Advice on downgrading BIOS

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amore
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I have a HP Pavilion Media Center whose on-board sound stopped working after a bios upgrade. Flash video also started playing at 3x speed. Thanks in advance to anyone kind enough to answer:
1. I have Phoenix-Award BIOS. I should use the Award (Not the Phoenix) flashing/recovery methods correct?
2. I upgraded my BIOS using a sp26713.exe file. Do I need to back up my current BIOS or can I use the sp26713 file that I just flashed as a backup?
3. Since I don't have a USB flash drive or floppy, is it possible to use a large USB storage drive or a CD-R for flashing?
4. Do I really need to use a CD Burning program that can make a bootable disk (like Nero) to make a bootable CD-ROM? When I asked it to make a bootable CD it asks me for a Image.IMA file. Do I use a boot98c.exe from bootdisk or do I extract it first to get the boot98c.IMA?
5. Can I just use a Win98SE_bootdisk.iso from All Boot disks, extract the folder from that, and put that data on the disk using any CD burning program? If the BIOS is set up to boot from the CD drive first won't it just see the autoexe.bat and execute it if it's on on the disk?
6. I was going to downgrade to the old 3.40 SP26648.exe BIOS that used to be up on eMachines and HP but there's no longer any trace of it anywhere. Would it be safe to try the Modded_MS-7184_beta1.zip as long as I have a backup?

From the Win98SE_bootdisk.iso I extracted a Win98SE_bootdisk folder which contains alot of different files. In that folder I deleted the config.sys, edited the AUTOEXEC.BAT file to have 2 lines: "@ECHO OFF" and "@AWDFLASH BOOTIMG.BIN /cc /py /sn /r" In the folder I put 2 new files; awdflash.EXE and BOOTIMG.BIN. I extracted the bootimg.bin from the sp26713.iso which I extracted from the sp26713 folder which I extracted from the sp26713.exe. So if I just dump all the folder contents (not including the folder itself) onto a CD and restart with the CD in the tray and select the CD drive as the boot everything should just work like magic? There were 2 files in the sp26713.iso. BOOTCAT.BIN (2KB) and BOOTIMG.BIN (1,440KB) and I'm assuming the larger one is the correct .bin file although everything up to this point is pure guesswork which is why I'm asking these questions in the first place.

Core Version: 6.0
SMBIOS Version: 2.4
BIOS Type: Phoenix-Award BIOS v6.00PG Phoenix Technologies, LTD 3.4
BIOS Date: March 3rd 2006
BIOS ID: 03/03/2006-R5480-SB400-6A666M4DC-00-none (W7093BH5340 on BIOS chip)
BIOS OEM: Copyright 2005 by Hewlett-Packard Company Rev 3.47 03/03/2006-3.47
Chipset: Athlon 1100 rev 0 (Integrated ATI Radeon XPRESS 200)
SuperIO: Unknown
Manufacturer: HP Pavilion 061
Motherboard: ER883AA-ABA M7470n MXK61006M8 MS-7184 VER 1.0 ROHS Manufactured by Microstar
If there's any other info you want to know, feel free to ask.
Last edited by amore on Mon Dec 05, 2011 12:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
edwin
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What is the system model number? Most likely reinstalling your sound and video drivers will solve this issue, no need for a (risky) bios downgrade. Did you reset your bios to defaults after the upgrade?
edwin/evasive

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System error, strike any user to continue...
amore
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Thank you kindly for the reply edwin. When I Start>Run>msinfo32>System Information>System Summary>System Model I get: ER883AA-ABA M7470N
I tried re-installing both windows and the sound drivers from scratch with no luck. The sound drivers seem to display Sound, Audio Devices, and Volume Control just fine. There are no unknown devices in the device manager. The reason I think it's the BIOS and not some software issue is because I had 2 different hardrives; 1 Windows XP Media Center Edition, 1 Windows XP Home Edition. The Media Center Edition was in fine working condition and I didn't touch the drive at all. After Installing windows on a second drive only hooking 1 up to the mother board at a time I eventually found Both with out sound. I can only assume the Media Center one stopped working because of an issue with the mother board since everything on the drive went untouched.

You said reinstalling my video drivers might help. Would video drivers affect the sound at all? I am using on-board audio, not a sound card if that helps. I reset my BIOS afterwards via jumper, battery, and resetting the ESCD. If there's anything else you would like to know, just ask.
Denniss
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edwin wrote:Did you reset your bios to defaults after the upgrade?
Let me repeat - did you load Setup Defaults in Bios after the upgrade ? Please make sure all Audio components are enabled in Bios and verify date/time are set correct.
Is your HP product the HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7470n
amore
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Yes, I pressed [F5] in the BIOS to Reload Default, Pressed [F10] to save to CMOS and exit. The Main>System Date and System Time are both correct in the BIOS. In the BIOS Advanced>Onboard Audio is set to [Enabled]. I even tried unplugging the AC'97 internal header to make sure the mainboard was not trying to send sound out to the front headset to try to narrow down the possibilities. Yes my product is the HP Desktop PC you see there and as always, thanks for the reply.
edwin
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unplugging the header will only work if you bridge the pins with jumpers.

did you get the latest drivers and uninstalled the old AC97 drivers, reinstalled the new ones? Where do you experience the 3x flash speed (URL/filename?)
edwin/evasive

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System error, strike any user to continue...
amore
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Uninstalling all my audio/video drivers once again. I'll try the audio driver from the HP website first then from Realtek after uninstalling the HP driver if it doesn't work. Feel free to give me any suggestions. I have all the updates from windows update and I don't think there's anything I need to install prior to installing my audio driver. I assume the S/PDIF digital audio out doesn't matter since there's nothing plugged into it, no S/PDIF internal header, and no settings for it in the BIOS. Just trying to narrow down all the possibilities. All flash videos that I've seen so far play at 3x speed (example: youtube) and as always, thanks for the reply.
edwin
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What version is http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ reporting? What browser are you using? Version?
edwin/evasive

Do not assume anything

System error, strike any user to continue...
amore
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"You have version 11,1,102,55 installed" as reported from Adobe. I'm using Firefox 8.0.1 although I can try uninstall/reinstalling firefox if you think it might help. After uninstalling/reinstalling audio drivers I received the Not passed windows logo testing warning when installing the drivers from Realtek, so I'm sticking with the drivers from HP.

Checklist so far:
[] Reset BIOS via JCMOS1 jumper, CMOS battery, resetting ESCD, and loading up Defaults BIOS settings.
[] Reinstalled Windows.
[] Installed every possible Windows update.
[] Enabled Onboard Audio in the BIOS.
[] Made sure BIOS System Date and System time were correct values.
[] Disconnected Internal AC'97 header and put jumpers on pins 5 & 6, 9 & 10 to make sure audio is only trying to go out the back panel.
[] Uninstalled all sound/video drivers/codecs and tried reinstalling audio codecs from HP and Realtek.
[] Made sure there were no unknown or disabled devices in the Device Manager
[] Confirmed all proper settings in Volume control.
[] Confirmed all proper settings in Sounds and Audio Devices.
[] Ensured that Start>Run>services.msc Windows Audio is Started/Automatic for Status/Startup Type.
[] Ran Windows System File Checker.
[ ] Try taking further steps to narrow down audio problem before flashing BIOS.
[] Make BIOS backup recovery disk.
[ ] Reflash BIOS.

Thank you for taking valuable time out of your day to help me narrow this problem down. I really appreciate it edwin.

*Edit: I found out that installing any audio driver will cause to flash video to play at 2x speed. Uninstalling audio drivers causes video to play normal again. From what I understand if you try a flash from the board manufacturer instead of the OEM you have a %95 chance of bricking the board. I heard though some people have some success since the boards are similar enough. Since I have no way of getting my old BIOS back and I'm stuck with out sound, is there any chance that the chipsets from the HP board are similar enough to that of the one from MSI? It looks Like I'm going to be buying a new motherboard no matter what.
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