Award BIOS

[NewBritG44]

Does anyone out there know whether you can remove the Award BIOS chip on a motherboard and install it on another motherboard that uses an Award BIOS chip? If I have a motherboard that may be short circuited, does it affect the BIOS chip?

[mjc]

That depends an alot of things, but usually if it is the same model motherboard then it will work, if it is not then you are very unlikely to have it work correctly (it could go from no problems to actually damaging motherbard components....like if the super I/O chip is different the BIOS that you are putting in may try to set things that is doesn't support (like a 1/4 multiplier for the FSB) and so on...).

Also you have ot make sure it is the revision of the motherboard (like XX133 ver1), because the manufacturers often make component changes in the revisions...(if the BIOS flash is the same then it should work).

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mjc
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[iisbob]

If it's the same pin-out as the other chip, then yes. I do this whenever i have to revive a board that has been flashed wrong-just be aware that'll you'll get a lot of checksum eror's, especially if the hardware on the two boards are radically different.

If you can get it to boot however, just flash it to the correct BIOS for that board and you're up and running.

Tip: make sure the clear CMOS jumper is on ( or the batt is removed ) when you change over, then insert the Chip, re-enable the jumper ( or return the batt ) and try to power her up. It's not always %100, but it usually works as long as there is not to much difference in the onboard hardware.



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iisbob

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