various BIOS questions

[Waldo2k2]

I have a problem, a computer I want to restore (has dos 5 and win3.1, planning to change over to *nix). The problem is, before I do that, I need to change the bios cause it can't boot from floppy (for some reason it's been disabled) and the command.com on the c: drive has been damaged. I have no boot disks that are compatable (they won't work anyway). There's no available option to do access the cmos in the bios......so, is BIOS upgradeable somehow? This is a 386 so im assuming it's on chip, so what can I do?

[codingmaster]

U have to get an BIOS update for ur BIOS.

I know a lot of people, who are doing that.
Go to the board at: www.wimsbios.com


There is a poster, his nick is Rainbow, he is a very good BIOS upgrader and he writes BIOS updates.
Talk with him or with other posters.

For example: my BIOS
Pentium 200 MMX supports now upto 128 GB and I'm working with an 80 GB hdd, so there are no problems.

For example u can ask him to write a BIOS update for you, that supports upto 240 GB, ask him...

Post there your problem and you will get help.

[RoD]

Originally posted by Waldo2k2
I have a problem, a computer I want to restore (has dos 5 and win3.1, planning to change over to *nix). The problem is, before I do that, I need to change the bios cause it can't boot from floppy (for some reason it's been disabled) and the command.com on the c: drive has been damaged. I have no boot disks that are compatable (they won't work anyway). There's no available option to do access the cmos in the bios......so, is BIOS upgradeable somehow? This is a 386 so im assuming it's on chip, so what can I do?

Yes, its calling "flashing". I think its microfirmware who does alot of these updates, and as good as rainbow may be, i wouldn't be letting some on a message board write my updates for one good reason:

A bad or unsucessful flash will render your motherboard useless, with the exeception to a very ugly paper weight.

[codingmaster]

You to www.wimsbios.com and have a look
That's the best site for BIOS updates and Rainbow has written more than 200 BIOS updates so.....

[ober]

Originally posted by codingmaster
You to www.wimsbios.com and have a look
That's the best site for BIOS updates and Rainbow has written more than 200 BIOS updates so.....

umm.. yeah, thanks, I think he got it the first time you said it.

Stupid question and maybe you've already considered this, but if settings were made to the BIOS that you can't change, could you possibly remove the battery on the mobo and erase all that? Unless the changes were written into the BIOS. ?! It's worth a shot at least.

[RoD]

Originally posted by codingmaster
You to www.wimsbios.com and have a look
That's the best site for BIOS updates and Rainbow has written more than 200 BIOS updates so.....

Reptition doesn't mean its the best option. "rainbow" doens't know whats best for every motherboard, hes not a mobo god.

[Travis Dane]

A new bios for a 386 motherboard? hmm,riight.
Well, your BIOS should offer you the ability to change the startup
drive?

[codingmaster]

To access BIOS, press at the booting F1 or Del

Select Boot Device is in the BIOS Setup

[RoD]

Originally posted by codingmaster
To access BIOS, press at the booting F1 or Del

Select Boot Device is in the BIOS Setup

He knows how to get into the bios....


Theres a few options, flashing it; cmos battery; and if you have one, a maintence(sp) jumper.

[Eibro]

Take the battery out and stick a screw driver in the hole.

Also, If you screw up a BIOS flash you can still recover your system later. It's not nessicarily dead. Infact, my computer locked up during a flash and I had to recover it.

[Waldo2k2]

Originally posted by codingmaster
To access BIOS, press at the booting F1 or Del

Select Boot Device is in the BIOS Setup

I'm not freakin stupid, and I don't trust someone who's never seen this bios before. It's a gateway bios, it's complete crap, they locked out everything so newbies/illiterates can't f it up. I've checked every friggin key, combo of keys there is...nothing. The best I can do is unplug the jumper cables on the hdd, it faults out, and goes into the drive setup, I can't select boot order or anything from there, all i can do is tell it that a: is either a 3 1/2 760k or 1.44 mb or a 5 1/2 1.2 or 5??k, same goes for b:, then c: is either auto or user setup on the hdd. It bah-lows goats, seriously I've never seen a POS bios like this. That's why I needed an upgrade, and thank you to all that replied, even you codingmaster, though I don't think im going to ask rainbow for a bios. I'm glad that I know it can be upgraded.

[RoD]

Originally posted by Eibro
Take the battery out and stick a screw driver in the hole.

Also, If you screw up a BIOS flash you can still recover your system later. It's not nessicarily dead. Infact, my computer locked up during a flash and I had to recover it.

You got lucky, maybe it has changed in two years or so.

[ober]

Originally posted by Waldo2k2
The best I can do is unplug the jumper cables on the hdd, it faults out, and goes into the drive setup

unplug the JUMPER CABLES.... ???? Are you sure this is a computer?

and removing the jumpers on the HDD isn't going to do anything. If everything is set to master (ie. all jumpers removed in most cases), then it's just going to grab one of them and not even know that the others exist.

And nothing is just going to magically throw you in to a drive setup screen... it just isn't going to happen.

And to Eibro... why in fsck would you stick a screw driver in "the hole" after removing the battery? To discharge something? No need.

[Waldo2k2]

>>jumper cables

oops
i meant to say ide and the power cable, but jumper came out....it's been a rough week. I'll check out that link salem.

>>And nothing is just going to magically throw you in to a drive setup screen... it just isn't going to happen.

actually it about does that, basically the bios isn't smart, it was set up for a factory setup, if it's changed, it runs around like a chicken with it's head cut off. It says try f2 to reboot again or f1 for setup, that's what i meant when it brings me to the setup, and that's ALL that it will let me at. I told you it's a gateway POS.

[Waldo2k2]

Well it looks like a dude at that site had a problem like mine.....however the solution that worked for him required him to get into DOS....which i can't do because it's damaged and boot disks aren't working...i'll try what the link to the manual said, but it's looking more hopeless.