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HP Pavilion a1206n bios update

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:18 am
by ClonXy
Well, i installed driver updates straight from the HP website, then while installing, a error message came up, i dont remember what. then days later when i restarted my comp (i always leave my comp on) i get a Error Message: (the exact message is shown, including the way it was written)

Code: Select all

Award BootBlock BIOS v1.0
Copyright (c) 2000, Award Software, Inc.

BIOS ROM checksum error

Detecting IDE ATAPI device ...
   Found CDROM, try to Boot from it ... Fail

Detecting floppy drive A media
INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER
I downloaded my update from http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/soft ... g=8&os=228
The name of the bios is A8AE-LE

I have my own copy of windows xp home edition with all the latest windows updates on it. I believe this problem was caused because i was installing multiple updates from the official HP website at the same time. The drivers were all the proper ones for my computer and i know that because i used the same exact ones before i reformatted.

I've already contacted HP about this problem, doesn't seem like they were any help. They used search on the HP site, doesn't seem like any of them are professionals...

They're support to mail me a box to mail the PC back to them in 2-4 days, but today is the forth day and i still havent receive anything in the mail. I don't want to wait too long for it to be sent, fixed, and sent back. So i was hoping that anyone here already experienced this problem, and can help me...
I've tried inserting Windows XP Home cd ( same one i used to install xp home), and i also tried a Windows ME cd, but none of them would let me reformat or lead to any solution.

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 10:48 pm
by edwin
bios rom checksum error means something went wrong in flashing the bios or the cmos battery has gone south. cheapest way of knowing is to replace the Cr2032 coicell battery with a fresh one.

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 11:22 pm
by ClonXy
thanks for the fast reply :)
but it seems like HP finally mailed me the stuff to mail my pc to them... so i guess i'll have to hand it over to them and let them fix it for free :)

Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 12:32 am
by nourai
I don't want to bring an old post back up, but I just joined the board and am having this exact same problem. I have the awdflash.exe program and was wondering if anyone could point me to the proper bin I need to restore my BIOS. I belive the version I was trying to install when the system crashed was 3.13 from hp.com.

Thanks

Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 8:47 am
by edwin
you've got mail and instructions, but you may try to contact HP first, you may have the same luck as clonXy did.

Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 11:19 pm
by nourai
Thanks Edwin.

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 6:17 am
by nourai
I updated to 3.14 and aside from the Compaq startup screen (which I disabled anyways in favor of the diagnostic) it is working great! Even installed the AMD Away driver to get rid of the Unknown device that popped up after the update.

Thanks!

one more time with the bootlock

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:44 am
by yankin
Hi there, hope someone gets this...

I got a HP 325c that has gone to the crapper - each time it boots up I get a "Award Bootblock Bios message - insert system disk..."

I checked the battery (3.8V), reset the cmos jumpers, reset the memory, disconnected all other drives, made a xp dos bootdisk with the MSI flash program and bios file but nothing works - still get the ... insert system disk message

any help is great.

Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 11:07 am
by edwin
Is the bios chip removable? I hope so because it sounds like you have a really dead bios chip there.

Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 10:54 pm
by yankin
How can you tell if the chip is removable? where can I get a new chip? does it have to be the same chip or can I take it from an old computer?

Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 12:00 am
by edwin
http://www.badflash.com has info about this.

bios flash

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 2:34 am
by geomeo
I'm having the same problem as the first person bootlock v1.0 etc etc. Anyone know where I can get the flash utility?

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:58 am
by edwin
award flasher 8.33d and above seem to work fine for this one, if you can find a bflash utility that should work as well.