The BIOS on my ancient Gigabyte Motherboard is as old as Methuselah, but the thought of getting an error during a BIOS upgrade? installation and making my Motherboard totally unusable is something I wish to avoid!... ...!

The BIOS Data in the BIOS Chip can be corrupted.

If the old BIOS works OK, I leave it well alone... ...!

Paul...Basic Input/Output System... ...!

..of all the things I happily fiddle with in my computer, BIOS is the one thing I avoid messing with!... ...!

fulanito_uk wrote on May 28^th, 2010 at 2:24pm:


A corrupted BIOS will prevent your Computer from booting up, and nothing will work.
The motherboard becomes useless.
The BIOS installation readme warns you of this danger.

I don't know what you can do now!

Paul.

...time to die/cry?... ...!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS

fulanito_uk wrote on May 28^th, 2010 at 2:44pm:


I doubt it very much.
The BIOS Chip on your Motherboard has a totally different pin-out, and cannot be removed or inserted without special tools.

I suspect that you will need some sort of recovery program (on Floppy Disk) to start the computer up in DOS to allow you to recover/install the original BIOS!

...and pray...

Have a word with your local Computer specialist.

Paul.

Note: You will not be ably to start up in "Safe Mode" as you cannot get past the BIOS Boot-up sequence.

...should've gone to Specsavers!... ...!

fulanito_uk wrote on May 28^th, 2010 at 3:01pm:


Have a word with you local Computer specialist Shop.

They may offer some advice on a Floppy Disk recovery program to get DOS up and running again to allow you to download and install the correct BIOS program again... ...!

Paul.

I flashed my BIOS to upgrade from a 9500 Phenom to an X4 940 on the same board. Trashed the original Gigabyte AM2 motherboard-- I got nothing-- just a blue-black screen of arrogant defiance. $350 later, I have a new Asus AM3 board, the 940 is in, paid my computer guru to do the job and it works fabuloso. Moral of story: Money fixes all computer problems...

just an update.. ASROCK just sent me a new bios chip free (hehehe sometimes you don't need money) and the pc is now working a charm!! Big thank you for all your help and ideas...

Yep have to hand it to the ASRock crew! 1st class service and thank god i didn't trash my mobo!!

leaving it alone from now on... however I do want to see if i can OC this chip FSX is not running well at all 

lol yes i guess your right!

When I bought my PC I knew the CPU (Q6600 - 2.4ghz) would overclock really well, and I knew the motherboard and memory would be able to cope. However, I did not know how to do it. I also did not have the money to replace anything if it died, so originally I just was going to get a tiny overclock to 2.66ghz so I could match Q6700 spec. Then I got there, the processor was still cool and 100% stable and I realized:

1. This is easy.
2: I Know what I'm doing so I'm not going to fry or damage anything.
3. This is fun.
4. I can get a LOT more performance.

I was astonished when I got to 3ghz undervolted and now I think overclocking has been one of the best things I've done to a PC. It's been two years and the PC is still rock solid running at 3.0ghz and at these speeds it's about as fast as a current midrange CPU @ stock. Since I've locked down the settings I've never had any instability, blue screens, or errors.

Although I am a student absolutely strapped for cash; I don't think most people should buy a PC where they must depend on overclocking to get adequate performance (that's for people like me because I don't think I'll ever buy a computer again that I don't intend to overclock ) I see it more as a bonus type of thing.

hhomebrewer, your PC is probably fine. Provided the power supply is plugged into the electrical socket, the power supply will be grounded, and since the case is touching the power supply, the case will be too. I think this is a safety feature so if the case becomes electrified in the event of a fault, then the current goes to earth instead of through whatever is touching it (I use my case as a footrest). My understanding was that this also prevents damage to components even if you shock the case. I was always told to actually touch the case TO discharge static electricity when working on computers (but I guess they would be OFF at the time with the power supply plugged in but switched OFF). It was strange of it to reset the PC when you shocked it, my understand is that does not usually happen. At least, if anything does die, then it should still be under warranty. Still, I wouldn't worry about it.

Also there's a quicker and easier way of resetting CMOS. Just turn off the power supply and then short out the CMOS clear pins for a few seconds through the use of a jumper or some metal. I used scissors once.

If you know what you're doing overclocking shouldn't end in tears. I've never killed anything by it.

hhomebrewer wrote on Jun 11^th, 2010 at 6:00pm:


How come you know so much about the imprudency of my fingers, 'Brewer?.... ... ... ...!

Fortunately, as I am still running FS 2004 on my outdated, homebuilt machine, I suffer very little problems...everything runs hunky-dory!

...and I spend all of my time actually "flying" instead of constantly tinkering with "things"......!

I suspect that heartache will come in bucket-loads, (having browsed the misery on the FSX and Hardware Forums daily for the past few years), when I finally get around to installing my copy of FSX on my machine!

Its a funny old do....but I actually use my machine for running Microsoft's "Flight Simulator" program every day, and touring the World!.... ....(Well, at least, California!)... ....!

I leave Computer Tinkering discussions to the various technical "Computer Tinkering" Sites, and let them argue over their inferior, or not, hardware!... ...!

Paul....G-BPLF...FS 2004...FS Nav...and a sweet little FS 2004 Cessna 150... ... ... ...!

Man!  That is some customer service.  My gaming PC couldn't play games when I bought it because the BIOS had a typo in it that made the GPU downclock at 60 degrees celcius.  Well, ASUS came out with a patched BIOS, but they gave a warning that you would be flashing on your own.  They wanted zero responsibility!  It was a relief that mine went through, but I can only imagine what I would have to do if it hadn't.