Nightmare bios update

[Pugwash]

Not quite a nightmare but as usual nothing goes according to plan.

For the last day or so I have been preparing to install Win 2K on one of my PCs again, last time I had it installed was over a year ago and as part of this preparation I have been downloading the service packs, critical updates, recommended updates, drivers for all hardware, software updates and patches to date 597MB, all with a 56k modem.

During this driver and patch search I came across a bios upgrade for the Adaptec 39160 SCSI card and thought I would download and install.

Now having updated the bios on this card once before because Adaptec had originally written a bios that used some of the same memory area as the Intel OR840 system bios preventing the system from booting.

This meant that the card had to be upgraded on another motherboard not a problem last time I popped the card in another machine booted from the prepared floppy disk and upgraded when fitted to the OR840 everything worked fine.

Well I expected this time I would have no problems, like every BC gamer I read all the documentation twice and then prepared the boot-upgrade disk, I had to open the PC up to remove the cabling to the SCSI CDs and HDs.

On booting from the floppy and invoking the flash program the process hung so I put the floppy in another PC and reread the help file no mention of this problem.

Well I'm not getting worried yet, I try rebooting the PC everything is ok apart from the bios wasn't upgraded and the PC wont boot as the HDs are unplugged but the SCSI card diagnostics ran so I've not broken anything.

I decide I'll have to try in another motherboard, I have a few spare parts lying around so I pick up a P350, mobo, memory and plug in a graphics card and floppy drive place it on my work bench where I have a test bed set up. I plug in a mouse, keyboard, monitor, PSU and on switch

power it up just to check it work and everything is fine.

I pull the SCSI card out of the workstation and try to fit it in the spare board

It won't fit!

The SCSI cards a dual 32 or 64 bit PCI card and I'm plugging it into a 32bit PCI slot but it wont fit

The problem is the PCI slot on this motherboard has a thicker surround on it and will not fit into the notch on the SCSI card.

Well I'm not going to cut down the PCI slot or widen the notch in the SCSI card so I give up on that.

I can't place it in the PC with the Gigabyte motherboard as that has an onboard SCSI controller and you must only have one controller in the PC during ROM flashing.

So I have to use my BCMBeta testing machine, I'm not keen on this as I don't want to upset it.

I pull the SCSI controller and all other cards out of this PC just incase and leave it with just the graphics card in.

I insert the 39160 SCSI card, boot from the floppy and run the flash program.

I follow the on screen prompts and all is well.

Reboot and watch for the error messages that are expected as the configuration has changed and reboot again.

Everything is fine, now the bios is upgraded and all I have to do is put the two PCs back together.

So two and a half hours after starting a job that I expected to take ten minutes max I have two PCs to reassemble and I'm wondering to myself was it worth it.

On the bright side I haven't damaged anything or lost any data so that must be a bonus, and next time I want to upgrade that bios I'll ask myself why?

The next task is to install Win2K and all those patches, get that PIII800 chip back I lent to a friend and I can have the dual processors running again.

[Parias]

Murphy's Law.. an upgrade that should "only take 10 minutes" never will. EVER.

Well, except in those rare situations with the few lucky people out there, but they always have something else that goes wrong shortly afterwards.

[Menchise]

Classic upgrade fumble story: We bought all the parts of a computer from one shop, including a Pentium 3 1Ghz CPU and AOpen motherboard, and took everything home for assembly. Gradually, everything was coming together in the brand new case, then came the time to insert the P3 chip and the heatsink on top.

Guess what? The heatsink doesn't fit!

The capacitors on the motherboard were in the way!

We had to get a circular heatsink (that's right, they come in a variety of shapes ), which fit in nicely.

[ 07-01-2001: Message edited by: Menchise ]

[Game_Ender]

I was upgrading my comp with a new motherboard, CPU and Graphics card. I had built this comp from scratch and it worked without a problem.

So after all the parts came in the mail i took out the old ones put in the new ones. Turned on the machine and it sent nothing to monitor and made no beeps. I tried another card it didn't send any data either (it turns this card doesn't work in the first place). I didn't know what was the problem becuase i couldn't here any beeps (my case speaker was to quite and had to swicth to the mobo speaker).

It turns out the metal bracket on the side of my Geforce 3 that has the plug in for the monitor is bent a little. So if it is in flush to the case the graphics isn't in all the way. So i pushed the card in all the way and screwed the bracket in at a slight angle and my comp works now.

The only problem is my computer isn't running certain games right, including the BCM demo (the HC version which i d/l on 56k modem). These games include Might & Magic 8, Homeworld, and Homeworld Catacylsm. I have no idea what all the games have incommon.

What happens when i start the game the is sound starts to play like it is normally going through the intro but nothing appears on screen, i have to alt tab out of the game.

Please help me my problem is decribed in more detail on this thread- Click Here

[Pugwash]

I always and I mean always power up new mobo on a test bench with only CPU, Mem and fan fitted if an external speaker is needed then I fit one and count the bleeps, leave it running for a five mins switch off and reboot again. Now I've never had a mobo that smoked or has taken out the power supply like some tales I've heard but my first Intel OR840 mobo was faulty and would not start and I had a Gigabyte mobo that seemed ok at first but would not restart when warm if you left it an hour it would be ok again needles to say they went back to the supplier.

It's often better to test as you go along when assembling if your unlucky enough to have a faulty component or fit it badly you know what you have just done and can go back one stage.

I was once playing Colin MacRae Rally when there was a big bang the monitor went off when I looked over at the tower, smoke was bellowing out of the top.

Needless to say I reached over and switched it off yes it was still running.

When I opened it up I found that the ATI card (I think it was a Rage Pro) had exploded.

I replaced it and on reboot apart from windows complaining it hadn't been shut down properly and needing the drivers changing was fine. That was on a Gigabyte GA6BSX mobo that is still running fine today with the same CPU and Mem in it.