Dead BIOS in a Compaq Presario 1246

Recommended by Wim's BIOS...

I have a Compaq Presario 1246 laptop which died after virus attack. It has Boot Block Recovery and i found the two soldering pads on the motherboard for activate it, but don't know what file is the system looking for, or what key should i press. Without shorting the Boot Block Recovery pads, the system doesn't beep or display anything, when i short them, beeps once and is trying to read the diskette. I have the correct BIOS dump from the Compaq BIOS upgrade diskette, i inserted that but no luck. I revived few motherboards, but back then i knew how to name the file or what to press. Compaq doesn't give any decent answer, i have a very bad oppinion about their support.
Any ideas?

Best regards,

Janos

[Rainbow]

Phoenix bootblock should be able to boot from the floppy.

As You know, sometimes the boot recovery process isn't visible. As far as i know, even on desktop machines, most motherboards don't display anything while recovering, maybe with an ISA card on older machines. Some bootblocks are just looking for a specific file, but which one?
By example, on Fujitsu recovery the file must be named:
"The file will be named BXX_YYY.LDB, where XX is the machine ID, and YYY will change depending on the BIOS version." Quoting from Service manual.
Any ideas?

Best regards,

Janos

[Rainbow]

According to what I read about Phoenix BIOS, it should boot from the floppy - that means it should boot from the BIOS update floppy too. If you can't see anything on the screen and the program needs some input, you can modify the command-line parameters in the config.sys on the floppy.

Thank You, but it doesn't...

It just checks floppy, the mototr doesn't stop, but it doesn't read, not the OS, nothing... I assume it searches something specific. I already modified the autoexec.bat like that: phlash.exe rom.bin. Nothing...

Bets regards,

Janos

[Rainbow]

I found something - a BIOS update for Daewoo CPC-5320 board (Phoenix BIOS) contains crisisdisk.bat file and also some other interesting things which may help you. You can get it here http://www.dwt.co.kr/computer/support/download/driver/upload/5320.zip

P.S. Be sure to remove the BIOS image that's there and put the one for Compaq there. And also the flash utility.

Thank You!
I will try and post the result.

Best regards,

Janos

Well, the floppy drive works more, around 3 seconds and then stops...
I changed the bios file, then i tried to change phlash with newer version, tried to copy config.sys from the compaq diskette. It looks like that:
buffers = 20
files = 15
shell = a:\phlash.exe /C /MODE=2 /S /PN /DVS:0F20 Er000714.ROM

Still nothing.
I checked Phoenix manual, it says:
You should only have to operate Phoenix Phlash in this mode only if your
system does not boot the operating system when you turn on or reset your
computer. In these cases, the BIOS on the Flash ROM has probably been
corrupted. Boot your system with the Crisis Recovery Diskette taking these
steps:
1. Insert the Crisis Recovery diskette (which your dealer supplied or one that
you should have created from the instructions above) into drive A:.
2. Reset your computer, power off-on, or press <Ctrl> <Alt> <Del> to reboot
the system.
3. When your system reboots, Phoenix Phlash will restore the BIOS from the
diskette and successfully boot the operating system.
Until now no success.

Best regards,

Janos

Thank You very much, i solved my problem. The Crisis recovery diskette You suggested works like a charm, just that i had to change the CPU. It appears that is bad. I changed it and could flash the BIOS. After flashing it, i changed back the CPU, but it hangs after a short time. With other CPU, the laptop works OK.
Thanks again.

Best regards,

JAnos

But what if my Armada 1750 does'nt even read the floppy with booting (after a corrupted flash?)
I'm desperate..

My laptop was acting like not reading the floppy until i inserted the correct diskette.

Janos

janos,
can you please tell me how did you identify / get to the boot block pads., how did you short them, mine is a 1690 presario

HELL YEAH!!!!!!! THANK YOU GOD, WMSBIOS.COM, JANOS AND RAINBOW, AND GOOGLE.COM!!!!! You folks saved me some serious $$$. I have a HP ze5375us laptop and was stupid and ran the Winphlash that was provided by the hp.com website which flashes the bios from windows (yeah I know first mistake but I was in a hurry as my it's my brothers and he had to leave to go out of town). Well when I ran the program it started to program block one of the bios and then the laptop rebooted, so walla no laptop anymore. I read about the boot block in the service manual and got the laptop to start reading a floppy but it would not read correctly and would sometimes just sit with the floppy light on after reading the disk like it was going to boot but it did not do anything after reading the disk(I waited at least for 10 minutes). Well I found that disk/file Rainbow discovered at a new location since it has been so long.

http://www.daewoocomputer.co.kr/Korean/ ... e=5320.zip

I ran the crisdisk.bat file from that zip file that I downloaded and made a disk. Then I downloaded the bios file from hp.com and made a disk with that. Next, I copied the platform.bin, config.sys, phlash.exe and the hp *.bin file to my computer(from the HP disk I made). I renamed the *.bin file to BIOS.ROM, edited the config.sys file with notepad and changed the line that had "shell = a:\phlash.exe /c /mode=2 /S F06.bin" <--I changed F06.bin to BIOS.ROM and saved the file.

Then I copied the new config.sys file, bios.rom and the platform.bin and phlash.exe that was from the HP bios disk to the crisis disk that I made and overwrote any files when prompted. I put the boot-block jumper in the laptop's lpt port, the floppy disk in and turned the laptop on. The disk started to read like usual but then it kept reading and reading which before it stop after about 10 to 15 seconds. After it stopped reading the green light on the floppy stayed on and I thought it was still not working but I was going to wait for at least a few minutes. THEN BAM!!! the light went off and the computer reboot and all the lights on the laptop (pwr, hdd, one touch keys) all lit up like normal where as before they would come on for half a second and go out. After it started to reboot again it began to read the floppy again so I quick removed the floppy so it would not reflash the bios again. Then I held the power button down to turn the laptop off and removed the boot block jumper. Next, I turned the laptop on AND WALLA THIS SUCKER IS ALIVE AGAIN!!!!!!!! Thanks again everyone. I hope these detailed instructions help future people that hose their bios thanks to tools pc makers provide but take no responsibility for. Jerks. $500 my ass. Nice work fellow pc hackers.

It's good to hear that You solved that.
It is really bad that the manufacturer doesn't help at all, they suggest to change the motherboard.
Congratulations for the digging work!

Janos

Please help me to setup boot block jumper for my HP laptop, All you mentioned looks good, but how to setup boot block jumper to enable floppy drive using printer port mentioned in HP servcie manual.

Striker777 has made a detailed report but failed to explain the key point to setup boot block jumper which is the only way to read from floppy drive. If there is problem during flashing BIOS and nothing helps to resolve the issue then, only last method is setting boot block jumper which will read from floppy drive.

So please try to help us to setup boot block jumper. Here is the HP or COMPAQ service manual link. http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00246219.pdf
Look at page 90 for Bios boot block jumper settings, circuit layout is good but how to setup with printer port is my question.

Thanks