Ok, I am buying a "nonworking" OEM computer with a goofy bios... help

I am an employee at compusa and we have a vaio with some nice specs that I am going to buy so that I can have a faster system than what I have. It is a good deal for what it has. But... when it boots it reads "incorrect bios" and I cannot use the sony in windows bios flash utility in order to fix this issue because it is saying that "this bios is not correct for this machine" since it is not seeing the right bios to flash to. So, what can I do besides buying a new mobo?? If I can get around this I can save myself the hassle of getting a new mobo/case/PS and just leaving it in the factory case for the time being. Thanks a bunch guys!!

Richard Jackson

PS.. the computer is a PCV-RZ46G Vaio!

No one??

Is the error, "press f1 to continue, f2 to enter setup" or something similar?

nah... it will boot to windows and all. So, its not a totally fubar'd bios. He just somehow flashed the wrong one. I just need to find a way to dos flash the stock bios back on the mobo. Any way you guys know how to dos flash an amibios mobo back to a stock bios?? Only thing is that sony packages their bios inside their windows program. So, there is no .bin file to load to a disk for a flash. I need some help guys!! thanks!!

Richard

download and run this program

http://www.ecsusa.com/downloads/winFlash.html

Update all sectors. It will force flash the bios.

well when i went back to work today windows is having trouble booting... activation is going werid on me(I activate it by telephone and it says i havent)... Anyways though. I need to do it with dos now.... any way that I can do it in dos?? Also, I dont have a clue on how to find the bios that it needed from the factory in order to be reflashed to factory specs. Their bios utility comes with the bios file included so there is no .bin file. Thanks!!

RJ

While I appreciate the link and all... That is the whole problem. I can't use that program like I said in the beginning post. Right now I can't get into windows to use that amibios program. Even if I could get into windows it would tell me that that bios download isnt for this model because it has never seen that bios that is flashed onto the chip right now.


Anyone else have any ideas on how to get a raw sony bios file?? Or do you think I could maybe get a generic bios for that mobo and use it?? If so, where can you get them??

Thanks again!!

Richard

Try AWDFlash. I don't have a link but it's a dos based bios flash utility.

1. current bios is labeled 1001... which isnt any bios i have ever heard of... I dont know what this guy flashed on here.

2. I tried all of those utilities and none of them will recognize this crap bios. The problem is that I cant find a dos based ami bios flash program to run(ones attached to that link are windows based). I also cant find what bios to flash back onto that chip even if I could find a dos based bios utility. Sony doesnt release them in bios files... just those update utilities with the .bin embedded into it where i cant extract it to use it. I even asked sony if I could get a raw .bin file for it... they said they didnt have one.

Well, I can go check the bios's label one more time to see if I can get anything else out of it. Right now the machine has functionality. Before I reinstalled windows it could even get on the net and all. But, it couldnt detect the tv card and couldnt correctly detect the cdrw drive(says its a matblahblah dvdrom, but its not). When the computer posts it says incorrect bios and keeps going. Nothing freezes up or stops due to this though. I am sure of the model number of the computer because the guy left all the factory marketing stickers on it and he bought it from our store so i can look it up by sku. I dont have access to a machine to hot flash from so I cant do that. The program is a program that has to be run in windows. Here is a screenshot of a few things about the program with the error message displayed. Of course this is on this machine but it read the same one out for the other one. Also, I have tried clearing the CMOS a few times. I talked to sony and they told me to take it to the nearest sony authorized service center... haha. I told them... uhhh, I am inside one right now. he told me that if the motherboard's bios chip was fubar'd then it would have to be serviced by sony(not happening because this mobo costs 230 bucks) and I can do everything they can if I could only find a bios for it.

The advanced tab is just for the file and file system options. Nothing to do with the programs.

Yeh, I tried all of the bios update programs. See with that system I dont even get to the update part... it verifies the installed bios before it gives any options.

About the sony service... I work at a sony service center. They cant do anything for it save putting in a new mobo. I can do anything they can do. I can check tomorrow if it is a socketed bios chip or not.