frak

[digitaldiscipline]

i think i botched the bios flash on my home box at lunch.

*sigh*

Comments

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Do not screw that up. It is Bad.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

yes, yes it is. power button goes in, lights come on, screen stays black.

a mildly-panicky email to support is in the offing tonight to see what my options are. it may be time for an unscheduled upgrade.

[insert solicitation for overclock-friendly athlon motherboard recommendations here]

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Moral: Never fuque with hardware with a deadline.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

nahhh, there was no time crunch, i just screwed the pooch.

d'oh.

[theonebob.livejournal.com]

I read this as "i think i botched the bios flash on my lunchbox." Implications raced through my mind until I reread what you said.

Sorry.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

hehe. no, i'm not quite that big a geek yet, though the small form factor PC's that are roughly the size of a 4 quart cooler are awfully nice. . .

[sabinenotagoth.livejournal.com]

o.dear.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

*kicks self in head*

[*repeat*]

[arcsine.livejournal.com]

Find someone that has an identical motherboard, even a brand new one that the local comp shop will probably let you borrow for a while. Pull the BIOS from the working board, install it on your dead one. Boot the board to a floppy (preferrably the one your made for the BIOS upgrade), but do _not_ load the flash program. It's now safe (as long as you have BIOS shadowing enabled and don't make any input to the machine while there's partial contact with the socket) to pull the good BIOS and reinstall the bad one. Now, load your flash program and re-flash the dead BIOS and reboot. Viola!

[etcet.livejournal.com]

you managed to lose me - how does one go about pulling the bios? i'm envisioning lots of small wires running between a pair of mainboards side-by-side in some fashion.

at present, the system won't even boot from floppy - hitting the power button spins up the fans, but the display remains dark (no video signal or anything).

[arcsine.livejournal.com]

To be specific, the EEPROM chip that stores your BIOS. Anyway, the easiest way to do it is with a chip puller, which most PC repair toolkits come with. Should look like a big-ass pair of tweezers (don't touch the tips to the chip pins!), the good kind look vaguely like a rubber date stamp with a long handle. Failing that, loosen the chip slightly by fitting a flat-blade screwdriver between it and it's socket, using it like a wedge to slowly lift it from the socket. Boot the machine, then fully remove the chip using a thin piece of plastic (disposable butterknife, the pocket clip yanked off a pen, &c). Here (http://www.amptron.com/documents/Recover.pdf)'s a decent guide written by a not-so-decent mobo manufaturer.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

i have the sneaking suspicion that this would void my warranty. . .

*clue light goes on*

i bought this board locally! I'll see what their return policy is, since it's less than a year old. (i have all the original materials except for the receipt).

this may be less heinous than i thought, though it would still be rather nifty to upgrade in preparation for my H2O rig arriving next month (used Koolance 601. . . )

*perk*

[trid.livejournal.com]

Whoa...did I just hear "Koolance???"

I'm instantly envious. I so want a home box to fsck with...not that I'm complaining about the shibby new laptop, mind you...it's not really mine and, well...laptops do not really lend themselves to case mods and water cooling.

Re: *perk*

[etcet.livejournal.com]

why, yes, yes you did. *muahahahaha!*

i have a very large, very black, slightly-modded case if you want to get a little crazy there, sporkboi. . .

Re: *perk*

[trid.livejournal.com]

Well, if you feel like shlepping that case to Vegas, I'll make it go away for ya :)

Actually, I saw a case that just gave me goosebumps the other day. It was 100% plexiglas...all 6 sides. The fans all had blue neon lights...way shibby

Re: *perk*

[etcet.livejournal.com]

if you're serious about this, arrangements can be made (probably best by email).

hehehehe.

[arcsine.livejournal.com]

Remember the K6-2 four-seventy-something I built for you, the one with the drive that died during shipping? Remember it, and realize that it could be worse. Much worse. You could still be running an athlon 650. Like me.^H^H^H^H^H^H^H

[etcet.livejournal.com]

that machine is actually still extant, and servicing my father's flight sim addiction and VFR/IFR flight training simulation needs. *G*

[arcsine.livejournal.com]

Until the middle of last year, I was still using an old P200MMX as a router. Now, I've got Jiji (http://www.livejournal.com/users/arcsine/188318.html) to serve as my nostalgia machine. Quad PPro 200/512kb, 4GB of RAM, 85 gig RAID 5, 140 pounds, about as big as a dorm fridge.