Lil' Dave wrote:
"McDermotts" wrote in message
...
I know this is off subject for this group, but have gotten great
info here before and hoping for some help. Please excuse if not
proper ettiquette.

I have an old AOpen AX6BC motherboard. Per AOpens advise, I tried to
install
BIOS update so the system would recognize the larger drive I added
to the system.

During the update process, something went wrong and a message
flashed that said "UNKNOWN FLASH TYPE".

Since then, the system will not even boot and no monitor. If I turn
it on with the floppy containing the BIOS file in the drive it tries
to read for a
while and then stops. Same thing if I power on with a startup floppy
in drive a. Also, if I power with either one of these disks, if I
hit any key on keyboard it tries to read from a drive for a few
seconds.

If I power on w/out a floppy, it makes a quick two tone noise, then
stops.

I'd be very happy at this point just to get a functioining machine!!
I've been told there's nothing that can be done, the mobo is ruined,
I've been told it's easy to fix, and everything in between.

I read somewhere that there may be a removable jumper on the
motherboard that if pulled will go back to the original bios.

Any advise or point in right direction greatly appreciated, Todd McD


Beep codes:
http://usa.aopen.com/news_detail.asp...AQ&suppo rt=Y

Check out this page : http://www.overclockers.com/articles30/

It sounds like:
"AOpen has a nice feature to make BIOS upgrades easier - the download file
for BIOS upgrades contains both the BIOS file and flashing program, so all
you do is download one file, save it to a bootable floppy and boot the
system with it. Nice. It also looks like if the BIOS upgrade fails, you can
use a PCI VGA card to reboot and flash again, a really great feature for
paranoid BIOS flashers. "
Perhaps you have the wrong BIOS for the version of AOpen AX6BC that you have
(there are six of them).
Look for the VERSION # of your board. VERY important.
The version number should be on the motherboard somewhere, possibly on a
sticker.
Try holding down the Home key upon booting as this will set the BIOS to
Default, however it will not correct a bad flash.

A jumper on the motherboard for resetting the cmos, or, removing the
cmos battery momentarily, does not restore a botched bios flash.
Rather, it clears the cmos located on the motherboard elsewhere. The
bios and cmos are 2 different entities. Similar to boot media AND
ram. In that analogy, the boot media is corrupted. And, you're
resetting the RAM to fix it.

Guessing you're using an Award bios software. Or, possibly, Phoenix.
The first question that hits me is how it became corrupted. Some
common bios update errors a the bin file was not expanded from the
orginal downloaded update file, the bios update was not appropriate
for the motherboard bios, memory manager loaded, I/O error during
bios update, electrical supply glitch during update, turning off or
rebooting the PC before the update is finished, failure to clear cmos
prior after update (which may fix it all after a reboot).

Assuming all the common problems have been addressed, the most common
way to fix a botched bios update is replace the bios chip. Some can
be purchased, pre-flashed. This is of course is assuming its not
soldered in place. Rather, has a chip socket.
Dave

I just added a little to your post above.