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	Thu, 28 Aug 1997 20:38:48 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 20:38:48 -0700 (PDT)
From: Howard Lew <hlew@www2.shoppersnet.com>
To: Studded <Studded@dal.net>
cc: "hardware@FreeBSD.ORG" <hardware@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject: Re: Flashing BIOS (Was Q: K5 clock speeds)
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On Thu, 28 Aug 1997, Studded wrote:

> On Thu, 28 Aug 1997 10:37:15 -0700 (PDT), Howard Lew wrote:
> 
> >Flash upgrades usually don't fail unless people flash it with the wrong
> >version.  Then the motherboard is hosed and they need a replacement chip. 
> >Even though Award BIOS supposedly still let's use reflash it with their
> >flash bios boot block and an ISA video card, I have never seen that work
> >before. 
> 
> 	Even the wrong version is usually not fatal.  I had this exact
> scenario happen (clueless techie on the phone told me to d/l the wrong
> thing, "Oh, I'm so glad you called back!"  *grumble*) and there is a
> jumper on my mb (dell-tweaked intel of long ago) that clears everything
> out and gets you back to the factory defaults.  I just built a new box for
> a good friend and the basically generic socket 7 mb had the same kind of
> jumper, so I can't help thinking this is a pretty standard feature?
> 


I maybe wrong, but I think you are referring to the CMOS settings right?  

Most motherboards have a jumper that you can short for a few seconds and 
it will get you back to factory defaults.  However, when you flash a 
bios and it is wiped, it is gone for good unless you have some kind of 
motherboard with a backup bios eprom.  Why they would go to the expense 
of having 2 flash eproms is beyond me because that kind of error 
rarely happens.

Replacing a bios chip is very cheap unless you are getting it from 
Unicore, but I think putting a duplicate on each board is too costly.