Preventing Problems When Updating Or Restoring Bios - Kontron MOPS/386A User Manual

Kontron

Preventing Problems When Updating or Restoring BIOS

21.11
Updating the BIOS represents a potential hazard. Power failures or fluctuations that can
occur during updating the Flash ROM can damage the BIOS code, making the system
unbootable.
To prevent this potential hazard, many systems come with a boot-block Flash ROM. The
boot-block region contains a fail-safe recovery routine. If the boot-block code finds a
corrupted BIOS (checksum fails), it boots into the crisis recovery mode and loads a BIOS
image from a crisis diskette (see above).
Additionally, the end user can insert an update key into the serial port (COM1 only) to force
initiating the recovery routine for the boot block.
For further information on the update key and the crisis diskette, see a special application
note (PHLASH_E???.PDF), which is available from the Kontron Web site. (The three
question marks indicate the revision number of the document.)
MOPS/386A User's Guide 67 BIOS Operation