Adaptec 29160 BIOS flash problems

[James]

Okay, so I tried to flash the BIOS on my 29160 from 2.57.2 to 3.10.0. I got a failure code 8, could not verify. Sure enough, while the adapter works fine, hitting ctrl-A to change the config of the adapter gets me a blank screen now.

Trying to restore the previous BIOS has much the same effect, and the same error.

I've had a look around on Adaptec's site, no help there (no surprise!). I have had a Google around without finding a solution. I also had a look on Usenet where it seems to be a common problem, but most posts refer to a way around it described in a previous thread which I can't find. Either that or getting Adaptec to replace the card.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Mercutio]

Buy an LSI or a TekRAM?

Seriously, the only way I've fixed a badly-flashed Adaptec card involved a FedEx truck... and the only reason they were willing to replace my card is 'cause Adaptec Support told me to apply the BIOS update. Somehow I doubt you'd be that lucky.

 

[CougTek]

Stupid question : Did you remove all drives that were plugged to the Adaptec before flashing? Probably. But if not, bad boy, very very bad boy. No idea what it could do to let the drives plugged, but Adaptec says not to do it, so don't. If you did, it's a bit late to warn you though...

 

[James]

I did remove all the drives first, yes.

It's really annoying - the only thing I want to get into the BIOS for is to tell it what device number to make the boot device. Grrrr.

 

[Groltz]

James, did you read this section about doing a forced bios flash?

If you try it, you might want to re-download the bios file and use a different, freshly formatted floppy disk.