BIOS Flash - Gone Very Bad - HELPPPP

- Here we go: I have a Windows XP Home, P4 HT 2.5 ghz. MSI Mobo - Neo - Geforce 5700 fx VC. 250 gig HDD hooked up to the SATA port on the Mobo.
- It all started when my system started to crash unexpectedly. I then decided to format the HDD partition for the operating system and re-install.
- Did that and everything good. But no sound - so I thought I better get the drivers and flash the BIOS while I am at it. Went to the MSI site and did the autodetect and flash utility and made the recovery floppy. WHen the system went through the motions it came up wwith wrong settings in CMOS. I looked in the menu and it dosen't list my HDD. I checked the menu and it's on auto. So it should have detected?
- Thought I would change the Intergrated periferals setting to native from legacy and still the system will not boot properly even after I use the recover disk....

- Where do I go to get these settings or did I just blow up my sysytem.....I can't afford to take it in so please help....I am borrowing a friends laptop to search for answers but I keep coming up short.

Thanks,

B

 

I did a Google search using "Recover from a bad BIOS flash" as the topic and there appears to be numerous sites that can help you recover from a bad flash. As for the CMOS, you can try to clear it. Some MBs have jumpers you can set to do this, or the method I use is to remove the MB battery for about 3 minutes and then re-install it. The re-formatting I can understand and finding the proper sound drivers is also logical, but why flash the BIOS if the machine is running fine? Well, we all make mistakes and that's how we learn, but if your machine is running great all I can say is "if it ain't broke...don't fix it!!" Good Luck, and let us know how it comes out!!!