System 'hanging' during BIOS flash... this couldn't be good

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Petra

Gawd
Joined
Jul 8, 2003
Messages
640
Hey guys, I've got a bit of an emergency here.....

Yesterday I received a refurbed Shuttle AN35N Ultra (Rev. 1.1) from NewEgg that I ordered for a cheap tinkering machine. Anyway, I got the box built today and noticed that it was using some really old BIOS version so I decided to update it. I put the BIOS file, awdflash, and all that stuff from the Shuttle website on a DOS boot floppy then followed the directions for flashing that were on the Shuttle site. Now, I've flashed many of my different boards this way several times so it's not a new experience for me or anything like that but what this board is doing (or not doing, depending on how you look at it) is kinda strange... I had awdflash backup the original BIOS and then start the flashing process using the new BIOS, however, when awdflash got about 1/4 done with the flash it just kinda stopped. The floppy drive access light is still on but it isn't making any reading sounds and the flash utility is just stuck--the progress bar isn't moving at all. The computer has been like this for the past 20 minutes or so and I am starting to wonder what to do. I suppose I could restart the computer but if the old BIOS was overwritten and the new BIOS never finished writing, then I'm pretty sure the board would be dead (no BIOS to POST with, thus, no way to boot with anything to fix it).

Suggestions?
 
Originally posted by Petra
I suppose I could restart the computer but if the old BIOS was overwritten and the new BIOS never finished writing, then I'm pretty sure the board would be dead (no BIOS to POST with, thus, no way to boot with anything to fix it).
Click to expand...

Yup I think you nailed it with that statement. Dunno man - maybe as something to try you could make another floppy on another machine, pop the one being used out, and pop the new one in - see if it takes off. Just grasping for straws, but like you already know, most likely an undesireable outcome the other way.
 
try an old stick of pc2100 memory if you have any laying around. There's some sort of problem with some shuttle motherboards and not liking higher speed memory. Once you boot up with slower memory, change the settings around and replace with good ones.

Edit: whoops, thought it was a post regarding not booting after flashing...

yeah, you should try hot-flashing your BIOS, that'll probably kick-start it
 
If you've got a pair of needle-nosed pliers and another motherboard of the same type, or know someone who does, you can hot-swap the bios chip and re-flash the old one to get a working copy.

Might be tricks that let you do it with different model motherboards, too, but I'm not sure.

Erik
 
If all else fails, call or e-mail shuttle and they'll send you a new chip, well that is if they are a manufacturer that's worth it. Never dealt with them, only Epox and MSI for BIOS chips
 
Thanks for the help guys!

I was able to get ahold of a "donor board" and I "appropriated" it's BIOS chip (just a quick chip swap). Everything is working fine now :D
 
Just a note, if you've still got that donor board, you can use your working machine to fix the BIOS for the donor board too.

Erik
 
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