hi all hardware gurus

2 months ago i flashed my bios with the wrong bios file and screwed my laptop, wouldn't start

sent it back to the maker for repair but when they quoted a huge amount to change the mobo i cancelled the repair

as it had a replaceable bios chip i ordered 1 of those from badflash.com and fixed the problem

question is;

1) can i remove the new "ok" bios chip while the laptop is running
2) fit the old "bad" bios chip that has the wrong bios
3) reflash the correct bios onto it?

or would i be better off just leaving things alone now that they are working ok?

eric e

Eric E.

Would be easier to reflash the eprom in an external burner. Pulling the BIOS or any chip from running equipment is asking for trouble. Leave it be.

If you remove the BIOS chip while the computer is running, the computer will most likely stop running. If you are lucky, that is all that will happen.

If you do things like this with any computer, you will damage components.

The method you're referring to is called "hot swapping"...I tried it once on an old board when I had nothing to lose, but was unsuccessful

ASUS A7N8X-X
Athlon XP 1800+
8.5 x 200MHz
1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7
Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB
WinME/WinXP Pro SP2

ok guys

hands off

thanks for the warnings;o)

Eric E.

I've done hotswap BIOS flashes many times. But from the situation you are describing, you'd be doing it to have a spare chip with the correct BIOS? Too much risk for too little gain. You learn to do this sort of thing on old hardware that would be no great loss if it was accidentally destroyed.

There is no reason to have a spare Bios anyway. They are EXTREMELY reliable (if left alone!).

Do NOT EVER pull or install ANY internal devices, including, drives, modems, add on cards of any kind, chips, etc out of ANY computer that is powered up

You just might get away with it until you do it on the most important machine you own--and it kills the thing dead.

By the way, that falls under the same heading as the incredibly stupid practice I used to constantly hear about checking the charging system on a car.

"Pull the battery cable loose and see if the car still runs."

An EXCELLANT way to kill several components in the car, including any accessory, such as the radio, and the fuel/ ignition computer, as well as a few other things.

I did it once and it went OK. I think it was an old PCchips board. It suprised me because I didn't think it would work.

But the fact it works OK sometimes doesn't mean it will in every case.

Before starting the PC, loosen the bios chip so you can remove it by hand when it's running. Do a couple dry runs first to make sure you have no problems inserting the new chip.

I tried connecting the power to a diskette drive once and was off by just one pin. Fortunately, I only cooked the drive and the PSU.

Hot Swapping the BIOS chip if properly done its very safe! As long as you have BIOS cache enable in BIOS!

I've used the HotSwap on several bad flashed BIOS. It worked every time. I've manage to recover lots of boards this way.

My advice is try it!

1º - If done properly it works!
2º - You've got nothing to loose!

The main problem is not removing the chip from a running board! Is inserting carefully the bad chip on the board! If you know what i mean!

Good Luck!

Nothing to gain, plenty to lose. If that sounds good to you then go for it!

You can avoid many of these Windows problems with Linux. Linspire eases the transition for new users

Yes I can concur that after a bad flash of an AMI BIOS and fearing i'd never see the mboard working again I managed to restore it by flashing back the original rom i'd saved. I did this by hot-swopping the chip into another machine (with a different AMI BIOS) once it had booted.