BIOS Updates forum

Flashed an upgrade from esupport.com for award BIOS. Message said uprade successful but now get following glitches.
a) power on (mostly) only works if button pushed repeatedly very fast.
b) internal generic 56k soft modem is not detected - diagnostics nor troubleshooters find it.
c)repeated warnings in event log that time service has not been able to synchronise system time because no time providers can provide usable time stamp.

Help seriously wanted, but treat me gently 'cause I'm a virgin at this!

BIOS info:
type: award modular v6 00PG
ID: 10/29/01-8363-686B-6A6LMQ19C (updated to 10/24/2003)
chipset: VIA 82C305 rev 3
superio: VIA686 rev 64 on port 7h
OS: windows XP version 5.1.2600
CPU: athlon XP 1333Mhz

Do the problems go away if you reflash the old BIOS ?
(What do eSupport say about their BIOS ?)

corystes wrote:treat me gently 'cause I'm a virgin at this!

I suppose you backed up your hymen before flashing? I mean, your previous BIOS

Hymen? I'm only a virgin in my left ear!

I CAN'T flash the old bios. When I try the the program justs informs me that this bios can't be upgraded. So much for eSupport!
They respond with one brief question at a time. The only relevent one being "Have you tried clearing the CMOS?" Which doesn't help unless you know A) am i being ticked off in case I have, or should I have. If the last, how do you do that? I'm still waiting on their response to that.

When you upgrade your BIOS it is wise to clear the CMOS set-up as the new BIOS may record extended set-up data (e.g. RAM access times, AGP drive strength, FSB) at a different address in CMOS. Using the old values can result in strange effects including complete failure to boot.

Most manuals have a section on clearing the CMOS - usually by moving the position of a jumper for a few seconds. Do this with the power cable disconnected and after pushing the "power on" button to ensure any remaining charge in the PSU is dissipated.

If your board does not have a CMOS clear jumper, remove the power cable and cycle the power button, then remove the CMOS battery and short the contacts in the socket for a few seconds. Leave the battery out for a few minutes before putting it back in. If this still doesn't work, try leaving it out overnight.

Another option with an Award BIOS is to re-flash but using the command line options /cc/cp/cd. This should clear CMOS, PCI and DMI information.

You will get a "CMOS checksum error" message when you have succeeded - this is perfectly normal.

I would try/consider the following:

Assuming the flash program is a Windows program, try a DOS flasher if available. You might get better access to the device under DOS.

What brand and chipset is your modem. Try a generic driver if you were currently using the manufacturer's driver or vice-versa. For example, many Netcomm internal modems were based on the Lucent chipset, although recent ones use the Connexant. Drivers are available from Netcomm as well as from the chipset manufacturer (I have the URL somewhere in my favourites if you want it but cannot locate it). I am actually making a bad example by using Netcomm as as far as I am aware, Netcomm only posts a copy of the Lucent driver on their website. But other manufactures may make modifications or refine the drivers.

Connexant is more difficult because I have had a lot of trouble getting the supposedly correct Connexant drivers to work and ended up finding that the only driver which I could get to work was the driver supplied on a poorly labelled CD. However I believe recent Connexant drivers may have improved in this manner. Be nice if documentation supplied with the Connexant model sale would tell you exactly where the correct driver could be downloaded - only problem is web addresses and locations always change around occassionally.

Otherwise make sure you are using the latest version of the drivers. Also, check the web site for the modem as sometimes different firmware versions have different corresponding drivers so you might need to check the correct download version against the new firmware version number.

Hope something here helps - the reason I am talking a lot about drivers even though you did not mention it is because I think drivers normally need to be installed before diagnostics can be performed on a device which you did mention you are having trouble with. And note something else - with one model modem I have worked with the diagnostics does not always work although the rest of the modem does (although I need a long string to be able to dial correctly).

It is possible you paid for something that's freely available as your mainboard seems to be a QDI Kinetiz 7B
http://www.qdi.nl/download/KZ7B.htm

why did you upgrade to an Esupport Bios ?
-> Usually costs more than a chep Board from Asrock/ECS

My motherboard is a KinetiZ7E-A - well that's the label on it.
Modem is labelled connexant RS56 PCI (ELSA microlink 56K PCI HSF)

I went the esupport route as they had a bios agent, claimed the new bios could be auto uploaded easily, and I'd not found all these alternatives at the time. Also they were most ignorant-user friendly. (At least until I had problems)

Call them or write to them an claim their Bios does not work correctly and give them details .
Request a fixed Bios from them or your money back