Undo a BIOS upgrade?
 

Hi,

I just installed a new BIOS (52X1016S.bin) for an old Intel 430VX motherboard and now this machine is cripped (refuses to boot).
Is there any way I can revert back to the old BIOS or am I screwed?

If you can download an older BIOS, then you might be able to flash it to that.

If it refuses to boot at all, even to an old DOS boot-floppy, then you wouldn't be able to re-flash anyway.

Would prob'ly be cheaper to get a new motherboard rather than buying a new BIOS chip.

i dont know if this is a lifesign of the bios but when i attach the pc speaker, i get a series of long beeps.

i replaced the BIOS chip too with an identical chip but still got the same problem. is there a proper way to replace the chip or do i just take out the old one put in the new one?

It's not the chip, but what's on the chip that's important.

You might find a 'clear CMOS' pins on your M/B. Just take a screwdriver and short those pins for a second or two (power off prior to doing this). Then, try reboot.
If that don't work, find an old bios off the net, make a boot floppy with the proper reflash commands on it, so you don't have to hit the keyboard at all, (see http://www.oshvn.net/en/software/awdflash.htm ) with an example) and boot to that, then see if that works.

If you post for further help, please list the make/model of your motherboard also, it'll help.
Did you follow the instructions prior to updating the bios,
aka http://www.bios-drivers.com/drivers/54/54083.htm .

http://www.motherboards.org/manuals/...M520/2277.html

http://www.wimsbios.com/index.htm?/HTML1/pcchips.html

I'm of course assuming that you have a m520 board, because that is the bios you loaded.

it looks like an m520 based on the pix from the links :P sorry the manufacturer is not even stated on the manual. it just says i430VX. doesnt say a thing on the board either.

anyway, i can't reflash as my floppy doesnt even respond during power up. :( tried the clear cmos method, didnt work either.

another thing i forgot to mention is that immediately after flashing and rebooting (hard reset), i was actually able to see the new bios although it caused LILO no not be able to load my win98 partition (primary 1st hda1), although linux on primary 2nd (hda2)
loads just fine.

tried to fix this by running /sbin/lilo again but when I rebooted (using reboot command), the system doesnt boot anymore.

Hi Ugenn,
1. Reboot, get into the bios, either 'del' key or 'f1' or 'f2' during boot, and make sure you have everything setup the right way for your board, (and for linux), meaning, no plug and play, no caching of system bios or video ram, etc, and that your drives are being detected the correct way.
2. The lilo problem can be dealt with easily once you know your hardware is OK, (if needed at all). See http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/LILO-crash...WTO/index.html , but please, verify that your hardware is working right, prior to messing with anything else (hint).

Don't know if this would be of any use, but this page contains (possibly) useful info on how to interpret BIOS beep error codes. Just scroll down to find the BIOS your mobo is using. -- J.W.

http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm