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BIOS/CMOS Help +Rep
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BIOS/CMOS Help +RepPosted:

Darq
  • Ladder Climber
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Joined: Dec 31, 201112Year Member
Posts: 371
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Status: Offline
Joined: Dec 31, 201112Year Member
Posts: 371
Reputation Power: 16
Well, I have an old computer, shitty pre-build specs (1.7ghz, 4gb ram, not sure on gpu), anyway, about a year or two ago, I went to update the bios, and it froze for hours. We (My dad and I) decided the only choice was to force shutdown. Now when attempting to boot the laptop, I get no display, a sequenced HDD Light, and that's pretty much it. What I want to know is; Would resetting the CMOS fix this? or is the mobo completely dead?
#2. Posted:
vokal
  • TTG Addict
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Joined: Dec 05, 201013Year Member
Posts: 2,130
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Status: Offline
Joined: Dec 05, 201013Year Member
Posts: 2,130
Reputation Power: 103
Darq wrote Well, I have an old computer, shitty pre-build specs (1.7ghz, 4gb ram, not sure on gpu), anyway, about a year or two ago, I went to update the bios, and it froze for hours. We (My dad and I) decided the only choice was to force shutdown. Now when attempting to boot the laptop, I get no display, a sequenced HDD Light, and that's pretty much it. What I want to know is; Would resetting the CMOS fix this? or is the mobo completely dead?
your bios is probably corrupted and needs to be flashed either by jtag or if its possible for your model of chip/mobo you can sometimes use a usb or cd with the bios you want on it and hit a button combo while booting and have bios run the install but not many systems support flashing bios this way after its corrupt. taking out the cmos and resetting will only reset bios to the default settings it will not reinstall and or fix a corrupted bios update/install.The mother board and the rest of your hardware should be fine its just bios being corrupted that is preventing it working properly.

As of 04.01.2010 Recovery procedures for those of you who have
Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) port, eg. JTAG, EJTAG, TJTAG e.t.c.
How to identify if you have one of this ports and how to build a simple cable that you connect to your working computer and reflash the dead BIOS chip.
For now just a link to wikipedia, but dont worry you wont need one of the expensive devices to connect to the working computer, couse this days I successfuly recovered bricked board with EJATG port using this simple cable.

JTAGunbuffereda..jpg

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HP Tool:
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MiniDOS:
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Phoenix BIOS Recovery

Update: Boot-Block Jumper
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This is the latest PHLASH16 I could find:
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Tool provided by @offon7544

Here is the Archive with all the files needed and How to for Phoenix BIOS Recovery.

Method 1.
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How To:

1. Use HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool with MiniDOS files to make your Bootable: Flopy, USB Flopy, USB Flash Drive (Flash Drive works in rear cases).
When creating the boot Floppy, select from Folder Options to view the hiden and system files and delete or rename the file config.sys if present.
Couse we need DOS with no additional programs that are loaded, which could interfere with the operation of the BIOS flash application.
2. Copy all the files from Rescue to your: Flopy, USB Stick, USB Flopy.
3. Rename your BIOS file to bios.wph and copy it to your: Flopy, USB Stick, USB Flopy.
4. Remove the battery, unplug the computer from the power.
5. Hold down: Fn+B or WinKey+B (On some new Acer Laptop's Fn+Esc and on some new Fujitsu Siemens Laptop's Fn+F)and while holding plug the computer in to power (do not plug the battery) and pres the power button.
6. Now you should hear the flopy drive working, hold the keys for a while and then let go.
7. Leve the computer for at least 10 min. and if the computer does not restart it self turn the power down.
8. Plug the battery and the power sorce and if everything went OK the computer shold start normaly.
Note: This procedure is for Phoenix BIOS`es only and in some cases the USB Stick might not work.

Method 2.
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How To:

1. Click on the Phoenix_Crisis_Recovery.exe to make: Flopy, USB Flopy.
When creating the boot Floppy, select from Folder Options to view the hiden and system files and delete or rename the file config.sys if present.
Couse we need DOS with no additional programs that are loaded, which could interfere with the operation of the BIOS flash application.
2. Copy all the files from Rescue to your: Flopy, USB Flopy.
3. Rename your BIOS file to bios.wph and copy it to your: Flopy, USB Flopy.
4. Remove the battery, unplug the computer from the power.
5. Hold down: Fn+B or WinKey+B (On some new Acer Laptop's Fn+Esc and on some new Fujitsu Siemens Laptop's Fn+F) and while holding plug the computer in to power (do not plug the battery) and pres the power button.
6. Now you should hear the flopy drive working, hold the keys for a while and then let go.
7. Leve the computer for at least 10 min. and if the computer does not restart it self turn the power down.
8. Plug the battery and the power sorce and if everything went OK the computer shold start normaly.
Note: This procedure is for Phoenix BIOS`es only and in some cases the USB Stick might not work.

Method 3.
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How To:

1. Use HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool with MiniDOS files to make your Bootable: Flopy, USB Flopy, USB Flash Drive (Flash Drive works in rear cases).
When creating the boot Floppy, select from Folder Options to view the hiden and system files and delete or rename the file config.sys if present.
Couse we need DOS with no additional programs that are loaded, which could interfere with the operation of the BIOS flash application.
2. Copy all the files from Rescue to your: Flopy, USB Stick, USB Flopy.
3. Rename your BIOS file to bios.wph and copy it to your: Flopy, USB Stick, USB Flopy.
4. Remove the battery, unplug the computer from the power.
5. Hold down: Fn+B or WinKey+B (On some new Acer Laptop's Fn+Esc and on some new Fujitsu Siemens Laptop's Fn+F) and while holding plug the computer in to power (do not plug the battery) and pres the power button.
6. Now you should hear the flopy drive working, hold the keys for a while and then let go.
7. Leve the computer for at least 10 min. and if the computer does not restart it self turn the power down.
8. Plug the battery and the power sorce and if everything went OK the computer shold start normaly.
Note: This procedure is for Phoenix BIOS`es only and in some cases the USB Stick might not work.

Method 4.
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How To:

1. Click on the Phoenix_Crisis_Recovery.exe to make: Flopy, USB Flopy.
When creating the boot Floppy, select from Folder Options to view the hiden and system files and delete or rename the file config.sys if present.
Couse we need DOS with no additional programs that are loaded, which could interfere with the operation of the BIOS flash application.
2. Copy all the files from Rescue to your: Flopy, USB Flopy.
3. Rename your BIOS file to bios.wph and copy it to your: Flopy, USB Flopy.
4. Remove the battery, unplug the computer from the power.
5. Hold down: Fn+B or WinKey+B (On some new Acer Laptop's Fn+Esc and on some new Fujitsu Siemens Laptop's Fn+F) and while holding plug the computer in to power (do not plug the battery) and pres the power button.
6. Now you should hear the flopy drive working, hold the keys for a while and then let go.
7. Leve the computer for at least 10 min. and if the computer does not restart it self turn the power down.
8. Plug the battery and the power sorce and if everything went OK the computer shold start normaly.
Note: This procedure is for Phoenix BIOS`es only and in some cases the USB Stick might not work.

Method 5.
I was asked to add this post as method 5:
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The HP Tool is located in the archive of the first metod.
Use the metods in order form 1 to 4, unless you think otherwise...
Hope you never use this and if you ever have to GOOD LUCK.


Insyde Recovery

INSYDE BIOS RECOVERY METHOD added 28/11/2009
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AMI BIOS Recovery


AMI has an embedded recovery technique in the 'boot block' of the BIOS. In the event that the BIOS becomes corrupt the boot block can be used to restore the BIOS to a working state. The routine is called when the 'system block' of the BIOS is empty or corrupt. The restore routine when called will access the floppy drive (1.44Mb floppy disk drive) looking for a file named AMIBOOT.ROM.
This is the reason the floppy drive light comes on and the drive appears to be in use. If the file (AMIBOOT.ROM) is found it is loaded into the 'system block' of the BIOS to replace the corrupted information.
To restore your BIOS copy the most recent version of your motherboards BIOS file to a floppy diskette and rename it AMIBOOT.ROM. The diskette does not need to be bootable or contain a flash utility. It will access the floppy from 2-5 minutes the system will beep four times. Remove the floppy diskette from the drive and reboot the computer. if when you turn on the system it does not try to access the floppy, press and hold the 'CTRL' and 'HOME' keys at the same time. This will force the system (assuming the 'boot block' isn't corrupted) to access the flopy and look for the AMIBOOT.ROM file.

Step by Step:


Method 1.
1. Rename the desired AMI BIOS file to AMIBOOT.ROM and save it on a blank floppy disk. e.g. Rename 12345678.ROM to AMIBOOT.ROM
2. Insert this floppy disk in the floppy drive. Turn On the system
3. If no floppy access occurs press and hold Ctrl-Home to force update. Follow insructions on the screen and it will read the AMIBOOT.ROM file and recover the BIOS from the A drive.
4. When 4 beeps are heard you may remove the floppy disk.
5. When there is no more activity, wait for a while and restart the computer.

If this does not work, try this:

Method 2. Asus only...
1. Create bootable flopy using the HP Tool and MiniDOS:
When creating the boot Floppy, select from Folder Options to view the hiden and system files and delete or rename the file config.sys if present.
Couse we need DOS with no additional programs that are loaded, which could interfere with the operation of the BIOS flash application.
2. Create new text document and type the folowing:
Afudos.exe /iamiboot.rom /pbnc /n
Autoexec.bat download link:
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save it as autoexec.bat and copy it to the boot flopy you have created.
3. Rename your BIOS to amiboot.rom and copy it to the bootable flopy.
4. If no floppy access occurs press and hold Ctrl+Home to force update.
5. When there is no more activity, wait for a while and restart the computer.

Latest Afudos that I could find:
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Tool provided by @offon7544

Method 3.
1. Create bootable flopy using the HP Tool and MiniDOS:
When creating the boot Floppy, select from Folder Options to view the hiden and system files and delete or rename the file config.sys if present.
Couse we need DOS with no additional programs that are loaded, which could interfere with the operation of the BIOS flash application.
2. Create new text document and type the folowing:
amif895.exe /iamiboot.rom /pbnc /n
save it as autoexec.bat and copy it to the boot flopy you have created.
Atoexec.bat download link:
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3. Rename your BIOS to amiboot.rom and copy it to the bootable flopy.
4. Start you computer.
5. If no floppy access occurs press and hold Ctrl+Home to force update.
6. When there is no more activity, wait for a while and restart the computer.

Latest amiflash I could find amiflash 8.95:
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Tool provided by @amiga

AWARD BIOS Recovery


The AWARD BIOS has a similar procedure to AMI. To recover an AWARD BIOS you will need to create a bootable floppy diskette and add the desired BIOS file (we recommend using the most recent). Award BIOS's generally are in .BIN format, where as AMI was .ROM format. You will also add an AWARD flash utility (usually awdflash.exe) and an AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
The AWARD BIOS does not automatically restore the BIOS information to the 'system block' like the AMI BIOS does. You will need to add the commands necessary to flash the BIOS in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. The system will run the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, which contains the flash instructions.

Step by Step:
1. Create bootable flopy using the HP Tool and MiniDOS:
When creating the boot Floppy, select from Folder Options to view the hiden and system files and delete or rename the file config.sys if present.
Couse we need DOS with no additional programs that are loaded, which could interfere with the operation of the BIOS flash application.
2. Reaname your bios to bios.bin
3. Copy the BIOS file and flash utility to the diskette.
4. Create an text file with any standard text editor and add the following lines :
@ECHO OFF
awdflash893.exe bios.bin /py/sn/f/cc/r
and save it as autoexec.bat
Autoexec.bat download link:
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5. Copy it to the bootable flopy.
6. Start your computer and if no flopy acces occurs press and hold Ctrl+Home to force update.
7. When there is no more activity, wait for a while and restart your computer.

py = program yes
sn = save no
f = flash
cc = clear cmos
r = reboot

Here is the latest awdflash I could find awdflash v8.93
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Tool provided by @offon7544

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ____________________________________

Here is one of the expirience of one of the mydigitallife forum memebers:
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__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ____________________________________
U P D A T E
FOR SPI CHIPS WITH SPI-header (7pins INTERFACE)

As Dutchman01 stated, for all of us that own a board with SPI chips and have a SPI-header (7pins INTERFACE) there is a posible way of recovering after a bad flash and none of the recovery procedures have worked.
Although it's for a electronic enthusiasts here is the link to the thread and the info:
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sauce >> [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
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Last edited by vokal ; edited 1 time in total
#3. Posted:
KingArty
  • Challenger
Status: Offline
Joined: Dec 10, 201211Year Member
Posts: 148
Reputation Power: 5
Status: Offline
Joined: Dec 10, 201211Year Member
Posts: 148
Reputation Power: 5
No, when flashing bios,(WHICH SHOULD NEVER BE DONE UNLESS COMPLETELY NECESSARY) it must run without any problems and should be done with a UPS fully charged.
YOUR END PRODUCT: A dead ROM, which means a dead mobo
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