[flashrom] oops ! - everything went fine, until...

[Idwer Vollering]

2011/2/20 Jules Gosnell <jules_gosnell at yahoo.com>:
> late night session...
>
> feeling a little cavalier with some old hardware...
>
> ran 'flashrom' - seemed to be happy...
>
> made a backup of my existing bios - still happy...
>
> wrote my new bios - flashrom reported job done no problems...still happy...
>
> I reboot, kicking myself for hours of messing around with various versions
> of windows trying and failing to update my bios that way...
>
> suddenly - box NOT happy :-(
>
> three short beeps, pause, three short beeps...
>
> I power down, power up  - three short beeps repeating - argh !!!

Tyan's support page 'demands' that you reset the CMOS after flashing,
here's how you do that:
http://www.tyan.com/archive/support/html/clear_cmos.html

Three beeps indicate memory problems, see chapter 8:
http://www.ami.com/support/doc/AMIBIOS8_Checkpoint_and_Beep_Code_List_PUB.pdf

If the CMOS reset doesn't work, hopefully a bootblock recovery will
help you out (chapter 3):
http://www.ami.com/support/doc/AMIBIOS8_Flash_Recovery_Whitepaper_v10.pdf

>
> M/B is/was? a Tyan Thunder, with a pair of old opterons on it.
>
> New bios version, carefully hunted down online was - 2885V208.rom.
>
> flashrom worked flawlessly, so no doubt this is pilot error - most likely I
> have installed the wrong image.

Latest version is V2.07: http://www.tyan.com/archive/support/html/b_s2885.html

>
> Do I chuck the m/b and  get another on eBay, or is it salvageable ?
> I think I saw someone online selling BIOS chips

This wiki page is what you are looking for, it lists some companies
that offer replacement chips:
http://www.coreboot.org/FAQ#Where_can_I_buy_BIOS_chips_.28empty_or_pre-flashed.29.3F

 - maybe, if I knew which chip it
> was, I could unplug mine and plug a new one in - if it's not all soldered
> down...
(Reference) image of the board:
http://www.tyan.com/archive/support/assets/images/s2885_revID.jpg

>
> I'm afraid I don't know much about BIOSes. They are not something I play
> with every day. I was just trying to persuade my old box to see a new 2TB
> SATA drive so it could retire into my loft to run mythtvbackend...
>
> any help appreciated,
>
> regards.
>
>
> Jules
>
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