awdflash BIOS failed! I learned how to recover but it didn't work!

[The Dragger]

Hi all,

First I went through few interesting posts in this forum by doing search as well as other interesting websites. I learned alot, but unfortunatily after the disaster happened

What happened?
I downloaded a newer flash version into a bootable floppy with (Autoexec.bat) command and (awdflash.exe) update exe file. However i did the upgrade wrongly be executing (awdflash.exe) directly which is WRONG. I should execute (autoexec.bat) file which has the right command plus the necessary switches like the following:

awdflash mbx0202.bin /py /cc /cd /sn /cp

During the update, it reached up to 30000 bytes and then it stopped with a flashing error message that said (BIOS upgrade fail !!) .. so I tried all keystrocks possible but with no results. YES, I rebooted the machine and duhhh ... the screen is blank and dead!!

sooo .. I rushed to the internet looking how to recover this horrible mistake. My pc & motherboard specs is as following:

Micron Client Pro CS, PII 500Mhz, 128MB
Motherboard: DR737, Award BIOS V4.51PG, Micron BIOS 2.71, BIOS Version (7/23/1999-i440BX-W977TF-2A69KB3FC-00). Motherboard silkscreened part number (MBD001111-01)
Reason to update BIOS: to support my new 80GB western digital hard drive.

Actually, before upgrading BIOS, I tried to install the overlay tiny program which should solve the problem. However it did not, and everytime it boots to hard drive the utility start loading and asks me to press (C) to start setup from CD-ROM, but it does not even Windows 200 CD is loaded and I pressed C several times. So I decided to solve it deeply and update my BIOS.

Back to BIOS problem. Now I learned that there are several ways to recover a failed BIOS flash, including the following:

1- Hot plug of BIOS by buying a new chip
2- changing CMOS recovery jumber. Actually I have this jumber in my motherboard but I don't have the manual for mobo since MICRON did not provided one.
3- booting with a newer floppy with a backup of old BIOS. For my good luck I made a backup of my old BIOS into a floppy before flashing, and now I have a new floppy with the correct (autoexec.bat); my old BIOS, and (awdflash.exe) exe file. I learned that I can force the PC to load from floppy by pressing control+home keys? ... ?!?!
4- by changing the motherboard. which is not worth it since the PC now won't worth more than 100 US$ as a used old PC.

I'm very interesting to do the 3rd solution, which is restoring my old BIOS. I have the floppy and all necessary files, but I just need to force the PC to start and load the floppy. I found a site which explains how the mobo loads and start reading from FDD and how it make beeps for loading the BIOS and long beep for a successful update. I wish I can do it, but my PC won't give any indication it can start to load anything!! it seems the CPU can't load or do anything.

I found this quote in a previous post in this forum

As mentioned, the standard boot block contains startup code which is often, but not always, left unflashed during an update. This startup code is IBM PC code, so expects to be on a system with ISA MDA video and will let you boot from the floppy drive. So if this is intact, and the m/board has an ISA slot, you may be able to fit an ISA video card and attempt to re-flash. If the system attempts to boot, but there is no ISA onboard, or the video doesn't display, you may be able to re-flash blind. That is, once DOS loads, type the flashing commands, run the flashing program from the autoexec.bat file or if your BIOS flashes with a key combination, you have to just know when it needs to be pressed without seeing the on-screen prompt.

Just to be contrary, if you manage to re-flash and the results are the same, or if the system will not boot at all, it may be because the boot block did need to be flashed too, but wasn't. This can be due to recent versions of awdflsh.exe, which default to not flashing the boot block, it can be worth using the AMI flash utility to avoid this problem. If this is the cause of the bad flash, and the system simply will not boot, other recovery techniques will be needed, like the EPROM programmer already mentioned, or a hot swap.

By the way, if the system won't start up at all, don't overlook the CMOS reset jumper - after the flash, the CMOS memory may be corrupted and setting a parameter that won't let the CPU run properly.

Please help me and tell me how can I force my mobo to load the floppy ?

[fubar]

Hi The Dragger, sorry to hear about your problem.

You really need to try to reset your bios before doing anything else. As you have already read you do this by changing a jumper setting on the motherboard.

I found this PDF file I think pertains to your board. Scroll down to page 4-6 and it tells you exactly how to reset your bios using the jumper. Try it and see if it helps.

Good luck.

Fubar

[SuperSparks]

If you can't find the jumper the pulling the mobo battery out for a few minutes will achieve exactly the same thing.

From what I can gather that Ctrl+Home combination may require the keys to be pressed right from the moment the PC fires up - so I would suggest you enlist the aid of an assistant to hold the keys down and see if it works.

[The Dragger]

Dear Fubar,

Thank you for your reply and your help. Your file was very helpful. Actually it was a manual for almost exact PC that I have. However there was a slight difference. My PC motherboard has a different (J8A1) jumbers than the drawing in the manual. So I went to the ftp site and I found the directories are sorted in numbering-scheme names, which are not helpful to locate the rigth manual for the right PC.

Therefore, I would like to ask how you were able to locate this particular file among all of these puzzling-names directories and files? was it by doing a search? or by browsing Micron webpages and following a provided link?

I made several searches using Google.com in only (FTP.buympc.com) but with no results. I searched also (support.buympc.com) for the phase (dr737), but also with no results. I found a silkscreen bold name in the mobo which is (DR737) so I assumed it's the motherboard unique name or part number. I guess my system was produced in mid 1990's.

SuperSparks,
I sent the PC to our company workshop who are famous Micron partner and distributer. Suprisingly, there are no spare parts, no motherboards or spare BIOS's. Worst than that, no engineer ever upgraded a BIOS !! ... it seems it's better to take back my PC and do it myself !!

[The Dragger]

By the way, my PC complete specifications can be found here:


http://support.buympc.com/apps/compl...o=1975080-0001

[TeeDub]

Um, go to your system specs, scroll WAY on down to the bottom (key step) and click on the part number to the right of your motherboard....

Now that first item there on the left... Manual?

No, he mows my yard.



(Page 39)

[fubar]

The Dragger,

Sorry that I led you to an incorrect manual. What I did was a search for your mobo and found the MPC website. There I clicked on the support page. After browseing around there for a little while I finally clicked on the link for Platforms , and on the next page I clicked on Desktops . I clicked on the first link I saw for the Client Pro CS desktop, and ther I clicked on the link for manuals . If you then click on the link for Micron Systems Users Manual it will bring up a dialogue page to save the file fromm their FTP site. I just copy and pasted the URL for the FTP site and browsed to it which brought me to this page, where I selected one of the PDF files for, what I thought, was your mobo manual.

But, it appears that TeeDub has found maybe a better location for your manual.

I hope this helps some.

Fubar