First post, by MMaximus
- Rank
- Oldbie
I bought a NOS Adaptec 29160 recently. It came with bios version 2.57, and while attempting to flash it to v. 3.10, I got an error message (08). I used the same floppy disk that I used to successfully flash another 29160, but I deleted BACKUP.BIN on it otherwise the procedure wouldn't complete. Anyway I didn't really think it was a big deal and thought I could simply turn off the PC and attempt the update again with a new floppy disk.
Unfortunately now the system won't start when the card is present: there is a flashing cursor after post (when the Adaptec "Press Ctrl+A" message used to appear) and the system hangs. With hindsight I should have quickly restored the BIOS without turning off the computer, but now it's too late for that.
Any of you know a workaround to resuscitate the card? The BIOS chip appears to be on a PLCC32 package but SMD soldered. So I guess it's not possible to extract it and flash it with an EEPROM programmer. I know these cards are cheap but I feel it would still be a waste to trash it if there's any way to save it...