KT600 Dragon Plus 2.0

I purchased a couple Soyo KT600 Dragon Plus 2.0 boards from Outpost
last year in July. They sat unopened in my closet until yesterday,
when I decided to retire my MSI KM2M Combo-L (KM266) and replace it
with a Soyo board.

I can't update the BIOS on the new board to the latest version. After
confirming the BIOS ID matches and whether I want to proceed with
programming, the AMI flash utility terminates with error code 20.
Under the error line it reads "Disable USB". Naturally, I disable
everything USB in BIOS and use a spare PS/2 keyboard with no USB
devices attached. Same behavior and error.

I have tried from a bootable floppy and CD-R, using two different
versions of AMI Flash for DOS. Reset CMOS twice. I have redownloaded
the BIOS update files in case the first was corrupted somehow. I even
tried the AMIBOOT.ROM recovery procedure. Same behavior and error.

During POST, I pressed TAB to get rid of that annoying Dragon logo in
order to see the POST configuration screen and noticed "BIOS Write
Protection" was displayed on screen. I assume this means there is a
BIOS write protection feature enabled. The thing is, there are no
options in BIOS nor any hardware jumper to disable/enable flash write
protection on this board!

Update:

I believe the BIOS chip is corrupt or defective. I took the BIOS chip
from the second Soyo board I had and installed it in the board that is
giving me trouble, then tried to update the BIOS again. There was no
"BIOS Write Protection" displayed on screen during POST and the BIOS
updated successfully.

I'm going to have the flakey chip tested on a device programmer and
reprogrammed if it tests OK (or replaced if not).