Go Home | Go Back to Tips Page Warning: the procedure is dangerous, so do it with caution. However, it worked for me, and possible for you. About half years ago, I use the wrong data to flash my BIOS chip. After that unsuccessful upgrade, I can no longer boot my Pavilion. After searching on the Internet using the iMac, (That's the point I keep multiple computers at home: I can always have back up when someting goes wrong.) I finally find a solution: hot-swapping. Its principle: BIOS is used only for the booting of the PC. After booted, you no longer need it to keep the machine running. So you can find a normal PC, which has the same flash mechanism with your PC. For most modern Pentium II and III motherboards, the flash mechanism is the same. Boot it to the DOS prompt, remove the BIOS chip while the computer is still running. replace the "bad" BIOS to the slot, run the flash utility to write the correct BIOS code into the "bad" BIOS chip. Then, shut off the normal machine, pull out the recovered BIOS chip, return the original BIOS to the normal machine. That's all. You can use the recovered BIOS to boot you machine. It works well for me, thanks my old pal Yan Chen. Without his PC,my Pavilion is still a deal box there. Thank you, Yan. By the way, the hot-swapping method can used to recover the BIOS chips damaged by the infamous CIH virus. |