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Where to purchase AWARD BIOS chips?

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jmac17

Registered
Joined
Mar 10, 2002
Where can I order an AWARD bios chip for me BE6-II MB. I tried flashing my bios and it just hung there for over an hour. Hit reset, now it says checksum error or something similar.

Thanks,
John
 
Welcome to the forums :)! Did you actually watch the flash process take place? Once the chip has been flashed, you need to hit the reset switch or hit Ctrl/alt/del (in my experiences). Did you try hitting the Delete button when you get the checksum message to enter the BIOS and choose your settings? That is a normal message telling you that the image in the BIOS chip has changed...at that point, you have to hit DEL (or the key that enters your BIOS) and make any appropiate changes, followed by an additional reboot. Also, some board manufacturers suggest that you reset the CMOS after flashing to a Different BIOS. If you've been there and done all that and your confident the chip is bad, you can find replacements at Unicore. Good luck..keep us posted!
 
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You may be able to do a boot block flash if all else fails. The details are here . Or you may be able to do a hot swap. The hot swap involves taking the Bios chip out, and putting it in a working computer. Award flash won't allow you to flash a BIOS file that doesn't match the board. But the Uniflash utility will. You load a disk with the BIOS file, Uniflash, start ther computer, get to the A prompt, remove the BIOS chip, replace it with the one you want to flash, flash it, then swap back. Be very careful to match the ehmispherical notch in the chip with the notch in the socket, or it will fry.
 
repo man11 said:
You may be able to do a boot block flash if all else fails. The details are here . Or you may be able to do a hot swap. The hot swap involves taking the Bios chip out, and putting it in a working computer. Award flash won't allow you to flash a BIOS file that doesn't match the board. But the Uniflash utility will. You load a disk with the BIOS file, Uniflash, start ther computer, get to the A prompt, remove the BIOS chip, replace it with the one you want to flash, flash it, then swap back. Be very careful to match the ehmispherical notch in the chip with the notch in the socket, or it will fry.

WOW! Great ideas! Thanks for the info repo man!!
 
I did see the flash take place. It got to the last square and just stopped. I let it sit there for an hour. I have flashed before and normally it is just a few seconds. So after the wait I hit the reset button. I have tried hitting the del button while booting up and I still get the CMOS ROM checksum error. I am looking at the uniflash program and for it to work do you have to be in DOS? Also how do you move around in the menu screen? The up and down arrors will not move the highlighted area. I am still working on it. Thank you guys for all the help. Never say never!! LOL

John
 
Yes, you have to be in DOS. I don't know what OS you're running, if XP you'll have to download a bootable floppy. Try bootdisc.com. If you do try the hotswap, remove and replace the original chip, just barely pressing it in to boot up the machine. If you have a chip extractor, that would help. It's hard to get them out without bending the pins. I've done these things myself, just be patient and careful, and you'll do fine.
Oh yeah, did you check out the boot block flash?
 
Just make sure if you do the 'hot swap" that the motherboard you sticking the chip in is set to the proper voltage for the chip you're flashing itself....if it's a 5 volt chip and the motherboard is set to 12 volts...say goodbye to that bios chip......if it's a 12 volt chip and the motherboard is set to 5 volts.....it may look like it flashed perfectly fine...but may not have written ANYTHING at all to the chip, or a corrupted flash could happen which can also render the "bootblock" safety feature useless....again...say goodbye to that chip......

Just send an e-mail to abit tech support, they'll help you in getting a new bios chip.....but it'll cost you....not sure how much it is now though. 20 bucks?....
 
PsycoPhreak has a good point. Another way to do a hot swap is to use a chip from a board with the same or very similar chipset,(going from a KT133 to a KT133A will work, for instance, long enough to get to0 the A prompt) put it in the board that you need to flash to get to the A prompt, then swap back to the original. Psyco, how could you tell if the boards BIOS chip voltage is +12 or plus +5?
 
Thanks guys for all the help. I plan to do the hot swap tonight. I have another machine running a BH6 so I should be OK. As a side note. I tried flashing the bad bios chip with the orginal bios for the board and it did flash. However most of the flash read "write fail" or something simialar. I then tried a newer bios version and got some error message I can't remeber. (was late) that prevented it from flashing at all. Any ideas? Oh I did check out the boot block flash. I tried it and got the same results, write fail message.

John
 
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