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Bios Upgrade

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by ogie_2001 1 view

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I have a P3, 450 computer with a Tekram motherboard and Award Bios that was upgraged when I purchased a 60G hard drive that wasn't recognized by the original bios. After the upgrade it still didn't see the drive and I stopped using the computer and bought parts and assembled 2 new systems. I finally got around to setting this machine up on the network and it's working fine except for one thing. When I go into the Bios I cannot make any changes. I go into a category and highlight something but when I try to select it nothing happens. It won't open the options menus for changes. This happens no matter what I select.

I'm sure this is probably a sign that the Bios or motherboard is about to fail but since I've never come across this behaviour before I was wondering if anyone else has and how long it lasted until total failure.

The information I have on the current Bios version is:
Award modular bios v4.51PG
TRM-P6B40-A4X v1.11BO
12/05/2000-i440BX-W83977-2A69KTG9C-00

Thanks for any responses.

5 replies

by dmiles

Check the system time,this usually will warn that the CMOS battery is going bad,which holds the bios settings

Open the CMOS Panel and check to see if the selection is grayed out which is set by selecting the Manual Setting on the Advanced page ofthe Configuration panel

Select the CPU speed section and press key to enter the CPU proccessor speed,then go back to the section to see if you can make changes

The other option would be to select the key that would reset default settings located at the bottom of panel,you will lose the bios upgrade,so beware of this change if you choose to make,save changes and exit

Reboot

by thechas

When you flashed the BIOS, did you perform a CMOS reset?

It is a good idea to reset the CMOS memory anytime you perform a BIOS upgrade.

I have seen motherboards come up dead after flashing the BIOS, only to be reserected after clearing the CMOS memory.

This may even be why it didn't detect the large hard drive after the upgrade.

Check for a jumper to clear the CMOS. On some boards, there are seperate jumpers for the password and the settings. On some machines, you need to set the jumper, power up, and then shut down before the CMOS will be cleared.

If there is no jumper to clear the CMOS, leave the battery out, with power disconnected for a minimum of 1/2 hour.

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