Dead BIOS on Abit BH6

[MetalCartman]

Hi all,

it's been a while since my last post, I had to finish my diploma in industrial management and now I have enough time again for toying around with computer stuff.

So, here's the story, I put together the following system for use as a Linux based firewall (http://www.ipcop.org):

-Abit BH6
-Pentium II 333MHz
-128MB RAM
-10GB WD HDD
-Sony CD-U55 CD-ROM
-3,5" generic floppy drive
-generic ATX case w/ generic 250W PSU
-2 10/100MBit/s NICs, one 3com and one intel
-Matrox G100 AGP 4MB (Compaq OEM version)

Installed and configured the IPCop Software and it run fine... for about 6h!
Then there was no more internet access at all, I rebootet the machine, all it gave me were two strange beeps and on screen was just the message

Award BIOS Version blabla

BIOS ROM CHECKSUM ERROR

Please insert system disk and press enter!

So did I, it attempted to boot from the DOS bootdisk I inserted (according to the LED lighting and the drive sound), but there was no more output on the screen. Then I tried it with another bootdisk, containing the BIOS bin-file, the flashtool and an autoexec.bat, which should flash the BIOS automatically, but again, nothing happened.

I tried it several times, unplugged the HDD and CD drive, pulled out the NICs, no success. Okay, I know it's Abit (the caps are all ok, no leakage to see), but I didn't want to buy new components for that system...

So is there anything else I should/could try to get it to work again?

Thanks in advance!
Cartman

[Kurt]

If the BIOS chip is fried, try contacting Abit and have them send you a replacement one.

[ayoub_ibrahim]

if you can get into bios try resetting defaults.
if you need a new chip try http://www.flashbios.org/

[Greebe]

The BH6 was well known for bad caps. You could potentially fix the BIOS and still have a mess on your hands. My BH6 is siting on a shelf for this reason. :\

[Dr Mordrid]

Agreed....

When my BH6 did this I found that only a PCI display card with the old VESA text modes would display the necessary instructions to perform a recovery.

It would NOT automatically refresh the BIOS from the *.bin and flash program on a floppy, it had to be done manually.

Of course the rude damned thing exploded all its caps about a month later.....

Dr. Mordrid

[MetalCartman]

Alright, thanks for the answers guys! The problem is now solved!

First I changed the G100 for a 2MB S3 PCI card, but that didn't help. Then I tried a different bootdisk, the first one was created with WinXP, which results in a WinME bootdisk that didnt work. The second one had Caldera's DR-DOS 7 on it and *tata* it booted! Now I could reflash the BIOS, but that took approx. 15 attempts until it succeeded. Then I tried to reinstall IPCop, but on every run it gave multiple errors at different stages of the installation procedure. Finally, I found the source of the malfunction: one of the two 64MB RAM sticks caused it. It's now running with only 64MB, but I think that should be enough.

Cartman