How to Identify BIOS on a Dead Motherboard

[Bora Bora]

hi,
I have a mobo right now from BIOSTAR - a P4M900-M4.problem is no display, no bootstrap, no recognition of motherboard-based video adapter, or new video card. No reponse from keyboard for Ctrl-Alt-Del signal. Power suppy is running ok.I tried replacing the RAM and using a separate video card of which the one is built in. No other components than the CPU and the RAM are installed. please help!!!

[Russell]

Your board does support Phenom but doesn't look like there's an updated bios for P II's so until they do update em, if they do your processor will remain unknown.

[SecRecy]

The procedure to reprogram the erased BIOS chip is the following:

• Turn on the good motherboard and boot it with the floppy (of course you will need to install CPU, memory, VGA etc to this motherboard for it to work).
• At the DOS prompt, remove the good chip and replace it with the erased chip (more on this below). Yes, with the computer turned on.
• Run the programming software and reprogram the bad chip.
• Turn off the computer, remove the reprogrammed chip and install back the original (good) chip.
• Install the reprogrammed chip on the "killed" motherboard and test it.
• The defective motherboard should be working now.
• Use data recovery and antivirus software on the hard disk from the attacked PC, since it will be infected.

[Sebastian.j]

The BIOS contains all the basic information for the computer at start up. Without this information your computer can no longer POST and is basically useless. So when dealing with a BIOS flash make sure you READ READ READ because nothing will make your day sour than flashing with the wrong BIOS. Most newer boards today come with programs that can flash your BIOS within windows. ABit has what’s simply called ABit Flash Menu. The One click update has been known to accidentally select the wrong BIOS and then you're S.O.L. So generally if you're going to do a windows based BIOS Flash you should find the correct BIOS yourself and use the 'Update from File' Function. MSI Boards also have a live utility update to update the BIOS within windows.