BIOS ROM Checksum error - Floppy detects tho!!!

[gavin53]

Hi

I have browsed for couple hours within this form with similar problems that I have.

My BIOS I suspect is corrupt but thought I would post anyway to get confirmation before I thow this M/B in the trash.

I have an Award bios but when I power up now I get the following message
"Detecting floppy drive A media" then
"Insert system disk and press enter" and nothing happens and light stays on in floppy drive.

I have tried Win98 boot disk also created autoexec.bat disk but to no avail

Can anyone help please as I am hoping all is not lost, and mostly I can solve most problems but this has me stumped.
Thanking you in advance

Kind regards
Gavin

[gavin53]

Hi

I am still trying to get my floppy to detect from Boot Block ..........

on start-up it will not boot and still gives me the msge

Bios rom checksum error

Insert system disk and press enter

I have checked other posts within here and most have some success at recovery from this situation.. I have made boot disk etc with the follow files and instructions from:

www.amptron.com/documents/Recover.pdf

Boot disk containing 4 files:-
Command.com
awdflash.exe
vba-2ba9.bin ----->(M/b Soyo SY-6BVA133)
autoexec.bat --->(containing:- @ECHO OFF @awdflash vba-2ba9.bin /py )

When powering up with the boot disk in (or without) the LED floppy light
stays on continually and when 'Enter" is pressed it just repeats the msge

Insert system disk and press enter

I hope I have supplied enough info for an answer

Thanks all for allowing this post and all the info within here .its great

Gavin

[Ritchie]

A couple of things you can check:

1) Did the floppy work before this problem? If not then you might have a cabling problem to the floppy drive, which is probably worth checking anyway. Sometimes even the power cable can misalign on the connecting pins which can cause problems as well as the data cable being reversed/misalighned. If the floppy drive light comes on at all (even dimly) as soon as you power on and stays on that often points to a cabling problem, although I am not sure whether this is so applicable during bootblock.

2) You have listed the four files on your bootdisk as command.com, awdflash.exe, your bin file and autoexec.bat. When you created the bootdisk, did you either use "format /s" from a command prompt or format with the copy system files option from within Windows 98, when formatting. These are a couple of the common methods to create a bootdisk. They copy a few additional hidden files that are required for a floppy disk to boot, and after this you can copy awdflash.exe, you bin file and autoexec.bat. You need to use these options during the format process and not copy the additional files manually as the files need to be copied to a special location near the start of the physical disk.

Thats what I can think of at present. Sorry if suggestion #2 sounds stupid or too obvious but it is worth checking. Possibly the boot section of the disk you are using is just corrupt, also. Hope this information can be of some help.

[gavin53]

Thankyou for your reply

My situation now is:-

Floppy was working ok before BIOS failed.
I have changed cables and also a new floppy drive, and also followed the procedure for formating boot disk format /s etc from dos.

I have video from both AGP and PCI cards.

I found an old ISA card that connects to a floppy and the floppy is working... although system will still not come to life from 'boot block'

The error is now as follows below, when power-up and boot disk in floppy.

Award bios Boot block v1.0.. etc
Bios rom checksum error
Insert system disk and press enter

Now when I press 'enter' it comes up with:-

Drive A error System Halt (And continuous beeps)

I suspect now that the 'Boot Block' is corrupt as well, and will i guess have to get it reprogrammed or buy new Flash Bios.

Any other advice or maybe ideas would be welcomed.

Kind regards
Gavin

[KachiWachi]

You didn't say whether your boot disk is actually bootable in another PC. (Don't forget to comment out the autoexec.bat commands before trying...)

[Denniss]

I have seen somehow corrupted/damaged/badly programmed BootBlock Bios not accepting 3.5" 1.44MB disks but 720K ones .....

[PeteV]

Hi!

Just to check your status with some details:

- which BIOS chip type and socket do you have on the mobo, soldered or replaceable?
- which version of awdflash.exe did you use, and from where did you get it?
- did you have just one video card PCI or ISA (AGP maybe too demanding) installed on the mobo?
- is your diskette really OK and bootable (incl. totally 6 files?), and the drive working all OK?

So, how about trying uniflash.exe instead of awdflash.exe? And, even with no parameters to get the program visible for manual execution ...
And, once again, test the diskette on another PC. But, first after disabling the autoexec.bat, e.g. by changing it's name to .0at!!
And further, just to be sure, to the autoexec.bat add the row SET PATH=A:\ (this row probably not needed, but sometimes used anyway)

After all these, if the flash will still not be working, I'm sorry, the BIOS chip may be proven corrupted somewhere on the Main Block, but probably not on the Boot Block, as it works anyway this far ... on uniflash you may even see the corrupted blocks ...


Best regards,

Pete V.

[gavin53]

Hi -
In response to Pete V - Post

My chip is 32 pin and replacable

Awdflash and vba-2bab.bin files where from Soyo M/b Manuf and for this Board which is SY-6VBA133

Just using the one graphics card a PCI.

I only have 4 files on my disk (Should there be 6 as per your post)
--------------------------------------
command.com
awdflash.exe
vba-2bab.bin
autoexec.bat
-------------------------------------

in the autoexec file is
@awdflash vba-2bab.bin /py /sb /sy /cc
-----------------------------------------
With uniflash I just change the awdflash.exe with uniflash.exe and also change the autoexec command acordingly????? eg:
@uniflash vba-2bab.bin ?????
-----------------------------------------
Bootdisk works ok on other PC.

Just to refresh the error now when it tries to read A drive is
Drive A error System Halt (Continuous beeps)


I have also changed drive and cables and checked that they are all connected correctly.
I have also checked the battery and replaced it.
Also changed the Ram modules .. I am just using a 32mg module on its own. which works ok in good PC

tks for your time and effort . it is very much appreciated

Regards
Gavin

[ruelnov]

You said that your floppy was OK before your BIOS failed.

1. Did you flash your BIOS before this failure come about?
2. Did you use /wb switch in that flash?

Case A)
If you answer NO to #1, your BootBlock is still intact and if your board is not more than 10 years old your BootBlock is still in good condition with a high degree of certainty, unless it's a premature ROM Block Failure.

In this case, I would suspect your Floppy Controller to be screwed up. But I would first check the integrity of RAM module in another PC using a good RAM troubleshooter like memtest86, because even if this RAM works in another PC it's not a guarantee that it's totally good (intermittent RAM errors usually don't show up unless you diagnose it with a deep memory troubleshooter).

CASE B)
If you answer YES to #2, then your BootBlock is corrupted if that was a bad flash (no doubt).

If you answer No to #2, Case A applies.

[PeteV]

Hi!

OK, let's still check the details for the procedure.

Boot diskette made with e.g. on Win98 will include
command.com
io.sys (hidden, can be made visible on folder options)
msdos.sys ( -"- )
drvspace.bin (not needed, can be deleted)

For flashing you should add to the diskette
xxxxxxxx.exe (the flash program)
xxxxxxxx.bin (the flash BIOS code)
autoexec.bat (the flash starter upon boot)

The autoexec.bat should include e.g. the following lines
@ECHO OFF
SET PATH=A:\
XXXXXXXX.EXE (and parameters)

Because the awdflash.exe may not always (depending also on the version ...) work properly, it would be worth to try the flashing with uniflash.exe v1.37 downloaded from -> http://www.uniflash.org.
You could try to do the flashing with the .bin as a parameter with the command uniflash.exe -e xxxxxxxx.bin. But maybe more interesting to try it without any parameters, and you'll get the uniflash program visible for manual execution, seeing possible problem blocks on the BIOS chip when executed. And, when prompted, you may easily give the .bin name just by pressing "enter" and getting the diskette file list on a left column. To help using uniflash, you may check the readme text on it and print the command/parameter list for it.

I'm still missing the exact description of the BIOS chip itself
- which brand
- which product code
- which socket, size etc. details (will be known by the product code)
This info may be needed for the next steps, if the chip is proven to be corrupted ...

Happy flashing!

Best regards,

Pete V.

[gavin53]

Hi

Details of Bios as follows
Brand - EON
EN29F002NT
-70P
0013 (These are the details on actual chip top side

There is also series of numbers on the base which are
B1H31
0013C

On the label is
AWARD 1998
PCI/PNP 686
237756435

tks again for help
Gavin

[gavin53]

Hi

Please find details of my previous post re BIOS Chip.

Have tried both Awdflash.exe and Uniflash.exe examples below
-----------------------------
Bootdisk containing
Command.com
awdflash.exe
vba-2bab.bin
autoexec.bat

Autoexec contains
@ECHO OFF
SET PATH=A:\
awdflash vba-2bab.bin /py /sb /sy /cc
-----------------------------------
Uniflash bootdisk

Command.com
uniflash.exe
vba-2bab.bin
autoexec.bat

Autoexec contains
@ECHO OFF
SET PATH=A:\
uniflash -E vba-2bab.bin
--------------------------------
When I try now with either of the above bootdisks msge is

Detecting floppy Drive A Media...
Drive media is : 1.44MB

then it just stops reading drive A and blinking cursor
--------------------------------
It no longer gives me the error
Drive A error System Halt (Continuous beeps)
Would this be because of the command in autoexec.bat
SET PATH=A:\ ????

Kind regards
Gavin

[PeteV]

Hi!

Glad to hear, you anyway had an "ant's step" forward ...

If not yet tried, please try the procedure with no parameters after the uniflash.exe on autoexec.bat, if succeeding, it will lead you to a manual execution of UniFlash.

But, probably you need some more hints to solve the problem. Please, check the dos-freak's procedure, which has been rescuing several "boot block cases impossible", on the topic -> http://www.wimsbios.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4211. The procedure itself is simple, but on the topic there is much discussion on the techniques to produce the rescue code/procedure. And, during the last few days I saw/read also another rescue case with this procedure, but sorry, I can't find that topic here anymore, it's somewhere there ...

P.S. Yes, here it is -> http://www.wimsbios.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5428. The first two posts on it do have the actual interesting descriptions, the next some 15 posts are for another so far probably unsolved case.


Best regards,

Pete V.

[Ritchie]

I just realised that if you are still at a bootblock level, I have seen on this board that the flashing program on a boot disk needs to be named awdflash.exe, so if you are using uniflash rename it to that filename, as this is what the bootblock code attempts to execute off the floppy disk. Currently it is probably booting to the stage where it looks for awdflash.exe and does not find it, and stops processing commands. I don't know if the bootblock even looks at autoexec.bat.

However, failing the above, some additional suggestions.

I don't think your SET PATH command would be causing the floppy to stop reading, but all the same it probably is not needed (at least at present) as you probably only currently have access to a: and probably do not have/do not need sub-folders on your floppy drive.

A few things you could try, in the order listed:

1) Remove the SET PATH=A:\ command line. Then try booting again.
2) If 1 fails, put A:\ in front of the uniflash line, so it starts with a:\uniflash Then try booting again.
3) If 2 fails, remove everything after a:\uniflash Then try booting again.

3 is to see if you can get the uniflash interface so that you can manually control the flashing procedure.

[PeteV]

Hi!

Yes, Ritchie has right, the boot block may be searching for and accepting only an awdflash.exe, and that's why the dos-freak's code/procedure is for, i.e. to "cheat" the boot block and get it booting up MS-DOS instead of rightaway jumping to the flashing.

But, do the boot block accept uniflash.exe code just by renaming it awdflash.exe, I slightly doubt, but maybe it's worth to try ...

But, more important, what's the basic problem in all this? Why the boot block do not accept/execute the originally given awdflash.exe? Is the code erroneous, or corrupted, or whatever ..., or, is the problem lying somewhere else? Let's see after some more trials ...

Regarding the command SET PATH=A:\, I have been getting that hint from somewhere and sometimes been using it, but also slightly doubt it's real need, anyway, it may give some help in some case ...

And, I'm still repeating my hint, if by any chance on this PC, or any other PC, you'll get the MS-DOS prompt popping-up, or maybe UniFlash starting up rightaway, please take the "adventure" doing the UniFlash manual execution ...


Best regards,

Pete V.