Award Bootblock BIOS 1.0 HELP!!!

[b***@hotmail.com]

Hi. I'm in a big trouble. I tried to update my BIOS through windows
with a program made by the mainboard's manufacturer but the update
failed and when I tried to restart my computer the first thing that
came up after a few bips is

"Award BootBlock BIOS 1.0"


"Scanning BIOS Image in Hard Drive"


"Can not find BIOS image in Hard Drive"


Nothing else comes up. It's the only single thing that apppears after I

press the power button to turn the computer on.


I tried to put a BIOS on my HD with my sister's computer but still
didn't work. I tried to put a BIOS on a floppy which is what everyone
would do unfortunatly it doesn't search for anything on the floppy. I
doesn't go far enough to scan the floppy or the CDROM drives. Like I
said it's the first thing that appears so yea.


I also tried to remove the battery for about 10 minutes and I even
unplug the powersupply from the mainnboard but still nothing.


I'm desperate can someone please help me?


My mainboard is a Gigabyte. Model GA-8IPE1000 (Rev 1.0)
The program I used to try to update my BIOS was @BIOS by Gigabyte


Here's my e-mail if someone wants to contact me
"***@hotmail.com"


Thanks

[Venom]

Just a wild shot in the dark here but have you tried reading the motherboard
manual regarding flashing the bios? Did you follow the instructions exactly?
If all else fails www.badflash.com can help you.

[Steven Saunderson]

Post by Venom
Just a wild shot in the dark here but have you tried reading the motherboard
manual regarding flashing the bios? Did you follow the instructions exactly?
If all else fails www.badflash.com can help you.

I suspect that the Gigabyte mobo has the BIOS chip soldered so recovery
from a bad flash is pretty difficult.

[b***@hotmail.com]

So what do you guys suggest me to do? Because yes I did read the manual
and it didn't help much and badflash.com doesn't help much either
unless I want to get my BIOS reprogrammed for money. A free solution
would be much more appreciated.

[Steven Saunderson]

Post by b***@hotmail.com
So what do you guys suggest me to do?

Can you see the BIOS chip ? It will probably be a small square chip
with a label on top. If it is in a socket then you could remove it and
find someone to re-flash it. If it is soldered to the mobo then it is a
pig to remove (unless you are skilled at such things).

If it is removeable and it is a 32-pin PLCC chip then I can help with
the re-flashing if you are stuck. I have a burner but since I am
probably on the other side of the world this is a pretty last resort
sort of solution.

[Barry Watzman]

Many new motherboards store the BIOS not in a separate part at all but
in flash memory on the CPU chipset itself.

Post by Steven Saunderson

Post by b***@hotmail.com
So what do you guys suggest me to do?

Can you see the BIOS chip ? It will probably be a small square chip
with a label on top. If it is in a socket then you could remove it and
find someone to re-flash it. If it is soldered to the mobo then it is a
pig to remove (unless you are skilled at such things).
If it is removeable and it is a 32-pin PLCC chip then I can help with
the re-flashing if you are stuck. I have a burner but since I am
probably on the other side of the world this is a pretty last resort
sort of solution.

[Steven Saunderson]

On Fri, 19 May 2006 04:29:06 GMT, Barry Watzman

Post by Barry Watzman
Many new motherboards store the BIOS not in a separate part at all but
in flash memory on the CPU chipset itself.

Okay, thanks for the info. I saw your other post about disconnecting
the hard drive. This sounds good and made me realise I hadn't read the
original post properly.

[Venom]

Post by Steven Saunderson

Post by Venom
Just a wild shot in the dark here but have you tried reading the motherboard
manual regarding flashing the bios? Did you follow the instructions exactly?
If all else fails www.badflash.com can help you.

I suspect that the Gigabyte mobo has the BIOS chip soldered so recovery
from a bad flash is pretty difficult.
--
Steven

Bummer !!!

[Steven Saunderson]

Post by Venom

Post by Steven Saunderson
I suspect that the Gigabyte mobo has the BIOS chip soldered so recovery
from a bad flash is pretty difficult.

Bummer !!!

I just checked the giga-byte site and it shows the mobo with the PLCC
chip soldered on. However, what I missed in the OP is that the PC boots
enough to look for a BIOS image. So, perhaps all is not lost.

[Barry Watzman]

disconnect the hard drive IDE cable to force it to look on the floppy drive.

Post by b***@hotmail.com
Hi. I'm in a big trouble. I tried to update my BIOS through windows
with a program made by the mainboard's manufacturer but the update
failed and when I tried to restart my computer the first thing that
came up after a few bips is
"Award BootBlock BIOS 1.0"
"Scanning BIOS Image in Hard Drive"
"Can not find BIOS image in Hard Drive"
Nothing else comes up. It's the only single thing that apppears after I
press the power button to turn the computer on.
I tried to put a BIOS on my HD with my sister's computer but still
didn't work. I tried to put a BIOS on a floppy which is what everyone
would do unfortunatly it doesn't search for anything on the floppy. I
doesn't go far enough to scan the floppy or the CDROM drives. Like I
said it's the first thing that appears so yea.
I also tried to remove the battery for about 10 minutes and I even
unplug the powersupply from the mainnboard but still nothing.
I'm desperate can someone please help me?
My mainboard is a Gigabyte. Model GA-8IPE1000 (Rev 1.0)
Here's my e-mail if someone wants to contact me
Thanks

[Jack F. Twist]

Post by Barry Watzman
disconnect the hard drive IDE cable to force it to look on the floppy drive.

Yes, and also try a PCI video card instead of AGP (assuming the
motherboard has no onboard video).

If it still won't boot to a floppy, you're screwed and will have to send
the board back to the mfr.

[Egil Solberg]

Post by Jack F. Twist
Yes, and also try a PCI video card instead of AGP (assuming the
motherboard has no onboard video).
If it still won't boot to a floppy, you're screwed and will have to send
the board back to the mfr.

If he can see the "Award bootblock BIOS" on the screen, there is no need to
change videocard.

[b***@hotmail.com]

Hi people. I appreaciate your help and thanks. Unfortunatly I already
tried to unplug the hard drive and it kept saying the same thing
nothing else. It didn't try to search the floppy nor the CDROM. I
checked the BIOS though and it doesn't seem to be welded but it seems
that it is held in place with pins or something like that. Flexible
pins that I might move away. Anyway I hoped that there would be a
solution free solution but I guess not. For how much would you reflash
my BIOS Steve? Thanks again people

[Barry Watzman]

It would be cheaper to buy an old, under 1 gigabyte hard drive on E-Bay
and put the right file with the right filename on that drive.

Post by b***@hotmail.com
Hi people. I appreaciate your help and thanks. Unfortunatly I already
tried to unplug the hard drive and it kept saying the same thing
nothing else. It didn't try to search the floppy nor the CDROM. I
checked the BIOS though and it doesn't seem to be welded but it seems
that it is held in place with pins or something like that. Flexible
pins that I might move away. Anyway I hoped that there would be a
solution free solution but I guess not. For how much would you reflash
my BIOS Steve? Thanks again people

[Steven Saunderson]

I checked the BIOS though and it doesn't seem to be welded but it seems
that it is held in place with pins or something like that. Flexible
pins that I might move away. Anyway I hoped that there would be a
solution free solution but I guess not. For how much would you reflash
my BIOS Steve?

The BIOS chip looks like it is soldered on
(<Loading Image...>)
and your description of the chip supports this. So I think the remove
and reflash option is almost impossible.

Your mobo still has enough smarts to go looking for a BIOS file. Please
see my reply to Egil below.

[Barry Watzman]

The poster's situation is nowhere near that desparate. The board is
booting and looking for a bios. In the absolute worst case, he needs to
get a spare hard drive (a $1 under-one-gigabyte drive from E-Bay or a
flea market will do) and properly prepare it on another computer with
the right file and the right filename (whatever it's looking for) in the
root directory.

However, almost all of these recovery schemes can recover from a floppy
or a CD as well. He needs to read the manual.

Post by Jack F. Twist

Post by Barry Watzman
disconnect the hard drive IDE cable to force it to look on the floppy drive.

Yes, and also try a PCI video card instead of AGP (assuming the
motherboard has no onboard video).
If it still won't boot to a floppy, you're screwed and will have to send
the board back to the mfr.

[Egil Solberg]

Post by Barry Watzman
The poster's situation is nowhere near that desparate. The board is
booting and looking for a bios. In the absolute worst case, he needs
to get a spare hard drive (a $1 under-one-gigabyte drive from E-Bay
or a flea market will do) and properly prepare it on another computer
with the right file and the right filename (whatever it's looking
for) in the root directory.
However, almost all of these recovery schemes can recover from a
floppy or a CD as well. He needs to read the manual.

Unfortunately, the board is not trying to read from root, it tries to read a
file placed very early on the disk, where f.ex a format will not destroy it.
It can be a bit tricky to place a BIOS-file there manually, but it can be
done, one just needs the right tools and expertise. This is a Gigabyte
feature. If it weren't for this feature, the board would probably try to
read floppy, wherefrom a flash would be trivial.

[b***@hotmail.com]

Once again thanks to all of you for your help. I tried to disconnect my
hard drives as I said before but it still didn't try to look for a disk
or a CD. I have in fact 2 hard drives. 2 ATA. 1 40GB maxtor NTFS and
the other one is a Maxtor as well in FAT32 format.

And yes it's the same hard drive I've always been using with this
computer and the motherboard.

In the manual it tells you about your motherboard.How to install it and
stuff like that but it doesn't mention anything about what to do when
something like that happens.

[Egil Solberg]

Post by b***@hotmail.com
Hi. I'm in a big trouble. I tried to update my BIOS through windows
with a program made by the mainboard's manufacturer but the update
failed and when I tried to restart my computer the first thing that
came up after a few bips is
"Award BootBlock BIOS 1.0"
"Scanning BIOS Image in Hard Drive"
"Can not find BIOS image in Hard Drive"
Nothing else comes up. It's the only single thing that apppears after I
press the power button to turn the computer on.

You are seeing the "Xpress BIOS rescue" in action. The BIOS file that the
computer is looking for is located in a hidden area early on the disk, but
in your case it is probably not there.
A format should not remove the file.

This is the problem with this kind of utilities. If you got a bootblock
message up on an earlier computer without this "Xpress BIOS rescue"
function, you would probably be able to boot and flash off a floppy. (Been
there done that). This utility seems to block the floppy access. You did not
change harddrive, did you? Is it serial-ATA?

[Steven Saunderson]

Post by Egil Solberg
You are seeing the "Xpress BIOS rescue" in action. The BIOS file that the
computer is looking for is located in a hidden area early on the disk, but
in your case it is probably not there.

From :
<http://www.gigabyte.de/MotherBoard/FileList/NewTech/tech_xpress3.htm>

The methodology of Xpress BIOS Rescue is after BIOS post completed; a
BIOS image is automatically duplicated and saved in the hard drive. The
saved image is securely stored in the hard drive's hidden sector which
is undetectable or destroyed by any utility or virus today. If any BIOS
error occurs, the Xpress BIOS Rescue will automatically activate and
recover the defected BIOS through the stored BIOS image in the hard
drive. This assures motherboard failure reducing to minimum.

-------

I'm not sure about the technical accuracy of this description but it
sounds like a good idea. I was thinking the boot BIOS might look for a
copy of the BIOS file in track 0 of the disk but it looks like it
actually wants a memdump of the BIOS instead.

Does anybody here have details about this ? The 'file' couldn't be more
than 62 sectors if it hides on track 0 so it couldn't be all the BIOS.
If it is a loader and someone has a copy and knows where to put it on
the disk then I have a program that could be used to write the sectors.

This has become a very Gigabyte specific topic. Has the OP asked in the
Gigabyte newsgroup ?

[b***@hotmail.com]

Yes if someone knows where I could put the BIOS on the hard drive, I
would really appreaciate because right now it doesn't detect it so it
can't be there even though it should maybe when I was trying to update
it corrupted the bios hidden on the hard drive because I assume that
when I update the BIOS it also updates that file right? So if anyone
has an idea of where I could copy the BIOS on my hard drive it could
fix the problem. Thanks

[Steven Saunderson]

Post by b***@hotmail.com
So if anyone
has an idea of where I could copy the BIOS on my hard drive it could
fix the problem. Thanks

Can you check the NG <alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.gigabyte> and also
support at Gigabyte to see if anyone can help ? Paul's comment about
SET MAX ADDRESS sounds good to me so perhaps that is where the info
should live. But this would have to happen before the disk is first
partitioned so it would be a problem for people like me that use one PC
to setup a disk for another PC. Perhaps your disk was prepared like
this and if the end of the disk hasn't been reserved the BIOS could
never save itself.

Hopefully there will be some Award/Gigabyte utility that can assist
here.

[Paul]

Post by Steven Saunderson

Post by Egil Solberg
You are seeing the "Xpress BIOS rescue" in action. The BIOS file that the
computer is looking for is located in a hidden area early on the disk, but
in your case it is probably not there.

<http://www.gigabyte.de/MotherBoard/FileList/NewTech/tech_xpress3.htm>
The methodology of Xpress BIOS Rescue is after BIOS post completed; a
BIOS image is automatically duplicated and saved in the hard drive. The
saved image is securely stored in the hard drive's hidden sector which
is undetectable or destroyed by any utility or virus today. If any BIOS
error occurs, the Xpress BIOS Rescue will automatically activate and
recover the defected BIOS through the stored BIOS image in the hard
drive. This assures motherboard failure reducing to minimum.
-------
I'm not sure about the technical accuracy of this description but it
sounds like a good idea. I was thinking the boot BIOS might look for a
copy of the BIOS file in track 0 of the disk but it looks like it
actually wants a memdump of the BIOS instead.
Does anybody here have details about this ? The 'file' couldn't be more
than 62 sectors if it hides on track 0 so it couldn't be all the BIOS.
If it is a loader and someone has a copy and knows where to put it on
the disk then I have a program that could be used to write the sectors.
This has become a very Gigabyte specific topic. Has the OP asked in the
Gigabyte newsgroup ?

The ATA/ATAPI standard has the concept of "Host Protected Area"
and the "SET MAX" commands. AFAIK, that allows an arbitrarily large
area at the end of the disk to be reserved. It is possible to detect
an HPA via the "READ NATIVE MAX ADDRESS" command. I certainly
hope Gigabyte is not doing stuff like that.

You gotta admire a motherboard company, that thinks its BIOS
recovery techniques are so good, that they can solder the
chip right to the motherboard. There is a special landfill
at the dump, reserved for companies like that :-( Maybe the
idiots should ship a soldering iron in the motherboard box...

Paul

[Steven Saunderson]

Post by Paul
You gotta admire a motherboard company, that thinks its BIOS
recovery techniques are so good, that they can solder the
chip right to the motherboard.

It's unbelievable isn't it. They save 10c but make the motherboard
worthless. It's doubly silly because there is room for a socket and
they use a PLCC chip anyway.

Thanks for the suggestion about the reserved disk area.

[b***@hotmail.com]

That's very frustrating. It's so well welded. You can't even be
bothered trying to take it off. If the BIOS on the hard drive is told
undestructible then where did it go? Something obviously hapenned to it
because the Bootblock couldn't find it. But I think the worst of all
that is that it doesn't even search for one on a floppy or a cd.
Ridiculous! I don't think I'm buying a Gigabyte ever again. It sucks
but I had to buy a new one. My choice was a similar motherboard but
much newer. Asus P4P800. Should I really pay because of their
stupidity? No choice I guess. Oh well just another 150$ in the garbage.
Thanks for your help people.

[Egil Solberg]

Post by b***@hotmail.com
That's very frustrating. It's so well welded. You can't even be
bothered trying to take it off. If the BIOS on the hard drive is told
undestructible then where did it go? Something obviously hapenned to
it because the Bootblock couldn't find it. But I think the worst of
all that is that it doesn't even search for one on a floppy or a cd.
Ridiculous! I don't think I'm buying a Gigabyte ever again. It sucks
but I had to buy a new one. My choice was a similar motherboard but
much newer. Asus P4P800. Should I really pay because of their
stupidity? No choice I guess. Oh well just another 150$ in the
garbage. Thanks for your help people.

Yes, it is a ridiculous feature by Gigabyte. Rescue has been possible for
years. With even old AMI-BIOSes, all that was needed was to stick the
machine a floppy with an amiboot.rom file on it, in case of BIOS corruption,
then wait until BIOS got automagically reflashed. Been there done that on an
old Pcchips board that got badflashed. In that case, I guess the flashchip
was somehow bad. I had to repeat over and over with different BIOS files,
until I got the one that worked (possibly a fault with the chip itself, I
had to find a file that was compatible, f.ex had a "0" where the bad cell
was).

With an Award 4.51 BIOS machine was screwed up after RAM-change. Changing
back did nothing. An ISA gfx-card gave me the bootblock message with a BIOS
ROM checksum error. I could boot a floppy with flashprog. on it. Afterwards
machine was fine.

"Xpress BIOS rescue" is a useless feature, making recovery even worse. I
would rather have free floppy access than having some prog automagically try
to reflash a file I cannot choose.

[Paul]

Post by b***@hotmail.com
That's very frustrating. It's so well welded. You can't even be
bothered trying to take it off. If the BIOS on the hard drive is told
undestructible then where did it go? Something obviously hapenned to it
because the Bootblock couldn't find it. But I think the worst of all
that is that it doesn't even search for one on a floppy or a cd.
Ridiculous! I don't think I'm buying a Gigabyte ever again. It sucks
but I had to buy a new one. My choice was a similar motherboard but
much newer. Asus P4P800. Should I really pay because of their
stupidity? No choice I guess. Oh well just another 150$ in the garbage.
Thanks for your help people.

Ask in the Gigabyte group and try to use Gigabyte Tech Support if
you can. Don't give up on it, until you have researched all the
possibilities. I've tried reading the Gigabyte manuals before,
but I cannot claim to have understood what I was reading. Maybe
there is some other option we haven't thought of.

The Express Recovery here, is for restoring the OS on the hard
drive. They keep a snapshot of the OS in a hidden file. If the
OS is corrupted, they reload the OS from the hidden file. Naturally,
you have to update the snapshot at regular intervals, if you
expect to have everything put back the way you had it. Since this
is an Express3 feature, the 8ipe1000p probably doesn't have the
feature to recover the operating system files.

http://www.giga-byte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/FAQ_List.aspx?FAQID=4888

The 8ipe1000p_e manual mentions Dual BIOS, but does not address
operation of the board if only one BIOS chip is installed. Maybe
the one chip holds two BIOS images ? I've read somewhere, that
the Gigabyte Dual BIOS is not a true dual BIOS - it is one boot
block and two main BIOS images. The boot block should never be
updated, if that is the case. But it would appear, in my research
below, that the boot block in these BIOS files is being changed,
and doing that to a motherboard with only one BIOS chip soldered
to the motherboard, is stupid.

******************
Download F12 2005/08/22
Update CPU microcode

Download F11 2004/09/09
Fixed 0F41 CPU can't boot issue

Download F10 2004/08/11
Support Intel Celeron-D CPU (Notice: Please refer to CPU support
status and motherboard version)

Download F9 2004/03/05 Update Micro code

Download F8 2003/12/25
Update CPUID 0F33h micro code to 07h
Fixed Install NT4.0 Fail with Prescott CPU

Download F7 2003/07/14
Support BIOS auto-rescue function <---- Yikes! Added after release?

Download F6 2003/05/15 MP Release
*******************

I downloaded the F8 BIOS, and loaded it into a hex editor.
I see the text string in the Boot Block area:

BIOS Auto-Recovering .Scanning BIOS Image in Hard Drive
Unknown Flash Memory

and then further down, very near the end of the 256KB file:

Drive A error. System halt
Can not Find BIOS Image in Hard Drive or Diskette !
BIOS ROM checksum error
Keyboard controller error
Keyboard error or no keyboard present
Detecting floppy drive A media...
Drive media is : 1.44Mb 1.2Mb 720Kb 360Kb

In the F12 BIOS

BIOS Auto-Recovering .Scanning BIOS Image in Hard Drive
Unknown Flash Memory

and then further down, very near the end of the 256KB file:

Drive A error. System halt
Can not Find BIOS Image in Hard Drive ! <---- Uh oh!
BIOS ROM checksum error
Keyboard controller error
Keyboard error or no keyboard present
Detecting floppy drive A media...
Drive media is : 1.44Mb 1.2Mb 720Kb 360Kb

I guess one of the Gigabyte "improvements" may have
been to stop using the floppy ? It looks like the F8
BIOS may have searched the floppy, but the message
in the F12 BIOS suggests they stopped using the floppy.

In the F6 BIOS, the one without "auto-rescue", there
is only one chunk of text strings.

Drive A error. System halt
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER
BIOS ROM checksum error
Keyboard controller error
Keyboard error or no keyboard present
Detecting floppy drive A media...
Drive media is : 1.44Mb 1.2Mb 720Kb 360Kb

It would appear that the F8 BIOS had the most intelligent
error messages. The F12 only claims to search the
hard drive. And I cannot tell from that, whether it looked
in the root level of the first partition, or whether it
looks in all partitions, or it uses an HPA area. 256KB of
storage area, or thereabouts, would be required. That is
512 sectors.

Maybe you would need to scan the hard drive sector by
sector, looking for "Award BootBlock BIOS" on the disk.

It occurs to me, if you were upgrading from F6 BIOS (where
the F6 BIOS would not have prepared a recovery image on
the hard drive), to a later BIOS like F12, the F12 boot
block will not be able to find a BIOS image on the
hard drive (because F6 didn't put it there), but if the
F12 BIOS no longer looks at the floppy, you're screwed.
It could be you got "caught in the middle of Giga-byte
innovation", so to speak.

it would seem, in hindsight, that F6 --> F8 --> F12
update sequence would have left you with more recovery
options, than F6 --> F12. But in any case, a BIOS soldered
to a motherboard is lunacy.

Paul