s
es
e.
e d g t s .I just found a third machine sitting here with no hardware in it. It also has an AMI bios chip in it The chip has similar markings, (date etc), no blue and yellow label but it bears the number EO56165. Does anyone know what the differences if any might be in these three bios's and if perhaps they might be interchangeable? Lenny
On Oct 18, 8:16=A0am, klem kedidelhopper wrote: > On Oct 17, 11:42=A0am, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote: > > What William suggests is something I and many others have done many > > times without problems. I saw a computer (not mine) that was so > > infected the processor was 100% busy and would do nothing useful, > > including running a virus scan. Of course they needed to salvage the > > apps and data and couldn't just re-format and start over. The drive > > was first slaved into a good machine and subjected to a virus scan. > > Remember those pesky viruses have to execute to become active. The > > slave drive executes nothing during boot so activates nothing (unless > > the boot drive has its own viruses). That's when I became convinced > > about Norton utilities. Norton wouldn't dump a virus because it was > > running. AHAH, I'll boot into safe mode and kill it before it's > > running. Norton (at least that version) will not run in safe mode. I > > don't have Norton. >
Are those motherboards identical including Rev number? If the chips are socketed I would remove them and read the data of both with a chip programmer and save the files. Copy the good one into the faulty one and try again.Vanilla EPROM programmers my not be able to program FLASH chips.
G=B2
Probably not. They are all simiar products, but customized for different manufacturers and motherboard models.
BTW, did you try the instructions I posted?
Geoff.
-- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, N3OWJ/4X1GM My high blood pressure medicine reduces my midichlorian count. :-(
I couldn't find any information on my mother board but I did try following the steps you outlined. I was very hopeful that things would start going better when I pulled the video board and I got the 8 beeps as you said I might. But it still is doing the same thing. It seems to be corrupted somehow. So I guess that I would need to have a chip burned especially for my particular mother board. The chances of that happening are slim at best. I was hopeful when I saw all the AMI bios's. Do you suppose it would hurt anything to try the last one I found in the dead machine? Lenny
Did you check to see if there is a BIOS recovery function on the motherboard?
If not, you could try one of the BIOSes and hope it works. You may end up with a useless motherboard, but you already have one. :-)
IMHO if the old motherboard was close enough to the new one, the BIOS will work.
Geoff.
-- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, N3OWJ/4X1GM My high blood pressure medicine reduces my midichlorian count. :-(
On Tue, 18 Oct 2011 08:50:09 -0700 (PDT), klem kedidelhopper put finger to keyboard and composed:
I suspect that the "D" number may be some kind of serial number. That was the case with 486 Award and AMI BIOSes, of which I have plenty.
BTW, your BIOS chip needs to be writeable, not only for upgrade reasons, but because both BIOS and Windows write to the ESCD table and other structures (DMI Pool ?) when new hardware is discovered (Win9x has a setting to disable this behaviour).
In fact, the next time you flash your BIOS, use the flash utility to save a copy of the BIOS at the susbsequent reboot, and then compare this copy against the downloaded BIOS image. Your own BIOS will have an ESCD table, whereas the downloaded one will be blank.
- Franc Zabkar
-- Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.
On Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:31:10 -0700 (PDT), klem kedidelhopper put finger to keyboard and composed:
When the BIOS goes through POST, it will display a BIOS ID that identifies the motherboard.
AMI BIOS motherboards identification:
- Franc Zabkar
-- Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.
I'd expect the $5 for 35 drives to be as worthwhile as buying a lottery ticket.. with very little expectations of finding a good drive. Entertainment only. Regardless of what the seller said.. likewise, watch a lottery commercial.
Detective Harry Callahan of the SFPD might suggest that you ask yourself one question.. Do you feel lucky?
A P1 PC, even if it was working yesterday, is another stroke of luck. When was the BIOS battery last replaced with a NEW one?
I dunno if there's any harm in checking HDDs with just a PSU (no data cable) just to see if they spin up without smoke or weird noises, but that may be a worthwhile first step.
Many years ago, I performed some (486) BIOS hot swaps to get machines running again, but hardly worth the effort for a motherboard with no documentation, as there are sometimes jumpers that need to be changed.
If the drives spin up with power applied, then it's probably safe to connect them to a working, disposable PC as Slave drives, or with an external USB case.
Even if the drives seem to be working properly, they wouldn't be a good choice for storing useful data, since they're already probably over a decade old and their histories are unknown (dropped, previous PSU failures etc).
Any value might be attained from removing the small fasteners and scrapping the rest.. although some like to save the magnets and other parts. The heads are obviously very sensitive, and could be useful as inductive pickups.
-- Cheers, WB .............
On Thu, 20 Oct 2011 03:56:27 -0400, "Wild_Bill" put finger to keyboard and composed:
If the OP is ever inclined to discard the drives, I would be very grateful for the PCBs.
This is the sort of thing I do with them:
- Franc Zabkar
-- Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.
Yes. That's why I took so long to respond. I was thoroughly confused.
I don't know. But simply attaching an "infected" hard drive to a running computer won't necessarily spread the infection.
times without problems. I saw a computer (not mine) that was so infected the processor was 100% busy and would do nothing useful, including running a virus scan. Of course they needed to salvage the apps and data and couldn't just re-format and start over. The drive was first slaved into a good machine and subjected to a virus scan. Remember those pesky viruses have to execute to become active.
Exactly.
the boot drive has its own viruses). That's when I became convinced about Norton utilities. Norton wouldn't dump a virus because it was running. AHAH, I'll boot into safe mode and kill it before it's running. Norton (at least that version) will not run in safe mode. I don't have Norton.
I did something similar when my main drive became infected seven years ago. I bought another drive, installed a vanilla version of the OS on it, from which I probed to infected drive to clean it up.
On Oct 22, 7:09=A0am, "William Sommerwerck" wrote: > I did something similar when my main drive became infected seven years ago. > I bought another drive, installed a vanilla version of the OS on it, from > which I probed to infected drive to clean it up.
I just had one of those 'DOH' moments. Since the OP just wants to verify the drives, why not use something like Seagate diagnostics to boot off of CD and test the drives.If the boot good drive is a Seagate I don't think it matters what the brand of the test drive is. I expect WD has something similar. That way he gets a report on the state of the drive without infecting anything.
G=B2
ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.