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DarthInsinuate
10-04-2003, 10:05 AM
if i was to flash my bios and i completely balls it up, what can i do to get the original bios back?

the mainboard is a MSI MS6191 and the bios is AMI
LeGoMyFnLeg
10-04-2003, 10:08 AM
Get a chip puller and a new bios. Maybe.
3RA1N1AC
10-04-2003, 11:24 AM
you've got to email MSI and buy a new BIOS chip from them (assuming that the chip is removable)...

... or figure out how to fix the chip with a BIOS flashing machine. or find someone who's able to do that for you.

if your BIOS truly is fux0r3d, those are basically your only two options. people seem to scoff at the recent "Dual BIOS" motherboards (with two BIOS chips-- one upgradable & one non-upgradable to fall back upon, if the first one fails), but this is exactly the kind of problem it's designed to prevent...
DarthInsinuate
10-04-2003, 12:56 PM
I think I won't bother flashing this board, I'll wait till I upgrade - I've been reading about all the nice new easy auto-update and recovery options that are on the new-fangled boards
LeGoMyFnLeg
10-04-2003, 01:18 PM
A new board can even be cheaper than a bios upgrade depending on the manufacturer and availability of the upgrade. I have seen up to $45 US dollars for an emailed upgrade and much more for a real floppy install kit through normal postal delivery. And this upgrade still might only be a patch.
lynx
10-04-2003, 01:27 PM
You ought to read up on what improvements the new bios will give you. If you don't need any of them, don't upgrade the bios.

If you do need them, then as long as you make sure you get the correct utility and bios version from MSI you shouldn't have any problems upgrading the bios.

The big danger usually comes from trying to upgrade the bios with the file residing on the floppy drive. The drive simply isn't fast enough to cope, and is more prone to read errors, which is the usual cause of failures. MSI have got round this by having a utility which loads the file onto a virtual drive (ie in memory), then burning the new bios from this virtual drive. The only remaining problem is if the power goes out during the few seconds it takes to flash the bios.