This post belongs in the “day late and a dollar short” category. I recently messed up my motherboard. Short version is that I noticed the clock speed was low for the processor I installed, so I updated the BIOS. That didn’t work, so I reset the BIOS settings via the jumper. And ever since then, I’ve gotten an “incorrect CPU speed” message, and it won’t boot. So now I gotta get a PLCC chip puller to remove the BIOS chip and mail it back to ASUS, so they can reflash it and mail it back to me. I figure this will take 2-3 weeks, and if it doesn’t work, I gotta buy a new system.
So apart from the kindness Agent Bladerunner has shown in loaning me his laptop, I could be without Internet access at home for a up to a month. Considering that most TV shows are dead for the summer1, this could be the best thing to happen to me in over a decade. More on that later.
So this life changing event never would have happened if I had known about the IOSS BIOS Savior. Basically, you pull out your BIOS chip with the included chip puller, pop in the tiny daughter card (RD1), and place the original chip in that. You also have a switch that allows you to switch from the original chip to the RD1.
After installing the RD1, you backup the current BIOS to it, then update the original chip to your hearts content. Mess up your system like me? No problem! Just flip the switch, and you’re back to the original BIOS (which, of course, you tested after backing up so you know it works).
It costs $20-30, versus $5 S&H to get your mobo mfr. to reflash your chip (or $25 to send you a new one). But without it you’re dangerously at risk of Internet lossage, which could lead to the following:
- Learning new things offline, instead of online where you can take a 20 minute game break every 10 minutes.
- Reading books
- Watching the Netflix movies that arrived 4 months ago
- Going to the *gasp* gym!
Sweet sassy molassey, man, get that damn BIOS savior now!
- Aside from the brilliant, Agent Mystery-produced So You Think You Can Dance. The chicks on this show are crazy hot. And dancers! And wearing skin-tight dental floss! And way too young for you! Geez, man, why aren’t you watching this??? [↩]
Wow, I’ve never heard of that.
Yet, it seems like “duh of coarse they have that” AFTER you see it.
The best part is that it’s installed directly onto the motherboard, meaning you are not swapping out the chip to a separate unit for every updated save.
Yeah, if I had not been searching for a PLCC (BIOS) chip puller on Directron, because I already hosed my Asus A7V8X, I would never have found it. In fact, they don’t sell it yet, it’s in their “future products” section, but other stores on the net have it.