Uh-oh

[Christoph]

I just got an XP 1600 today to replace a TBird 1.4 gHz that I killed. I've got an A7M266 mobo with the BIOS flashed to 1004a.
It won't start properly. When it boots
up, it tells me that I have an H-series 1400 mHz proc, then continues booting until after the PCI device list, when it stops doing anything.
I'm afraid that it's I need to flash the BIOS to 1005 or whatever the current version is, but I can't boot from a disk.
Anyone know of a potential solution? I don't have another comp handy, although if I need to, I might be able to flash it at a local computer store.

[Christoph]

Suck. I just visited Asus' web site and found out that I'm right. Are there any special instructions for removing the BIOS? I'd really hate to lose that many chips in such a short time.:(

[*JEREMY*]

That sucks that your 1.4 is fried or dont have another chip that you could use to boot and get the new bios,i thought i knew a way but i was wrong after i read into it.I dont see a way to do it without getting into DOS.Looks like you might have to take it in to get serviced.

[Dunga Bee]

Idea: Buy a cheap Duron with a mobo and use the Duron to get your BIOS upgrade done.

Then, set up your Duron as a headless folder...:D

Everybody wins... ;)

[Christoph]

Thanks, but there's now way that I'm going to wait for another CPU to ship. I'll just call some local computer store and find out if they'll let me use one of their mobos or if they'll do it for me (I'd hate to pay for something soooooo easy to do, though).
Nothing that I have right now is fried though. At least I've got that much consolation.

[Kendan]

You could also try to get a new bios chip from the MB manufcturer. then you would have an extra which might come in handy down the road!!! I know I can get one from Abit and you probably can from yours.

[Christoph]

I'd hate to get a new BIOS when flashing the old one would suffice, but if the computer stores don't like me, I guess that I'll have to do something like that.

[tbirdkiri]

yes i would be very carefull,
it would be better if you took the entire system in and asked it you could use a proc to do the task cause its very easy to break one of those, or even put it in backwards

[Christoph]

The BIOS is out now, but I remember how to put it back in. You might be right about just using another CPU. I'll find out my options this afternoon. Thanks for the thoughts.