I updated the BIOS on my motherboard, and my computer is now very slow
(eg: bootup took 10 minutes, I can type into this box faster than the
screen can update).  The details of my computer are below:

- Motherboard: DTK PAM-0052V E-0
- BIOS: Award 4.51
- Processor: AMD K6-2 350MHz
- OS: Windows 98SE
- RAM: 320MB SDRAM

(The reason I wanted to update the BIOS was I bought a new IBM 80GB
hard drive, and the computer locked up on POST.  The IBM web site
stated that older Award BIOSs show this symptom when trying to use
drives larger than 33.6GB.)

I went to DTK's web site (www.dtk.com.tw) and went through its support
pages (written in very poor English).  It suggested I download the
utility appropriate to my motherboard (AWDFH713.exe) and the update
file (52V112.bin).  First possible issue: the site did not have
support for the "PAM-0052V E-0", only the "PAM-0052V".  Other
motherboards on the list did have extended letterings.

I copied the downloaded files to a boot disk.  I rebooted to the
floppy and ran the utility.  It first asked me if I wanted to save the
current BIOS.  I said yes.  Then it asked me to name the file.  (Later
I discovered the site suggested naming this file
"(oldBIOSnumber).OLD".)  I called it "bios.bin".  It saved this file
to the floppy.  Then it asked me to confirm I wanted to update the
BIOS: I said yes.  It looked to update successfully.  I exited the
utility and rebooted.

The computer POST process went normally, then it started loading
Windows.  The splash screen took about twice as long as normal.  When
I reached the desktop, the background painted down the screen very
noticably (about a second).  After the login box, it went into its
automatic hardware detection, and found "Motherboard Resources", as
well as COM1, COM2, and LPT1 (don't ask me why).  Then the desktop
SLOOOOOWLY painted onto the screen.  I decided to reboot, got
impatient at the time to shut down, and did a hard power down.

As usual, I got Scandisk after such a reboot.  The process on my three
partitions took over 20 minutes.  Then Windows booted equally slowly
as before.

Thinking I may have corrupted Windows, I started trying reinstalling
Windows from my boot disk and Windows CD.  Same slowness just to get
to the Welcome screen, so it looks like it's a hardware issue.  I
abandoned the attempt (I don't want to think how long that would have
taken).

I tried using the DTK utility to flash my BIOS with my "BIOS.bin" file
I created above.  The utility complains that the file is not an Award
BIOS.  I don't know if it is just picky about the file name, or if the
file is corrupted.  In any rate, I did not take down the old BIOS
number (it would have been displayed on the screen during the POST
process).

The computer seems to work, it's just 10-20x slower than it was
before.  This note has been excrutiatingly hard to write due to the
fact that the type doesn't appear until I stop for a second.

I went through the Device Manager in Control Panel.  Every device on
the list (specifically those under "System Devices" are listed as
"working properly".  The thing I can see is that there are two
"Motherboard Resources" on the list now (although I'm not positive
that they was not already two on the list before).

So, what do I do now?  I'd like to get the computer running with an
updated BIOS (so I can see if the new HD works), but I'll accept going
back to my old setup as well.  All of my data is backed up already, so
any and all suggestions can be attempted if they could work.

---

Request for Question Clarification by blader-ga on 29 Jul 2002 22:42 PDT

Dear debest:

I suspect it's most likely a botched setting in the BIOS. Try going to
the BIOS and selecting the "Optimized Defaults," and see if that
works.

Best Regards,
blader-ga

There are i think two possibilities - 1: that the bios defaults have
been reset (as they would have been during the update), and in doing
so the prossesor speed and other settings have been set to a slow
settings ie your processor could be running at 50mhz or similar.

2: you flashed the wrong bios (uhoh) - you need to find the right one
and flash that.

try this: http://www.dtk-at.com/data/pambios/52v110a.zip
from this page: http://www.dtk-at.com/support.htm say its for PAM-0052V E-0 RG/RH

Blader:

I could not find an "Optimized Defaults" selection in the BIOS setup
program.  There was a "Reset to Default" selection: I did that and
there was no change.

Welk:

I tried the file from the web site you referenced.  Now the machine is
totally dead: it won't even POST ;-(  I'm not really expecting a
miracle here (and no hard feelings here), but any possible way of
recovering this sucker now?  Or is it time to find a new MOBO? 
Thanks.

Hi,

The motherboard should have a CMOS clear jumper onboard.  You can try
placing that jumper in the 'clear' position and powering up.  Shut off
the machine and place the jumper back in the 'normal' position and
power on again.  If this works, great, but at this point I doubt it
will.  For your board, you want to look for Jumper 6 (J6); it should
be near the battery.  Normal position is 1-2, clear position is 2-3.

Some boards have a BIOS recovery jumper setting to handle situations
like this.  Basically, this setting will allow you to boot to a
recovery mode whereby a part of the BIOS that does not get flashed
takes over and operates to load a BIOS file from the floppy drive.  I
could not find any such feature for your board, but you may want to
take a look at the jumpers on the board anyway.

If all else fails and you don't want to replace the board, I suggest
you visit:

http://www.badflash.com

They specifically handle situations like this.  Assuming your BIOS
chip is in a socket and can be pulled from the mainboard, they can
reprogram the chip and/or send you an entirely new BIOS chip.  Their
prices are reasonable (typically under $20 including shipping),
they're quick and reputable.  The nice thing about this method is they
can program the chip(s) with any version you desire.

Good luck,

Scott

Here's a little more information about how to go about doing a
boot-block recovery.  Basically, if the BIOS are bad (i.e. won't post)
there should still be a portion of the BIOS that seeks the floppy
drive looking for certain files.  If found, it will reflash the BIOS
appropriately.  The following is taken from the badflash FAQ page.  I
would suggest you look there for other reasons for failure and
potential solutions:

Q. I flashed with the wrong file. Is there any way to recover?

A. If your floppy drive seeks on power up and then stops after a short
period of time, you may have a chance to recover. The following
information was obtained from Wim's Bios http://www.wimsbios.com/
FAQ's.  Corrections on AWARD Bios by Terry McGuire.

Award: The boot-block BIOS will execute an AUTOEXEC.BAT file on a
bootable diskette. Copy an Award flasher & the correct BIOS *.bin file
on the floppy and execute it automatically by putting AWDFLASH *.bin
/sn /py /cc /r  in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.  The * would be the correct
bios .bin file and there must be spaces between the slash marks.  Put
it in the floppy and turn on the computer when the floppy seeks it
will load the correct bios and reboot by itself.  When it finishes you
have to remove the floppy and enter the cmos SETUP and modify the CMOS
for your configuration.

AMI: The AMI boot-block BIOS will look for a AMIBOOT.ROM file on a
diskette. Copy and rename the correct BIOS file on the floppy and
power up the PC. The floppy doesn't need to be bootable. You will see
the PC read the floppy, after about 4 minutes you will hear 4 beeps,
this means the transfer is done.

Kill Power to the PC. Clear the CMOS or RTC. Reboot the PC and modify
the CMOS for your configuration.

Again, good luck,

Scott

Something you may want to consider doing is looking through your bios
settings for things like shadowing of rom, cache settings, and ram
timings. Something like that corrupt can make wacky things happen.