Hi, Does anybody have any experience with Texas Instruments TI650CD laptops. I know that this is a very old piece of kit but I was recently trying to resurrect it and had a *little* problem! Tried to re-flash the BIOS and the flashing process failed whilst erasing the old BIOS. Consequently the laptop locked up and upon a hard reset now will not do anything on power-up. Understandably as I guess that the BIOS is non-existant. Anyone have any idea if there is a failsafe, auto-reflash etc type mode on this motherboard? I currently have the laptop disassembled with full access to the motherboard so if there are any jumpers/switches etc for some sort of emergency reset/reflash I would love to give it a go. The motherboard is a Compeq but I cannot find any model number. The processor is an original Intel Pentium. Alternatively does anyone know the best way to get the flash reapplied externally by EEPROM programming etc and any companies that do this (in the UK preferably)? Many Thanks.

... And it's off to that great computer junk yard in the sky!! You can try disconnecting the bios battery for ten minutes but I doubt that will have any effect. As for an UN-flash or Re-flash or any other kind of flash, even if one existed, it wouldn't do you a stick of good if you can't get the machine to do ANYTHING when you hit the power button. As for manual reprogramming... you might be able to get this done provided you are working with the right kind of E prom (don't know the TI prom very well). But then on the other hand, for a manual re program the device has to removed from the machine. Good luck doing that... especially on a laptop. If it was a newer and more expensive lappy then it might be worth the service effort and expense, but you are probably better off, and would more than likely have better success at turning it into a planter for use in the front garden.

Bury it. With no BIOS, it's a gonner.

You can 'try' these sites to see if you can get a replacement. www.badflash.com www.flashbios.org www.mrbios.com

It is beyone me why people seem to think that "flashing the bios" is near the top of the list when trying to fix a computer. Of all the junk I've had, and it's been considerable, I've Ruined one 386 board by trying to mess with the bios chip Thrown out one that someone ELSE screwed with the bios on Left the rest alone I've probably got 6 old Thinkpads, an Ascentia, and an old Gateway 486, as well as untold number of 386/486/ PI, II, III, IIII, IIIII, IIIIII, XIIIVVXXIIVXXXIXIX cpu's, and I HAVE NEVER felt the need to "flash" the bios in any of them. Funny thing is, they all seem to work.

It's just something to do, seems "techy" and they don't read the warnings on the download sites that say "if you are not having any issues".....