The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    POST failure: How do I re-flash a BIOS?

    Discussion in 'Sager and Clevo' started by Duct Tape Dude, Feb 3, 2009.

  1. Duct Tape Dude

    Duct Tape Dude Duct Tape Dude

    Reputations:
    568
    Messages:
    1,822
    Likes Received:
    9
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Hello all,

    It's been a bit since I've last posted in this forum, but I have a question for those of you with knowledge on the situation:

    Is it possible to re-flash a BIOS if the computer does not POST? If so, how do I do that?

    The CD drive does light up when I turn the computer on, but nothing else happens after that. Is that normal when powering on or is it possible to actually boot from that?

    Thanks
     
    Duct Tape Dude, Feb 3, 2009
    #1
  2. AlanP

    AlanP Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    123
    Messages:
    393
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Depends on what is wrong with the Laptop. Can you get into the bios? If you can, then look for Zfactor's excellent guide " how to your bios with dos using a usb stick", here in this Forum.

    By being able to go into bios, you can change the order of boot seek that the Laptop goes through. The boot Device for Dos can be a USB Stick, Cdrom, a PCexpressCard [if available in you Laptop], a PcMCIA Drive, floppy drive or a secondary hard drive which is formatted in Fat or Fat32, not ntfs [Dos won't read that format] and is set up for Dos Boot, by using the SYS command. It helps to know basic DOS commands, as a blinking cursor on a mostly blank screen is a bit intimidating.

    You will need access to another Computer to set up the Dos Boot Device.
     
    AlanP, Feb 3, 2009
    #2
  3. kaltmond

    kaltmond Clepple

    Reputations:
    699
    Messages:
    1,454
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    56
    If it even does not POST, then impossible to get into bios setup......
     
    kaltmond, Feb 3, 2009
    #3
  4. Duct Tape Dude

    Duct Tape Dude Duct Tape Dude

    Reputations:
    568
    Messages:
    1,822
    Likes Received:
    9
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Nothing shows up onscreen. I've considered the motherboard dead (again) so as kaltmond noted I can't even mess with the BIOS/boot device options. I was just wondering if there was some magic way to reflash the BIOS upon POST failure...
     
    Duct Tape Dude, Feb 3, 2009
    #4
  5. kaltmond

    kaltmond Clepple

    Reputations:
    699
    Messages:
    1,454
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    56
    kaltmond, Feb 3, 2009
    #5
  6. Duct Tape Dude

    Duct Tape Dude Duct Tape Dude

    Reputations:
    568
    Messages:
    1,822
    Likes Received:
    9
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Wow that looks pretty handy, I'll have to try that and see what happens. Thanks.
     
    Duct Tape Dude, Feb 3, 2009
    #6