bios backup card?

[rei]

i remember seeing this reviewed on a hardware site recently, but can't find it;

looking a device/card that backs up bios

can anyone help?

[SteveC]

yeah, there is something like that around.

Ah, I have an idea - I think it's one of those year 2000 fix cards things - they can hold the BIOS. (also Gigabyte mobos have a dualbios facility where you can backup your bios to a 2nd chip on board).

If you are really feeling brave, boot up your PC, run the bios flashing util to back up your bios, while the PC is STILL ON, take OUT the BIOS chip, put in another (a new one or from a dead/rubbish/old/broken/etc board for example) and then re-flash the bios from the backup file. Put the original chip back in and you then have a backup chip of your BIOS.


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Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

[Technoid]

Removing a electronic component while the power is on??
Are you trying to make him kill his Motherboard?

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INTEL PIII550 MSI 6163
G400Mill 32MB SGRAM + RRG
SBlive
128 MB RAM CAS2
19GB HDD Space! (6.4+13 quantum drives)
Pioneer 104S DVD 10x CD 40x SLOT IN
SONY CRX100E 4/2/24 CDRW



[This message has been edited by Technoid (edited 15 February 2000).]

[Guyver]

HMMM... USB, Firewire, PCIX (or whatever the next gen will be called) - all support Hot-Plug... Swapping components with the power on...

But that is taking it to an extreme don't ya think....

Guyv

[cjolley]

I've heard of the bios flashing trick before.
Heck, the server my database is has 8 hot swapable raid 5 drives just for the one database. If a drive goes bad you just unplug the bad drive and put in a new one and the controler card fills it with the raided data on the fly.
The usb thing works too.
Computers are getting better so fast it makes my head swim. Remember when you weren't supposed to smoke around a PC.
chuck

[Mark F]

I think what he is asking about was a device (maybe 'BIOS SAVER' ) that plugged into the Bios slot, the original chip plugged into it piggy-back style, and there was a switch on a card bracket, to choose 'current bios' or original.
Sorry don't know any links to help you or even if that's the right name. Just rememeber reading about it.

Mark F.

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OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a CD

[Alegria]

I have done the flash chip swapping before using a Textool zero insertion force socket on the normal socket of the flash rom with the working BIOS. This procedure is not for the faint of heart though. Another method to get a working copy of the BIOS is the card the german computer magazine c't (http://www.ix.de/ct) made quite a while ago.
It requires a working PC and the special software from c't + a BIOS image. You simply put in the flash rom and upload the BIOS image through the software.

Regards, Alegria

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The pump don't work, 'cause the vandals took the handle...
Bob Dylan

[Fat Tone]

Anyone who tells you to remove an eeprom from a board while the power is on is taking the piss. You have a very high chance of damaging the chip and/or the board.
If you want a working copy of the bios, remove the chip whilst the power is OFF and use an eeprom programmer (probably less costly than a new mobo if you don't have access to one). Alternatively, use the bios flashing program to copy the existing bios and program that into a new eeprom, saving one extract/insert operation.

Maybe SteveC was exercising his sarcasm muscle, but he didn't make it very clear.

Tony.

[Rakido]

Tony,

hmm, Asus in Germany recommend to to this (as last option) when you destroyed your bios chip during an update. They say to boot the computer of a friend (with the same bios chip) in DOS mode, then to remove the bios of the running computer and to insert your own, damaged bios. After this you can try to update your bios again.

But they say too in big, bold letters, that it is possible to destroy chip and mobo, if you aren't careful.

Here is the link (german language): http://www.asuscom.de/de/support/techmain/bios/bios.htm


Rakido

[This message has been edited by Rakido (edited 16 February 2000).]

[SteveC]

There's nothing wrong with removing the BIOS chip while the PC is running - I've recovered many a mainboard with this trick. Heck - it's even in this month's help page in PCFormat!

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Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

[Fat Tone]

Well SteveC, in that case I stand (partially)corrected. I'm still not sure that I'd want to do it to a fully working PC! If your PC is already dead, and the friend is willing, then you have nothing to lose.

If an eprom programmer can't be found, it's possible to build one using the PC parallel port and a few cheap components.

Tony.

[Mark F]

Not sure if your still looking, but I found this last night and remembered this post. WOW, even with my buddy VODKA I think of MURC (scarry huh?!).
http://direct.mwave.com/mwave/bios.html


Mark F.


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OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a DVD...
and burped out a movie