Wanted BIOS file for a QDI socket 7 motherboard

[PieterA]

I am looking for a BIOS file for a socket 7 mobo: QDI P51430VX/230LC
Bios: Award 077229869 PCI/PNP 586
Intel chips: SB82437VX / SB82371SB
version stickers on ISA slots: 808/02802/104 and 001410372801650

The board is stuck in 'Boot Block Bios' modus.
It starts up but instead of posting it requires a system disk that I do not have.
Resetting the CMOS does not help.
I have tried to find a BIOS file for this board on-line but no luck. Is it possible to get it via the "Wim's Bios' network ?
Thanks in advance.

[Denniss]

Looks like a QDI Explorer IV
http://www.elhvb.com/mobokive/Archive/Q ... Vx4v13.zip

[PieterA]

#60897 by Denniss
Mon Nov 09, 2015 4:10 pm
Looks like a QDI Explorer IV
http://www.elhvb.com/mobokive/Archive/Q ... Vx4v13.zip
>>
>>
Wow, Denniss !
I have been trying to find a manual + other info for this board without any success during many days and [Explorer IV] is the magic word.
According to the manual that I was able to download just now my board has the exact same layout -slots, jumpers etc.- as the [Explorer IV]
Thank you very much !

Before I ruin anything more than it already is I would very much appreciate some advice on what to do next.
I have flashed a bios or two before but never from this pre-post Boot Block situation.
As far as I got it I have to make a bootable diskette with a barebones autoexec.bat that can be addressed by the Boot Block bios ?
Thanks in advance for any help.

[edwin]

I see once more why I collected those bios files and put them online. Another board will be resurrected

How-to's:
https://www.bios-mods.com/bios-recovery ... -recovery/

http://www.biosman.com/biosrecovery.html

[PieterA]

#60899 by edwin
Tue Nov 10, 2015 11:47 pm
I see once more why I collected those bios files and put them online. Another board will be resurrected
>>
>>
Let's hope so - but you are offering a great service anyway.

I was a bit confused by certain detail differences I found in various on-line solutions.
As far a I understood it is rather important that the flash.exe version is right for the addressed binary. I checked the content of the flash.exe that accompagnies the bios in Deniss' post and it is awardflash version 5.31 so that seems ok.

I was also a bit confused by the [@] in front of the 2 lines that have to be added to the autoexec.bat in the solutions that you quote.
I assume that this:
---------------------------------
ECHO OFF
FLASH EXPLOV13.BIN /CC /PY /SN /R
---------------------------------
must do the trick. If so I am ready to roll.
Do not assume anything, right ?

[PieterA]

Aftermath....
Being impatient I developed some guts to take the initiative and tested the prepared bootdiskette on a recoverable AMI system.
The switches [ /CC /PY /SN /R ] resulted in an error message.
After checking the content of the Award Flash 5.31 executable it seemed that the [ /R ] switch is not (yet) implemented in the AWDFLASH 5.31 version.

Running the bootdiskette + modded autoexec.bat with only the recognized AWDFLASH 5.31 switches [ /CC /Py /Sn ] resulted in normal execution of the flash program & presenting the start menu without error message.
Subsequently I ran the boot diskette on the EXPLORER IV board and was happy to witness the recovery of said board.
Because the [ /R] ] switch (=reset system after programming) was absent I terminated the program via disconnecting the power. After this the board booted straight into Windows 3.11 making me a -very- content if not happy user of Wim's Bios forum .

Thank you very much for your help !

PS.
I checked out a couple of AWDFLASH executables on the webpage:
https://www.wimsbios.com/awardflasher.jsp
and it seems that the [/R] switch was not implemented in version 5.xx and earlier.
This for people who may run into the same error if they try to revive a 1990's system.

[edwin]

The "@" is to make the command go silent so it's not visible when executed from the batch file.
https://technet.microsoft.com/nl-nl/lib ... 2147217396

Congratulations on reviving the system. I wonder, was this on the Paris airfield by any chance?
http://www.techvirals.com/2015/11/14/fa ... s-airport/