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How?

  1. Research.
  2. AWARD Boot-Block BIOS.
  3. Hot-Swapping.
  4. Use Another Mobo's BIOS.
  5. Chip Programmer.
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1. Research

I did a lot of searching and reading in newsgroups like alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.aopen thru www.deja.com, and websites like The Unofficial GA-586HX Homepage and Wim's BIOS page.

I also browsed the AOpen Tech Support Webpage and downloaded everything related to my AP5T Rev 3.1 mobo. I found out that there are many different revisions of the AP5T. There are AP5T Rev 2 (AP5T-2) and AP5T Rev 3 (AP5T-3) and their various minor revisions (3.1, 3.4, etc).

I downloaded these items :-

AOpen releases their BIOS in a executable format called AOpen Easy Flash BIOS. This combines the BIOS and flasher program into one executable file. This is supposed to make flashing easy (hence the name), but as you'll see later on, it turned out to be a problem.

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2. AWARD Boot-Block BIOS

Newer Award BIOS have a special section that is not overwritten during normal flashing. It is call the Boot-Block BIOS. With this Boot-Block BIOS, it may be possible to boot a mobo even if the main BIOS has been corrupted.

This the procedure I obtained from my research :-

This is what I did :-

So theoretically, I should have been able to boot using the Boot-Block BIOS , but it failed and nothing happened. Evidently the CIH virus even corrupts the boot-block BIOS. Perhaps this technique can work for those cases where BIOS was damaged by flashing errors instead of the CIH virus.

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3. Hot-Swapping

This is probably the most dangerous and fun technique. Also know as Hot-Flashing, it involves extracting and inserting the BIOS chip while the system is on! This technique requires another mobo that is working, and the willing-ness to put it at risk.

In general, the procedure is this :-

This is what I did :-

It worked!! :^)

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4. Use Another Mobo's BIOS

This is an interesting topic. Although it is not a BIOS recovery or flashing technique, I include it here because it may be a solution for solving BIOS bugs and instability. In addition, it could be used to take advantage of new features in the other mobo's BIOS that may be lacking in the original one. For example, support for newer CPUs like the AMD K6-2 and K6-III.

The idea is to find and use a compatible mobo's BIOS instead of the original one. In general, the compatible mobo should have the exact same Chipset (HX, TX, etc), Super I/O Controller and if possible, Keyboard Controller. However, meeting these criteria does not guarantee that it will work. This is because each mobo and BIOS is designed differently.

This is what I did :-

This is definitely not the end of my experiments with other mobos' BIOS. The most tedious part is finding a compatible mobo, since hot-swapping is almost second-nature to me now. ;^)

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5. Chip Programmer

Chip Programmers or Burners are hardware devices which can be standalone or installed in a PC. Most people without access to one of these babies would think that it is the ultimate solution to their BIOS flashing problems. I'm one of the "lucky" people that have access to one (I don't own it ... just have access ;^)), and I must say that I find Hot-Swapping easier!

The programmer I have access to is the Data I/O 3900. I did the following :-

Naturally it worked, but somehow it didn't give as much satisfaction as Hot-Swapping!

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Disclaimer

Adrian
Last revised: October 29, 2000.
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