Flashing my BIOS failed, how can I recover?

Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.

You mention that the only typical remedy or a failed BIOS flash is to get a new chip from the manufacturer. However, there is another step that can be attempted before that happens. Some manufacturers provide flash recovery as part of the BIOS update, but for those that don't you can search for other bios flashers for the same motherboard. One place you can search is here: http://www.freebyte.com/drivers/#bios. This site provides links to other big BIOS sources, including the most common BIOS companies. Rolling back to an older bios is often enough to recover a system.

A replacement BIOS chip can be pricy, especially if the motherboard is rather old and was cheap to begin with, and not part of an essential system. A replacement motherboard, if you can reuse the processor and other adaptors, may be just as cost-effective.

There are third party vendors, if you search for them.

I have also seen schemes involving two IDENTICAL MBs, using the working BIOS to reflash the nonworking one. It sounded very risky, as I remember it involved hot-swapping the BIOS chips (and implies that those chips are socketed, not soldered in).

(BTW, my compliments for a very convenient previewer for the postings.)

Newer BIOS chips have what is called a boot block sector. When flashing the BIOS this part is not flashed. Basically all it does is run the floppy drive, and if you are lucky you will also get basic video. I have re-flashed a "dead" BIOS with this. The MB was manufactured in 1998. The first attempt at flashing failed-nothing but beeps on restart. I downloaded the correct Bios update, made a new floppy to flash the BIOS and reran the flash program. There was nothing on the monitor, just a black screen, but I could hear the floppy drive being accessed. Follow the flash utility instructions and let it do its' thing. It took several long minutes, but it worked.

Back in the days of floppy disks I once had a problem flashing my BIOS and recovered quite easily. From what I recall, most of the Flash utilities allow you (and even recommend) to backup the current BIOS before proceeding. The Flash utility is created on a floppy as is the BIOS update and if chosen so is the BIOS backup. The system was then booted with the floppy and you followed the on-screen prompts to backup and then flash the new BIOS. When I failed to boot up after flashing the new BIOS (and I had no screen either) I rebooted with the flash utility floppy and (still with no monitor) restored the old BIOS by simply remembering what steps were done when I flashed the BIOS the 1st time. I'd recommend that everyone copy down the screen prompts when flashing a new BIOS just in case the need to reverse the update.

I have had problem with Bios before. On the motherboard, there is a jumper that can be changed and put back to the orginal setting, this would reset the bios to orignal settings. This was on a older computer,(1998). I don't know if this would help, but it couldn't hurt to try.

If you need a new chip, goto www.badflash.com, they've helped me a couple times with older motherboards.

If you have a Gateway PC, they have a jumper you need to set and then you insert a floppy with the bios files on it and boot the pc, it'll beep then load the bios from the floppy. When it's done, you shut the pc off, take out the floppy, reset the jumper and boot. Works like a charm.

The Gateway thing also works similar for many many other Motherboard brands...

I too flashed the BIOS to end up with an unusable board. Luckly I had backed up the BIOS and had it on diskette. Was able to send the chip and diskette to a company that can burn eproms. They were able to reburn the BIOS back onto the chip. Good as new and far cheaper than buying a new chip. Buy the way finding a BIOS chip for an older motherboard (2yrs) was not possible in Toronto.

This is written in an attempt to be helpful - I am not responsible for any damage you may do to your computer or yourself.

Wim's BIOS site http://wimsbios.com/ is a good resource - the FAQ page has some basics about flashing a BIOS. All modern computers' BIOSes are flashable - ROM BIOS went out in the early 90s.

The instructions on Wim's FAQ page for flashing assume a reasonable knowledge of computers and are geared towards older systems. DO NOT FLASH YOUR BIOS IF YOU DON'T NEED TO - AND PLUG THE COMPUTER INTO AN UNINTERRUPTIBLE POWER SUPPLY WHEN DOING IT! If the power goes out or very low or surges etc. when flashing, you can (and probably will) wind up with an unusable BIOS and will have the same problem as the gentleman whose question prompted the above article.

To determine if you need to flash your BIOS (update it), find your motherboard model on your motherboard manufacturer's website. The model number will frequently be displayed during the Power On Self Test (POST) somewhere in the text on the first screen displayed after you first start the computer - usually somewhere in the text that is displayed in the upper left hand corner of the screen. You can pause the display by pressing the PAUSE/BREAK key - press the F1 key to resume booting.

If the first thing you see on your monitor after you first start your computer is a picture or logo from the computer manufacturer (not a Windows screen - that means you've missed it and have to shut down and restart to try again), the info you need may be hidden behind that 'splash' screen. Frequently, pressing the ESC, F1, F2, or F10 keys will allow you to get rid of the splash screen and see what is underneath - but check with the manufacturer if these don't work.

At a last resort, you can open the computer case and look on the motherboard for a manufacturer's name and model. Make sure that the power switch on the rear of the computer is turned off - if it doesn't have one, unplug it from the wall. DO NOT TOUCH THE MOTHERBOARD OR OTHER BOARDS CONTAINING SOLID STATE ELECTRONICS OR ANY SOLID STATE ELECTRONIC PARTS WITHOUT DISCHARGING ANY STATIC ELECTRICITY ON YOUR BODY. Either don't touch anything but wires, zip ties, or the metal chassis - or keep skin on a body part in contact with an unpainted part of the computer chassis (if it's still plugged into the wall).

If it's not plugged into the wall, you can saw off the power prongs of a spare power cord (available cheaply at used computer stores), screw a screw into the slot at the other end of the round ground prong (in North America it's the upper middle slot on the cord end that you plug into the computer - the ' in this picture - |'| ) and then hang onto the screw with a hand or an antistatic strap (available at computer stores), attach a wire to a metal cold water pipe and to yourself, etc. If you have to release your body's contact with your ground point (e.g. to use your other hand), you'll be OK AS LONG AS YOU DON'T MOVE YOUR FEET (if you're standing) OR THE CHAIR YOU'RE SITTING IN. Doing that - especially on carpet - can build up enough static charge on your body to damage a chip if you touch it and discharge the static charge through it.

It's easiest just to not touch anything. If the manufacturer's name and model is on the motherboard, it will be on the top side - you will not have to remove it from the case.

Now look up the name and model on the manufacturer's website. If they have an update, read the release notes. Do you have weirdness in your computer - and your Windows/Linux install is brand new? Do the release notes mention a problem you're having? Will the update give you increased functionality in your computer? Have you done everything else you can to resolve the weirdness you're experiencing (removed all cards except for video, added them back in one at a time, used Safe Mode in Windows, etc. - this is not a post on how to troubleshoot your computer)?

If the answer to any of these questions is Yes - then a BIOS update is worth doing. If not, either don't do it - or eliminate any other causes of problems first. Flashing your BIOS is a relatively simple procedure when it goes right - and it usually does. But the consequences when it goes bad are so horrible that it's not worth doing unless you can see clear benefits or have tried every other way to resolve you computing problems.

When I bought a new, 80Gb HD, my original BIOS wasn't accepting it at all. The mobo is an Asus P5A-B.

With the help of a friend, we disconnected the new HD, surfed the net and found an update for that BIOS on the Asus website. We took notes of *everything* that appeared in the BIOS screen of my puter and made ourselves absolutely and completely sure that the update really referred to my case.

Stored the new thing on diskette, rebooted the puter and started praying.

I have to say it was not a hard process. We just followed the instructions on the prompt screens, backed up the old BIOS and choose to reflash.

The screen for the update was rather curious, as I remember. There were two fields with a lot of blinking numbers, sort of 'Matrix' like. We continued to follow strictly the on-screen commands, it said 'BIOS flashed', we restarted the system and the new version was displayed at the top, as we celebrated (from x.05, I think, to x.11).

Since then, the new HD never had any kind of trouble. None of us had never done this before and had no experience on it, even if heavy-users. We just took major care about numbers, versions, backing up and following the right procedures.

After i tried to update the ROMPAQ i got an error which says 0xF0 (Flash_failed) flashing bios. What could this mean.

To post a comment on "Flashing my BIOS failed, how can I recover?", please return to that article's main page.