i recently flashed the wrong bios on my ECS board but luckily i browsed the net and figured out that i can get a new one rather cheap so i thaught i would share this site with everyone http://www.biosman.com

What do you mean you flashed the wrong BIOS? Usually there's a warning during the flash process if the BIOS file is incompatible.

nope no warning .. i flashed a v2.0 board with a version 1.0 bios board is an ECS P4M800Pro-M v2.0 board works but wont read floppy nor keyboard ..so its a catch 22

"board works but wont read floppy nor keyboard"

So then you boot off a CD & use an old serial port keyboard

it wont go past "cannot read floppy drive" and jabbing random keys without a useable keyboard is useless and i dont have any old "serial" keyboards never knew there was a such thing ..i have some old DIN keyboards even though i would probibly have better luck with a lagacy USB keyboard except ..i don't have one :-O

Losing the floppy drive is not uncommon with a bad flash. I suspect your keyboard function is OK but the system is locking up before you can use it.

I take it it's not booting to an OS? You may be able to put the flash files on a cd if you can get the cdrom to boot.

nah like i said it dies at "cannot find floopy drive" then im at a deadlock sence i cant jab F1 or any other keys

Can you get into cmos/bios setup? You might try clearing the cmos to see if you can force it to go into setup. Then disable the floppy controller and drive.

(I realize you intend on getting a new bios but it's interesting to see if there's another way.)

"i dont have any old "serial" keyboards never knew there was a such thing"

Then try a serial to PS/2 adapter.

i think you mean a ps2 to serial adapter? the problem with serial devices is ..you need a driver on the DOS level to make it work ..i do not belive the BIOS will detect serial devices. also ..ive mentiond the keyboard is a NO GO wich means i cannot get into CMOS to change anything ..ive pulled the PLcc chip out to try to hot flash it ..wich means its been RESET that was a no go floppy drive is just a solid light ..and no its NOT looking for the bios ROM i just get a cool little error that says "cannot read floppy drive" and thats about all it does ..so it's a catch 22 but if anyone wants to send me a newer board with an AMI bios i can easily hotflash it and send the board back ..thats about the only other way i can do it ..lol

"...i dont have any old "serial" keyboards... "

I've seen a few ancient keyboards for ancient proprietary computers (pre pentium) that use the same 9 pin connector as a serial mouse or an external modem does, but they're not compatible with a serial port - they only work connected to the keyboard port's proprietary wiring on the computer.
They won't work with ANY commonly available serial to PS/2 adapter.

A PS/2 to serial adapter will not work with any keyboard with a PS/2 connector on it's cord because there is no such thing as a "combo" PS/2 / serial keyboard that is designed to be used with either type of connection and has the wiring inside it to make that possible (at least, I've never come across one or heard or read of one).
There are PS/2 to serial or visa versa adapters for older "combo" mice that are designed to be used with either type of connection and have the wiring inside it to make that possible - the adapter wiring varies - the adapter that came with the mouse will work fine but one from another mouse or a generic one may not - but they cannot work with a PS/2 keyboard.

"Usually there's a warning during the flash process if the BIOS file is incompatible."

"nope no warning .. i flashed a v2.0 board with a version 1.0 bios..."

You are taking a big risk when you flash your bios - if the flash fails, and/or the flash chip physically fails while flashing (this is COMMON - these cheap flash chips can only be flashed an unpredictable small number of times), you will have a mboard that will not boot.

If the flash fails, but the flash chip is physically okay, you can follow a specific Recovery procedure, according to the brand of your bios.

In that case, you either:
- get a message saying "....Boot Block Bios ..."
"looking for floppy...." , or similar, and the floppy led lights up the same as in this next situation.
- you have no video, but the led for the floppy drive comes on a second time after booting, after the usual brief flash you see while booting, and stays on for a longer time, then goes out.

If you DO have that situation, the boot block part of the bios, which is almost always NOT flashed when you update your bios, is intact, and a Recovery procedure for your brand of bios may work fine with the proper bios update.
However, if the boot block part of the bios for the Version 1.x and 2.x of yor ECS model is not the same, you may not have that option, even if the flash chip is still OK physically.
A change in the first number of a mboard version often indicates some major chip is different - often it's the I/O chip or the main chipset chip that has the I/O integrated into it.

A USB connected keyboard cannot be seen by the boot block part of the bios.
In fact, the boot block part of the bios often doesn't recognize anything except a floppy in the floppy drive that has the proper files on it necessary to perform the Recovery procedure for your bios brand. If it recognizes a keyboard at all, it has to be a PS/2 connected one. A USB to PS/2 adapter connected to the USB connector on a keyboard cord will not work unless the keyboard is a "combo" one that is designed to be used with either type of connection and has the wiring inside it to make that possible.

If the Recovery procedure works....

After you flash the bios, the first time you boot you will get a "Cmos Checksum Error...." or similar message. You will either be prompted to enter the bios Setup or you will automatically go there. Enter the bios Setup, set the date and time, and load Bios Defaults - save settings, reboot. You MUST do this (or Clear the CMOS by moving a jumper on the mboard) in order for the bios update to be fully accepted by the mboard.
If there is the choice to load Optimized Defaults, try it rather than Fail Safe defaults or whatever other choice there may be - usually the bios will automatically detect which optimized settings are appropriate.
......

If the flash chip physically fails, or if the boot block part of the bios for the Version 1.x and 2.x of yor ECS model is not the same, you may get no messages at all while flashing, or at least no message or other indication such as beeps that it was successful, and you will have a dead mboard until that is fixed, and you need to obtain a new flash chip, already flashed.

" .....i can get a new one rather cheap so i thaught i would share this site with everyone http://www.biosman.com/ "

In order for replacing the bios chip to be cheap enough to be worth doing, your bios chip MUST be in a socket so that it is removable. There are lots of mboards that have the bios chip soldered into the mboard - there are places on the web that can replace the soldered in bios chip with a new one already flashed with the latest manufacturer's update, but after you have paid for shipping both ways and the labour and parts to do that, it often costs nearly as muich as a new mboard.
Some mboard manuals (e.g. for MSI - Microstar) - show the bios chip in a socket but when you look at the mboard the bios chip is soldered into the mboard!

Biosman is one of the places that have "bios upgrades" or "bios updates" that have a customized bios version with all the options and features your mboard will support, even if it didn't originally have some of the options in any of the manufacturer's updates. If they have a bios flash file and flash utility download for your model rather than a bios chip already flashed they send to you, that is useless if your bios chip is soldered into the mboard and the flash chip has physically failed.
A bios upgrade is usually a more expensive option than at places that can replace the bios chip with one already flashed with the latest manufacturer's update, such as:
http://www.badflash.com

Badflash also has extensive info about what can go wrong with a flash, how to do the Recovery procedure if the flash chip is loading the boot block part of the bios, how to properly go about replacing the chip, etc., etc..

Badflash is in the US - if you are not, there are other oplaces I can point you to.
They can replace a soldered in bios chip, but only if you are in the US.

thanks tubesandwires thats the best post on this thread so far ..im not worried even if it was a solderd in bios i am pretty handy with a soldering iron ..ive flashed bios' millions of times ..but i blame ECS' crappy website layout for the issue this time as it was not stated that there were three different versions of the board.

"...even if it was a solderd in bios i am pretty handy with a soldering iron..."

So am I but I wouldn't want to tackle it.
It requires extremely delicate skills working with very tiny circuit traces, and possibly metal tubes that go through the mboard you must deal with.

I have a dead MSI mboard with a soldered on bios chip that I accidently flashed with the wrong bios update despite all I have learned. It looks absolutely identical to another mboard model version in pictures - it has the Via KT400A chip rather than the
KT400 the bios update version was for - that wasn't apparent until I removed it's heatsink, which requires you remove the mboard from the case so you can release the pins that hold it down.
I'm not sure whether the bios chip physically failed or not, but there is no boot block bios that loads while booting, no message, and the floppy led does not come on at all.

I got an Asus A7V600 mboard I could use the same cpu and ram with for about $60 at the time rather than fiddling with replacing the bios chip. The MSI mboard was a bit flakey in the first place - that's why I wanted to try flashing it.
Beside that, it was a friend's mboard, not mine, and I wanted to get her system running again as soon as possible.
I'm in Canada, so sending the mboard to badflash was not an option, it would have been too expensive even if I could have, and I couldn't find any site in Canada that could do it.
There may be places right here in the city (population of the met. area approaching a million) that can do it, but finding them is difficult without doing a lot of phoning.

Next time I'll look up the FCC ID number on the web, or remove the heatsink, if I'm not sure.

"i blame ECS' crappy website layout for the issue this time as it was not stated that there were three different versions of the board"

It's not ECS' fault. It plainly states "PCB:2.x" in the BIOS description & it also provides "How to recognize the M/B PCB version". Had you checked it out, this would never have happened.

I have to admit that I was wrong about the keyboard thru the serial port for accessing the BIOS. I *think* a keyboard can be connected thru the serial port though, but it wouldn't work until Windows is loaded because software is necessary.

"I *think* a keyboard can be connected thru the serial port though, but it wouldn't work until Windows is loaded because software is necessary."

Could be but I've never heard of or have seen mentions of or have come across such.

"It's not ECS' fault. It plainly states "PCB:2.x" in the BIOS description & it also provides "How to recognize the M/B PCB version". Had you checked it out, this would never have happened."

yes it says that now ..but a while back when i flashed it (about 9 months ago)..the website was way different. each board version had there own page with different updates etc ..and it was hard enough just trying to find my board to update it much less figure out there was a difference ..

I did come across this in reference to a previous thread:

http://www.accesskeyboards.co.uk/AT...

But there's no guarantee it would work in his situation.

A hot flash would be a good idea if the bios chip was easily removable, as in a DIP socket.

OK - that's something I didn't know of previously.

"A hot flash would be a good idea if the bios chip was easily removable, as in a DIP socket."

Yes, but it's physically risky, and he would need another working mboard that uses a compatible bios chip and bios version.

lol its a removable bios ..i should be getting a new one soon and then when i recieve it i will hotflash the working bios onto the old chip

Yeah, I did try a hot flash once and it actually worked--surprised the heck out of me. He will have a problem finding another board like that, especially given it's relatively new and I can't see anyone letting him borrow theirs.

"lol its a removable bios"

The badflash one is a lot cheaper.

Regardless, the P4M800Pro-M is a crappy VIA based board & isn't worth throwing $30 at. You could replace the board for about the same price.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...

um ..i dont really "need" the board ..i just need to get the files off my raid aray so i can upgrade to my new board. then im going to use this board as a makeshift server as it has 2 gigs of DDR1 and a pentium D 3.0ghz then i can retire my dual xeon 2.0ghz wich is my current server.

besides yeah i can get the board for about $30 plus about $15 shipping ..so for $45 ..its not even close ..when i can get a PLCC for a "discounted" price and free shipping ..i cant go wrong ..;)

"i cant go wrong"

I bet you said that about the BOS flash too...lol

lol ..yeah i was trying to stick some DDR2 in it to get the tiny bit of extra edge and couldnt figure out why it was bluescreening ..etc ..so i updated the bios ..and ..whamo lol oh well ..luckily it wasnt my main computer or id be SOL

"i can get a PLCC for a "discounted" price and free shipping"

A bios flash chip is cheap, and you may even be able to get one locally, but it useless if it has no data on it - it MUST be flashed with the bios data BEFORE you install it, unless you can do the hot flash method mentioned in response 16 and 17 .

"lol ..yeah i was trying to stick some DDR2 in it to get the tiny bit of extra edge and couldnt figure out why it was bluescreening"

You cannot use both DDR and DDR2 ram at the same time!
Did you install the ram in the proper DDR2 slots?
Did you look up the ram for your model to see which modules work for sure??

E.g. Kingston ram
EliteGroup (ECS) P4M800PRO-M Motherboards
DDR OR DDR2 - up to 1gb per slot
You cannot use 2gb modules in this mboard.
http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/con...

NEVER take the risk of flashing your bios unless you find specific info, such as in the bios update release notes for the version or one previous to the version that is newer than the one on your mboard, that confirms it will cure a problem you are having!

"You cannot use both DDR and DDR2 ram at the same time!
Did you install the ram in the proper DDR2 slots?
Did you look up the ram for your model to see which modules work for sure??"

i am well aware of what i was doing ..the board had known issues with ONLY DDR2 from many forums and boards i read ..and the only way to solve the issue was to UPDATE THE BIOS!!!!:P

and honestly i was just trying find out if someone else had done the same thing or something similar and if they knew a way around it that i didn't know.

srry for double post..the edit button doesnt seem to want to work