Cacked-up BIOS. Thanks to Intel!

Can anyone help? I was having trouble with an annoying boot-up hang when the BIOS halted with "Press F1 to continue or F2 to enter setup". Either that or the thing just hung completely after POST and I'd have to keep re-booting until I got to that bit. So I downloaded the latest BIOS from Intel's site, loaded it up on a bootable floppy and re-started the PC.

It was all going fine until an error shot up saying that the image file it was copying to flash from the floppy was corrupt, so the installation was unsuccessful. The big trouble is; it's already overwrote half the flash memory so all I'm left with is a muddle of junk. No boot-up, no screen, no keyboard, just a stream of beeps that end with an intermittent buzzing sound from somewhere.

It looks like I need to install a brand new BIOS.

Question: Can I load a completely fresh version of the BIOS? If so, how to do that on a PC that won't start? :cry

 

The computer manufacturers web site usually has drivers, downloads available for your make and model, find myself using HP, and Gateway sites frequently for these items. BIOS and upgrades are usually listed along with the other drivers like display adapters and sound for a particular system, along with instructions on how to use them. I have only flashed the BIOS a few times, not for the faint of heart.

 

This is the first time I've ever done it, and probably the last! How can I know that the files I downloaded from Intel to build the boot floppy were corrupt? Why does the program progress with wiping out the current BIOS when the new one is doomed to fail? I'd have thought it should be simple enough to build in error-checking before the program executes, and abort if anything's wrong.

 

Have you tried to reset your BIOS to default yet, whenever you did get in there? Tried a hardware BIOS reset by moving the jumper over or have just removed the battery for 10 minutes or so or replaced it? If none of those work then I fear for your motherboard Robo. You didn't mention which board you do have, that may help some here to narrow down your issue.

 

Oh yeah, tried the jumper in reset position, no jumper at all etc. It doesn't even get that far. I've even tried a fancy auto-run BIOS fix-it-all floppy to boot from but that won't do it either. I think it's a mew mobo for me, in fact I'm just off now to pick one up (secondhand) for £10. It's a 440BX Intel ATX.