So, today I flashed a BIOS on a spare computer I had... I looked up the motherboard info and downloaded the BIOS I needed... After flashing it, I restarted the computer, and low and behold, THE SCREEN WAS BLANK!

How can I fix this? :cry:

That doesn't sound good. Do you get any POST beeps? If it's completely dead the only thing you can do now is replace the chip. If you were to have a motherboard just like it, you might be able to use it to "hot flash" the BIOS. That is boot up the good computer, then swap it's chip with your bad one and flash it. This is risky of course and you could end up ruining both of them. You could also use a EEPROM programmer to flash the bad chip or send it to someone who has one. If the motherboard is not too old you may also be able to order a replacement chip, but for what these usually cost it would probably make more sense to just get a new motherboard. Check out eBay, you might be able to find something there.

The computer is seven years old. I doubt someone has a replacement chip for it... Oh well, its not really worth buying a new mobo for an old machine...

Now I got myself a new doorstop!

I've heard this is a good site for problems like that... I have no idea if they'd fix chips that old, though. Worth checking out.

I remember something about all BIOS having an emergency area containing some very basic functionality, including a generic ISA video card driver ... So if you have an old ISA video card (and the PC has an ISA slot), you "should" be able to get something on the screen again. Then you "should" be able to boot into DOS and reflash the normal BIOS ...

Hope it helps

Most BIOS, as Crispy, has said contain an emergency area which usually stores some basic functionality in case of a problem. Although, I thought it was floppy functionality and not video drivers.

Try resetting the CMOS jumper and booting from there. If that doesn't work, usually you can create an emergency boot disk which will auto load the bios flash utility from the autoexec.bat and stuff. Once you've made this disk, pop it into the disk drive and see what happens. Of course you won't have video so you will just have to watch the floppy for any indications.

I had the same situation not long ago. A Bios flashing utility called Uniflash (http://www.uniflash.org) saved my bacon and my motherboard. Maybe it could help you

Nice... Thanks guys! I'll try out that Uniflash BIOS flashing program when I get back to Montreal...

Thanks again!

Oh well... Looks like my BIOS is fried. No beeping, no reading, nada, zilch, zip...

Hmmm... New doorstop?

You may want to try and find a users manual for your motherboad.

I know a number of motherboards have a built in backup BIOS that can be accessed by changing a certain jumper on your board. That would allow you to reflash your BIOS and you could then set your jumper back.

Worth looking into.

Hmmm... And where would I find a manual for an 8 year old computer!?

Just kidding... I'll take a look tomorrow!

There is only one way now to rescue your motherboard You will need a working BIOS chip from another motherboard, you would have to remove the working chip and the zapped chip, push the working chip into the connector on the broken motherboard just far enough to make electrical contact. When (or should that be IF) the computer starts up you can then lift the (working) BIOS chip off the connector and very carefully push the broken BIOS chip back into the motherboard. This obviously has be done with the computer switched on SO BE CAREFUL. You can then flash the broken chip! It sounds risky but I have done it before and it did work. You just need to remember not to bend the pins on the chips

Hmmmm... The computer's about 7 years old, where would I find the same working motherboard??

Checked eBay, no luck!

Give it up, gamehead! It's not worth the trouble. Unless its vintage or holds a special place in your heart, fixing up a 7 year old computer isn't worth it.