Flashed SP97-V BIOS - Now won't boot

I bought an Asus SP97-V motherboard that came with its BIOS dated 10/3/97.
I downloaded the latest BIOS from Asus' site, 0109.005 which is dated
03/18/99 and used Asus' utility, Aflash.exe, to flash the BIOS. Aflash gave
me two choices;

1) Save current BIOS
2) Flash BIOS without Including Boot Block and ESCD

First I saved the old BIOS (selected 1) and wondered why it wouldn't allow
me to update the Boot Block and ESCD. I decided to go for it and selected
2. Now it won't boot. Lucky me. Am I hosed and have to buy another chip
or is there a way to recover? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

If you have a floppy drive in the machine, insert the floppy
and turn on the machine. If there are attempts to boot from
the floppy, then the boot block may still be intact. If
there is no attempt, the boot block is probably erased.

I'm not even sure a boot block recovery is possible, unless
the flashing program is capable of operating in a
non-interactive mode. It really depends on whether the
boot block is able to provide video support. On more modern
machines, there is no video support for AGP in the boot block,
so people end up trying to use an autoexec.bat file on their
DOS boot floppy, to call the flasher program and flash the
computer blindly. I don't think I've even run into a user
who managed to make this kind of recovery work.

Your best bet is to contact badflash.com and arrange to
have your chip flashed by them. In some countries Asus
also offers BIOS chip services, but I don't think they
are any cheaper than badflash.com. Options may include
sending the original chip, for a slight discount, or
having then send a brand new chip which is flashed to
your specifications. The person doing the flashing
needs to know what BIOS file you want flashed, in order
to do the job.

There is also a vanishingly small possibility that a computer
store in your town owns an EEPROM programmer. A good one
that can flash everything (universal) costs a fortune, and
cheap ones that only handle specific types means they cannot
handle every request that comes into the store. I don't know
if I'd waste my time on the phone, trying to find someone
to do that in town.

Hot-flashing is another alternative, but then you need a similar
vintage motherboard, and the corrupted BIOS chip is
hot-inserted into the BIOS chip socket of a working machine.
This is easier to do with the old DIP flash chips, since you
can bend the leads and shape them in preparation for easy
insertion. The more modern flash chips fly all over the place
when you handle them, so there is more risk of the chip making
an inappropriate contact with the hot, powered socket.

Paul

 

03/18/99 and used Asus' utility, Aflash.exe, to flash the BIOS. Aflash

The right flashing utility is PFLASH.EXE, see board's manual page 36:
http://www.motherboards.org/files/manuals/1/sp97v-104.pdf#search='SP97V bios flash utility'

I had similar problems with an Asus TX97-XE.
After flashing with aflash.exe the energy star logo was corrupt
but luckily is still booted. Flashing with pflash.exe corrected this.

 

Besides using Aflash instead of Pflash, as pointed out by Friedrich, where exactly
did you get that Bios 0109.005 from?

At http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us ,
on the right side, picking motherboard, socket 7, SP97-V only shows
"Description SP97-V BIOS 0108"

The FTP site, ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/sock7/sis5598/sp97-v/ also
shows 108 as the newest.

The only 109 I can see is for a sp97*X*v
ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/sock7/sis5598/sp97-xv/
which I presume is not the same board.

Are you telling us you used the wrong flasher, AND the wrong Bios????

 

The best bios for this board is here:

http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/k6plus.htm

"Apart from K6plus support, this "patch J.2" BIOS has a fix
for the 32GB harddisk limit and supports IDE drives upto 128GB!"

 

Thanks to everyone that responded. The BIOS I flashed I obtained from Asus'
site: 0109v.005. Got it here

http://support.asus.com/download/download_item.aspx?model=SP97-V&type=Map&SLanguage=en-us

I also downloaded the latest non-beta, S97V0108.AWD, from the above site and
older versions from here:

ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/sock7/sis5598/sp97-v/

Lastly, I also am aware of and have download the one from
http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/k6plus.htm, 0109V_J2.BIN, as I am
planning to run a K6-III 400 and perhaps a K6-3+ and also want larger HD
support.

I ordered another SP97-V motherboard to perform a hot flash (for this
motherboard it turns out to be cheaper than buying another programmed chip).
I've successfully done this before and understand it is not for the faint of
heart or someone without a steady hand.

I will use pflash this time (didn't do my homework thoroughly enough) but
would like to ask about another method. How 'similar' does the MB have to
be to properly flash the chip? For example, does it have to be an Asus
SP97-V, a 'similar' Asus, or will another motherboard using a 128B Award
BIOS get me there? I have other MBs laying around and could experiment.
Since my chip is already corrupted, I'm not worried about corrupting it
further however are there other downsides such as permanent damage? Thanks.

 

No luck with floppy drive activity. Interestingly enough, the keyboard
flashes but that's all the activity there is.

 

I ordered another SP97-V motherboard to perform a hot flash (for this

Very good! )
I've also done this before, even with plcc.

I think as long as you are sure that the eeprom socket really has
the same operating and programming voltages etc. it should work
when you flash including the bootblock.
Take care, the proms types often have different voltage specifications.
If the eeprom in the other board is of the same type and manufacturer
it should be possible.

 

Using the same board would be the lowest risk. The BIOS flashing tools
rely on a "BIOS hook". That is a subroutine in the current flash
image (shadowed to RAM one would hope), that when called, can flash
parts of the BIOS chip. Using an AMI flasher on an Award board, or
vice versa probably would not work. You would think as well,
that if there was a large age difference between the boards,
that the support device types or flashing algorithm might be
different.

If the flashing tool was known to do the flash algorithm itself,
rather than look for and call the BIOS hook of the current BIOS,
then matching the device socket type would be all that is necessary.
So the BIOS hook issue is the reason I would shop for the same board.

Using a hex editor and a copy of pflash.exe from the Asus site,
I can see this error message inside the executable:

ERROR! Can't Find System BIOS' Hook

HTH,
Paul

 

Thanks. I may be onto something. I no longer have the bootblock from the
SP97-V. If I did, I think I could hotflash it into the BIOS chip using
Uniflash

(available here)
http://www.uniflash.org/download.htm

and another motherboard. I have SP97-V BIOS files but I read they normally
don't contain the bootblock code since the MB doesn't change with BIOS revs.
The error messages about bootblocks not matching are leading me to believe
the bootblock information programmed into the chip using Uniflash are taken
from the motherboard I'm using to flash, not the SP97-V BIOS ROM file.

To test this theory, if someone has an Asus SP97-V and you have time to
help, please download Uniflash v1.40, load it onto a DOS bootable floppy,
run it and go to the advanced menu and save the bootblock. It uses the
default filename Backup.boo. You can email me backup.boo by 'despamming' my
email address. I'm very curious if this will work.

 

No, every BIOS image you download from Asus is complete. In your
case the downloaded file, once you unzip it, is 128KB. It is
the same size as the physical flash chip. I believe if you had
an EEPROM programmer machine, you could just take the file as it
stands, and blast it into the chip verbatim.

When the flashing program offers options like DMI/ESCD, boot block,
or main code, it is offering to only use portions of the file. I
tried using a search engine, to see if I could find any articles on
the layout used inside the chips, but didn't find anything useful.
So I have to rely on what I can see with my trusty hex editor.
In the SP97-V BIOS file, I see 0x00000-0x1B000 is the main code,
at 0x1B000 is the decompression code (used to decompress the main
code modules), the boot block is at 0x1E000, and the DMI/ESCD is
somewhere between 0x1B000 and 0x1FFFF (I didn't bother trying to
figure out where it is). So the BIOS file is complete, and the
flashing tools offer options that limit how much of the file gets
used.

The purpose of preserving the boot block (i.e. not flashing from
0x1E000 to 0x1FFFF), is so if the flash fails, you could try a
boot block recovery. It assumes that either the video screen will
be rendered, in which case it would be possible to use an
interactive flashing tool. Or it assumes the video screen cannot
be seen (as ISA video card support was what was traditionally
provided), and in that case an autoexec.bat method would be
required. Not all flash tools have good command line support,
for use in an autoexec.bat. And that is one reason the boot
block method is not used more often.

If you are hot flashing, you will be burning the _entire_ file.
Turn on all the options, as when the blank EEPROM goes in there,
you have nothing to lose. No need for .boo files or the like.
And if it says the boot block doesn't match, the likely reason
is the boot block in your duff chip is erased and will be
all ones (0xFF in each location).

HTH,
Paul

 

For some reason Uniflash couldn't detect what kind of flash ROM was on the
SP97-V rev 1.02 in my "spare boards" box, but Aflash and 2 versions of Pflash did.
Mine has an Atmel AT29C010A, which *is* in Uniflash's list of supported chips,
so who knows.

I used "uniflash -force 1fd5" to get in, as the advanced menu wasn't available in
"unknown chip" mode. I just sent backup.boo and backup.bin (from Hotmail),
so who knows if they'll even get there.

 

This is great info. I've always wanted to learn more about the BIOS. Using
a MB instead of buying an EEPROM programmer would certainly be useful. I'll
keep trying and let you know how far I get. To make sure I succeed, I have
two chips and an extra MB on the way.

 

Got them. Thanks very much. From Paul's reply, the entire BIOS should have
the bootblock but perhaps Uniflash is not getting it in there or in the
right place. In my MB, Uniflash correctly identifies my EEPROM. The force
command may do the trick now that I know where to put things. I'll see if
these files work and report back.

 

Well Paul was right. I managed to hotflash the BIOS chip using a PCChips
M767V motherboard and Uniflash, Flash ROM with Bootblock. Everything loaded
and it's up and running now. I used the full ROM image MasterBlaster sent.
Version 1.06. BTW, just to show how universal this was, the M767V uses an
AMI 2Mb BIOS (256KB) and the Asus SP97-V is an Award 1Mb BIOS (128KB).
Uniflash handled it fine. I also burned a couple PCChips/Amptron
M537/PM8600a ROM BIOSes, Award 1Mb also. Now I have three boards up and
running. Thanks to everyone.

 

I guess that means Uniflash isn't looking for the "BIOS hook"
Good work. Now you can start your own local business hotflashing
BIOS chips.

Paul

 

The binary reader I use is called Tiny Hexer, available free here:

http://www.mirkes.de/en/freeware/tinyhex.php

It has a 'compare' feature which was very useful. I pflashed the J2 file
recommended by Friedrich at

http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/k6plus.htm

for the features "Apart from K6plus support, this "patch J.2" BIOS has a fix
for the 32GB harddisk limit and supports IDE drives upto 128GB!"

Given the M767V MB cost me $5 (came with an old case), I'd say I have a
pretty cheap ROM flasher. All in all, little out of my pocket but a fair
amount of time, NRE well spent I'd say.

 

Somebody sells a board that goes in your original chip carrier. It
holds two bios chips and can be switched between. looks like a great
way to go if you have clients or do pc work.

can't remember the site though. think Tom's mentioned it about the time
the A7N8 were just out.

 

You mean BIOS Savior?

http://www.ioss.com.tw/web/English/RD1BIOSSavior.html

Haven't tried it but I may now.

 

That looks like it.