Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2001 01:33:22 -0500 (CDT) From: George Orr <scholar@hal-pc.org> To: John Utz <john@utzweb.net> Cc: freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: oh bugger. i ate my bios Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.10.10109220118400.175-100000@crush> In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.33.0109210323580.28613-100000@jupiter.linuxengine.net>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
I work in a repair shop and "dead" machines come in all the time. Take it in steps 1. Will the machine get to a boot floppy at all? If so you can use a BIOS breaker . Email me for details or binaries. I have a nice collection. 2. can you open it and remove the BIOS battery. Do so. It may reinitialize BIOS to a previous state. 3. rarely, a laptop actually has a bios reset jumper. try it. 4. send the machine to manufacturer 5. replace the motherboard. This last option may or may not be cheaper than sending the whole unit in. Spend some time on the phone and factor in the shipping costs. Be advised that it is hard to get through to "parts" department for laptop manufacturers. They tend to assume no one would want to get anythng but batteries. Consider ordering replacement keyboard while you are doing surgery anyway. It will cost about $30. PS. I have a dead ISDN that died during rom flash. never did get it to work afterwards. Good luck George Orr scholar@hal-pc.org On Fri, 21 Sep 2001, John Utz wrote: > so, wishing to ascertain if cardbus was gonna work on my hp800ct, i > decided to flash the bios to the version that hp reccommended. > > dire warnings where listed about not interrupting the process, which is > eminently reasonable.... > > so, i rebooted my desktop box to windows and wrote out the floppy and > hooked up the floppy drive to the laptop and rebooted and started process. > > it chugged merrily along. > > having had no further need to spend time in dosland, i rebooted the > desktop box back to freebsd so that i could get back to fiddling with it > via laplink cable ( cause i have no other net because cardbus isnt > supported i 4.3, remember :-) ) > > well. by crikey, as my desktop box rebooted itself it sent happy > electronic facts down the laplink cable and that was enuf to hang the > reflashing. 'bout midway thru. > > wish i had disconnected it. wish those systemsoft people (the folks that > did the bios for the 800ct) had considered that as a possible problem and > either coded around it. > > so, now i can here the hd spinning away quietly. it doesnt ever stop, and > of course, there is no keyboard response or display or even > dasblinkinlichts. > > it's lost all higher functions. > > so, has anybody recovered from this sort of screwup previously? > > anybody have any suggestions whatsoever? > > at least i wasnt into it for too much..... > > -- > > John L. Utz III > john@utzweb.net > > Idiocy is the Impulse Function in the Convolution of Life > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-mobile" in the body of the message > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-mobile" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.LNX.4.10.10109220118400.175-100000>