Help me with a hotflash!!!

Hey guys, I need some help doing a funky hotflash...

Last night, I found out the BIOS on my Abit KX7-333R was corrupt. I'm not sure how it happened, but it won't boot past the drive detection, and I cannot enter setup. (I just get a blue line and a cursor) Yes, I have reset the CMOS numerous times.

So, since the board is otherwise dead, I'm gonna hotflash. Problem is...I don't have a spare KX7 lying around.

So here's what I'm doing...

I fired up an old PentiumII board. I've got it booted to the floppy drive, and swapped the BIOS chips. (I put my Abit chip in this old board.)

I go to run awdflash, and it runs, but right before it goes to flash the BIOS, it sees the board serial number doesn't match the BIOS chip and quits.

I've tried an old copy of aflash.exe from my ASUS board. (They use Award/Pheonix too) That didn't even start.

So, I've got the system sitting on my desk, waiting for the BIOS flash.

Heres what I need: I need an Award/Pheonix BIOS flash utility that will allow you to flash an "incorrect" BIOS or allow me to flash on this old board.

I'm not hinging great success off this...it's mainly an experiment before I bother trying to get a new BIOS chip...

So, I've left it running, and I'll try to d/l a few more flash utilities...but please if you know of anything that'll help let me know!

Edit: Well, I tried numerous versions of AWDflash, none seemed to work. One was promising, v707, but it would hang after a certain point. Considreing it was copyright 1999...lol...

Well, if this won't work, thats cool. I'll probably spend time later trying to get the KX7 to boot enough to pop a new flash in.

I just wish there was a nice flash utility out there that could boot off any mobo, and force a flash onto a BIOS chip...even if the mobo isn't the right type.

I may have just the thing for you. Uniflash is a somewhat universal flash utility. I have used it for numerous hotswap flashes.
Get it here, http://www.pppr.sk/rainbow/programs.html#UniFlash .
I hope it works for you.

If the bootblock is intact, you may be able to do a bootblock flash. Get the details here, http://www.sysopt.com/articles/recoverbios/ .

Thanks man!! Looks really promising...I tried uniflash, but not matter what I do, or what BIOS chip I have in at the time, it just hangs at the first screen, showing my boards chipset. (in this case a Via VP3)

Anyway, they say there might be problems with some of these VIA chipsets due to a write protection...hmmm...

Anyway, it's a bit late tonight, but I gotta dust off some of my old Socket7 pentium boards, and AT psu, and see if it'll work on them!

I never had any luck using Uniflash with an Abit board (that is, doing the hotflash on the Abit board). They (the writers of Uniflash) cite some sort of undocumented write protect.
But with an old TX or VX based socket 7 board, you can flash just about anything. I even have a PC Chips board where you can set the BIOS chip voltage with a jumper.

Have you tried the force flash switch? The XXX should bypass any limitations. Do you have a recovery floppy that will flash the board by itself, even with a blank screen? I can send you an image of a recovery floppy but you will have to replace one file with the KX7 BIOS of choice after renaming it to RECOVERY.BIN.

PS: I might not have the right switch above but will check on it in the next 12hrs

i've got to try this! dont want to have to rma my asus board again!!!!

EDIT: Isnt this dangerous to do?

LOL... -BIOS- flashing.... my first thoughts when seeing this thread title were of the other kind of Hot Flash...

sorry....

SickBoy said:

LOL... -BIOS- flashing.... my first thoughts when seeing this thread title were of the other kind of Hot Flash...

sorry....

Click to expand...

LOL, well when I was googling it, I got results to a number of women's forums...

Sonny, I haven't tried that switch yet for awdflash. That might take care of it though. Uniflash looks very promising though, and I'm interested in using it to see how well it works as a universal flash utility. So I'm gonna try that on a pentium board later tonight when I get home.

I've read stuff about special floppies that boot to the boot block only. But I really don't think I have enough BIOS to get that far. It DOES detect my drives, but right after that, it just reboots itself.

I suppose it's worth a shot...then again, considering I've popped my Abit bios chip in and out of that socket on the PII board about 20 times, heheh, I got a feeling it's probably worse off than it was before!!!

My plan is to use Uniflash and flash to multiple chips...I've got a bunch lying around, I should be able to find ones that match the capactiy of the original abit one. Just gotta find out if Abit was using a 512k or 1mb bios chip on the KX7...

Thanks for the tips, I'll update later tonight.

Create a bootable floppy void of the usual stuff for BIOS flashing & include a AUTOEXEC.BAT file with these parameters;

@echo off
cls
AWDFLASH.EXE RECOVER.BIN /py /sn /cd /cp /cc /R

Make sure the file name of the bin file matches above or the other way around. Thanks to Tmod for the BIOS Recovery Image

The switch I mentioned in my first post in this thread is probably wrong, I can't remember the switch

OMG, I think it's working! (Not uniflash though...)

I just decided to see what I could get the KX7 to do...well, it wasn't looking good, I would get a boot with a blue block and a cursor, one it gave me half a boot screen...

Anyway, I kept rebooting it, and it booted!! It's currently sitting at the A: while I d/l awdflash again. (Heheh, can't remember what version I d/l'd from Abits site.)

With a bit of luck, I'll be able to flash!!! And if this BIOS chip is bad, atleats I have the THIS system running so I can hotflash to another chip!!!

Will let you know if it works...I'd love to have my Abit back!

Ok, this is tough...I keep getting Checksum errors. I try to flash to a BIOS file, and it gives me the message "BIOS Image File Check Sum Error"

This is after I tell it what bios to load off my floppy.

I've redownloaded the file numerours time, and tried another floppy...no luck. I rebooted once, which was a bad idea, b/c it took my 20 more tries to boot up again!

Anyway...any ideas? I'm gonna try uniflash, but I've got this odd feeling it'll just lock up...

Sonny, I'd try your automatic way, but as I understand it, won't it just hang like it's doing now? I'm able to boot, so I don't really think I need to setup a disk like that...right?

Ok, back to the board!

The switch /LD will make sure you wont get the annoying CHECKSOM ERROR. Try the /? on AWDFLASH for the officialy supported switches to help you along.

Ok, I'll give that a shot tonight.

I reverted back to my pentium 2 board, and for some reason, Uniflash worked perfectly! It detected the chip, and I went to flash...well, it flashed with errors. Hmmm...

Funny part was, the Abit board still booted about as well!

I'll try your switch again, using my Abit board. One question though....I'm getting the feeling I should do the bootblock too, but is that included with the downloaded BIOS from Abit?

I have no clue if the BootBlock is possible to be manipulated by the user without a EEPROM programer.

When Uniflash has flashed with errors for me, I've narrowed it down to a couple of causes; a bad chip, or incorrect voltage. If it is the 5 volt chip, it will generally fry if you flash it with 12. If it is 12, it will not flash properly with 5.

Do you have a spare chip that you can flash to try?

I know that you can flash the Bootblock from the Advanced menu of Uniflash, but I don't think you generally need to do so. One case where you would is if you were flashing a chip from a completely different board.

*Bump, with updates.

Thanks repo man, I'm thinking I have a corrupt chip now, but I'll have to recheck the voltages.

I ripped through my stock of old mobo's, and was able to pull and test 10 old BIOS chips. Unfortunately, only ONE was a 256k or higher chip. It was off an Epox PIII BX board that came from someone from work. (Exploded MOSFET and dead PSU!)

That one flashed incorrectly too, but keep in mind this is AFTER getting things to work right. I had hotflashed the two 256k chips I had repeatedly with no success. Once I had uniflash working just right, I got errors on that spare chip.

Since that chip was also out of a board that died of a horrible voltage problem, I have no way of knowing if it was even a good chip to begin with.

So Friday I stopped by Radio Shack on my lunch break, and asked for programmable flash chips. The guy nearly crapped his pants and was like "Ummm...you need WHAT???!??!?" Suffice to say, it took 3 employees for one to know what I was even asking for, at which time I was told they didn't have them. (Last year I spotted them in a radio shack, but looks like they don't carry them anymore. )

So that was funny! Anyway, I found one at allelectronics, looks like an Atmel chip: http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=285&item=AT29C040A&type=store#

It appears to be a 512k module, so I should be set if I order that and give it a shot. Looks to be 5v too. I'll verify the board I use does the same voltage, and we'll see.

im thinking i used the switch /f to when flashing a bios recently cause it didnt match and would hang.....

Ok, sorry for raising the dead here, but I just thought I'd report my KX7 is ready for another hotflash shot.

I never bought a new bios chip, but actaully stumbled across a 512k chip in a SiS 6326 8mb AGP card!! Of all the things!

So I'll give it antoher shot after verifying the SiS card boots (menaing the bios chip is ok)

Maybe I'll bring back the KX7 from the dead!

I found a breakdown of Awdflash switches on the web.

/? - Help. Before you start working with Award Flash Memory Writer, it is advisable to use this key and to study carefully all the opportunities of this software.

/Py or /Pn - stands for answering "yes" (Y) or "no" (N) to the request concerning the BIOS reflashing. By means of /Pn you can ban FlashROM reprogramming. This option enables you to save the current version of the BIOS or to get its checksum without updating your BIOS. A backup copy will help you to restore the previous version of the BIOS. By default /Py mode is set.

/Sy or /Sn - stands for answering "yes" (Y) or "no" (N) to the request about saving the previous version of the BIOS. By default /Py mode is set again. In this case before reprogramming the FlashROM microchip you'll need to confirm saving by this request:

Do You Want To Save BIOS (Y/N)

/Sn is recommended to use for *.bat-files in case of automatic BIOS reflashing in systems without a display.

/CC - to clear CMOS after reflashing. This option comes in handy when there is a risk that the data arrays created by new BIOS version in CMOS may differ from those former ones. If so, then you are likely to have troubles with the mainboard startup. Clearing CMOS will let you avoid searching for Clear CMOS jumper on the board, which is really helpful if it isn't accompanied with a proper manual or is simply hard to access.

/CP - stands for clearing PnP (ESCD) Data matrix after BIOS reflashing. The information about PnP devices is stored in ESCD. The key /CP is an equivalent to Reset Configuration Data in PnP/PCI Configuration CMOS Setup. It makes sense to use /CP if you skip several versions of BIOS or if you have installed new PnP cards. If you don not update the ESCD, your board may suffer some startup problems.

/CD - stands for clearing DMI Data pool after reprogramming. Literally, DMI is a data base, containing all the information on the system as a whole. Clearing it may be fruitful in the above mentioned situations with /CP and /CC keys, as well as if some of the system components have been changed.

/SB - stands for no BootBlock reflashing. The BootBlock is the first unit to be addressed by startup and it is hardly ever changed. If the board manufacturer gives no other recommendations, there is no need to reflash BootBlock. In particular, if the BIOS reflashing fails, it may become impossible to restore the BIOS via software. On some mainboards there is a BootBlock Protection jumper. If protection is set, either you won't be able to reflash the BIOS without /SB at all or the system will face verification errors.
This setting has NOT been confirmed to work. It may or may not work on your motherboard. Use with caution. Thanks for the input Tmod.

/SD - stands for saving the data of DMI pool in a file. Part of DMI can be saved to be used by the software in future. Even though this key stands in the list, which is shown by /?, using it will bring no result. This key simply doesn't work.

/R - stands for the system reset after reflashing. It lets you have your computer restarted automatically as soon as you finish updating FlashROM. The option is useful for working through a *.bat-file.

/Tiny - stands for using less RAM. Without the /Tiny key, AwardFlash utility tries to put the entire BIOS file, which is intended for further reflashing, into RAM. Still, if have taken all the precautions but anyway you see a message saying "Insufficient Memory" during the BIOS reflashing procedure, then the key /Tiny should be used. It will make the data from the BIOS file loaded and reflashed in portions.

/E - stands for returning to DOS after BIOS reflashing. For instance, you may need it to make sure that the previous version of the BIOS is saved.

/F - stands for reprogramming by means of the system BIOS. Most contemporary BIOS's feature the procedure of FlashROM reprogramming. The key /F enables AwardFlash to reprogram FlashROM with the algorithms of the current BIOS version. If a mainboard peculiarities do not allow applying AwardFlash Writer algorithms, you should use the key /F.

/LD - stands for clearing CMOS after reflashing and not showing the message "Press F1 to continue or DEL to setup". Unlike /CC, this key lets you avoid this message by the following startup after clearing CMOS, provided you have set the properties by default.

/CKS - stands for showing the checksum of XXXXh file. The checksum is shown in hexadecimal representation. This option is advised to be used with the verification key.

/CKSxxxx - stands for comparing the checksum of the file with XXXXh. If the checksums are different, you'll see the message "The program file's part number does not match with your system!". As a rule, XXXXh for each BIOS update file is usually available on the mainboard manufacturer's site

/WB - Updates the BIOS Boot Block. This switch does not have to be used. The BIOS Boot Block will get updated with the flashing of the BIOS.



The /f switch, as Sonny mentioned earlier, seems to be the key for hotswap flashes. In a recent thread, Artisan said that he was able to use the /qi switch to get past a part number mistmatch. So you may want to experiment with that one as well.

Best of luck on reviving your motherboard!