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Hello John,
Normally, I too would think "that most likely the culprit was simply
an incorrect type (or incorrectly installed) cable.", as you stated in your
message.
The reason I posted that they should clear the CMOS to try and correct the
problem is because there was no mention of anything being physically done to
the drive or cable. The problem just appeared after the BIOS was flashed, so
I suspected the problem is directly connected to the BIOS update. I usually
don't clear the CMOS after I flash the BIOS, but I do always go into the
BIOS and load the setup defaults, then save and exit. I have found that I
would sometimes get checksum errors or other problems if I didn't go into
the BIOS and do a 'save and exit' with the default settings. I guess it may
have been an incorrect BIOS file used to flash in the first place, but the
flash programs I've seen now usually warn you if you're trying to flash with
an incorrect BIOS file. Furthermore, the problem remained even after
re-flashing back to the backed up old BIOS file, so this should rule out an
incorrect BIOS. The reason I suggested trying to correct the problem by
clearing the CMOS was to eliminate any settings that may have remained after
the initial attempted BIOS update. Of course I would also recheck to make
sure the drive was set to 'AUTO detect' in the settings, because this may
have been changed when the BIOS was flashed. I would also look for the
option "Reset Configuration Data", and set this to 'yes'. Another thing I
would check is if any of the add-on cards need to be set to 'legacy' in the
settings, I've seen conflicts with devices that needed to be set to 'Legacy'
that don't actually show up in Device Manager as a conflicting device, but
cause problems anyway. These are some of the things I would try, but it's
hard to really troubleshoot what the problem might be without knowing all
the specs of the system.
----- Original Message -----
From: "John M. Goodman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>
> 1) If you remove the battery *long enough* the capacitor you refer to will
> discharge and the BIOS will be reset to the factory defaults.
>
> 2) If you move the jumper in the prescribed way and reboot, that
> combination of actions will (on some machines) reset the BIOS.
>
> 3) You can almost always find a place in the BIOS setup routine to load
the
> factory defaults--or either of two sets of default values, if you wish.
>
> 4) If you short the battery terminals (with the battery out, of course),
> that will very likely reset the BIOS.
>
> 5) If you short the battery terminals with the battery in place--or do
> anything that resembles that, you very likely will produce at puff of
> smoke--or worse! DON'T TRY THIS ONE AT HOME, PLEASE.
>
> 6) I don't think you need to reset the BIOS contents before flashing it
> with an update--but it sure would be a good idea to write down all the
> settings so you can restore them if the flashing operation overwrites
them,
> as it very well might.
>
> Finally, I note that this is not really in answer to the problem that
> started this discussion, as I agree that most likely the culprit was
simply
> an incorrect type (or incorrectly installed) cable.
>
> John
>
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