Unknown Flash Type?

[skeeezixpa]

well... this hasn't been a problem so much as a curiosity for quite some time. My computer, for about as long as I can remember, displays the message "Unknown Flash Type" right before booting into Windows every time. It doesn't seem to cause any real problems. Anyone know:
a.) what causes this? (something with the BIOS i'm guessing?)
b.) is it harmful?
c.) what can i do about it?

It's a pentium 200 mmx, don't know offhand what the motherboard make is, though if necessary i could crack it open & try to find out.

Thanks,
Jenna

 

[brianF]

What operating system are you running, does it do it if you boot in safe mode?????

 

[Shadowfax]

Something that may help you is SiSoft Sandra, a free download that will let you see what kind of parts, amongst other things, that you have in your computer.

 

[skeeezixpa]

I'm running Win95... F8 lets me enter safe mode only after the "Unknown Flash type" message comes up, so i'm not sure if it effects it either way. The message doesn't come up again after I choose to boot into safe mode, if that's helpful. Is there another method of entering safe mode without using the boot menu?

I didn't try Sandra yet, but Norton lists my bios as "Award Software 11/07/97" ...at boot I get "Award Modular BIOS 4.51 PG" ....plus some other info i didn't catch.

Jenna

 

[~Candy~]

Start button, run, then type sysedit and press ok....

What are the contents for the autoexec.bat and the config.sys tabs?

 

[RandyG]

I was trying to post to this on the 8th, but my machine rebooted, and I lost the htread you were on.

The search I have done for this error comes up with 2 possibilities. One is that you added a new bit of Hardware and your BIOS can not recognise it properly till you reset some security jumpers on your motherboard. The other time is when you have incorrectly flashed your bios.

I got this quote from http://www.amptron.com/html/bios.html

Error messages such as 'Unknown flash part' or 'Unknown flash type' indicate that the flash utility you are using is not compatible with the BIOS chip on your motherboard. If you get this error message then download a different revision of the flash utility and try again. Several versions of each flash utility are available on this page below the BIOS code.

I got the following quote from http://web02.amplicon.co.uk/faq/faq/2.1.html

There is a write enable DIP switch setting for the BIOS flash ROM, usually SW6.4.
The default setting disables access to the ROM, so the SBC is unable to interrogate it during the boot sequence and shows the UNKNOWN FLASH TYPE message.
The DIP switch should ONLY be moved to the write-enable position during a BIOS re-flash process.

 

[skeeezixpa]

AcaCandy:
not much in either...
autoexec.bat:
SET PATH=C:\IMSI\EASYLANG\ASRBIN

config.sys:
device=C:\WINDOWS\himem.sys
DEVICE = C:\BTCCDROM\BTCCDROM.SYS /D:BTCCD001 /V

Randy:

I've never attempted to flash the bios, and I can't imagine my boyfriend would even think to do something like that (or know what it means ) . I looked at that website, they seemed to be referring to getting that message while attempting to flash the bios, but i get it every time i start up. Unless something's telling the comp I'm trying to flash the bios when i'm not?

As to hardware, everything we've installed has always seemed to run fine, though perhaps there's something i could be missing... The quote you gave about a DIP switch sounds like a possibility, but I'm not altogether hardware savvy.... how would i go about locating/changing this?


Actually...... on rereading that, it almost sounds like that setting should be disabled, and should show that message?? I don't know... it's all very perplexing.

Jenna

 

[RandyG]

I know exactly what you mean about perplexing!

I was just trying to point out that I had never seen that message before, and the only references I could find to it were related to Flashing the BIOS, and that security setting for some motherboards.

One site suggested restting the jumper settings to disable the security procedure, and rebooting your system once, so the BIOS could accept the changes, and then after that boot, re-enable the dip switch.

Personally, I found it all very perplexing, and await words of wisdom from our more knowledgeable members and moderators to see if they can sort this out.

I also found reference in my search on this topic to the SiSoft Sandra software that Shadowfax posted. It seems that that bit of software might be able to correct the problem.


You say you have had this message for as long as you can remember, so it's possible that the changes to the BIOS or the hardware were done before you got it, and were never fixed properly.

Another possibility is that you can flash your BIOS, and it may correct the problem.

http://www.wimsbios.com/ is a good site that deals with Award BIOS' and has a utility that you download and run on your system to determine the exact BIOS that you have. From there, you can check to see if there is an update.

Of course, we can also wait to see if anyone else has any bright ideas.