Incorrect Bios Flash - Please Help!

Callan

I have an Abit NF7-S rev 2 motherboard. I accidently flashed the wrong bios. The board is still working but I can't get my sata to work (I had to install windows on an old IDE hard drive to get the machine to work), amongst other things.

I've tried to flash the correct bios using both awdflash and abit's flash menu but I get a "Flash ROM is write protected!" error. I cannot see an option in the bios to lock/protect the Flash ROM. I also tried uniflash with no joy.

Can anyone suggest something I could do to try and get the correct bios onto the board, or will I have to buy a new BIOS chip/motherboard.

Thanks in advance.

angelofdeath

tried resetting the bios and then flashing it? (look for a jumper beside the cmos battery)

duridian

Just had a thought on something you could try. Check the current bios settings for a setting like 'Virus Protection', if there is such a setting, set it to off or disabled. On some bios chips this protects the hard disk boot sector against overwriting by a virus, but on some others I read that it can also write protect the flash rom of the BIOS, for the same reason. Other things to try would be clearing the BIOS with the clear bios jumper (check your manual for this) before attempting to flash. Also maybe try flashing an older version of the correct type of bios file for your motherboard rather than the newest version, if that works you can afterwards try flashing again to the latest version.

Gurgle

Callan wrote:

I get a "Flash ROM is write protected!" error. I cannot see an option in the bios to lock/protect the Flash ROM. I also tried uniflash with no joy.

Many Flash ROM ICs have a security byte, at an address higher than the data area. Bits set in this byte can be set to prevent people reading/erasing/copying/re-writing the main Program ROM area.

If those bits have been set by trying to write a larger program than the program area, the chip is f*cked. You'll need a very good hacker to erase it.

Why did you flash it in the first place ?

Was something not working or were you just going with the principle that it would be 'better' to have the updated bios ?

Johnny Storm

If all else fails you can get a new chip from these guys link
I used them one time. Does what it says on the tin and took less than a week to arrive.

Callan

tried resetting the bios and then flashing it? (look for a jumper beside the cmos battery)

Yeah tried that with no results.

Check the current bios settings for a setting like 'Virus Protection', if there is such a setting, set it to off or disabled.

There's no such option

Also maybe try flashing an older version of the correct type of bios file for your motherboard rather than the newest version, if that works you can afterwards try flashing again to the latest version.

I've tried every bios version on the abit site

Many Flash ROM ICs have a security byte, at an address higher than the data area. Bits set in this byte can be set to prevent people reading/erasing/copying/re-writing the main Program ROM area.

If those bits have been set by trying to write a larger program than the program area, the chip is f*cked. You'll need a very good hacker to erase it.

Why did you flash it in the first place ?

Was something not working or were you just going with the principle that it would be 'better' to have the updated bios ?

I updated the bios to try and gain better overclocking results.

I've also tried this:
A:\awdflash biosFile.bin /cc /cd /cp/py/sn/cks/r
This time I get "It is not award BIOS!"


Thanks again.

WizZard

If you send it to me I can flash it, or if you're in Dublin you can call over and I will put whatever BIOS you want on the chip.

PM for more info (searching is disabled so I can't show you that I've done this before for someone else on boards)