Does your computer have to work in order to flash your bios?

[Bleepeep]

My computer doesn't work. I won't go into the details, but I was told by motherboards.com that I should flash my bios and it would work again. I don't know anything about flashing a bios, having never done it before.

The problem I am having is that I get no video when I turn the computer on. Everything else works, like fans, hard drive, whatever else, but the monitor doesn't turn on and the computer doesn't boot up. When I called the mobo place the first time, the guy said to clear the cmos, so I did. It worked for like two hours after that, and I was quite happy. But then it stopped working, so I called them again. He said flash the bios.

My mobo manual says that I have to run a program and do a bunch of fancy stuff WHILE THE COMPUTER IS ON. Unfortunately, my computer DOESN'T TURN ON. Does anyone know if it is possible to flash a bios without the computer having to be on?

my system is:

tbird 800
Abit kt7
256 crucial ram
Radeon 64 ddr
Aureal vortex 2
D-link DFE-550

P.S. I have taken every single component out of my computer and tested the whole thing with parts that I know work. I switched my radeon with a voodoo 3, my ram for some old stuff that worked in my other computer, took out my sound card, network card. Hey, I even put in a different processor that I borrowed from my friend. Nothing worked, at least not for long. This is really pissing my off because I have to use my other computer, which is only an Athlon 500

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Klosters]

No, you can't. Perhaps a local shop will flash your BIOS chip, or install a new chip.

 

[Rand]

<< No, you can't. Perhaps a local shop will flash your BIOS chip, or install a new chip. >>



Actually you can.

Try booting up with an ISA card and you may be able to flash using it. If unsuccessful you can configure a floppy boot disk to automatically flash the BIOS for you.

 

[CivicSiRider]

How could you make a boot disk that would automatically flash the bios? If you made a boot disk, you still wouldn't have video so you know what commands you are typing or when to type them in.

 

[E320]

1) Some DOS BIOS flash programs such as MSI KT7 pro2A/K7 Turbo would create a boot disk w/autoexec.bat file which will start the flashing automatically but you still need your video card works in order to go into BIOS set up screen to set BIOS to default to get the just (new) flashed program recognized.

2) I would suggest you to remove the battery for 30 sec. on mobo then reinstall it to have a factory-set BIOS automatically loaded. However before you do that make sure all jumpers setting on mobo are correctly set. It happened to my MSI K7 Turbo where I just followed the &quot;Clear CMOS Jumpers&quot; configuration as shown on the 'lay out' in the manual rather than checking the pin number marking in the mobo itself. As a precaution pl. do this w/ only video card that you know OK (from your friend's computer or a loaner from your computer store) to make sure it the problem from your mobo (not just the updated BIOS)

Hope it helps.

 

[bevo]

<< How could you make a boot disk that would automatically flash the bios? If you made a boot disk, you still wouldn't have video so you know what commands you are typing or when to type them in. >>

Commands go in the autoexec.bat...