Updating BIOS with no display

Question

I think my BIOS have been corrupted. Unfortunately it's taken away my display. Any suggestions for how to update BIOS on a system with no display. Also I can add a flopy drive, but one was not installed before the BIOS were corrupted... so that's an added difficulty.

System is a 4600C.

Majestic · Answer

Jlandree, a BIOS corruption is rare.  More than likely you have a hardware problem.  Have you checked the system's diagnostic lights to see if they are indicating an error code?  Click here for an explanation of those errors codes.    If the diagnostic codes are of no help then consider the possibility that the video has failed if the screen is absolutely blank.  Your model could have either integrated video or a AGP graphics card.  Try installing another AGP or PCI graphics card to see if you can get a screen display.

jlandree · Answer

Thanks for the suggestion Windbee, I'll give it a try.

Majestic, here are the full details. If you have any other suggestions I'm open to them.

Computer experienced a power surge and is no longer displaying. I've read a number of topics and nothing has worked.
The computer starts up, but will not display.
Fans and hard drive are running.
Power light is solid green. Single LED on motherboard is solid yellow.
No ABCD lights on the back (boy I wish there were). No beeps either.
Motherboard has integrated video. Tried 5 video cards of various types (both AGP and PCI) with no success.
Have bypassed surge protector by plugging straight into the wall, no success.
Have unplugged hard drive, ram, and other parts, to isolate the problem, no success.
Have pulled the motherboard battery for several hours to reset the system, no success.
Visual inspection of the motherboard reveals no scoring or damage.
Monitor is fine, displays test screen when not plugged into the computer.
Computer is not under warranty, so need to fix on my own.

Message Edited by jlandree on 03-26-2007 08:31 AM

Message Edited by jlandree on 03-26-2007 08:37 AM

Majestic · Answer

Jlandree, the fact that you experienced a power surge doesn't sound promising.  Is there any drive activity when the system is booted which might indicate the system is loading the operating system?   You could also try a bootable floppy or CD to see if there is any activity.   If so, you could try the blind BIOS flash as Windbee mentioned.

Locked Topics – Desktops General

Updating BIOS with no display

Was this post helpful?