[sammouse]

Hey,

I think my bios has become corrupted, I was half way through updating it and the utility just crashed. after half an hour of waiting i turned computer off and now when i turn it on again it just beeps with the fan going.

what should i do now? it doesnt have a floppy drive, which many guides require, so i'm not sure what to do..

also i dont have much money :P

[crjdriver]

You may or may not be able to reflash the bios. In any case, you need a floppy drive. They are all of $8 @newegg.

If your system accesses the drive after pw ON, you may be able to do a blind bios flash. The requires a mid-level of computer skill to make the blind bios flashing disk however it is not all that difficult. If you want detailed instructions on how to make the disk, post back.

Next option is that if you have a removable bios chip, pull it out and contact badflash.com. They can either reflash your chip or just send you a new one. I have used them on a few occasions and I was happy with their service.

Final option [and one that requires a high level of skill not to mention luck] is to do a hot flash of the bios. This requires the use of another system with the same type of bios chip. Note it does not need to be the same system; only the bios chip needs to be of the same design ie number of pins, etc. Again post back if you want detailed instructions. Again this method requires a high level of skill and does entail a moderate degree of risk to the working system.

[crjdriver]

BTW why did you flash the bios in the first place?

[sammouse]

hey thanks for the reply
well i have a floppy drive on the computer im using now, i guess i could make the floppy and put the drive in the broken one when i'm done. how would i make this disk then?

also i dont know how to locate the bios chip on the motherboard, been searching google too, no one else seems to have same problem with their dell or know where the chip is in a vostro 200

thanks again

[sammouse]

i wanted to overclock processor, guide i was using told me i needed to update my bios and said it was 100 percent safe (haha..)
so i tried it
failed
and just found out you cant overclock dells either

[crjdriver]

There are a very few dells that have an adjustable fsb however those are very very few. To make a blind bios flashing disk, do the following. Again the system must access the disk. If it does not access the floppy drive on pw up, you are wasting your time.

Here are the instructions;

Make a bootable floppy for flashing bios. You can download a file from bootdisk.com to make a bios flashing disk.
Put your bios flashing utility on floppy; ie awardflash.exe or whatever.
copy bios file to floppy.
Put an autoexec.bat file on floppy
Put just this one line in autoexec.bat file.
awdflash.exe ak31s2eh.bin /py /sn /cd /cp /cc
substitute bios name for ak31s2eh.bin
delete any config.sys file from floppy

Now on the problem system, disconnect all drives except the floppy drive. Pw ON the system. As long as the system accesses or looks at the floppy drive, it will work. Note there will be no display on the screen. Let it run for a min of 5min and shutdown. Now reconnect all drives and pw ON. Good luck.

[win2kpro]

The BIOS chip itself is generally located in the lower right hand quadrant of the motherboard.

I don't recall seeing any Dell boards with a replaceable BIOS, like Intel they are soldered to the motherboard. I strongly suspect that your ultimate solution will be to buy a new motherboard.

[Compiler]

Let us know if crjdriver solution works. Hopefully it will.

Dells don't overclock, especially Vostros. Some of their high-end XPS allow overclocking.

If bios is fried.... time to buy a new computer.

[win2kpro]

When you connect the floppy drive and power up the machine with no floppy in the drive if the floppy light comes on, the floppy is "active". If the floppy light doesn't come on when you connect the floppy drive without a disk then the floppy drive is "inactive" and you don't need to proceed further.

I "blind flash" a little bit different than the way crjdriver explains, so if the floppy is "active" and it doesn't blind flash the BIOS, I will post a little different method to try.

You might want to contact Dell and see if they have a recovery BIOS file available. Also, how big is the BIOS file, will it fit on a floppy disk?

[sammouse]

okay firstly like to thank everyone for their help ^^
right, i basically tried everything you guys suggested, without any success. the bios chip is soldered in place and i cant replace it and i cant reflash using a floppy so motherboard is pretty much screwed.
I called dell up, they quoted me £280 for a new motherboard and psu (yeah, thats also broken now 0.o).
soooo
i came up with a new idea, instead of replacing my dell motherboard, i'm thinking of buying a new case, with a different motherboard and psu and migrating my existing hardware into there. is this unreasonable or is this actually possible? i've built a couple of computers before without any problems so i'm guessing its a pretty similar process.

thanks again

[win2kpro]

If your board and power supply is snackered you won't have much hardware to worry about transferring, just a processor, memory, hard drive(s) and optical drive(s).

You're right, in a situation such as this it is just better to start over. You may very well be able to sell the chassis on eBay. I've seen Vostro 200 Desktop and Slim Desktop chassis advertised on eBay so maybe you an at least recover a few $ by selling the chassis.

[Compiler]

I am guessing, that the "BIOS" file you used is not from Dell... since they don't generally have "updates" that modify their computers that way. So it was a hacked BIOS someone upload...?

Sometimes these are fine, legit. But others are hacked for improvements or to cause problems - the quality of work can vary. For example, a legit system BIOS is does a checksum to make sure it is upgrading the correct hardware with a proper BIOS.

Because lets say ASUS has two different boards, installing the wrong BIOS can kill the board.

You should post back that your flashing wasn't "safe" afterall.

In the future, only flash a BIOS to add compatibility or fix a problem. I've never lost a board in 15 years. I've flashed about 15 or so boards out of 600+ systems. I am always aware that a screw up can happen. A BIOS flash takes about a minute.
- - - - -

Your Vestro 200 is a core2duo? Please provide your stats... everything that is in your computer. For example, if your system is a Celeron - perhaps it'll be a better deal to get an AMD CPU with a motherboard...

You'll need to budget in a copy of Windows since yours is licensed for your Dell
motherboard.

Your drives are transferable.

Wants we know what you have... it'll help. You can use your system ID code to look up your CPU / memory, etc and give us a link or paste the info here.

You are looking at about $175~250USD in parts alone.