bios install

[boriken]

Hi all,

I just updated the award bios due to a virus. the update bar indicated all but 2 blocks were updated. I wonder if a trace of the virus has been left behind.

This is a garage desktop computer where it gets around 50 degrees at night. In the morning I have to reboot 2 or 3 times to get beyond the black screen. I wonder if that might be the problem?

I deleted and updated the mbr in the hhd, formatted same, updated bios, and reenstalled os.

win xp home, ecs 848p mb, 1gig memory, ati 9000 video card, broadcom wireless card, nothing fancy.
 any help or info is appreciated

[Allan]

I really, really don't understand your post.

You updated the bios due to a virus? Please explain what that means.

All but two blocks were updates? Either the bios flash worked or it did not. And the virus (unless it is the VERY rare boot sector type of virus) would have absolutely no effect on a bios update.

Computers work just fine at 50 degrees (fahrenheit)

You deleted the mbr? Then updated the bios again?? Reinstalled the OS - so is it working or not?

Is there a question here somewhere?

[Geek-9pm]

That’s right, a temperature of 50 ̊ F should be well within the normal range of any desktop computer.
Yet for some reason I have noticed problems sometimes with older computers if they are too cold. Don’t know why.

[Quantos]

If your BIOS flash was interrupted in anyway you will need a motherboard, or if it has a LIF(Low Insertion Force) chip or ZIF(Zero Force Insertion) chip it might be changeable.

A failed BIOS flash is ALWAYS a bad thing.

[BC_Programmer]

most motherboard have a small ROM chip as well though that, if the normal BIOS is corrupted can be used to flash straight from a floppy. Doesn't have anything else; just the flashing ROM.

[Geek-9pm]

Hello, boriken;
Before we go any further  with the BIOS Flash thing, we need to know the make and model of the Motherboard. Just ecs 848p ? No other numbers ? And which version(s) of the flash software you had.
And how did you know the BIOS had a virus?
Did you say this was a SATA drive?
Did you test the drive on another PC?

[Quantos]

most motherboard have a small ROM chip as well though that, if the normal BIOS is corrupted can be used to flash straight from a floppy. Doesn't have anything else; just the flashing ROM.

Really?
I wasn't aware of that, of course I'd never had a need to find it.  Can you supply some documentation I could peruse through?

[BC_Programmer]

Actually, I was only partially correct. It's not actually a seperate chip, but rather a special area in the start of the BIOS called the Boot Block.

http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?324-Motherboard-BIOS-Flashing-Guide

* Boot block :
Most flash BIOS's incorporate something called a 'boot block'
and UNIFLASH will not normally overwrite it so it remains intact.
The boot block contains just enough code to boot up your computer with basic
peripheral support to enable you to flash in a working BIOS in case something
went wrong , you wont see anything at the screen and you must use a floppy disk as the boot block only supports the floppy drive, no harddrive access!

Even so, newer PCs literally have two Duplicate BIOS chips. Mine has two, so if a flash fails or something it runs off the backup.

[Quantos]

Nice, thanks for the heads up BC.

<edit>  I thanked you for that one, you know, in case you care   </edit>

[Geek-9pm]

Really?
I wasn't aware of that, of course I'd never had a need to find it.  Can you supply some documentation I could peruse through?

BC is no too sharp on hard ware.
OK, he got you the docs.
A portion  of the FLASH is "blown" at the factory so that it ca not be erased. The remainder can still be flashed. That part is ROM. The ROM will read a prepared floppy and re do the flash. This is documented somewhere in the Intel motherboards. Don't know which and not sure if it is still done that way.

[BC_Programmer]

BC is no too sharp on hard ware.
A portion  of the FLASH is "blown" at the factory so that it ca not be erased. The remainder can still be flashed. That part is ROM. The ROM will read a prepared floppy and re do the flash. This is documented somewhere in the Intel motherboards. Don't know which and not sure if it is still done that way.

not too sharp... but that's essentially what I just said!  that "blown" flash that cannot be erased is the boot block...

unless of course this is your dictation program causing confusion

[Geek-9pm]

Yes, BC.
Basically you had it right. That is old technology and I was just talking off the top of my head. Little bit of research with Google shows that everybody is repeating the same words that they found somewhere about the accidental rewrite of the  BIOS. According to one popular source there may have been only one well known virus that actually attacked the flash BIOS. I think it was called the Chernobyl virus. But it only affected certain Intel motherboards anyway. 

I just did a Google search on some of this to try to bring my memory back and it appears that now days they think the possibility of a BIOS virus is rather rare. This is because most  i386 operating systems will not allow direct access to the hardware that does the flash. So you have to boot the system with the DOS floppy and run the program in that environment.
That being said, it would seem very unlikely that the  OP had a virus in his firmware.
And I scratched out that part where I said you were too sharp on hardware. Actually you did whether rather well.

[patio]

If he's running a 286 he'd have to worry about a BIOS infection....unlikely.   

[Allan]

Bios & Boot Sector viruses are indeed extremely rare. Then again, so is a response from the OP.

[boriken]

Hi All,
Sorry I didn't resond to all you kind people, but I do have to work.  I found the problem, besides a virus I also have a bad HDD. Problem solved.
Thanks for your help