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Subject:
From:
David Gillett <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
PCBUILD - Personal Computer Hardware discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 7 Sep 2005 08:16:51 -0700
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On 5 Sep 2005 at 20:33, Peter wrote:

> Now for my question to the list. Since I do not have a flash ram programmer
> for this BIOS chip, is it possible to pull the chip while power is on to the
> computer, insert another chip and then program it? What I am really asking
> is whether it will damage the flash RAM chip by removing and inserting it
> with the power turned on. Obviously, I can't turn the power off before
> placing a blank chip in since the computer will not boot then.

  Don't!!!

  You could have got a replacement chip from anywhere, if it was just the
chip you needed.  But the point of getting it *from Shuttle* is that it
should come with a usable BIOS already in the flash memory.
  Maybe not the latest version ... you may want to retry the upgrade after
the chip is installed.  But you should not have any difficulty shutting
down, replacing the chip, and re-booting.

  Your original problem may be trying to flash the chip with an NT-family OS
running.  It has been a while since I've needed to flash a BIOS, but I've
always done it with a DOS or 9x boot disk to make sure that the flash
utility had raw access to the hardware.

David Gillett

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