Please help to load Bios on NTFS system

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Almostagenius

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Hi there, I'm trying to load a bios which I have on floppy. The reason for this is that start up doesn't detect Hard Drive or CD Rom. I have tested cables and all is good. I have also tried entering the values manually but I don't get to add the options I need. The error I get is "Chipset/flash part isn't available. The function will be invalid". I have looked at some other threads on this error. If my system can't detect the CD rom then do I have any other options to make this work? Please help I'm going crazy. :confused:
 
I'm not sure what you are trying to do ...

If you are trying to "Flash the BIOS" then I need a wee bit more information on the system.

If your are having problems "booting" then disconnect all drives, by taking the ribbon & power cables off and re-boot and tell us how far you get.

:confused:
 
Here is what I have so far

I am booting the system with a win98 boot disk to get to A prompt. Thats fine. During which my hard drive and Cd rom are not detected. I then insert the floppy disk that contains the bios file AMIFL815 and the rom file 2K01115S. At the a prompt I type in AMIFL815 and it starts to run the executable after about 30 seconds the response is Chipset/flash part isn't available. The function will be invalid. I read somewhere that it's hard to flash a bios that is set up on NTFS. It's a catch 22. Can't load the bios, can't detect hard drive and CD rom without the bios.
 
PC Details

The motherboard is an Asus M748lmrt with sis900 chip it has 500 MHZ processor 256 ram 4 gig hard drive on board sound graphics, ethernet connection. It worked great last week until I pulled it apart to clean it up. I read in the manual that pulling everything apart can sometimes require a bios reset. ( I read this after I did it).
 
Almostagenius said:
I am booting the system with a win98 boot disk to get to A prompt. Thats fine. During which my hard drive and Cd rom are not detected. I then insert the floppy disk that contains the bios file AMIFL815 and the rom file 2K01115S. At the a prompt I type in AMIFL815 and it starts to run the executable after about 30 seconds the response is Chipset/flash part isn't available. The function will be invalid. I read somewhere that it's hard to flash a bios that is set up on NTFS. It's a catch 22. Can't load the bios, can't detect hard drive and CD rom without the bios.
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Using a Win98 boot disk will not necessary 'find' the HD or CD drive ... on most MBs these days there is a Flash is Disable in the BIOS, you need to enable it ... you can totally crap a system if using the wrong Flash file ... NTFS has nothing to do with the BIOS, you do not need a HD to Flash a BIOS

Why are you attempting to flash the BIOS ? it will not fix something that ain't broken. :confused:

I'm sorry to put this so bluntly, not unusual for me, but that system needs junking ... mind you, I'd put Linux on it though. ;)
 
Almostagenius said:
The motherboard is an Asus M748lmrt with sis900 chip it has 500 MHZ processor 256 ram 4 gig hard drive on board sound graphics, ethernet connection. It worked great last week until I pulled it apart to clean it up. I read in the manual that pulling everything apart can sometimes require a bios reset. ( I read this after I did it).
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Are you sure about the mobo make/model? - I can't find anything under Asus for that model - the only one I can find using that model No is a PCChips mobo.

What exactly do you mean by 'pulling apart'? - removing all the hardware connections and putting them back again will not necessitate a bios reset - however there is a possibility you may have damaged it in some way whilst doing it.
 
I have the exact motherboard kit for this model including the correct bios. last week I was running XP on it with no problems other than a little slow. I have thoroughly checked the bios setup area and there is nothing that would enable /disable the bios. The word Flash does not appear at all anywhere in this area.

The manual for this model also states that I need to flash the bios or insert the details of the hard drive manually and the details of the CD rom manually however the system won't allow any of this to happen.

At this point I have a pc that can't find it's hard drive or CD rom, just a shell that can boot into dos. Yes it might be a crapper but it's all I've got for now. There must be an answer.

BTW-My biggest frustration when talking PC's is when someone says it's old buy a new one because they don't have the answers. I bet if I got Bill Gates on the line he'd know how to fix it in a jiffy. Anyone know his number?
 
Yes, Asus did make a MB with that chipset ... if you look at the MB, between the PCI slots, it will clearly say Asus M748LMRT ;)

A PCChips MB will probably have a gold HS with PCPro written on it.


Even Asus made bad MBs. :p
 
Almostagenius said:
I have the exact motherboard kit for this model including the correct bios. last week I was running XP on it with no problems other than a little slow. I have thoroughly checked the bios setup area and there is nothing that would enable /disable the bios. The word Flash does not appear at all anywhere in this area.

The manual for this model also states that I need to flash the bios or insert the details of the hard drive manually and the details of the CD rom manually however the system won't allow any of this to happen.

At this point I have a pc that can't find it's hard drive or CD rom, just a shell that can boot into dos. Yes it might be a crapper but it's all I've got for now. There must be an answer.

BTW-My biggest frustration when talking PC's is when someone says it's old buy a new one because they don't have the answers. I bet if I got Bill Gates on the line he'd know how to fix it in a jiffy. Anyone know his number?
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Billy baby is no system builder and would get someone else to do it for him.

I could quite easily ascertain what is wrong with your system ... just pop it in and I'll take a look, no charge.

Failing that, we are left with trying to figure out what you did.

Without the MB manual or the PC in front of me, I am half guestamating as to what to tell you.

Even a BIOS that old should have an "Auto" setting in the BIOS for IDE, set it so ... if it does turn out to be a PCChips MB, god help you, 'cos I won't.

happywave.gif
 
I don't think Bill Gates would know, but I am trying to help, honest!!

I still can't find your mobo on the Asus site, therefore can you tell me where you got the bios update from - perhaps you can post the link :thumb:

Removing the hardware from the mobo, then putting the same ones back should not make you have to input any details to get it working as before - it is still exactly the same PC - I can only think something is either incorrectly seated, or some damage has been caused to the mobo - try reseating everything again.
 
Ok I will try reseating everything. On the other hand I just did a dir search in C drive in dos and I got some responses listed as C MS-ramdrive. I'm assuming this is not the real C drive as it can't detect it in the first place. Would it be possible to load the drivers for the hard drive and the CD rom here. Would it help? Am I being too logical? That's how I usually figure things out. But anyway will try the other one first. I know it's hard when I hold all the cards, so thanks for your input guys. At the least you've sparked a few ideas that will undoubtedly lead me to fluking a resolve. ;)
 
Can you confirm for me on thing ... does that MB have Asus written on it anywhere at all ... it does look as though you have a PCChips MB.

And I say again ... Flashing the BIOS will not fix anything that wasn't broken.

You said it was working, you 'cleaned' it and it stopped working ... either you dislodge something, or removed something and never put it back correctly, or what, we don't know unless you tell us exactly what you did.

And yes, the 'boot' floppy will make its own ramdrive, if it could have seen the HD & CD drive it would have named the Ramdrive "E" ... so, either the on-board IDE is knackard or the cables are in the wrong way around or the BIOS has been told to ignore the IDE.

You can re-set the BIOS using the 'jumper' on the MB ... this will mean going into the BIOS and re-setting back to defaults ... all this is not easy to explain with out the MB manual.

:)
 
I cannot confirm that it is an Asus. This was info that was given to me by an unreliable source. I can confirm that there is not much written on the board. The board is gold. It is filled with SIS chips, one chip says Amibios. The numbers in the corner are so small you can barely read them but they are M748LMRT. So it sounds like you are correct with the board description. I googled this and found everything at Driverguide.com. There is nothing else I can see. I do understand everything you have said so far so don't hold back. I've always gone about my computing the hard way as it helps me to remember things down the track. When I cleaned it I took each piece out carefully right down to the board itself eg all the cards connectors and cpu and wrote down where I got it from and which way it went. I was careful not damage any chips or caps or anything else. Then I referred to the manual that I downloaded to see if it was correct. It is possible I made a mistake so I will check it all again. The reason I said that I needed to load the bios again was because the manual tells me to do so if the system doesn't detect the hard drive and the CD rom, which is exactly what it is doing.
 
NO! you do not Flash anything ... hopefully your attempt did not render the MB usless. Flashing the BIOS can do that.

What the 'manual' is telling you to do is as I said ... reset it by using the jumper on the MB, if I'm right, then that jumper is "JP5" ... it is called "clear the CMOS memory" and if I have the manual is on page 14 ... tell me I have the right book?

:)
 
A book, page 14, is it afternoon story time then;)
You have the right book, but sadly almostagenius may not!
 
I've read all this and I still ain't really sure what the problem is :confused:

This is the motherboard in question I think, it's the nearest I could find: [url=http://www.pcchips.com.tw/PCCWeb/Downloads/ProductsDetail_Download.aspx?DetailID=45&DetailName=Driver&DetailDESC=M748LT(V3.x)&MenuID=45&LanID=0[/url]]M748LT

And here's the latest Bios, dated December '02: [url=http://www.pcchips.com.tw/PCCWeb/Downloads/ProductsDetail_Download.aspx?DetailID=45&DetailName=BIOS&DetailDesc=M748LT(V3.x)&MenuID=45&LanID=0[/url]]Bios

To flash the bios, first format a floppy disk.

Then download the attached drdflash.exe file (you'll have to unzip it).

Leave the floppy disk in the drive, click on the downloaded file and you'll create a bootable floppy disk.

Then download the latest Bios and the Bios flash utility from PC Chips site (link above) and put these on your bootable floppy disk.

Look for instructions on how to flash a Bios at the PC Chips site, note them down, boot from the floppy disk you have created and flash the Bios.

That's assuming you need to flash the Bios, I don't think you should have to, but if you really want to do it, there's a few pointers for you.[/url][/url]
 

Attachments

Sorry to state the obvious but presumably the drives were OK before you took the machine apart (Windows was working) so it must be something you've done.

What make and model of hard drive is it?
Assuming the hard drive is a normal pata and not sata, is it cabled up correctly? ie, is the stripe on the data lead next to the red wire on the power conector.
If it is a Sata drive then it won't appear when you boot with a Win98 disk - and it won't necessarily be seen in the bios
If you were running XP and the hard drive was formatted in NTFS then you won't see the partion using a Win98 disk, and if the Win98 boot disk doesn't have a cd driver on it, you wont detect a cd drive when booting with it.

Quote
"The function will be invalid. I read somewhere that it's hard to flash a bios that is set up on NTFS. It's a catch 22. Can't load the bios, can't detect hard drive and CD rom without the bios."
And I don't care what the manual (or Bill Gates) says, Bios chips are not "set up" on NTFS

Please remember that people are taking the time and trouble to try and help you and they need as much info as possible

Regards

Covenant
 
Thankyou

Thankyou to all of you for your advice. It was Muckshifter who solved the problem with the hint about the JP5 jumper. I swapped this over turned the pc on for 30 secs then swapped it back and the pc found the Hard drive and CD ROM straight away. It kind of makes sense to me but anyway I'm back up and running with XP I have both pc's networked so thanks for all your help. I've learnt a lot.:user:
 
Glad to see you back and running. :thumb:


Oh, don't 'strip' the PC down to clean it next time ... just use a vacuum cleaner, carefully. ;)
 
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