Dead BIOS

Last night as I was going to bed, there was an update from HP concerning my BIOS. I clicked on it to install the update and went to bed. When I woke up this morning to check my PC, it wouldn't boot -- at all. It does not POST, there are no error codes, and no visual display. I am fairly certain there was an issue with the BIOS installation.

I'm fairly certain that the computer is 'bricked' but is it at possible that I could somehow reflash the BIOS to an earlier version (or even the default version)?

The motherboard made by ECS, the motherboard model is MCP61PM-HM.

 

Probably bricked

You could try clearing the CMOS/BIOS settings, but it probably won't do it: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&docname=c00906137#N919

First blue jumper, not the second, be sure to turn off and unplug computer first. Then you just move the jumper to the "clear" position, then put it back. Plug in, turn on.

Sometimes you can still flash a BIOS if it still seeks for a floppy drive. If it even has one, that is. Does it try to read the floppy? In that case, you might be able to make an auto-boot floppy that automatically launches a BIOS patcher. I couldn't find anything about boot block protection on that motherboard though.

Last thing to try is looking for the BIOS chip. If the computer won't do a thing at all, and it's a type of bios chip that you can pull and replace (like this) rather than soldered in (not like this), you can usually replace it with an IDENTICAL chip.

If you're too cheap or broke to buy a new chip but you can borrow one from an IDENTICAL motherboard, you can even do this: pry it loose, gently stick in the good chip back in so it baaarely makes full contact, boot to a BIOS flash program just before it actually writes the new BIOS to the good chip, and then physically swap to the bad chip while the computer is on. Tell the program to continue, and it will write the new BIOS and hopefully fix it. VERY RISKY though. If you don't know EXACTLY what you're doing, you could toast the good chip and/or motherboard as well

 

The PC doesn't have a floppy drive, but I am sure I have one floating around from an older PC I could pull. Could you give me more of an explanation on how to create a BIOS patcher from a floppy disk?

 

I haven't done it forever so hopefully someone else on here can help as well...

Step 1: You'll need to find a BIOS update for your computer. Hopefully it's a DOS compatible program, or will make a self-booting diskette. Either it makes a disk for you, or it gives you a DOS program to run from a boot disk, or else you're out of luck. If you can't get this, there's not much point in going forward with making the disk.

Step 2: You'll need another computer with a floppy drive. If you can get Windows 98 access, you can format the floppy and check the box that says "copy system files". Otherwise try to download files for Win98 or other DOS type boot disk. I'd try to end up with a disk with an "autoexec.bat". If so, you can put a line in that file that will launch your patcher. Otherwise you can try to type the command blindly after booting into MS-DOS.

 

Did you try clearing the CMOS from Fiero's first link?

 

Yeah, it was the first thing I tried, even before I posted here.

 

Yeah it is.

 

I have never seen a bios update for a factory built pc install the wrong update, pull motherboard battery out for a few minutes and try again. Be sure power supply power cord is pulled out. ed

 

Heh, normally I ignore the HP updates, but I got tired of seeing the notification every time I booted, so I installed.

 

Just some info, my hp is a a6745f, went to hp, yep theres a bios update 3-09. Downloaded it , as soon as i hit the update box a message said do you want to continue, i said yes, another message said do not turn off pc, ok. Screen went black and set idle for maybe 5 minutes, I killed pc with power button, powered up everything is fine, you tell me. ed