chip.

davidnsibs · May 1, 2005, 06:07 PM

only other thing is you can do whats called 'hotflashing' ive not tried it and wouldnt reccommend it (since ive not done it), but ive read at a few places (including www.nforcershq.com ) that you can remove your bios chip whilst the pc is on, then insert the falty one and flash it then - i nearly did it and practiced with the pc off but decided it was too risky and bought a bios chip. just thoought id mention it anyway

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15104

Geminiwave · May 1, 2005, 06:47 PM

yes but you must have a functional bios chip to test it first.

and it is very safe. I know many people who have tried it and had it work flawlessly.

you should really consider getting one of those bios backup things that stick onto the BIOS chip and store a backup copy. They work quite well if you're expirementing with bios flashing.

Tipstaff · May 2, 2005, 11:48 PM

Hell, your better of just finding someone that has an EPROM chip writer, and give them the bios chip and bios image to write it for you. It can actually be cheaper than buying a new one.. sometimes even free.

-Tip

davidnsibs · May 3, 2005, 06:39 AM

"Hell, your better of just finding someone that has an EPROM chip writer"

do you know lots of people with them then?

nitrousoxide52 · May 3, 2005, 04:25 PM

The chip was free, just had to pay for shipping and handling, so... when it gets here, I'll hotflash the other one. So I can have a backup, and will do it everytime I need a backup.

Tipstaff · May 3, 2005, 10:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidnsibs

"Hell, your better of just finding someone that has an EPROM chip writer"

do you know lots of people with them then?

Yes.. any competent electronics shop will/should have one, especially ones that build parts, or fix them. I don't mean Future Shop, or Best Buy (competent and those 2 names don't go together), but TV/VCR/Stereo repair shops, electronic shops, and the computer shops run by smart @$$es like me will have them... just need to look.

It's good to see that it's only costing you the shipping/handling for the new chip. Some board manufacturers don't.. so it's good to know. However, don't "hotflash" the old bios from the new. Your risking way too much to try it, and not all boards will allow this type of hotswapping. Some manufacturers will send you a bios removal tool (piece of angled plastic), but some don't, and that means you'd need to use a screwdriver to remove the old one. Seriously, do you really want to stick a screwdriver into an electrically live computer? There are ways around this (use electrical tape wrapped around the end.. and so forth), but even if they send you the plastic tool I still don't recommend it.

Instead, take a look around town while your waiting for your new chip, and see if there are any electronic/computer shops that would be willing to copy the bios from the new chip to the old, and for how much. That or call Abit back up and ask them to send you 2 chips instead of just 1.

-Tip