On 2004-08-26 rmk@toad.rmkhome.com wrote:

> One of the two systems that I use to track -current has an MSI
> KM2M motherboard with a 1.3 Mhz Duron.

  I have this board and like it.  I have a 2GHz CPU with minimal cooling
and lots of temperature sensors to make sure I don't fry anything :).
The worst seems to be the chipset, which gets hotter than the CPU (though
I don't know how hot it can safely get).  I have not had any heat related
difficulties, even after several tests involving highish heat.  However, I
use fans bracketed from the PCI slots, which gets more air on the chipset
than standard attached CPU fans.  IIRC, 1.3 MHz Durons are hot chips,
being near the end of the line (I wish the bios would let you underclock).

> I downloaded the flash utility and BIOS image from MSI. I put together a
> floppy using DRDOS, the files above, and a custom autoexec,bat.
>
> After getting the messages above, teh floppy tries to boot:
>
> Detecting floppy drive A: media ...
>
> Drive media is: 1.44Mb
>
> And then nothing. Is the board cooked or what?

  The board might be fried, but I would guess not.  The fact that it
dectects the drive size and gets that far is a good sign.  Actually, I
would guess most likely CPU or possibly memory damage may be more likely
to cause the symptoms you see than actual BIOS corruption or motherboard
damage (though chipset damage is certainly possible), although attempting
to reflash should not cause permanant damage in most cases if that is not
the problem and is likely the easiest thing to try.  I would first try
clearing the CMOS (switch JBAT to pins 2-3 for a few seconds while off and
unplugged, then return to 1-2) and try the recovery flash again, although
I am not certain this would affect it (it might use saved memory settings
or try to overclock the cpu).  If still not working (or easiest to test
first), change the autoexec.bat to start another arbitrary DOS app and
test on a different machine to verify that it works (and double check the
line when you change it back).  If possible, try flashing another system's
bios with that boot floppy and flash program to make sure there isn't a
funky incompatability.  I did flash my bios via the emergency method once
after a bad update and used for the floppy either PC or MS DOS 3.3 IIRC.
Make sure you do not run anything else from the boot floppy (no config.sys
either), as just about anything can interfere with flashing.

Matthew Orgass
darkstar@city-net.com