In the Beginning Jim Tobler
I have an old W98 computer down the coast, mainly to access weather predictions, and to interface with my Magellan 'Color' GPS. As described previously, although the computer based software works well, and the GPS works well, bringing them together can be rather frustrating. Recently while I was working on that struggle the computer began to add a few more problems.
During Bootup the computer would begin the POST test, and when it got to finding and testing the floppy drive, it would get no further. It would just keep making the floppy light up and try to read it over and over and over. No beeps were issued and the screen never got to opening the Display Card. (That stuff you see on the screen first when the bootup starts.)
I found that by pressing the Reset button over and over and over, I could
occasionally 'jag' a boot and then everything worked perfectly. The shot then,
was to leave the computer on permanently.
To an amateur fixer upper like me, this said - Floppy Disc Failure.
I had a spare Floppy so I installed it and got the same result. I removed all
Floppies and the computer still wouldn't boot. It stayed at the same place in
POST. Less noisy now, and no flashing lights. Still no beeps.
As it was getting harder and harder to 'jag' a boot with
Reset, I started looking on the Web for other possibilities, and sent Merv an
email about it.
The web informed me that it could be:
Could have been a few others, - I added CMOS battery
failure, 'cause it only costs $3 to try it out.
Subsequently I took the memory card and video card out, polished them with an ink eraser and reseated them a few times. I tried a new power supply.
Nothing changed for the better.
Round about this time the Reset button trick stopped
working, and I got a message about HDD failure. I also got a reply from Merv
telling that he thought that the CMOS had failed.
I was able to test the HDD in my home computer and found that it was indeed 'failed'.
All the 'Reset' pressing probably was the reason, or maybe it was on the way
out and contributed to the original problem.
By now I was convinced that Merv was right, as I had got
nowhere doing all my amateur fixer stuff.
From the Web I gradually got the message that BIOS chips are made by firms
like Award and AMI but they are Motherboard specific. The motherboard makers put
what they require into the chip. So to fix the problem by 'Flashing'
instructions into the chip, you have to identify your motherboard maker and
model, as well as the BIOS chip maker. Then with a bit of luck you find the
right 'flash' program on the motherboard maker's site.
In my case Gigabyte had a 'flash' program that looked
appropriate to my computer. This was called - 6vxc7_fa_fb_fc.zip. When you
unpacked that you got 3 further Zip programs these were called 6vxc7_fa.zip,
6vxc7_fb.zip, and 6vxc7_fc.zip. Each one related to the date of the flash update
file. From memory a=1999, b=2000 and c= 2002. My BIOS chip had a 1999 sticker on
it and the computer was put together in 2000, so I reckoned the 'fb' file was
the one for me.
Further investigation revealed that to get the 'flash'
file into the BIOS chip, I had to get the computer booted up to where it would
load a floppy 'rescue' disk, or find someone with an EEPROM programmer. No luck
on both counts.
Round about this time my daughter bought herself a laptop, and gave me back
the old desktop that was a twin to the computer with the problem.
For $7.50 I purchased an IC chip remover from DSE. Despite some ominous crunching sounds I was able to remove the 'dud' BIOS chip from the coast computer and the 'good' BIOS chip from the spare computer.
Swapping and booting confirmed that Merv had picked it in one. I was also
able to reconfirm that the coast HDD had died.
Further research on the Web revealed that it was possible to 'flash' the dud
chip via a 'hot swap'.
Hot Swap BIOS Flash
The basic requirements for a 'Hot Swap' are:
I dipped out on 2 keyboards, 2 mice, plastic IC remover, desk space, and not
sure on which aspect of the last requirement I met. When I found that I HAD to
use the metal IC gadget, I thought that I qualified on the 'insufficient brains'
bit.
I had to keep swapping the keyboard and mouse over to the computer on the Web
during the process, to make sure I was on the right track.
The process involved:
(This floppy now had two programs on it as a result of unzipping 6vxc_4x_fc.zip, they were:
This is where the 'guts'/lack of brains bits comes in. With the computer
still switched on, and the metal tongs on the IC tool, the fear of 'shorting'
something out is pretty high. The chip socket is very close to the edge of the
case, and I found I didn't have enough room to get anything made of plastic into
a position where I could lever the BIOS chip out. The only thing that would get
it out was the metal remover tool.
( I found it was sensitive to upper and lower case - in DOS mode I had to use
Shift to get lower case.) The unzipping had changed '_' to '-' in the final
file.
After Flash852 had done its stuff, I found that the computer would do a normal boot.
As you can imagine this was a great relief.
The coast computer now has the GOOD BIOS chip in it with a new HDD. The spare
computer has the Flashed BIOS (ex-dud) chip in it with its original HDD.
I think I'll keep 1 spare mouse, 1 spare K/B as well as the spare monitor for
future emergencies.
I don't know what 'cooked' the BIOS. Maybe the HDD was failing early on and did it.
But it is a 'chicken and egg' situation. Quite possible that the BIOS
problem, and innumerable reboots jiggered the HDD.
I don't want to do that again. (If I do I'll use this diatribe as a 'cheat
sheet'.)
I have no idea how Merv worked out what the problem was.
I'll get out of your way now.