Can one UN-flash a bios ??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jaz
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J

Jaz

I know what your all thinking newbie at work never a good thing

My system is still dead and whilst i have recieved many excellent
suggestions from this group its still dead and a BIG waste of money at the
moment
My last 2 resorts are flashing the bios or upgrading the Operating System
Now with XP costing alot id like to give the bios a whirl but ONLY if it can
be reversed.
now i have been advised that if the system hangs during a flash im up shit
creek without a paddle but it will only hang in a windows environment .. i
can sit in the bios setup or memtest for days ..

Thanks

Jaz
 
Jaz

Where did you buy your components? Why not look up your local computer shop
and see how much they will charge to check the system subject to fixing
costs i.e. possible component replacement.
You can only ask.
 
You can save and restore the existing bios and restore it or older versions
if the new bios doesn't work. ASUS flashing software usually prompts you to
backup the existing before flashing.
 
Jaz said:
I know what your all thinking newbie at work never a good thing

My system is still dead and whilst i have recieved many excellent
suggestions from this group its still dead and a BIG waste of money at the
moment
My last 2 resorts are flashing the bios or upgrading the Operating System
Now with XP costing alot id like to give the bios a whirl but ONLY if it can
be reversed.
now i have been advised that if the system hangs during a flash im up shit
creek without a paddle but it will only hang in a windows environment .. i
can sit in the bios setup or memtest for days ..

Thanks

Jaz
Click to expand...

Most ASUS boards have a BIOS recovery tool in the boot sector of their
Installation/Support CD, if you boot from that CD, it should re-flash
your BIOS to whichever version is on the CD, allowing you to reboot in
windows and download a newer one thats older than your troublesome
version :)
 
id like to give the bios a whirl but
ONLY if it can be reversed.
Click to expand...

Explain why there is the need to update your bios. If you can't come up
with a proper answer, _don't_ update your bios.

"My video card doesn't work with the chipset and I have found
information that upgrading the bios to version x.y.z will solve that
problem" is a _valid_ answer.

"I have to update my bios because I can/want/like" is _not_ a valid
answer.


--
CeeBee



Archer: "Houdini could get out of this."
T'Pol: "Perhaps you should invite him on your next mission."


Picard: "Mr. Worf, do you know Gilbert and Sullivan?"
Worf: "No sir, I have not had a chance to meet all the new crew members
since I have been back."
 
A nice feature in most Asus boards is holding down the <ins> key when
turning on the power, which will reset the bios to optimal defaults. Try
That!
 
Another poster suggested that you try booting in default BIOS settings (by
holding down the control and insert keys). That's painless, if it works.

Otherwise, try clearing the CMOS. There ought to be a jumper for that, near
the CMOS maintaining cell (battery). Check the manual. (If you don't have a
manual, Asus usually has them available for download as Adobe Acrobat .pdf
files.)

I doubt that flashing the BIOS is the right course for you. BIOS updates can
fix certain problems (such as: adding support for newer CPUs), but I
wouldn't regard it as the first resource for fixing a non-working system.
The risk is that you might render the machine unbootable, if your dog trips
over the power cord in the middle of the flash.

However, if you wish to back up your BIOS, the flash utility permits you to
save a copy of the old one. This may not help you if the BIOS flash fails.
However, some of the newer Asus boards have a recovery feature, where a
protected subset of the BIOS can reflash a BIOS from the utility CD that
came with your mainboard. I regret that I'm not really familiar with it,
although my board (P4P800) is new enough to support the feature.

My own prejudice is to use the DOS based flash utility, but I can't swear
that it's a lot safer than Windows-based ones.

You might get better advice if you posted a bit more information about your
problem, like which mainboard you have, what OS you have installed, how the
problem manifests itself, etc. If you can get into the BIOS settings and run
memtest, things are probably not all that grim.

Good luck.

Bob Knowlden

Address may be scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.
 
I have tried default settings i have tried changing everything and i ahve
tied every possible permutation in between.
I have tested the memory cleared cmos loaded defaults and reinstalled
windows (in that order)
I can not take my system back to a place of purchase as i bought parts from
different places dependant on who had what i want cheapest
It is not an additional hardware problem .. theres nothing in there.
Its not a software problem .. nothing is installed
All drivers are as updated as i can get them.
My problem is they system randomly hangs ONLY in windows and acts like it
has practically no ram even though the ram tests fine.
(example burning a CD there is not enough guts to keep both the read and
write buffers going)
As i have the 'newer' prescott cpu (p42.8e) with my p4p800-e deluxe it has
been suggested that a bios flash may assist teach it how to have more guts
as it has better support for that cpu.
That or as i mentioned Win XP is the next (expensive) thing to try on the
grounds win 98SE may not cope with the prescott cpu.

appologies for what seemed a sketchy post .. i really just needed the answer
to the question as there arent many other suggestions left.

thankyou again.

Jaz
 
Jaz,

Have you run memtest86 for a minimum of 5 EXTENDED cycles? Run it overnight
preferably.
You should not get any errors whatsoever. If you get one error the system
will not run an OS correctly. If you get errors in Test#5 then read what it
says on the memtest86 web site about it.

So, perhaps start at the top, define the issue clearly, document the
hardware config clearly, document the OS and any oddities that may be
installed. Did the system ever work correctly? What changed when it ceased
to work correctly? What have you done to try and solve these problems.

In the case of Prescott CPU's there have been issues. You do appear to have
a valid reason to try the latest bios, but the bios updates of late have
been mainly for XP compatability (but if XP doesn't work properly, not much
else can). So save your current bios carefully, double check you download
the correct new bios (same mobo model exactly, same revision level), make
sure there are no dogs, babies, or electrical storms around (your not in
Florida are you?) and update the bios from DOS. I always flash Twice. Pay
attention to what it says about Old bios is XXX and new Bios is YYY and all
should be 100%. Go into the bios after and load defaults, check any other
settings you may have changed. Check the L1 and L2 cache are enabled
(disabling the cache is a work around for the prescott issues under XP -
your computer would run with exceptional slowness if the cache were
disabled).

Report back & let us know how you get on...

Best of luck, not that you should need any luck.
- Tim
 
Ah, a Prescott.

I don't own a P4C800, but it appears that you might benefit from BIOS 1016
or later. (1017 appears to be the latest.)

I can't speak to how well Win98se works with a recent system like yours. I
switched to XP several mainboards ago.

Is XP that expensive in Oz? The retail XP Home upgrade lists for $100US.
I've never seen it at a substantial discount. (Cheaper versions are usually
OEM, which I'd avoid.) I don't need file encryption, or to join a domain, or
to use two physical CPUs, so Home is more than adequate for me. The update
version is as useful as the full, if you can produce "qualifying media" (I
own a 98 retail update CD).

Good luck.

Bob Kn.

Jaz said:
I have tried default settings i have tried changing everything and i ahve
tied every possible permutation in between.
I have tested the memory cleared cmos loaded defaults and reinstalled
windows (in that order)
I can not take my system back to a place of purchase as i bought parts
from
different places dependant on who had what i want cheapest
It is not an additional hardware problem .. theres nothing in there.
Its not a software problem .. nothing is installed
All drivers are as updated as i can get them.
My problem is they system randomly hangs ONLY in windows and acts like it
has practically no ram even though the ram tests fine.
(example burning a CD there is not enough guts to keep both the read and
write buffers going)
As i have the 'newer' prescott cpu (p42.8e) with my p4p800-e deluxe it has
been suggested that a bios flash may assist teach it how to have more guts
as it has better support for that cpu.
That or as i mentioned Win XP is the next (expensive) thing to try on the
grounds win 98SE may not cope with the prescott cpu.

appologies for what seemed a sketchy post .. i really just needed the
answer
to the question as there arent many other suggestions left.

thankyou again.

Jaz
Click to expand...

(snip)
 
Jaz said:
[snip]
My problem is the system randomly hangs ONLY in Windows and acts like it
has practically no ram even though the ram tests fine.
(example burning a CD there is not enough guts to keep both the read and
write buffers going)
[snip]
Click to expand...

Since you're using Win98SE, if you have installed a lot of RAM (1GB or more),
you need to take care of some setup issues. See the Microsoft knowledge base
articles (especially the second of them):

184447 Error message: insufficient memory to initialise Windows.
253912 "Out of memory" error messages with large amounts of RAM installed.
304943 Computer may reboot continuously with more than 1.5 GB of RAM.

Hope this helps...!
 
XP home upgrade goes for AU 160 but full version is AU 460 !!

i still wish to debate with mr gates that if i have 3 systems as an end user
i should be permitted to purchase one copy for use on those 3 .
but he is a money hungry bastard .. what can you do ?
 
Seton30 said:
XP home upgrade goes for AU 160 but full version is AU 460 !!

i still wish to debate with mr gates that if i have 3 systems as an end user
i should be permitted to purchase one copy for use on those 3 .
but he is a money hungry bastard .. what can you do ?
Click to expand...

Get an OS that supports unlimited copies, doesn't require activation,
has far better network security, and a robust base that doesn't require
reboots all the time.

Not to mention 64 bit support for how many years?..... (x86_64 as well!)

http://www.linux.org
 
I have tried default settings i have tried changing everything and i
ahve tied every possible permutation in between.
I have tested the memory cleared cmos loaded defaults and reinstalled
windows (in that order)
I can not take my system back to a place of purchase as i bought parts
from different places dependant on who had what i want cheapest
It is not an additional hardware problem .. theres nothing in there.
Its not a software problem .. nothing is installed
All drivers are as updated as i can get them.
My problem is they system randomly hangs ONLY in windows and acts like
it has practically no ram even though the ram tests fine.
(example burning a CD there is not enough guts to keep both the read
and write buffers going)
As i have the 'newer' prescott cpu (p42.8e) with my p4p800-e deluxe it
has been suggested that a bios flash may assist teach it how to have
more guts as it has better support for that cpu.
That or as i mentioned Win XP is the next (expensive) thing to try on
the grounds win 98SE may not cope with the prescott cpu.
Click to expand...


http://www.simmtester.com/PAGE/products/doc/docinfo.asp

To test your memory with a startup disk. It wouldn't be the first time to
have a defective module screwing up your installation. It happened to me,
searching like hell for the problem only to find out a defective DIMM was
the problem.

And R.J. could be right if you're running more than 512MB with Win98. In
that case a registry workaround - or better - an upgrade to XP solves the
problem for good.


--
CeeBee



Archer: "Houdini could get out of this."
T'Pol: "Perhaps you should invite him on your next mission."


Picard: "Mr. Worf, do you know Gilbert and Sullivan?"
Worf: "No sir, I have not had a chance to meet all the new crew members
since I have been back."
 
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