What to do if you have a flash failure

[Alfie]

I forget if i've posted this before,but if you ever have a bios flash failure,here's a neat trick.

If no display appears after flashing the BIOS, but the beeping sound from the system can be heard and the floppy disk drive is activated, then all is not lost. Try the following method to recover the system:
Prepare a bootable floppy disk with an AWDFLASH.EXE utility and BIOS binary file in the disk
Create an AUTOEXEC.BAT file in the diskette with the following command line:
AWDFLASH xxxxx.BIN/SN /PY
The options /SN /PY will answer the questions automatically that you would normally answer with "no" or "yes". That way the system will boot up from the floppy disk, program the BIOS and restart the computer It will take a while to carry out the procedure, don't turn off the system, wait for the system to restart again.
If you want to see what it does, use an ISA VGA card instead of PCI or AGP. If you don't have any ISA VGA card, the BIOS can still be fix in blind mode (no screen, but the BIOS is flashed by the Auto-run diskette). After the mainboard reboots itself, the floppy disk can be taken out and your system should have recovered.

[Kubie]

Alfie,
That certainly is an entry for the Tips & Tricks Forum.

Carl

[SARGE]

Thanks, Alfie. I'll print out the info and file it. But, I have no wishes to EVER flash a BIOS. Being friends with Carl, our luck seemingly coordinates in a downward spiral at times.

[HAL9000]

It's a good tip Alfie.... I'm gonna move it to the Tips and Tricks section for quick reference.

[DrZaius]

Good tip. Note that the flash program only works with Award BIOS chips.

[Alfie]

Thanks everyone,hopefully it may help someone out.
Good point DrZaius,hopefully the procedure will work with other bios flash programs.

[mcd211255]

Worth buying a board with a dual bios