10 BIOS Operation

10.5Preventing Problems When Updating or Restoring BIOS

Updating the BIOS represents a potential hazard. Power failures or fluctuations that may 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.

Kontron User's Guide ETX CD

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Intel ETX CD manual Preventing Problems When Updating or Restoring Bios