Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

What does it mean when unplugging the computer makes it forget the bios date?

<< < (3/4) > >>

mouser:
all if this started when i flashed the bios a couple months ago and totally incapacitated the machine, which could only be recovered by doing a crazy hotflash of the bios back to old version.

so i'm very hesitant to muck around with things too much more.

4wd:
all if this started when i flashed the bios a couple months ago and totally incapacitated the machine, which could only be recovered by doing a crazy hotflash of the bios back to old version.

so i'm very hesitant to muck around with things too much more.
-mouser (December 26, 2008, 05:21 PM)
--- End quote ---

Hotflashing - I bet that was fun :)

If it were me, (and based on the new info of having been hotflashed), test after each step stopping when/if it works:

1) First try the obvious as Carol has said, total reset of the BIOS settings.  I'd add going into it on first boot and reset to Safe Defaults to see if the clock fires up.
2) Reflash the BIOS from DOS - boot from a DOS 6/7 floppy or flash drive and do it the old fashioned way from the CLI.  Just a mention here, you really should always flash the BIOS from DOS - there's just too many things going on in Windows to consider flashing reliably.
3) Remove the BIOS chip and then carefully reseat it back in again - this will wipe the contacts/pins and might clean up any suspect connection between the two - maybe it's not fully seated from it's previous removal.
4) If you had the equipment, (not many people do), I'd also consider removing the BIOS chip and programming using an (E)PROM/Flash programmer.

What was the motherboard?

Carol Haynes:
It is an interesting topic flashing BIOSes. Almost all manufacturers now provide 'Live' windows based flash utilities but if you read the small print they all say you shouldn't use them.

A few years ago (when I was more into hardware stuff) I used to be a regular(prolific) poster on MSI forums (don't look for me there now as they started their forums again from scratch). One of the official notifications on the MSI forums was NEVER use Live Flash utilities (even those provided by MSI with their motherboards).

If a problem appeared after a BIOS flash I suspect that is the root cause of the issue. Reflash your BIOS from a floppy with the DOS utility from the manufacturer. If it has the option to clear all settings and clear NVRAM also use those command line switches.

As a rule of thumb I always download or backup the version of the BIOS that was originally supplied by the motherboard and most mobo manufacturers have a failsafe method of restoring a BIOS from a floppy disc if the burn should fail. In the case of MSI it is a key combination on power on and you need a floppy disc with just the BIOS with a fixed name and extension. Not sure about other manufacturers methods but research them before doing any ROM flashes and making an appropriate failsafe recovery is essential before you do anything else.

mouser:
Well i'll you what a really smart thing to do would be.. and something i just keep meaning to do is:
there are places that will actually send you a replacement bios chip for your PC, already flashed for latest version, for like $20 or $30.

after seeing how badly my system got messed up after latest failed flashing attempt -- and only being able to recover it by luck, i think it would be really smart for everyone to order a spare pre-flashed bios chip for their pc ahead of time, for use in emergencies.

Carol Haynes:
Don't forget the chip extraction and insertion tool too !

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page